the_last_factory's Reviews

This is a pedal you use to go fishing for ideas

The Infinite Jets is my desert island pedal. I've always looked for a pedal that can make my guitar into something other than a guitar and the Infinite Jets delivers on that. From the choppy, stuttering leads and chords of Glitch B to the hazy, warbly tones of Blur. This pedal turns my guitar into an orchestra with only a few notes. I've always been a big fan of guitarists like Christian Fennesz who marry their effect pedals with digital processing to make something as basic as a guitar sound like a whole other instrument. It's such an innovative and inspiring pedal that I recommend any ambient guitarist and/or sound artist to buy it.

Blank canvas synth

A lot of people say this synth is underwhelming and that it's biggest limitations were: shortest attack too slow for really percussive sounds, the sensitive vco frequency adjustment, and lack of chorus to thicken the chords. But I disagree with a lot of those, minus the chorus. I think it's one of those synths that just requires a lot of time and patience put into it to know how to get the sounds you want out of it. There's so many amazing sounds I've made with it that are truly insane and I suggest anyone with effects pedals get this synth, because it is a trip.

It's so big.

I used Protools 8 to make my first solo album and Protools 10 to make the Ultimus album. It's great for big projects and especially when you're working with a lot of studio equipment. It's even more handy with all the plug-ins it comes with.

https://theblakstarexperience.bandcamp.com/album/ep-elegiac-persona

https://ultimus.bandcamp.com/releases

More than a bass synth

The Moog Prodigy is usually meant as a bass synth. But I use it for more than a bass synth. It's got a great tone for Pads and Leads that no one seems to explore all that much. This synth has such a rich unique tone that you just can't help explore the beautiful, subtractive, monophonic synth that it is.

No more noise.

This pedal cuts out the hum and buzz from the signal coming from your Bass, Guitars, Synths, and Mics to your amplifiers.

Great for beginners and anyone who prefers simplicity with phase

This was one of my first effects pedals and it's a great way to introduce yourself into the world of phasers.

Beautiful digital emulation

I've seen a lot of my favorite artists use this as a portable substitute for their RE-201s on the road and it gets the job done. You can create the spaciest most atmospheric tone with the Roland Space Echo. It's such an amazing pedal even by itself and I highly recommend buying one for yourself if you're a fan of lush, dreamy warbley tape delay than this. Especially a tape delay with tap tempo and tape that never breaks!

Save money & kick ass monophonicly

KORG MS-20 Mini is simply a bad-ass monophonic synth along with other monophonic synths such as Arturia Minibrute, Bass Station II, MOOG Sub Phatty, and the Dave Smith Mopho. But the difference is that the MS-20 is a Semi-Modular Analog Monophonic synthesizer giving you a wide range of sounds and options. I use it for SFX and Bass. But it's also great for leads.

Unorthodox use

I use this pedal rarely with my guitar because I mostly use it to manipulate feedback which makes it have a rattling underwater noise. Which I sampled and added to my songs. It's a great and affordable pedal to get into the world of analog delay.

Beginner Piano made more....

I bought this E. Piano to practice on and use as a MIDI Keyboard, but one day I wanted to mess around with my effects pedals and see what this puppy could sound like with added effects and when I started playing, I was surprised. Then I got Ableton Live and have been using it for it's Pad, Piano, and Organ presets just to mess around with them. As well as using as a MIDI Keyboard/Controller. It's pretty cool what you can do when you experiment with instruments people think are pieces of shit and are of no good use to you. But I think if you work with what you got you can do great things with what you have access to.

Update: Fast forward to 2019. I'm now using it for it's piano, strings, and orchestra presets. As well as other instruments. I have it running through my Space Echo, an EHX Worm, and an HM-2 to create a Basinski-esque tape effect.

Apple for the win

If anyone tells you the apple products suck when it comes to music. You should probably ask them what they use for their equipment cause it's probably PC (which in my opinion they suck unless you build your own which is an inconvenience). The MacBook Pro is the best laptop to use in both live and studio performances.

Perfect atmospheres and ambience/FX and composing

I used this a lot for the bass and atmos in my music. Dead Texan and New Night's Begin are actually pretty good examples of Xpand!2's capability. There's also some decent orchestral sounds and instruments on their own and can get some somewhat realistic sounds out of them, but nowadays I mainly use them to compose pieces for hired guns that will play those parts with the real thing.

Versatile distortion

It's a great distortion pedal for any genre you're playing. Metal, Country, Blues, Shoegaze, anything. It can even take different instruments from bass to synths. This pedal can be everything from boost, overdrive, distortion that can almost become fuzz. This pedal does it all. At my last show I used it as a boost for my keyboardists Microbrute and really colored the digital pedals she was using.

Great big dirty pedal

What is there to say that hasn't already been said about the MXR Blue Box? -2 octave fuzz pedal with thick fuzzy tones that comes with bad tracking and volume suck. But if you place a compressor before the Blue Box to balance your dynamics, the volume issue disappears and the tracking somewhat improves. The thing that I will say is that I've learned from using it for the past 10 years, is that the bad tracking is part of it's charm and one must lean into it in order to get the most out of it. For me this pedal has become a center piece of my sound. I use this pedal for sludgy riffs and thick noise rock leads when paired with my HM-2 or Life Pedal. I also use it bass synth and drones as well. Since the octave is analog, playing chords or low notes causes a warm glitch in the tracking that can be used for rhythmic elements, but only if your balancing your dynamics with a compressor (it doesn't have to be expensive). If you're a fan of classic fuz tones that can go into really dirty, heavy and noisey guitar tones then you should give this is the pedal a try.

MIDI Keyboard that you can fit in your backpack to carry everywhere you go.

. USB Cable (check) . Laptop (check) . Minilab (check)

With the Minilab and any other Arturia MIDI Keyboard. You can't go wrong. With the Minilab you can take it wherever you go and jam on the spot wether you're at home or on the road.

The best of the best. If you're wanting Ableton at it's best then this is the DAW for you.

A lot of my favorite artists use this DAW and It's basically god's library of amazing sounds and instrument.

This is a big reverb pedal meant for exactly what it's known for big beautiful ambience with your tone.

If you're going to use this pedal I suggest taking into account the name itself: Supernatural Ambient Reverb. If you mix this with the Roland Space Echo you've got the smoothest sexiest pad guitar ever. If you're wanting something that is smooth and ballad like or big and subtle. Then this pedal can do it. However if you're not a fan of blended FX reverb then you might not like this.

A treasure chest of sounds waiting to be unlocked.

I've been using this in a lot of studio projects since I got it and just recently started using it for live gigs. It's a wonderful synth. If you're wanting to ambient, dubstep, glitch, or some jazz. Then the Novation Ultranova can do it. I love it because of how easy it is to use and it's never ending sound bank and modulation capabilities. You can make evolving soundscapes with it and even create some nasty glitch sound effects using nothing, but the many distortions and arpeggio.