Need help on choosing a line level chorus unit. Please help me decide!

I've recently reacquired my Strymon's - TimeLine and BigSky. I also plan on reacquiring either an Eventide PitchFactor or Micropitch for the stereo detune effects. What I need to decide on now, is the stereo chorus FX unit.

Here are my requirements:

• MUST ACCEPT LINE LEVEL OF -10 DBU MINIMUM - I cannot stress this enough, my rig is being run at line level in the Synergy SYN-2's FX loop. I do not want to deal with chorus effects that clip/distort in a really bad way. Please do not recommend me stompboxes that do not specify the maximum input level as I do not wish to take chances. For this reason, the Boss CE-2W and DC-2W sadly do not qualify as they're not designed to take on line level signals.
• Digital or analog, I don't care, please make sure that the chorus unit you suggest provides a variety of options that sound great, or at the very least, won't force me to jump through hoops JUST to be able to dial in chorus effects that sound great in both clean and high-gain tones.
• Chorus sound cannot be too rough-sounding to the point where it sounds more like a vibrato or a screwed-up flanger. I want to be able to achieve the 80's stereo chorus sound with ease, NOT deal with a glorified flanger/vibrato effect.
• Must be stereo.
• Preference will go to units that have a guaranteed true analog dry and/or global killdry. I prefer to avoid ADA conversions as much as possible, but if it's unavoidable, then I sincerely hope that the quality of the effects will justify the compromise.

As of right now, the shortlisted units are Eventide H9, Eventide Tricerachorus, Boss MD-500 and Universal Audio Astra.

Kindly let me know which of the shortlisted units are best for me, or if you can suggest a better option, kindly let me know of any potential alternatives you guys can suggest for me. Thank you!

If you want 80s rack chorus to put between a pre and power amp fulltones 80s rack chorus will probably be the best current production option and probably the only analog unit... its based on a little known 80s piece that I happen to own. It does a lot with very few controls and sounds stellar.

After that its eventide in digital. There's a really vintage quality to those harmonizer chorus patches even in new units like the h9, though it's more 90s to me. I would audition a boss digital chorus before committing. And I have no experience with UA outside of 1176 and LA2A reissues... they're a reliable company with a stable of great plugins, interfaces and DSP units but ymmv as far as what they think chorus should sound like.

Otherwise go vintage. I really love the Scholz Rochman chorus, though I can't remember if its stereo... I swear by the chorus in my roland chorus echo tape delay unit. It's the bees knees but mono. Also its houses in a heavy, maintenance nightmare of a vintage multi fx unit. You can find variations of that analog chorus in a lot of roland and boss units though, many 8f which are stereo...

Otherwise I doubt you'll do any better than the models in a helix or fractal. Really the only thing that sounds totally 80s is something with BBD chips. The h9 may be the most cost effective and the h9 max does a lot of things really well. I'm working for a band that uses them and I'm pretty impressed with the unit. It takes the ultraharmonizer to a whole other level. But its unabashedly digital... in a good way. And a pedal...

There's always the spx90 and its descendants. The symphonic patch was THE chorus from the late 80s well into the 90s. I always have an spx90 in my studio. They're workhorse do-all units that have a classic sound. Of course I mainly have it for symphonic because it's still the best chorus sound to add to DI bass. The new ones improve on the formula with modern conversion and features.

Theres also the klark technik 3rd dimension but I don't know how it compares to the original roland unit and behringer build quality is sketchy.

If I was feeling picky I would get a fulltone assuming he still makes it.

Yeah, I considered the Fulltone TERC; however, I've stumbled across some reliability/QC issues regarding the TERC where even the smallest input causes the output to pop so hard that at full volume it'll damage tube amps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5CxdQy9KEU

I've talked to others in the forums regarding the Eventide H9 VS Boss MD-500. While Eventide has amazing Tricerachorus, Micropitch and H910/H919 algorithms, and has a guaranteed true analog bypass that'll allow me to avoid having to dedicate a line mixer for it, all other chorus algorithms (particularly the ModFactor algorithms) suck. The MD-500 on the other hand suffers from the exact opposite issue - the Dimension and Prime Chorus sounds amazing, but the tri-chorus on it sucks and because it doesn't have a true analog dry, it needs help from a line mixer. (Even worse, the MD-500 does not have a global killdry.)

I am looking into the Tricerachorus pedal at this time. Hopefully, with any luck, it should provide an analog true bypass and be able to run at line level safely.

If you're going pedal I shoulda mentioned the TC SCF... stereo, analog, very high line level handling... I own a reissue. It's great. But a pedal. They made a rack version called something like the spatialexpander? ? But despite it surviving well into the 90s they're hard to find, people don't get rid of them and they've not been reissued yet. The SCF on the other hand was still in production last I checked.

