This has been a topic that I’ve been pretty disappointed with content availability on KZfaq. Thank you so much for doing this. I have a hard time not playing any of my synths through at the very least a reverb pedal nowadays. Looking to expand my knowledge with drive, distortion and chorus effects. Was a drummer most of my life so I didn’t bring any knowledge of effects when I started on synths.

First pedal I bought was a cheap metal distortion, cause I grew up loving heavy metal, and I wanted my synth to sound mean. Then discovering concept of an octaver blew my mind. Then I picked up an amazon branded compressor to put some kind of limit on my levels. I'd love to learn lots more about using fx with synths!

Nice intro to the series...can't wait for the rest! I would like to add that it is VERY important to double check the output of any wall wart of age or question of origin. I buy a lot of vintage gear and its always good to double check. I check mine every few years whether i need to or not. I have a dozen old wall warts that say one voltage and either put out less or in most cases more and that can wreak havoc on your equipment . I bought a really nice rack mount processor for nothing because the unit was freaking out after being used in certain environments because the wall wart read that it put out 12V.....in reality it was 18.8 v!!!!!!! Take it from an old timer, be smart and get a cheap multi meter and verify your wall warts labels,your gear will thank you!

Congrats on starting this series. This episode was super informative, and I'll be excited for each additional episode!

The uncontrollable excitement when you introduce the video at 2:37! This is why I love your channel. Feels genuine like a hang-out but has depth way beyond what I could ever utilize.

thanks for putting this together. was fun to watch and helped a lot! cheers 🎹🎶

Amazing content!! Already looking forward to the next video. Keep up the great work.

Thanks for what you do man, really appreciate the time and effort you put into this.

Thank you Jorb! Largest hits on my search in this department yielded very overly basic and beginner takes on the subject. You nailed the sweet spot of nuance and technical knowledge along with the wisdom of "just turn it down" much appreciated

Nice job sir, very helpful! I wasn't sure if it was normal that I had to turn one of my synths waaaaay down to keep the pedal from sounding crunchy, and you confirmed for me that I'm not crazy and turning down the synth is the right way to go. Please continue the series!

Very helpful video, look forward to the next one!

Nailed it. Looking forward to the next one!

Just subscribed, and I haven't watched the other parts yet. Thanks for putting this together.

Yes!! It dropped!! Been looking forward to this one!!

I am really enjoying your content. And I give you props for how you decided to setup you camera/angle/mic . You are not only informative but fun to watch.

Thank you Jorb! Another great and very informative video.

Your narration is soothing, educational, and I am looking forward to the rest of this series.

Dude your videos are SUPER helpful for me, thank you!!

Great knowledge. This is a whole world and you are exploring it.

Extremely useful! Than you for talking so much good/needed knowledge 💪

The algorithm did right by me bringing me here! Awesome video and as someone w kids around, I appreciate the synth swell to keep the language clean. Cheers, man

Great job! And that BD-2 sounds sick with the minilogue

Possibly the first video I've seen that explains what those little diagrams on power inputs mean. Thanks!

This is phenomenal stuff. Thanks!

Cheers, answered a few questions I’ve been struggling to find much info on. Subbed!

This popped up at just the right time for me. I’m in the process of “pro pedalboarding” my cased synth rig. It uses 9 pedals for 7 synths, a drum machine, a mixer, and a sequencer all going into one case 88key gator piano flight case. I was tired of the rats nest of cables. I hope you get into cable management techniques in a future episode because this can of worms gets messy.

Excelent video. Waiting for the next and tank you for your work.

This video is great and I’m only part way through! Been playing guitar for 30 years and got deeper into pedals over the last 3 years, beginning a slippery slope into synths… I’ve also found alternate uses for stereo pedals I never bought them for, like the EHX pulsar tremolo, can be an effective signal splitter when bypassed. I’m also plenty psyched to see the cs9 here, I bought a vintage one as a guitarist and am now using it on synths and loving it. Looking forward to using it to “stereo-ise” my nymphes when it arrives. Subbed and excited to follow your videos dude!

Really needed this! Thanks!!

Nice! Look forward to part 2.

