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Iron Ether Appreciation Society
- Thread starter Jared Lash
- Start date
I recently emailed Taylor on an issue I was having on a pedal I bought from him. He responded within 15 minutes. We exchanged about 6 emails in a matter of about an 30 minutes. Best part: This was a 11pm on a Saturday night!! I was very impressed with the level of customer service I got.
Okay, so after having a Polytope on my board for a couple months, I can say with confidence that I've finally found the chorus sound that I've had in my head for so long. After trying several "real" chorus pedals, I realized something. I can't stand the warbley, watery traditional chorus sound, so I turned to detuners...
- EHX Stereo Clone Theory: disgustingly noisy and out quick
- Boss PS-5: not bad, still have it on my secondary board
- Fromel Seraph: another "not bad"
- Back to the PS-5
- Digitech Whammy IV: detune mode with expression control is pretty nice, but too big. Plus... it's for Whammying.
lol
- Tech21 Bass Boost Chorus: the closest to what I wanted, but just not... quite... there...
Taylor's Polytope ended the search. The ability to have up to four voices is cool, separate clean & effect volumes are nice to have, the rest of the controls are great and it sounds awesome. Despite how much crazy the Poly is capable of, I just use it for a perfect simple, subtle detune shimmer.
The key with the Poly is the Filter control, a simple high pass filter that controls where (frequencies) the effect kicks in. It controls the "beating" just like Taylor says on the Polytopes's page. Being able to do that lets me dial out the effect on the low frequencies, getting rid of the low end "throb" that I experienced with the detuners mentioned above. Some of them have less problems with it than others (the PS-5 is the best of them), but once you hear it, you can't un-hear it. The Polytope easily smokes them all with that simple little added Filter control.
The Polytope is certainly capable of standard chorus sounds if that's your thing, but I personally think detune is where it really shines. If you've been struggling with finding the right chorus sound, this is the pedal to try because it does every chorus sound I could possibly dream up and then some, from barely there to whacked out space alien ray guns in a can.
I love my Poly and you'd be hard pressed to get me to tell you I'd ever take it off my board... I finally found the chorus sound that had been in my head for so long. Thanks Taylor!
5sg.
Here's my current settings.
- EHX Stereo Clone Theory: disgustingly noisy and out quick
- Boss PS-5: not bad, still have it on my secondary board
- Fromel Seraph: another "not bad"
- Back to the PS-5
- Digitech Whammy IV: detune mode with expression control is pretty nice, but too big. Plus... it's for Whammying.
lol- Tech21 Bass Boost Chorus: the closest to what I wanted, but just not... quite... there...
Taylor's Polytope ended the search. The ability to have up to four voices is cool, separate clean & effect volumes are nice to have, the rest of the controls are great and it sounds awesome. Despite how much crazy the Poly is capable of, I just use it for a perfect simple, subtle detune shimmer.
The key with the Poly is the Filter control, a simple high pass filter that controls where (frequencies) the effect kicks in. It controls the "beating" just like Taylor says on the Polytopes's page. Being able to do that lets me dial out the effect on the low frequencies, getting rid of the low end "throb" that I experienced with the detuners mentioned above. Some of them have less problems with it than others (the PS-5 is the best of them), but once you hear it, you can't un-hear it. The Polytope easily smokes them all with that simple little added Filter control.
The Polytope is certainly capable of standard chorus sounds if that's your thing, but I personally think detune is where it really shines. If you've been struggling with finding the right chorus sound, this is the pedal to try because it does every chorus sound I could possibly dream up and then some, from barely there to whacked out space alien ray guns in a can.
I love my Poly and you'd be hard pressed to get me to tell you I'd ever take it off my board... I finally found the chorus sound that had been in my head for so long. Thanks Taylor!
5sg.
Here's my current settings.
I really dig the Polytope for Reese-like sounds with a fuzz, for adding just the right ambiance to the end of a synthy combo and probably most of all for fretless.
As much as I dig his playing, style and tone I've purposely never tried to learn much of Jaco's tunes or endeavored to cop his vibe.
And I think that's why I love the Polytope with fretless. It gives the same sort emphasis to the notes that a traditional chorus would but with a very different sound.
I'm another guy that has never really liked chorus but dug detuned sounds (my Boss PS-3 was my favorite until the Polytope) and it's nice to find such a well designed and great sounding one.
As much as I dig his playing, style and tone I've purposely never tried to learn much of Jaco's tunes or endeavored to cop his vibe.
And I think that's why I love the Polytope with fretless. It gives the same sort emphasis to the notes that a traditional chorus would but with a very different sound.
I'm another guy that has never really liked chorus but dug detuned sounds (my Boss PS-3 was my favorite until the Polytope) and it's nice to find such a well designed and great sounding one.
What setting do you use to get a Reese type sound Jared?
Also, I made a thread about Polytope settings, and would greatly appreciate it, if those with the Polytope would participate and add some great settings to the thread.
BTW, great review 5SG!
Also, I made a thread about Polytope settings, and would greatly appreciate it, if those with the Polytope would participate and add some great settings to the thread.
BTW, great review 5SG!
I love mine too! Getting ready to record some clips if anyone's interested.
Also I'll post my settings on the Polytope settings thread shortly as well.
Also I'll post my settings on the Polytope settings thread shortly as well.
My setup for Reese sounds was to use a borrowed SYB-5 set to a saw tooth and then run it into the Polytope with the first two voices up fully and detuned about 25-35 cents or so.
Adding the pitch vibrator gives some cool movement to it, but I actually like phaser more. Run the whole thing into the Xerograph with expression control of cutoff and you can get some really nice textures.
I'm having more fun with the Boss SYB-5 than I thought I would. I don't know if I'll buy one but I'm thinking about it.
Running the EHX Microsynth before the Polytope also gives some great synthy & dark tones.
I just placed an order for a Polytope...have to at least try new IE stuff.
Side note: wasn't there some talk a while back about an updated Cygnet in the works? I had one, liked it very much, but sold it because I didn't have much use for trem at the time. Recently though I've been feeling like I'd want one again for writing purposes.
Anyone have any updates?...Taylor?...Thanks.
Side note: wasn't there some talk a while back about an updated Cygnet in the works? I had one, liked it very much, but sold it because I didn't have much use for trem at the time. Recently though I've been feeling like I'd want one again for writing purposes.
Anyone have any updates?...Taylor?...Thanks.
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
A new trem is in the pipeline, but not due for release very soon. There will probably be at least one thing that will be out before that. 
A new trem is in the pipeline, but not due for release very soon. There will probably be at least one thing that will be out before that.
As usual, count me in!
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
I don't have any plans to do a delay in any of the traditional styles (murky analog, clean digital, all-in-one modeling), but there may be something delay-ish in the works.
I would LOVE a "delay" where I could grab a sample of something and slide the start and end points of a loop around within the sample using an expression pedal. I would just love that.
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
That kind of thing can be very cool. Since I don't expect that we'll have something that can do that, I would actually recommend checking out Sonic Crayon. He is a builder who makes amazing hand-painted pedals, and I know that he has done some experiments with exactly that technique. I'm not positive what the progress is on that pedal, but check out his website and maybe send him an email to ask about it. I don't think you can go wrong with anything he makes.
yeah. i think he talked about how it's not great with guitar right now, which i'd assume meant bass is out too. the man DOES do some insane stuff. unfortunately always really small build batches for some reason.
there's also the (verrrrrrrrrrrry expensive) Hexe Revolver. very neat, but.... it IS a big load of monies.
there's also the (verrrrrrrrrrrry expensive) Hexe Revolver. very neat, but.... it IS a big load of monies.
