RE: good processor for weird sounds, etc.?

[dcoffin@taunton.com]

I've owned Eventides, Lexicons, and tc gear, which are all certainly fun,
but they've all been sold over the years;...what I can't part with in my
arsenal of weird-makers are my Digitech Space Station (best damn backwards
delay I've ever used; factory patch #10--I never use its other patches but
they are pretty whacked for poor-man's VG-8 type sounds), and my GT-5....
I know, I know, it's billed as a guitar processor/amp-sim, but I've
upgraded these features with a GT-6 and a DG-Stomp (neither of which come
close with built-in fx)...That 5 is a killer effector, complete with
internal LFO and one-shot ramp modulator, a short (1.8ms) but effective
looping delay, mono-synth voices, the incomparable "intelligent" Ring Mod
mode (which makes outstanding clearly-pitched bass sounds) and a very
configurable version of Slow Gear (both these suck, comparatively, on the
GT-6), plus an external i/o loop, all in an infinitely-reorderable signal
path with powerful EQ, wah, and formant filters, pan-chopper,
noise-reduction and compression/limiting...and reverb'n'chorus, of course.
GT-5s are now being widely blown out and dumped because the GT-6 is so much
better at basic guitar/amp sounds, but the 5 was the FX king, make no
mistake...I can't make these gargling, schreechy, flickering boom'n'sizzle
noises quite as well any other way...
Also seen a lot on for-sale lists these days is the powerful Korg AM-8000,
which has nice filters, step-phasers and pitch-shifting, but needs two Korg
control pedals to be most flexible...the GT-5 can do it all with just a
couple of added DP-2 momentary switches.
(Of course, the ALL-TIME king guit-weirder is the original VG-8EX...but I
digress)
Good hunting!
David