You are one of our the most proficient KZfaqr I subscribe to. More than that you do such a great job of explaining in a way that makes your subjects understood and approachable by a wife range of consumers. Dude! Stop apologizing for marketing yourself. The more money you make the more we get to listen to you. Hopefully. Love your channel. Thank you for the consistently interesting and useful content.

This is just what I was lookin' for, thanks homie

Enjoyed this, my takeaway is that you do things by trying and listening. Which is what I do... what a relief

While primarily a guitar player, I've been using pedals with my MicroFreak, including delay, ambient/octave reverbs, vibrato, etc., with good results. Great to see the Rubberneck in use and looking forward to future episodes. Subbed.

Great work! This was a much needed video on the subject 🤗

Great video awesome synth tones

Another great video Jorb. Looking forward to the next episode already. My first synth was a CZ-1000 and then my next synths SH-101, MC-202 & Pro-One none of them had in built FX either, probably because they were at the budget end of the market. I guess you could say I learnt the necessity of external FX the hard way.

Eyyy, this is really appreciated. I was looking into pedals but have no good idea about their specificities.

This is exactly what I wanted to see. Thank you, looking forward to the next episodes. Would also appreciate some personal opinions on what kind of effects you think works the best for synths, and why you would choose to do things with pedals instead of VST:s.

Gosh knows why you've only just 7k subs. You're so pleasant and informative and entertaining. KEEP AT IT! Or don't. As long as you're happy, dude.

Fantastic! Thank you!

Very nice info. Thanks. I have started to use a patch bay for my guitar pedals on my synths.

Love the video! A good stereo delay/ reverb pedal I use for my Roland Alpha Juno is Earthquaker Devices Avalanche Run. Preserving that stereo chorus for me in synths is crucial.

Great vid Jorb!

3 minutes in and I'm all about it! I was given a Baldwin Discoverer 50 awhile back and it just screams bloody murder with the addition of my Electro Harmonix Holy Stain with an expression pedal hooked up in series. The possibilities are sick. Greetings from New Mexico!

Great video! I came at this from the angle of playing guitar first, and you said everything that I was hoping you would say! Excited for the other parts of the series, those should be more unfamiliar ground for me. Also Big Muffs sound real good with synthesizers, I have the Tone Wicker Big Muff and the extra tone options are super useful, also sounds great on drum machines too!

Dig the talk about a mixer w/aux channels, this is my preferred setup. Can't wait for the rest of this series!

How I remember Volts vs Amps: Volts Very Vital. Amp Appreciate Accuracy. Golden age of Syntheziers indeed. Pre-KZfaq era, I think I would be lost cause I don't have any synth-head friends to help me learn, manuals don't teach you how to Connect a Zoom Livtrack into a HydraSynth and sync clocks between a deluge and minifreak.....

Great (and super useful) video, as always. One more caveat when it comes to power supplies is DC vs AC... There are countless fried Boss CE-2 pedals because many assumed they would just take the usual DC power...

This comes like one month after I started buying a few of the cheap Behringer clones and trying them out on my few synths and also on the DIY modular it working on since some time.... Really eager to see more of these episodes soon.

cool video, well done x

Looking forward to watching this.

people seldom ever talk about pedals with synths, and even more so with pedals like mxr or boss. i've got a little 'effects area' with like 12 boss pedals and my god just chaining two is enough to create immense sounds, or even stacking w included chorus or distortion on hardware synths! great video dude, as always

Man i was about to send you the longest email about all this, thank you.

Synthezisers are like a E guitar, what that makes a E guitar sound big, and spacious, Pedal FX 🙂

Man I love your videos

Hello! My name's AggressiveJazzHands, and I love Jorb. Seriously though, just found your content and I love the depth and detail in which you dive into everything. I also VERY MUCH apprecita the jam breaks. Because what is gear, if not to make music with? Excellent stuff, my guy. I am eternally grateful four your wisdom.

I have a sequential pro 3 and some pedals, I will watch and try everything you share with us - the examples were nice! I work with simple methods right now, I mean I quit ableton with its thousands possibilities and just use some analog hardware. Just the synth with its midi from a digitakt. There is so much to do with multiple Envelopes, Panning, detuning, pwm, waveshaping, filter stuff, reverbs before and after distortion, delays.. There is so much to discover. I even love my cheap eq pedal because it sounds crappy but can tickle crazy sounds out of the chain...

