NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

[Phantasmagoria]

Yeah..I plugged into it at our gig last weekend & it sounded SWEET!

Ran it into my Two 30 Watt Laboga The Beast heads..miked them up in stereo & the sound was crushing!

Talking about this baby:








Had my eye on one since they were first introduced a short while ago. Finally pulled the trigger..

Running it in stereo gives me, as the only guitar player in my band ..a pretty authentic sounding "twin guitar" attack. A bit of panning it sounded so convincing the sound guy could'nt believe what he was hearing..dude was really impressed and asked me what I was using for it. Off-stage it sounded massive ..I used the 2+1 setting (middle position on the toggle) which is basically my original track and two simulated tracks...then I switched to the 2+2 mode (toggle down) for our Bolt Thrower cover at the end of our set ..sounded so massive, juicy saturated and thick...just like Bolt Thrower, everyone at the gig was telling me later how sick it sounded & guys from other bands there wanted to know what the hell I'd used

Now tbh, it's never going to sound exactly like multiple guitars ... the extra "guitar tracks" will always be a hair behind the original track being played...obviously..since it can't second guess what's coming, but having said that, it's a very, very convincing & cool sounding solution for a single guitar player in a band if he'd like to simulate a pretty authentic twin guitar sound. Gets you 90% of the way....

I'm yet to try it in a recording, but I'm keen to give that a go as well. It's just that I've not yet got the hang of my new DAW/ comp recording setup, so it'll have to wait till I do...

When used in mono..it's not half as convincing. All it really seems to do is thicken things up a bit. There is'nt enough separation between the tracks to really emulate multiple guitars, but it's still usable, sounds really good and definitely does thicken things up nicely.

Anyways ..just a heads up for a really cool pedal

[MetalManiac]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

I guess it is digital..is it better than my 'Boss PS-6 Harmonizer'? I use the 'Harmonizer' for double leads ala Allman Brothers.

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Yeah ..I guess it's digital...(suppose so..probably.. who knows? lol..)

But no ..it's not like a harmonizer..or a chorus, or delay either for that matter. The algorithm it uses apparently minutely alters the the timing, pitch, attack etc & simulates an actual second guitar playing along. It does so without degrading or smearing the track/s quality...everything sounds crisp & clear & super transparent.

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Here's a quick/rough demo I just recorded.. the difference is just as obvious in a recording I think..

I just plugged into the Mimiq doubler pedal and ran the stereo outputs into my two laboga heads. Then I ran their "Speaker simulated XLR outputs" into the two inputs on my interface into Reaper & recorded both simultaneously as a single stereo track (panned hard left & right).



For the 1st riff (all recorded as a stereo track panned hard L-R) :

1. Pedal off (direct stereo sound with the pedal inactive)
2. Pedal on - toggle switch in the middle position ..ie 3 tracks (original track in the middle +2 simulated tracks panned L-R)
3. Pedal on - toggle down (4 tracks including the original - panned L-R)
4. Pedal on - Toggle up (2 tracks - The original & one other - panned L-R)




2nd riff/solo:

Same as above...except I mixed up the last two

I think the second-last one is "toggle up/2 tracks"
& the last run is the 4 track version..

[dave74]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Wow! Sounds amazing

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Thanks! That's not the most professional demo ..but it gets the point across. This thing really does what is advertised..and does it well, ie ..tracks perfectly without noise or smearing. There is a slight volume drop (you can probably tell from my clip) when you engage the pedal and also slight fluctuations in volume between the 3 toggle-switched positions as well...but it's not enough to be an issue really (very marginal) ...& in most cases, you will choose your setting, set your desired volume level & just leave it that way ..either for live stuff or recording.

[Coma]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Now tbh, it's never going to sound exactly like multiple guitars ... the extra "guitar tracks" will always be a hair behind the original track being played...obviously..since it can't second guess what's coming, but having said that, it's a very, very convincing & cool sounding solution for a single guitar player in a band if he'd like to simulate a pretty authentic twin guitar sound. Gets you 90% of the way....

