Ring Modulators, what are their practical uses.

Handsome_Chris

Ring modulators, I've got one, but I don't know how to use it tastefully, if that is possible. Has anyone on here got any handy tips on successfully employing them, or are they just there to make you sound like a dalek, a good dalek?

frankus

Get a ring modulator and a whammy pedal - put the whammy before the ring mod...

Play a solo... kick the ring mod on ... play a f***ed up solo at the climax kick the whammy and it sounds like the solo gets tuned out like swapping radio channels - great for playing another head with a saner solo

mike_l

I think Tony Iommi used one on the record Paranoid solo. I'm not sure he uses it live though.

Emp_Fab

I used to use it for the intro to Butt Plug Baby.

Sorry... that's what we called it - Plug in Baby (Muse).

Though after I famously 'Les Dawson'ed' the intro at a gig by starting off on the wrong string - and couldn't stop - it thenceforth became known as 'Ear Plugs Baby'.

hubobulous

I'm not sure that this will answer your question, so apologies if what I write next is completely irrelevant....

I am primarily a rock player. All the techniques that I learned over the last 26 years have been aimed in that direction. As a result, I have bought effects pedals over the years, and generally ended up sounding like me. For example, I'd always gravitate to similar amounts of reverb, distortion or delay irrespective of the pedal or amp that I tried/bought. 

I'd listen to a lot of presets and not fathom how they'd ever be used, or why. That was largely due to me coming at those sounds with the preconception that somehow they were going to fit into a rock song.

Quite a while back, I discovered ambient music and all of a sudden some of the presets of bygone pedals began to make sense.

So this is most likely teaching you to suck eggs, but my take on a ring mod is that its a very hard effect to incorporate and for me, its a layer rather than a focus. So I'd never play anything with a ring mod in a solo for example, but I might have it blurping along, low in the mix, in a rhythmic idea. One of those things that fills out a song, you don't really know its there but would miss it if it wasn't.

I still play rock 90% of the time, but I'm slowly trying to think differently about other styles, what that means in terms of technique, (ee-gads, I'm now learning some very basic fingerstyle and hybrid picking), and what it means in terms of layers, effects and mixes. And that's where a ring mod for me might come into play.

Hope that helps, and sorry I don't have any examples!!

meltedbuzzbox

if you listen to Incubus SCIENCE there is a lot of ring modulator going on. 

He uses its as a kind of distorted tone rather than a weird robot noise if you know what I mean. 

Plug in baby is played on a ZVEX fuzz factory I think

monquixote

Harry Maes plays some cool ring mod stuff here:

Jeff Beck uses one quite a bit. 

hugbot

Tuning it to a fifth above the tonic note is my new thing.

dogload

If 'tasteful' is important, it can be used with a blender to add a layer of lunacy to your basic sound.

Fusionista

Emp_Fab said:

Though after I famously 'Les Dawson'ed' the intro at a gig by starting off on the wrong string - and couldn't stop - it thenceforth became known as 'Ear Plugs Baby'.

Did that on She Sells Sanctuary last week, and again on The Hunter - it was a black night.

Fusionista

I've got one but it's tuned as an Octaver - Lovepedal Believe.

Heartfeltdawn

It depends on your modulator. The EHX Ring Thing is great for all the usual pitch/Whammy type stuff. The absolute best I've used is the Mog ring modulator (the big expensive one). Utterly amazing, went into trem territory and with some creative pedal use after it could come up with sounds I've only heard out of synths. Brilliant pedal. 

ThePrettyDamned

monquixote said:

Harry Maes plays some cool ring mod stuff here:

Jeff Beck uses one quite a bit. 

He's the most intense player ever.

I love him.

meltedbuzzbox

ThePrettyDamned said:

monquixote said:

Harry Maes plays some cool ring mod stuff here:

Jeff Beck uses one quite a bit. 

He's the most intense player ever.

I love him.

he looks like he is trying to track a fart with his nostrils