Effects

Effects come in many varieties from little stomp boxes ($) to rack mounted effects ($$$). Effects change the sound the of incoming signal, by adding to it or changing it. There are many different kinds of effects, but only some are practical for ‘ukulele players. Many effects have a tone control in addition to the mentioned that changes the overall EQ of the sound.

Delay is the first effect that comes to mind. Many pros use at least a little bit of delay when they perform or record. A delay effect records the notes you play and then repeats them back after a specified amount of time (kind of like yelling into a canyon). The typical controls for a delay pedal are:

• Level/mix adjusts the volume of the delayed signal
• Time controls the time between the first note you play and the delayed note(s)
• Feedback/regeneration is the number of times the delayed note is played back (at specified delay time) as it fades away (watch out for this, because if you get carried away and turn this up too much you can start a delay that feeds back and “takes off”)
• Mode changes the different delay time segments or sound (short, med, long, analog, reverse, etc.)

There are a few different types of delay units that will hear talked about. Digital delay is probably the most common with a bright clear repeat. Analog delay usually has less max time available and the repeats lose their treble frequencies as they go on. Tape delay is pretty much obsolete and only used by die hard fans due to maintenance and reliability issues. A loop of tape is run through a write head and then a movable read head that is adjusted to control delay time. The Echoplex is the most famous tape delay unit.

A great article about delay times (specifically about U2’s Edge) can be found here: http://www.amnesta.net/edge_delay/

Reverb is another echo type of effect. Instead of repeating back clear individual notes like the delay pedal, a reverb unit creates a wash that sounds like notes bouncing around a room (think a bouncing basketball in a gym). This is a good option if you would rather just have a little extra space filler, but not single notes.

• Effect level changes how loud the reverb sound is compared to the dry (uneffected) signal
• Time dictates the length of the reverb
• Mode/type selects the different reverbs available – room (small sound), hall (big sound), spring (like the springs found in amps that add reverb), modulate (detunes reverb for deeper effect)

An EQ (equalization) pedal is an effect that allows you to raise or lower the level of individual frequencies. EQ is nice to have control over because the average ‘ukulele sounds trebley when you plug it in. An EQ pedal can help boost bass frequencies and fix that problem. You can also use equalization to create a sound that is unique and more interesting than un-EQed ‘ukulele.

Volume pedals control the level (volume) of the incoming signal. They are mounted on a rocker so that you can use your foot to adjust output. If you put the pedal in the “toe up” position no signal is heard, so you can use it as a mute when you are tuning. By starting with the toe up, picking a note, and then rolling the pedal to toe down, you can achieve violin-like volume swells (think Jeff Beck).

Chorus can be a nice effect if used with taste – it can get annoying quickly and too much takes away from the ‘ukulele’s unique sound. What a chorus pedal does, is double the notes you are playing and de-tune the second track a little bit. The achieved sound is like a 12-string guitar – kind of a swirl sound. A great example of a chorus sound is the Police’s “Message in a Bottle”. Basic controls are:

• Effect level changes how loud the doubled track is. The mix between the normal (dry) and effected (wet) signals.
• EQ or Filter changes the overall tone of the chorus.
• Rate controls how fast the sound changes from the low end of the swirl to the high end.
• Depth changes how deep the swirl is.

A Noise Gate/Noise Suppressor suppresses signal hiss and unwanted sounds (hand movements on the soundboard, etc.). Any noise that doesn’t reach a certain level gets cut out of the signal. Ideally this will keep things absolutely silent when you aren’t playing. Controls:

• Threshhold is the level that sound has to reach to be heard. If you have all kinds of excess noise you will want to turn this up. But too much and you might not hear a soft note.
• Decay/Release controls how fast the noise gate jumps in to stop sounds that fall below the threshhold.
• Attack is the opposite of decay. It controls how quickly the noise gate opens up to let sound above the threshhold through.

Some other effects include:

• Compression boosts low levels and cuts back high levels. It can also be used to increase the sustain of a note to a certain extent.
• Distortion is the result of to much input, which overloads a circuit and distorts the signal
• Overdrive is a milder form of distortion. More of a BB King sound.
• Tremolo fluctuates the level of the incoming signal up and down.
• The flanger was originally invented when a studio engineer played two analog tapes back at the same time and held his finger on one to slow it down. It creates a swirling type of sound.
• The phaser is the sister to flange except it is a frequency-based effect instead of delay-based (EVH “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love sound)
• A pitch shifter analyzes the incoming signal and adds a harmony note. An intelligent pitch shifter will track harmony within a set scale, a conventional pitch shifter will harmonize in straight intervals which might place notes outside of the key.
• An octave pedal instantly adds a duplicate of your playing an octave above or below (or both) the original signal
• The wah-wah is a rocker pedal that changes frequencies. An auto-wah creates sounds like a wah-wah, but without the expression pedal input.

The videos at Expert Village give you a good idea of what each effect does

There is more info at: http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/effects-explained.html

Pluging In:

When you plug in an effect, the signal line looks like this: pickup>cable>effect>cable>amp. With more than one effect it would be like: pickup>cable>effect>cable>effect>[add cable>effect as needed]>cable>amp/PA.

You need at least one instrument cable besides the one from your ‘ukulele to your amp (more depending on how many effects you are plugging in). Instead of directly plugging the cable into the amp, plug it into the “input” jack of the effect unit. (I’m assuming at this point that you have either installed batteries or plugged the effects unit into a wall outlet). Plug one end of the second cable into the “output” jack of the effect unit. Plug the other end into your amp. Make sure all volume controls are at zero on the ‘ukulele, effects, and amp. Turn on the effect first, then your amp so that the pop from turning on the effect doesn’t hit your amp. Slowly turn up the volume on the amp, effect(s), and ‘ukulele until you can hear a picked note. Turn the effect on by stomping on the switch and adjust the parameters to your liking. Be sure to refer back to the manual to make sure you don’t miss anything important that might cause damage.