EHX wrote:Electro-Harmonix announces the Mod Rex Polyrhythmic Modulator, a pedal equipped with four, independent modulation sections synced in time. MOD delivers vibrato, flanger, chorus or phaser. TREM features tremolo. PAN modulates between left and right in stereo operation and FILTER offers a choice of a modulated LPF, HPF or BPF. Each section provides four LFO shape options plus dedicated functions to maximize the Mod Rex’s expressivity and control.
The MOD REX is a kinetic tour-de-force that lets you weave compelling, shifting, musical tapestries. Whether you are a guitarist, synthesist or electronic musician you will find it inspires your creativity and stretches your musical boundaries.
FOUR INDEPENDENT MODULATION SECTIONS:
The heart of the pedal are its four, independent modulation sections synced in time, they are:
MOD features great sounding EHX Vibrato, Flanger, Chorus or Phaser. The Depth knob lets you set the amount of the effect while Feedback controls the resonance of the Flanger and Phaser.
TREM delivers tremolo, an effect that modulates the volume of your signal. The Depth control sets tremolo intensity.
PAN modulates between left and right in stereo operation. In mono operation the PAN section acts as another tremolo section, but with the wave shapes all inverted!
FILTER offers a choice of a modulated LPF, HPF or BPF. In LPF (low pass filter) frequencies above a modulated cutoff point are cut. In HPF (high pass filter) frequencies below a modulated cutoff point are cut, and in BPF (band pass filter) frequencies above and below a modulated center point are cut.
Each section also features a choice of four LFO shape options: rising sawtooth, triangle, falling sawtooth or square wave. They affect the way the modulation transitions and provide advanced creative control over the specific section as well as the way they interact with each other.
TEMPO CONTROL THAT’S FLEXIBLE AND POWERFUL
The MOD REX delivers virtually limitless polyrhythmic possibilities.
Its TEMPO component gives you nine note-length choices for each of the four modulation sections. They are independently selectable in increments starting at a whole note and ranging thru subdivisions that go up to a 16th note. In addition, any of the sections can be bypassed.
The MOD REX’s tempo (displayed as beats per minute or BPM) is adjustable with the Tempo knob, Tap Tempo footswitch or by using an expression pedal into its EXP input. It can also be synced to an external device with MIDI Clock or an external pulse clock.
MIDI AND THE MOD REX
The pedal’s robust MIDI implementation enables you to sync devices quickly and easily as well as automate functions and changes so they occur precisely when and where you want them whether you are working at home, in a studio or live.
The MOD REX accepts MIDI to enable it to tempo sync the modulation rate with an external device, to recall presets via MIDI Program Change messages and to control any parameter on the MOD REX via Control Change messages.
EXTRAS
The MOD REX lets you save and recall up to 100 presets. It comes from the factory with 20 great programs.
The pedal features full stereo input and output.
An external foot controller input makes banking up and down thru presets quick and easy.
It's mind boggling how they can make so many models and still stay in business. The reason they went out of business the first time was because of too many weird pedals that didn't sell.
Sure they probably make more of their staple Muffs, but even that is kind of too split up with many different models.
I wanted to get that new Russian Muff, but only a few dealers stock it and I wanted to buy it from an internet dealer that stocks other items I'm interested in, which is proving to be complicated. There are also several local EH dealers and none of them stock it.
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:11 am
by paul_
Oh my god.
edit- directed @ the pedal looking awesome
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:35 am
by paul_
Fakir Mustache wrote:It's mind boggling how they can make so many models and still stay in business. The reason they went out of business the first time was because of too many weird pedals that didn't sell.
Sure they probably make more of their staple Muffs, but even that is kind of too split up with many different models.
I wanted to get that new Russian Muff, but only a few dealers stock it and I wanted to buy it from an internet dealer that stocks other items I'm interested in, which is proving to be complicated. There are also several local EH dealers and none of them stock it.