You and I both have a minilogue And a Callisto - ergo We Rock! xD

Nice one! Thanks 🙌

Yaaaasssssssssss. More of this! 👍👍👍

tight! thanks for sharing.

Recently got my first real set of synths (Korg Volcas notwithstanding) an Arturia Microfreak and a Rolamd Ax Edge (keytar) the later of which i run through an Orange Micro Dark Terror Amp and cabinet (because hey i love Sleep/High on Fire and have a small 2 room appartment with thin walls and old ass neighbors). It has an FX loop ive been dying to use and add some pedals to. This episode has been enlightening. Thanks for the great content.

Six track represent!

Got here from Bobeats video. This is great 👍. Subscribed.

was just kidding, you had me at Jorb.

Great vid, loads of useful info 👍 Re. matching synth output levels to FX pedals - I used to drop the output level like you suggest & it works okay. Now use a re-amper, makes a noticeable difference (I reckon 😅)

This is really great information Jorb! Very helpful for new people just getting into pedals. It is indeed very confusing. Center tap polarity, barrel size, voltage, current, etc. requirements are often all over the place from one unit to the next. A dedicated PSU like your voodoo is a very worthy investment. I look forward to part two!

You have great taste in guitars!

Funnily enough, I was looking into getting an effects pedal over this last month (prior to this video). I never used one before, and I was mainly looking for something with a decent enough reverb and looper for jamming, and ended up getting a Zoom G1X Four. I think it's a nice little tool to jam on, sounds decent, has USB power, is easy to use and also pretty good bang for the buck! I'm looking forward to your next episode on pedals 👍

Considering how much I talk, I think I need to start incorporating jam breaks. It might confuse my colleagues and children, but they will probably appreciate the absurdity. I guess I'll have to walk around with my Deluge. It's battery-powered and has its own speaker. Great job as always, good sir!

I’ve subscribed thanks .

This one time, in the 90's i ran a 909 kick through a boss Metalzone for a whole track and tweaked the shit out of the eq settings on it. Aaah good old hardcore. "Pedals and synths is like peas and carrots." Am i becoming the quirky comment guy? Lol. Cheers bro. Look forward to the rest of the series.

Excellent video! New sub! Long time guitar/keys player here, but recording noob. Wanting to make a small pedal setup that can be used for both instruments, but a bit lost really.

Need a part 2!

If I was starting out with pedals and synths, instead of already deep down that rabbit hole, this video would be a HUGE help. As it stands, there’s still info that was new for me or that reinforced concepts I’ve learned! The portion about stereo-that alone is overflowing with important and too-little-known info (e.g., stereo pedals’ effect is often mono summed to stereo; mono-especially when mixing-can be great; and stereo can just be looked at as two mono outputs-so, why not go ahead and have two completely separate mono pedal chains?! That last one is very reminiscent of tips from the book Pedal Crush).

Really great. Mono definitely isn’t worse! People seem a bit obsessed with everything being stereo at the moment.

after toying around with pedals for quite some time, the level problem made me invest some money in a Eurorack FX rack to have/maintain 'hot' levels. Realize that too low levels take a lot energy out of the sound. However quite a few pedals like strymons can handle line signals.

I bet coming out of the pedal going into the DI of a 1073 would be cool.

I've been searching for that Morley box for a couple of weeks. Thank you. I'm running my TB-03 into a GT-1 and things are not quite right.

I just got a boss gt-1000 core. I was never really a fan of the gt series before. This one is a beast. I’m able to record any instrument wet/dry. I can take the dry tracks and run it through the pedal if I want a different effect later on. The best part is, I can run any of my stomp boxes through it, it’s got 2 fx loops. All this is possible only using one usb cable.

Great job on this video. And, very glad I ran into your channel (just sub'd) since I recently got into Synths and really want to enjoy these with additional effects. I've been looking at several options for Reverb/Delay/etc..., thus, hoping you get into some recommendations in the videos to come. BTW, would the Voodoo Pedal Power support a Empress Zoia rated for 300ma? Again, thank you!

