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What pedals for crazy "out there" sounds?

Never been a pedal guy. But we recently picked up Boogie On Raggae Woman by Stevie Wonder and I really wanted to cop that sound. I'd heard that the DOOM 2 pedal was created with that in mind, but I didn't want to drop $500 on a pedal for one song,,, again. I got a hold of a Boss SY-1 Synthesizer pedal. It's got some interesting sounds in it. I particularly like to the push to hold sound feature. I found the sound I was looking for, but truth be told I almost like the basic bass tone Joe has on Vulfpeck's version of the song better.


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Any digital multieffect that lets you string together multiple effects in series can get plenty weird. More important is having the imagination to pick the effects to mash together to get the sounds you want.

Another option is to run through a Radial re-amp unit and acquire a few eurorack modules.

If you want to get all synthy, the Korg MS20 Mini has the ESP (external signal processor) which can be used to play that synth with erratic tracking but more importantly it raises the signal level to what modular synths like to see...+/- 5V to +/- 15V. Using patch cords it can be interfaced to other modular rigs. $700 new but a lot cheaper used.

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The C4 is great if you don't mind hooking into a computer and doing some custom sounds. It only holds 6 on the pedal without an external midi switch, but you can make some straight nasty sounding stuff. You can also just use it as a envelope filter or octave, so it doubles as practical.
 
After hearing some players get intriguing results with it, I tried a Bananana Matryoshka bass synth pedal.

But I could not get anything usable from it with my basses. I found it very uncooperative and hard to control.

Glad to see Michedelic link to Zach Rizer, who has posted some "out there" pedal reviews in the past.
 
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I picked up a Red Panda Tensor a while ago and it took me a bit to figure out everything it can do. It covers a LOT of territory! Adding an expression pedal to it opens up a whole new level of real-time reverse stretching, pitch, looping, stutter, glitch and tape-stop effects, plus various combinations of all of those simultaneously. You can also randomize the settings so it is a truly surprising experience to mess around with.
Coincidentally i have one here going cheap!
 
+1 to @bassbrad's and @TheReceder's recommendations of the Future Impact and Artifakt. The Future Impact in particular is one I rely on heavily in my 80's cover band, because it's a legit analog four oscillator synth in pedal format. (Think Moog type synth bass, Depeche Mode pop synth, etc)

Other recommendations off the top of my head:
- Synth: Enzo X appears to be another fully fleshed out synth pedal, on my list to check out. Iron Ether FMeron is an FM synth.
- Synth, but through a swarm of angry murder bees: Beetronics Swarm.
- Bitcrushing/sample reduction: Red Panda Bitmap 2 or Frantabit.
- Ring Mod: Red Panda Radius
- Chase Bliss: Pretty much anything Chase Bliss will get your exploratory juices flowing. I've got a few but my personal favs are the Dark World and Mood MkII (Onward is high on my list to check out)
- Iron Ether: All Iron Ether pedals have a crazy range of sounds, from traditional to totally weird and unusable, and Taylor designs them that way on purpose. Xerograph Deluxe and Polytope are my favs. XeroD is an amazing low pass filter and the Polytope is a detuner style chorus, and probably my favorite chorus ever. Pro Tip: Add an expression pedal to the XeroD to unlock true potential.
- Gamechanger Audio Plasma Pedal: an angry, spitty, and heavily gated xenon gas lightning powered fuzz

5sg.











 
Any digital multieffect that lets you string together multiple effects in series can get plenty weird. More important is having the imagination to pick the effects to mash together to get the sounds you want.



If you want to get all synthy, the Korg MS20 Mini has the ESP (external signal processor) which can be used to play that synth with erratic tracking but more importantly it raises the signal level to what modular synths like to see...+/- 5V to +/- 15V. Using patch cords it can be interfaced to other modular rigs. $700 new but a lot cheaper used.

View attachment 7193579
One issue with Korg MS-20 working with other modular is that Korg uses a different voltage scheme - For gates and triggers it uses S-trig compared to V-Trig that almost all Eurorack uses. You need to buy a converter , It also does not use bolt/octave scheme for pitch information. You need to buy some converter cables and they are not cheap and something to convert pitch information that Eurorack uses, I have an MS-20 and I usually just use it with Korg modules , But this synth has such a unique voice and signature filters some people have called it the desert island synth
 
The Source Audio Artifakt is an awesome box. I pared it with an Eventide H90. There was also the old Pigtronix Mothership 2. It is an all analog synth. I played one a few weeks and there is something about it - that the C4 or the Enzo just can't do and I love the C4 and could really use an EnzoX

 
One issue with Korg MS-20 working with other modular is that Korg uses a different voltage scheme - For gates and triggers it uses S-trig compared to V-Trig that almost all Eurorack uses. You need to buy a converter , It also does not use bolt/octave scheme for pitch information. You need to buy some converter cables and they are not cheap and something to convert pitch information that Eurorack uses, I have an MS-20 and I usually just use it with Korg modules , But this synth has such a unique voice and signature filters some people have called it the desert island synth
I don’t bother linking mine with my eurorack set up, it’s just fine on its own. They sound so freaking good.