I'm not sure the current EHX could get caught in the trap the old one did. They're a lot more internationally popular and distributed than they were then, and their products are produced at far lower cost but sold at much higher retail prices. In the '70s Electro-Harmonix only made/sold guitar effects and they sold them out the back of magazines and shit like the Alembic Stratoblast and various brass nut/bridge replacements. There's no indication that huge chunks of their catalog are failing to sell either, and their newer units like this are leaning more in a MIDI/synthy direction (with eurorack a looming in-house possibility, as they've only outsourced existing guitar pedals to ADDAC so far), which is a smart update they didn't have going back when the advent of digital buttrock rack rigs took stompboxes went way out of fashion and demand in the mid/late '80s, with mainly just Boss coming out the other end kinda-alright.
That was kinda what birthed the EHX cultism that allowed the company to come back; posthumous pawnshop sales because stuff like the Polychorus, Memory Man and whatever random Big Muff you ended up with were cheap as fuck. Corgan even told an anecdote about this in the Op-Amp Nano Muff vid where he and Iha bought their Siamese Dream Muffs for $50 and when he went back to the shop later the guy was charging hundreds for the vintage Muffs and told Corgan "that's actually your fault." Additionally the guy who worked at the shop where Kurt and Krist bought most of their DGC equipment budget gear immediately pre-Nevermind told a story about asking Novoselic what the hell Kurt would want with these janky old Small Clone pedals, just before the first 3 tracks of Nevermind (which all made heavy use of it) became the biggest triple-decker of sliced bread on MTV or the radio.
I also believe their variants on Muffs will be the last thing to go; those probably have a built-in customer base sick of shopping for $350 garage-built versions of the same thing on eBay and Reverb, and they're pretty affordable.
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:30 am
by luciguci
im watching the video for this thing and im nutting holy shit. i think i wanna marry this pedal
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:54 am
by Fakir Mustache
paul_ wrote: In the '70s Electro-Harmonix only made/sold guitar effects
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:08 am
by Doog
Fakir Mustache wrote:
paul_ wrote: In the '70s Electro-Harmonix only made/sold guitar effects
paul_ wrote: In the '70s Electro-Harmonix only made/sold guitar effects, some with contact mics and beer coasters also
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:27 pm
by aen
EHX also owns New sensor (or vice versa) which is a pedal parts company. So while making shitloads of money off of most other pedal companies by selling them parts their EHX parts are essentially free.
We've even been getting enclosures that are partially drilled for the SMM/POG 2 layout from the inside.
Not complaining, by the way. Buying this from EHX is a lot cheaper and faster than 18 months of R&D at Dwarfcraft.
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:24 pm
by jcyphe
paul_ wrote:
I also believe their variants on Muffs will be the last thing to go; those probably have a built-in customer base sick of shopping for $350 garage-built versions of the same thing on eBay and Reverb, and they're pretty affordable.
I thought that if EHX re-issued all their classic versions of Muffs, Delays, and Modulation pedals they would put a big dent in the straight clones. While some of these builders are obsessive about components and originality, people will always want the real thing. Some of these dudes were building up a whole "brand" just exploiting what EHX refused to do and used to do.
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:48 pm
by gusman2x
Yup, i’m gonna flog my boutique triangle muff. It’s from wren and cuff, and they were kinda wankers when I had an issue.
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:31 pm
by paul_
Yes, the very type of obscure and useless stuff that sank them, very illustrative Fakir. My point was that they really were just a guitar pedal company, whereas now they have cast a considerably wider net on audio processing gear.
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:04 am
by Doog
(In terms of synching different mod FX to a tap tempo at different divisions, the Line 6 M9 can do this too, and is possibly a cheaper option if you don't need as much MIDI control. Will also do the expression stuff too. Yes, I love mine, and am kinda excited at taking delivery of my pedalboard on Sunday)
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 11:24 am
by Bacchus
paul_ wrote:Yes, the very type of obscure and useless stuff that sank them, very illustrative Fakir. My point was that they really were just a guitar pedal company, whereas now they have cast a considerably wider net on audio processing gear.
I suspect (without having been around in the 70s and 80s and without thinking about it too much) that the divisions between "guitar effects" and "audio processing" are a fair bit blurrier now. So now their weird guitar pedals are less weird guitar pedals and more interesting audio devices that will end up being used all over the place. Maybe.
