Chorus

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:25 am

So I've been playing some Stone Roses tunes and it's got me thinking about chorus. He uses an Ibanez CS-9. How do the other 20 or so ibanez chorus pedals compare in sound? are there any other japanese choruses (besides maxon obviously) anyone recommends?

william · Post by **william** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:29 am

mage wrote:So I've been playing some Stone Roses tunes and it's got me thinking about chorus. He uses an Ibanez CS-9. How do the other 20 or so ibanez chorus pedals compare in sound? are there any other japanese choruses (besides maxon obviously) anyone recommends?

holy balls, ive been doing the same.

them and galaxie 500 make me like chorus against my better judgement.

ive always heard the early roland choruses were really good.expensive now, though.

that fulltone one looks nice.

chorus is one effect that the whole analog vs. digital arguement actually applies to, ive found. analog chorus is the good stuff, i reckon. newer modelling digital stuff might be OK though.

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:31 am

i've never "gotten" chorus. they all sound the same to me. that fulltone pedal looks interesting though, from a purely aesthetical viewpoint.

william · Post by **william** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:59 am

Zaphod wrote:i've never "gotten" chorus. they all sound the same to me. that fulltone pedal looks interesting though, from a purely aesthetical viewpoint.

i see what you mean, but i def. think that analog chorus sounds more fluid and full and smooth and warm, whereas digital tends to sound thin, shimmery, and 80's mainstream poppish.

im betting that cocteau twins used analog, but i cant prove it. im pretty sure duran duran was using digital.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:03 am

william wrote:ive always heard the early roland choruses were really good.expensive now, though.

yea, I've found out a bit about these

CE-1 (the big brown one) is the same circuit from the Roland Jazz Chorus.
CE-2 is supposed to be in the same spirit as the CE-1
CE-3 is supposed to be like the CE-2 but not as nice.
CE-5 is the current one.

does anyone recommend any of these? the CE-3 seems pretty easily obtainable on ebay. does anyone know if you could mod these to CE-2 spec? would it really be worth it anyway?

william · Post by **william** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:05 am

mage wrote:
william wrote:ive always heard the early roland choruses were really good.expensive now, though.
yea, I've found out a bit about these
CE-1 (the big brown one) is the same circuit from the Roland Jazz Chorus.

CE-2 is supposed to be in the same spirit as the CE-1

CE-3 is supposed to be like the CE-2 but not as nice.

CE-5 is the current one.
does anyone recommend any of these? the CE-3 seems pretty easily obtainable on ebay. does anyone know if you could mod these to CE-2 spec? would it really be worth it anyway?

ive heard the 2 is a decent model of the 1, but the others are cheeze. ive played the 5 and it is pretty crispy sounding, not really the fluid sounds that i go for.

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:22 am

CE-3 is a whole different circuit from the CE-2 IIRC. The CE-5 uses digital processing.

Mike will tell you to check out a Small Clone. They aren't to everyone's taste, but it's certainly "warm" and "fluid".

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:36 am

some that I am wondering about;

CSL

CS-5

Post by **Mike** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 9:03 am

DuoSonicBoy wrote:CE-3 is a whole different circuit from the CE-2 IIRC. The CE-5 uses digital processing.

Mike will tell you to check out a Small Clone. They aren't to everyone's taste, but it's certainly "warm" and "fluid".

This, but only get the Full Chorus one, don't get that Nano Shite.

Jazzmasterfan · Post by **Jazzmasterfan** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:08 am

william wrote:
Zaphod wrote:i've never "gotten" chorus. they all sound the same to me. that fulltone pedal looks interesting though, from a purely aesthetical viewpoint.
i see what you mean, but i def. think that analog chorus sounds more fluid and full and smooth and warm, whereas digital tends to sound thin, shimmery, and 80's mainstream poppish.

im betting that cocteau twins used analog, but i cant prove it. im pretty sure duran duran was using digital.

