I won’t name names, but my first multi-effect pedal was over-sized, noisy and cryptic. If I had lost its unique power supply, I would've instantly sidelined the pedal to paperweight duty.
To save a setting, you needed to pat your head while holding down a button until your neighbor’s garage door opened or the red light blinked twice, whichever happened first.
Mooer has released the Mod Factory, which packs 11 effects into a micro-pedal design. With only one switch, four knobs and a chart explaining everything on the side of the pedal, it seems almost too easy. The effects are Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Envelope Phaser, Tremolo, Stutter, Vibrato, Univibe, Auto-wah, Touch Wah and Envelope Ring.
Besides Stutter and Envelope Ring, the names are self-explanatory. Stutter is a tremolo-style effect that reminds me of Tom Morello’s kill switch or when you rapidly toggle your pickup selector. Envelope Ring is a ring modulator.
The Mod Factory uses a 32-bit DSP chip to create its sounds. Let's breakdown the four knobs:
First there's the center white dial, which is used to choose from among the pedal's 11 effects. The three smaller knobs are Depth, CTRL 1 and CTRL 2. CTRL 1, depending on which effect is on, can operate Speed or Sensitivity. CTRL 2 acts as either a Tone or Level. As I said, everything is labeled right on the sides of the pedal. The pedal works with any 9-volt negative-tip power supply.
In the four clips at the bottom of this review, I play a quick demo of each effect, starting with Chorus and ending with the Envelope Ring.
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Clip 1: Chorus, Flanger and Phaser Clip 2: Envelope Phaser, Tremolo and Stutter Clip 3: Vibrato, Univibe and Auto Wah Clip 4: Touch Wah and Envelope Ring
You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.