I'm yet to try it in a recording, but I'm keen to give that a go as well. It's just that I've not yet got the hang of my new DAW/ comp recording setup, so it'll have to wait till I do...

That's the entire point of it. Its not supposed to line up perfectly with the primary signal. It is essentially an attack-sensitive variable short delay, that's how it creates the sensation of two guitars.

I've recorded all guitar tracks on my band's latest EP through the Mimiq in order to save on recording time. It's very, very good, actually. I liked it so much it is now permanently connected to my home interface, the big fat sound (esp through headphones) makes it much more fun to play. But yeah, it's pretty much useless in mono. Which makes me wonder why TC even bothered with the Mimiq Mini.

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

That's the entire point of it. Its not supposed to line up perfectly with the primary signal. It is essentially an attack-sensitive variable short delay, that's how it creates the sensation of two guitars.

I've recorded all guitar tracks on my band's latest EP through the Mimiq in order to save on recording time. It's very, very good, actually. I liked it so much it is now permanently connected to my home interface, the big fat sound (esp through headphones) makes it much more fun to play. But yeah, it's pretty much useless in mono. Which makes me wonder why TC even bothered with the Mimiq Mini.

Yeah, you're right. It's that aspect of it that makes it sound the way it does. I just meant that the only actual difference between two actual guitars playing alongside each other and the Mimiq is that with two guitars you will have each guitar leading/in front at different points of time, while with the Mimiq.. it will obviously only "follow" and not take the lead...

In practice that actually makes practically no discernable difference though. The mimiq absolutely sounds like two guitars playing alongside anyway..

I've been wondering how good it would sound in an actual mix. Good to know it works & sounds great with your EP...I need to put it to work with something like that myself

Yeah , I would'nt call the mono effect absolutely pointless haha..it's a usable sound. But having said that ..it's not too effective as a realistic "guitar track doubler" & certainly not a patch on the way it sounds run in stereo...which I think is totally effective/realistic run that way.

[Coma]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Yeah, you're right. It's that aspect of it that makes it sound the way it does. I just meant that the only actual difference between two actual guitars playing alongside each other and the Mimiq is that with two guitars you will have each guitar leading/in front at different points of time, while with the Mimiq.. it will obviously only "follow" and not take the lead...

In practice that actually makes practically no discernable difference though. The mimiq absolutely sounds like two guitars playing alongside anyway..

I've been wondering how good it would sound in an actual mix. Good to know it works & sounds great with your EP...I need to put it to work with something like that myself

Yeah , I would'nt call the mono effect absolutely pointless haha..it's a usable sound. But having said that ..it's not too effective as a realistic "guitar track doubler" & certainly not a patch on the way it sounds run in stereo...which I think is totally effective/realistic run that way.

Well, the EP is not done yet. Few people as utterly sh*te at getting something done on time as musicians. Makes me wonder how the hell we ever manage to hold on to regular jobs. But it'll hopefully be done come february.
One of the most fun things I did was actaully use it while doubling a clean guitar track, so ended up with four simultaneous guitars. Very cool, somewhat ambient sounding.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Love my Mimiq! I have been using it live in mono, and it's great on quickly doubling DI sources like mono synths and electro acoustic guitars.

[Mincer]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

This is a really great idea for a pedal, and this sort of innovation is lacking in today's pedal landscape. It does one thing, and does it well...and it is something that a lot of people probably want.

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Wow, looks like a lot of you guys have already picked up this pedal & know how cool/useful it is

It blew my mind using it at our last gig... sounded amazing! But there's obviously a hell of a lot more it can be used for. While it's fun that there are so many OD's & delay's & distortion boxes out there (I've got a bunch of them myself lol), it's also great that there are people thinking out of the box and coming out with cool/innovative/useful & really different pedals like this one

[DankStar]

Re: NPD: Made me twice the player I am!

Interesting - would have been useful when I was in a one-guitar band.