Getting more out of the rainbow machine

[Kongkamerat]

I discovered this trick by accident. I was at the time having a rainbow machine and a moogerfooger mf101 on my board, both of which can be controlled by an expression pedal. So I made a little switcher box out of three stereo jacks and toggle switch that allowed me to select which effect to route the expression pedal to.

What I discovered was that when the exp was routed to the mf101, something happened to the rainbow machine: with the TRS jack plugged in the Exp input (but not connected to anything) the pitch knob would stop functioning! No matter where i turned the knob, the pitch was set to unison/noon.

At first, I was annoyed by this, I wanted unicorn farts but got slap back echo instead. But then I realized that this was the key to easily get a lot more usable or normal sounds out of the device.

Hitting that exact unison position is not easy using an exp pedal, but using a switch to disconnect the exp pedal makes it easy to flip between the crazy ascending pitch explosions and more normal (not completely normal, it’s still a rainbow Machine) echo and chorus sounds.

The mf101 has left the board since then, but I made a new switcher box that basically connects or disconnects the Exp pedal from the cable plugged into the exp input.

So there you have it, hope any rainbow Machine users out there (if you still exist) will find this useful!

 

[bholder]

The rainbow machine apparently has circuitry to know and behave differently when it senses something plugged in to the expression jack.

 

[Kongkamerat]

EQD just published this retrospective video about the Rainbow Machine



Coincidence? Probably.

 

[spufman]

That was fun, thanks for posting. I have a Polytope on my main board now, but my Rainbow machine is still around. It is unique and very cool.

 

[cosmicevan]

EQD just published this retrospective video about the Rainbow Machine



Coincidence? Probably.

Cool vid. Now I want a rainbow machine

 

[RissKippery]

One of my favorite pedals to get weird with. I also use it in a practical way as well. Thanks for sharing.

 

[RissKippery]

I made this sloppy little loop yesterday to celebrate the Rainbow Machine being the EQD Pedal of the Week. All that Rainbow Machine content that EQD was posting on the social media had me feeling inspired to contribute. I used the Rainbow Machine differently on every overdub of the loop. And I only used bass. That retrospective is also very cool.

 

[Michedelic]

I discovered this trick by accident. I was at the time having a rainbow machine and a moogerfooger mf101 on my board, both of which can be controlled by an expression pedal. So I made a little switcher box out of three stereo jacks and toggle switch that allowed me to select which effect to route the expression pedal to.

What I discovered was that when the exp was routed to the mf101, something happened to the rainbow machine: with the TRS jack plugged in the Exp input (but not connected to anything) the pitch knob would stop functioning! No matter where i turned the knob, the pitch was set to unison/noon.

At first, I was annoyed by this, I wanted unicorn farts but got slap back echo instead. But then I realized that this was the key to easily get a lot more usable or normal sounds out of the device.

Hitting that exact unison position is not easy using an exp pedal, but using a switch to disconnect the exp pedal makes it easy to flip between the crazy ascending pitch explosions and more normal (not completely normal, it’s still a rainbow Machine) echo and chorus sounds.

The mf101 has left the board since then, but I made a new switcher box that basically connects or disconnects the Exp pedal from the cable plugged into the exp input.

So there you have it, hope any rainbow Machine users out there (if you still exist) will find this useful!

Aaaah! Unicorn farts!