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:35 pm
by timhulio
paul_ wrote:
Fakir Mustache wrote:In the '70s Electro-Harmonix only made/sold guitar effects...
The Three Phase Liner was an illuminated LED necklace for disco cokeheads.
[youtube][/youtube]
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:23 pm
by robroe
i wasn't digging it at all until 6:25 when i got jizz all over my fucking computer
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:38 pm
by paul_
Bacchus wrote:
paul_ wrote:Yes, the very type of obscure and useless stuff that sank them, very illustrative Fakir. My point was that they really were just a guitar pedal company, whereas now they have cast a considerably wider net on audio processing gear.
I suspect (without having been around in the 70s and 80s and without thinking about it too much) that the divisions between "guitar effects" and "audio processing" are a fair bit blurrier now. So now their weird guitar pedals are less weird guitar pedals and more interesting audio devices that will end up being used all over the place. Maybe.
It's true that more non-guitarists have use for guitar pedals now, (but that's nothing new, tons of synth players used guitar pedals in the early '80s right around the time EHX went out of business, and most exciting guitar effects from reverb/echo/wah onwards were borne of use of non-guitar equipment with one, a tradition which has continued into the synth and usb-midi eras), but form factor is an equal part of what I meant. When you homage a legacy-design outboard microphone preamp or limiting amplifier that has no phono inputs on it, I don't think too many guitarists are going to be rushing to stick velcro all over it and ditch a couple Boss pedals to make room. Picturing an NY-2A robroe demo that is funny ON PURPOSE is quite a challenge, we'd end up with the assessment that it's a VCR-sized DS-1 for vocalists or something.
EHX nonetheless make a lot more stuff guitarists doing guitar-pedal-amp stuff wouldn't have much use for these days than ever before, and are upfront about it. Even when they made a rack unit back in the '70s or '80s it was just a guitar pedal built into that form-factor (like the emphatically-named "Guitar Synthesizer" rack unit which was just a huge Microsynth, or various delays which were also sold in pedal format), whereas now they have properly designated outboard recording gear and step sequencers with MIDI control and all that. They're actively trying to make stuff for other markets.
Admittedly, they would likely have hit on some of this stuff in the '80s if they hadn't folded (aiming more at synthy soundtrack dudes getting their John Carpenter on, and live rock keyboardists), but they didn't. They have the benefit of the (more versatile) laptop/usb-midi market to aim it at now, not just guitar and live keyboard players. The boutique world created huge demand for designs which, at the end of the day, aren't that hard or expensive to build... this doesn't just go for 5 flavors of Big Muff, but recording buffs into the big oft-ripped designs like the 1176 and LA-2A, and even home audiophiles. They sell plenty of tubes to the hi-fi dudes, under both the EHX and Sovtek brands (because Matthews's New Sensor Corp owns both, as aen pointed out).
TL;DR Guitarists being just as confused about a new EHX unit as they were in the early '80s doesn't make it the same scenario, in my opinion. They're probably in a much safer place now, even without getting into the New Sensor angle.
The only thing going out of fashion faster than guitar pedals in the early '80s these days is... well... guitar in general. EHX don't seem blind to this, though.
And those disco coke necklaces would sell like fucking hotcakes nowadays, especially if they accepted low-impedance and line level equally well.
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:44 pm
by Doog
paul_ for prez_
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:00 pm
by ekwatts
Isn't the general music gear market just massive as compared to the 1970s and 1980s now, too? A casual bedroom guitarist is no longer some long-haired guy playing a mid-level acoustic. It's a guy with a Line 6 Flextone III and a PRS SE, or a Fender Modern Player and a massive pedalboard with two Strymon BigSkys that they post on the PedalboardsOfDoom facebook page or something.
And thank goodness EHX are doing as well as they are. Otherwise we wouldn't have the fantastic video demo of Mike Matthews playing an electric organ through the Lester K pedal.
[youtube][/youtube]
I could honestly listen to Matthews chugging away like that for hours.
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:40 pm
by Doog
Thought he had a fucking Hitler tache for a second there