Also you could consider an ibanez ad202 which is everything from flange to doubling to chorus to delay... but it's not true stereo, just separate dry and wet outs. Its an amazing analog unit though. Theres also the similar roland dc30. Which reminds me...

Keep in mind some 80s chorus is a flanger with the feedback off... Andy Summers for example often used an electric mistress for his chorus sound, pretty much any time he wasn't using a jc120. So analog rack flangers are an option. They've really caught on in the used market though... as prices on the eventide instant flanger and instant phasers skyrocketed people started scooping up the competition.

But a lot of companies made analog delay units that covered the whole range of delay line fx just like the ibanez I mentioned. They're a little more under the radar... there are some boss units that claim to be digital but are secretly analog lol. I cant remember which ones, but that takes you back to a time where digital was a buzz word and analog and tubes were out of fashion!

Yeah, as much as I would love to go back to vintage racks, I've only had nightmares after nightmares with reliability issues. (The Lexicrap MPX-1 still gives me the creeps to this day for that matter!) And as much as I would love to give the TC 1210 a try, sadly it's discontinued and extremely difficult to find. (You could even say that the internal components of the 1210 are antique nowadays.)

I did consider the TC SCF Gold; however, what really puts me off of considering TC again is their build quality. TC used to be a respectable brand until they started making products that easily break down on the road, such as the G Major's and the first generation Polytune's. Forums have been riddled with those products being most common in terms of questionable QC issues, and considering the fact that Behringer bought out TC Electronic...going the SCF Gold route seems a bit sketchy to me. I have my doubts as to whether or not the SCF Gold will really stand the test of time.

So in this case, I would have to say that it's gonna have to come down to either going with a one-trick-pony Eventide H9 or Tricerachorus pedal, or compromising on a purely analog signal by going with a Boss MD-500. Difficult choice, really, considering how Boss and Eventide sit on opposite ends of compromise...

Ooh, behringer changed the tcf cosmetics, it's probably not the same anymore. If you're ruling out a used black and purple tcf which us what I have then go eventide. The boss is a major comedown. If you get an h9 the programmability is immense via computer so you may be able to craft some choruses you like that aren't the trichorus by deep diving.

And the mpx1 is not a serious lexicon unit. I have some cheapies like that in the studio and they do well for certain jobs in a pinch but if it's not a PCM series or better then don't bother.

So Eventide H9 + PitchFactor combo it is. Let's hope that Eventide can at least deliver on the promise.

Now, as far as I'm aware, the H9's and Factor pedals do guarantee a true analog dry pass-through, which should eliminate the need for me to use line mixers for those, so at the very least, Eventide should get that part done right instead of digitizing the analog dry of the guitar signal to death. Here's to hoping that Eventide can deliver the promise of doing far better than what other chorus units can provide in terms of reliability and options.

A good friend of mine has 2 H9s and I'm working on his band's album now. I've had some experience with the h9 and it's really impressive. I like the fact that they didn't make it another modeler. There are some analog simulations but mainly it's just capitalizing on the eventide legacy sound and granular programmability.

That said if I were you I would be looking at an eclipse. Its rackmount and allows 2 algorithms at once for less cabling. It's a fairly affordable guitar oriented processor that still holds up. The H9 is really less of an H3000 in a stomp than half an eclipse on a stomp although eclipse is no longer supported while H9 is expandable with new algorithms as they're released so the pool of fx for eclipse is just the classic stuff that I'm so fond of, h9 sports new fx... theres also the orville which is cheaper still... but you may want to stay away from used gear.

Yeah, I thought about the Eclipse. Unfortunately because I don't have the rack space to accommodate the Eclipse, compounded by the fact that Eclipse's chorus algorithms are outdated by today's standards, I don't think I'll be going for it anytime soon.

In any case, I had a chance to try out the Mobius and Tricerachorus today.

There's just no competition. Beyond ALL expectations, the Mobius ACTUALLY OUTPERFORMED the Tricerachorus to the moon and back. The Tricerachorus was only usable for clean tones, but as soon as you go into the high-gain territory it starts to sound like a fucked-up flanger!

However, there are pros and cons to this. The Mobius doesn't have a global killdry and routing it in parallel with a line mixer is definitely gonna be a challenge if not outright impossible. Having said that, this comparison has pretty much proven that better chorus tones just might be worth the ADA conversion compromise if it means getting more versatile, great-sounding chorus effects.

I really don't get why strymon doesn't combine all their effects into a multi fx rack with separate i/o as well as internal series chaining for each fx type. I would go out and buy one for my studio tomorrow. They really sound great but integrating pedals into a +4 post production setup us too much hassle. Or at least give me a rack big sky... I have the choruses and delays already, but their verbs are a fresh take, like, I can make a shimmer with a pitch shifter and a vintage reverb set as a giant hall but they gave a modern spin on theirs.

Yeah, I feel like to my ears, Strymon is becoming the future of stereo effects. They're catering to the guitarists' needs without getting in the way of the user interface.