Cheap Yet Effective Hardware

[Eye Of Theta]

Hello everybody. It's been quite some time since I've been about the threads. I just wanted to pose a picky little question towards you all today so that I might learn from everyone's own findings.

The question is: "What are some great examples of ambient music production hardware that are cheap yet effective?"
This can be anything ranging from synths to effect modules.

I look forward to reading what you all have to say! : 3

[johny_gtr]

Hello everybody. It's been quite some time since I've been about the threads. I just wanted to pose a picky little question towards you all today so that I might learn from everyone's own findings.

The question is: "What are some great examples of ambient music production hardware that are cheap yet effective?"
This can be anything ranging from synths to effect modules.

I look forward to reading what you all have to say! : 3

Roland Alpha Juno2 - synth, Squier strat/tele style guitar
Line6 DL4, Strymon El Capistan, Boss RV-3, EHX Cathedral, EHX POG2

all from these you could find on ebay about 200-250$

[regonsch]

Cheap old reel to reels. You can pick those up for next to nothing and start experimenting with old school unsyncronized loops. Preferably the ones with a couple of different speeds. You can even use them as guitar/synth amps if you hook up an external cabinet. Grundigs are both nice and cheap and they have a very nice internal tube amp that overdrives a guitar in pleasant ways.
Old cassette based dictaphones. Noone wants those anymore and they are able to capture some nice lofi field recs in mono if that's your thing.
Harmoniums, here in Denmark you can regularly pick them up for free. They do require some space though but I often find their organic timbres superior to the synth alternative.

[KrisM]

zoom stompboxes, like the MS-70CDR or MS-100BT. My BT was $100 new and can run up to 6 fx at once. Excellent bang for the buck, nice reverbs and delays among the modulation options.

tc electronic tone print pedals are good value, too, though only one effect at a time, but the sounds are great and you can customize your own fx with the tone print editor.

if you want an FM synth, the Yamaha FB-01 can often be had for $50 (in the states at least). 4op sine fm, so not as fancy as the 4op TX-81 that has saws, but certainly cheap.

In Australia, Aldi sells guitar pedals every year around the end of Feb beginning of March that are pretty good and very cheap. I missed them the last time I was here by a few days :/

[GaryG]

zoom stompboxes, like the MS-70CDR or MS-100BT. My BT was $100 new and can run up to 6 fx at once. Excellent bang for the buck, nice reverbs and delays among the modulation options.

Yeah, my old G2 can string a slow attack effect, a number of delays then a reverb together for some lovely ambient washes.

tc electronic tone print pedals are good value, too, though only one effect at a time, but the sounds are great and you can customize your own fx with the tone print editor.

Is that the one you need an ipad etc to program?

Musicians friend have had them as their stupid deal of the day a few times either singularly ($39 I think) or a pack of three for ($99).

[KrisM]

there's an app to change the Tone Print preset on the fly, but you don't need the app to use or program the pedal. Those on MF are probably the mini toneprints that I don't know much about, just that they have less knobs, three vs four or something.

The Toneprint is a customizeable algorithm you can access and tweak with the knobs.

[Eye Of Theta]

Aldi do guitar pedals ... ? O.o

Man, that's the first I ever heard of it! I was able to get a hands on with a Juno Di. The girl at the counter gave me a funny look when I asked if I could plug it into the space delay pedal they had there. x3

[KrisM]

lol I know. A guy on another forum ran his x0xb0x through the distortion and it sounded magical.

[nollo]

I have an old radio, typewriter and a Glockenspiel. All are Cheap and very cool with much delay and reverb. Also u can build ur own "piezomikro". Then u can hold in on evertyhing u want and have new sounds :D

[Brandsmannen]

I haven't received my 4 track cassette porta yet, but I'd say it's cheap (it was 50$) and it seems rather effective judging from this video

Also, the EHX cathedral reverb has become really cheap as far as reverbs go. It's infinite mode is a great start for making your guitar sound synth-y.

I was gonna say the digitech timebender, but it has been discontinued now. It's ebay prices has already gone up...

I got my digitech/dod PDS 8000 for 130€ bc I'm a regular at the pedalshop here in Stockholm, and for making glitchy pitched loops it's great. There are other units in the same range that can be modified to have the same looptime.

Lastly I have to give a tip about Michael Rucci on ETSY. Small dronemakers and stuff for about 60 bucks! https://www.etsy.com/se-en/shop/Mich...f=pr_faveshops