There's an article or two somewhere (I'll see what I can find) about their set up. I did some recording well over ten years ago now and was lucky enough to have a couple of demos accepted by Phonogram at which stage I had to think carefully about what I wanted to do next (that's another story)...anyway, the style of music I was doing at the time was very much cocteau twins/ shoegazing style and I managed to get that sort of sound by not using any amps...but using loads of effects straight into the desk (I found out recently that the Cocteau Twins didn't use amps for recording). I used two dod analog choruses to get loads of lush sound...sometimes with the same settings (they were never quite the same so it added to the sound) or sometimes I'd turn the rate up on one pedal to get a tremolo effect...in addition, I used an ebow (sometimes with using a slide), a bit of delay here and there, a bit of reverb here and their and got some good sounds! I also did a bit of reverse guitar through the same two chorus set up etc (by playing the track backwards and playing over it)...got all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff out of that.

kim · Post by **kim** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:52 am

i used a ceb on bass a while, got it when we were doing some joy division covers but didn't like it on guitar, so i gave it away. not a fan of chorus on guitar really but i guess it depends on the band. i've seen sharin foo of raveonettes use one of those minty blue/green japanese boss choruses but on vocals.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:59 am

dudes. check it out

seriously, everything there is to know about Chorus Ensemble

vivadeluxxe · Post by **vivadeluxxe** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:24 am

I like these, they're a straight copy of the CE-1 and sound better than the small clone, a bit more expensive but really well made...

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:37 am

mage wrote:So I've been playing some Stone Roses tunes and it's got me thinking about chorus. He uses an Ibanez CS-9. How do the other 20 or so ibanez chorus pedals compare in sound? are there any other japanese choruses (besides maxon obviously) anyone recommends?

I dont think the Tone-lok series is analog but you can get reissue CS-9s.
Its a sound i've been trying to recreate as well, for god knows how long. I found the old Boss Digital Dimension a good comparison where the 'rate' setting is very subtle, but they are now rare and more expensive than CS-9's. Behringer do clones of a lot of older pedals, it may be worth checking them out.

What reverb are you using? I think he used a Quadraverb and you can pick up fairly cheap rackmount reverbs easily. When you consider the quality and quantity of sounds on the rackmounts, for the price difference it makes Reverb pedals redundant.

Johno · Post by **Johno** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:14 pm

Check out the secondhand market for a MXR Micro Chorus great warm sounding pedal, gets Leslie effects at higher settings.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:18 pm

I love chorus.

Mike: How impossible are they to make?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:06 pm

Fran wrote:What reverb are you using? I think he used a Quadraverb and you can pick up fairly cheap rackmount reverbs easily. When you consider the quality and quantity of sounds on the rackmounts, for the price difference it makes Reverb pedals redundant.

i've got a rackmount behringer reverb that's brilliant, cost me Â£80 and that was about 10 years ago. you'd probably get one for about 30p now. i also don't see much point in reverb pedals. i've heard them being used well on occasion but i'd rather have a versatile delay when it comes down to pedalboard space.

Johno · Post by **Johno** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:59 pm

stewart wrote:
Fran wrote:What reverb are you using? I think he used a Quadraverb and you can pick up fairly cheap rackmount reverbs easily. When you consider the quality and quantity of sounds on the rackmounts, for the price difference it makes Reverb pedals redundant.
i've got a rackmount behringer reverb that's brilliant, cost me Â£80 and that was about 10 years ago. you'd probably get one for about 30p now. i also don't see much point in reverb pedals. i've heard them being used well on occasion but i'd rather have a versatile delay when it comes down to pedalboard space.

I had an Alesis Nanoverb for a while, lots of different verbs incl reverse, various sized rooms, halls & plates, plus chorus & rotary settings.
Sound great & can usually be had for Â£25 - Â£40 2nd hand.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:04 pm

a mate of mine used an alesis rack of some sort, it was really good for the price. he actually only used pedals for dirt at one point, everything else came from the rack and he used a sequencer to switch patches. he was a total corksniffer too about tone (never played open strings on arpeggios because they sounded too 'spanky'- the guy was a bit of a nutter) so if it had sounded shit he wouldn't have touched it.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:42 pm

BacchusPaul wrote:I love chorus.

Mike: How impossible are they to make?

They not too hard, but the complexity of the circuit and the fact they utilise a delay chip (either digital or analogue) means it's not cost effective to DIY them.

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