Difficulty with Modfactor..

[Billy Foppiano]

I have a number of amps….Fender (4), Mesa, etc…I have patched the unit all the different ways….

I am having difficulty with the Modfactor sounding good.

All the patches sound edgy, spikey, and NOT good.

Anybody who has the new update- Can you point me to a patch, and recommend ONE or two that you think are "good"?

I have been tweaking, turning, working with this unit…..and it is frustrating to find anything that doesn't clip yer ears. The flanges are NOT swirly, the choruses are spikey…The wahs make me want to wah…

The trems are reasonable, as the vibratos (I have a Magnatone, which has the holy grail of vib)…

But really-recommend a patch that YOU think is um good. I'm all ears.

[golfnguitarz]

What version are you using (I am at V3 beta)? Are you running in the loop or out in front (are switches set appropriately)?

IMHO, I had to revert to running the MF in front. I have a Mark V (serial loop) and some of the effects were just too much while running the MF in the loop. Granted, running a clean sound would make little difference, but when using the amp's distortion, I could never get the phaser and flangers to sound right to me. It was like it took over the sound of my amp for lack of a better description – like I lost the punch out of the preamp. Also, the chorus's (with the classic being an exception) sound horribly bright to me. Again, these are my opinions.

You might try the Rotary, that is becoming one of my favorite effects. Bank 6.1 (slow) if I remember correctly. It sounds good with the preamp at mild overdrive or heavy gain.

[Billy Foppiano]

Thanks fer gettin back…..
I am using (among other amps) a Mesa Mark 3 (with the Volume Mod)…
I found that using the MF in the EFX loops overdrove the TF so I used it before the efx loop. ….
I also have to use it in series with my Fender Cyber-twin, which has a stereo effx loop, but you can't use the stereo effx when you go upstream of the effx loop.
It overdrives here too…There's an impendence mismatch…It would be GREAT to have a way to match input/output , so you could recover the gain you lose coming in…

I'll put the TF in the loops , and it works great…

I agree totally-The chorus,flangers, phasers sound way to "digi"….and the auto wah,wahs, and Q filters seem too brite…..I have difficulty in getting "usable" tones.

Guys in the band (and me) love the Rotary…I don't use overdrive with the MF…BUT using the brake is WAY cool…
I'm working with the trem to get it more "Fender-ey"….and the Vibrato is usable….

It would be nice to flange and phase, but I JUST can't get the sound…..Getting a "woosh" is tough, and just getting a warm, sound is hard. I know these are "hippy" terms, but the high endy, spikey nature of the box is hard to get around. I'm gonna work on getting simple, warm patches this week. I'll letcha know if I have any luck…BUT believe me, I have worked with this dang thing (and believe me, I am an effx tweaker!),I'm having a tough time getting usable warm tones here.

Good to network with you on this….It ain't just me!
Cheers,
Billy

[Billy Foppiano]

And to address your first questions: Version 3, switchches ARE set for "Guitar", cuz I'm going inton the input of mah amp.

TF is set for Loop, so switches are changed for loop.

[thom]

I have just got my Modfactor (had a Timefactor for a couple of years). Timefactor is in the amp (Mesa Lone star Special) loop. I placed the Modfactor before the amp. For information I bought the Modfactor to replace a beautiful Hartman flanger (which is great but really only only does one thing, albeit very well), a BYOC Phase Royal, (again a very nice pedal), and a Stereo Electric Mistress. Some good sound but I wanted the Midi control of the Modfactor to compliment my Musicom switching system and Midi enabled Timefactor. Just to be clear I am aware of and do use the guitar/line level switches acording to how the factors are set up. On firing up the Modfactor my first  priority was to get a Rush/Floyd'ish flanger setting to match the Hartman. I found that whatever I did there was a grating harsh grainy quality to the high end, particularly letting any note, open or fretted ring out on the top E. Very dissapointing, so at this point the Hartman is staying on the board. I then got a really nice subtle chorus that thickens the sound up when used with distortion, and am liking some of the other effects, (very limited use at this point) but I can't get past the grainy harsh high end thing when I want a nice chorusy/flangy clean tone. This morning I just put the Modfactor in the loop. Chain is Loop Send to Timefactor, into the Modfactor, into Bos GE-7 into amp return.  This has improved things no end. I have been A Bing the Hartman with the Modfactor (Modfactor using patch 40:1 subtle flange2 as a starting point and tweaking from there) and the Modfactor is sounding very good. The Hartman is a bit warmer but the Modfactor is very good and if I couldn't do a direct comparison with the Hartman I probably wouldn't notice too much. I also don't really know what all the controls on the Modfactor do yet so I am sure it will be improved as I get used to tweaking it. All in all it is still early days but I can see the Modfactor is a keeper, and I may have no excuse to hang on to the Hartman….. although I'm wondering if having a great mod effect in front of the amp may be useful to combine with some of the Modfactor effects in the loop.

If you haven't already you may wish to check out Burgermans Youtube demos of some of his sounds. See post below.

http://forum.eventide.com/cs/forums/p/5480/23247.aspx#23247

Regards and good luck

Tom

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