Mu-tron 3 popped up and insta liked and subbed

I had issues with certain pedals on my gear as they would cut the output volume to the point where they were very low. After trying numerous different things what I found was that I needed true bypass pedals. Others were no good at all.

Thanks that was very useful Jorb - wish i had seen this before but i can now understand how a collection of single function dedicated pedals can be chained and then switched on/off at will to modify the synth output - rather than a single,all singing,all dancing multi fx pedal that costs a fortune.A lot of this equipment ( not just pedals ) requires quite a steep learning curve and practise and the more you acquire - the more to learn ! Quick question if i may ? I bought the Eventide H9 CORE around 2 years ago,used, and discovered recently that they have discontinued the Core and the Standard - leaving just the Max. Eventide are now offering the H9 Plugin bundle at a good price and i have contacted them twice to find out if i can purchase the bundle and install it to my Core as i believe that may no longer be possible ? I registered it with them when i bought it but i find the lack of both information and feedback frustrating and maybe i'm better spending the £174 for the bundle elsewhere - the H9 bundle was originally priced at around £499 . Thanks for the very informative and well presented video.

Thank you!!!!!!!! 1000 stars***************

YEESSSSSSS!!!🤘🏻

Big problem with just turning down a synth is, often there’s background noise/hum that gets amplified (especially if overdrive is used). I really like my Eventide Mixing Link. Mixing Link can do anything you need with gain. Step down, step up, and very clean. It’s a gain swiss army knife. I bought 2 to have stereo stepdown/up, but most people aren’t obsessive like that.

A simple EQ can make notable tonal changes used with a synth.

Question: can you run balanced cables from a synthesizer into stereo inputs and outputs on pedals.. etcetera.. I guess what I'm asking is when using a synth with pedals can balanced cables be used for everything?

Hey! Thanks for your great content. My Nymphes arrives tomorrow and was wondering if you could recommend me a mono to stereo chorus pedal which won’t give me phase issues when listening in mono. Keep up the good work and thanks in advance!

I have 4 Guitar pedals, a Looper, a Flanger and a Reverb to use with a old 1986 small Yamaha keyboard and MiniNova sythersizor. That was the plan however having trouble getting the correct 9 volt adapters for them. So currently there not being used.

so if you have a stereo pedal going into your mixer, do you need to mix those channels one completely panned left and the other panned all the way right to get the right sound?

This is so useful! I just got my first effect, and I'm not having a lot of luck figuring out how to best connect it to my mixer, so I'm hoping you get to that in this series. Can't wait for the next episode!

He spends a hilarious percentage of the time talking about power but I get it. I've got a ton of pedals, and the biggest frustration was always the mess of cables. I eventually got three Strymon Zumas and one expander, and I plug everything I can into those. And since they can switch to 12V/18V, I can plug my Zen Delay, Minitaur, 727, and even a Fostex X-18 into the pedal power. And most of the things that don't plug into pedal power can plug into multi-way USB chargers. Except a couple obnoxious things like my TR-6S that buzz when they're not on their own separate PSU. It's pretty crazy. Instead of 30+ power supplies, I've just got the 3 Zumas, 3 USB chargers, and the power bricks for my Model 1 mixer and RD-9. It's very exciting from an organizational standpoint LOL.

Oh man. That smallsound/ bigsound mini with the bias all the way down! BD-2 sounds better than I thought i would. Might have to pick one of those up...

I run my analog mono synths through a TC Nova delay and a Oceans 11 reverb. Having messed around with synths and pedals for a good few years this is my favourite combo to add lushness. I would like a to add a chorus in the near future but not sure what to go for yet. Used a boss chorus pedal belonging to a friend in the past but wasn't sold on it.

Hi Can you help me ? I would like to know if I can use a Boss IR 2, that is an audio interface with a Korg Volca in the input

Subscribing for the stereo chorus video. I copied a long explanation off the internet about the at least 3 types of stereo chorus and I still can't remember which is which. I think the Boss Dimension C re-issue is fully stereo and the Boss CE300 inverts one output? Disappointingly I think the Boss CE re-issue is simply a wet on one output and dry on the other which put me off. I think that's right - hopefully you will clarify it in your video.

Wooo!