"I could only imagine what kind of unholy cacophony it would create"

December 1, 2018 11:31 PM

Born in the Manitoba prefecture of Canada, Steve-san Onotera, a.k.a. samuraiguitarist, answers the age-old question: What do 37 guitar pedals sound like when played at the same time?
posted by Johnny Wallflower (30 comments total)

Try 100
posted by awfurby at 11:39 PM on December 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

I swear there was a Commodore 64 crack intro that sounded just like that last one among the pile of floppies my uncle brought back from eastern Europe.
posted by darksasami at 2:36 AM on December 2, 2018

60Hz, I assume
posted by anthill at 2:51 AM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is just causing me flashbacks to the time I spent New Year’s Eve in Okinawa and my wife and I went out to a bar to see a guitarist performing his hit single, “Check Out How Many Guitar Pedals I Have,” as well as the followup “It’s Even More Than You Imagined”
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:20 AM on December 2, 2018 [18 favorites]

With that many, I was expecting it to pick up some radio, but maybe that is only if you have a Boss DS-1 in the chain.
posted by drezdn at 5:50 AM on December 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is just some subversive way of auditioning to be U2's guitar tech, right?
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:39 AM on December 2, 2018 [5 favorites]

I don't know what's stranger, the fact that Korg makes a Hatsune Miku stompbox or the fact that this guy paid $250 for it.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:44 AM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ok. So the Hatsume Miku pedal is actually kind of awesome.

I'm clearly fascinated by this.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:48 AM on December 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

What an unholy noise.

I hope this guy lives in an apartment.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:59 AM on December 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

With that many, I was expecting it to pick up some radio, but maybe that is only if you have a Boss DS-1 in the chain.

I once built a clone of the Fuzz Factory and knew it was working correctly when I was getting radio interference.
posted by cazoo at 7:03 AM on December 2, 2018 [7 favorites]

60Hz, I assume

Same as in town.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:08 AM on December 2, 2018 [7 favorites]

Kevin Shields is somewhere crying, right now.
posted by nightrecordings at 7:17 AM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Bitchin’ Guitar, Sensei.
posted by grimjeer at 7:23 AM on December 2, 2018

37? Pffft. Experimental/noise artists have been doing this for years, often without any sort of guitat involved at all. I don't have any links handy, but if you start searching terms like "experimental pedal noise set" and even "experimental mixer set" you'll start finding weird things.

I once saw a performance that had an unholy number of pedals with the signal just coming from a mixer that was patched back into itself from the chains of pedals.

It might have been the loudest and most intense thing I've ever seen, like watching a pale, skinny and normally incredibly gentle multi-instrument playing music nerd get in a fist fight for his life with the bones of a loud, angry robot. There was a significant amount of blood involved at some later point from all the knob twisting and stompbox-button slapping and punching with his hands.

it was impossibly loud. I remember one point I was thinking something like "Well, if an afterburning turbofan jet engine became sentient and decided to make music, it would probably sound a lot like this."

For reference, I've seen Sunn0))), The Swans and other notably loud bands and they were quiet compared to being trapped in that art studio with it's vintage EVs and Bose 601s run by a some kind of sadistic monk and that pale, skinny nerd with his pedals.

I'm pretty sure that show changed parts of my bone structure.
posted by loquacious at 9:00 AM on December 2, 2018 [11 favorites]

I don't know what's stranger, the fact that Korg makes a Hatsune Miku stompbox or the fact that this guy paid $250 for it.

It means nothing to me without the Sonic Alienator
posted by thelonius at 9:11 AM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

With that many, I was expecting it to pick up some radio, but maybe that is only if you have a Boss DS-1 in the chain.

For real AM radio reception you want a Fuzz Face or a clone thereof. . . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 10:06 AM on December 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was a fan of the 1990s ZOOM pedals, particularly the 505 ,it was like having 10? pedals in a box that you could link up in any number of ways then save as one of 25 presets. I built my own sound generators out of toys and machines. It sounded and looked like this.
posted by boilermonster at 10:13 AM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was sorta hoping for a gag video where the final sound was like, a dog barking, or a string quartet.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:51 AM on December 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm with loquacious above 100%.

Coming from a noise background, vids like this are like being ready for a Hellraiser film and getting Scooby Doo. Not that either is high art, but I've never been thrilled by Scooby, not even in a cheap way.
posted by idiopath at 11:58 AM on December 2, 2018

Ok. So the Hatsume Miku pedal is actually kind of awesome.

I'm clearly fascinated by this.

The "nyan" setting is pretty hilarious.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:00 PM on December 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Agreed that this was a lot of buildup for not much payoff.

Coming from a noise background, vids like this are like being ready for a Hellraiser film and getting Scooby Doo.

Oddly, I just learned this very morning that in addition to their unreleased soundtrack for Hellraiser, Coil released a limited edition CD with personalized titles including #156, Scooby-Doo Skinned & Nailed To An Oak Tree.
posted by mubba at 12:35 PM on December 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hatsune Miku stompbox

It was unclear to me if he did some takes without this pedal at the front of the signal chain, but I think he did. He must have because it's certainly of interest to hear what a, you know, guitar sounds like through 36 pedals.
posted by thelonius at 12:46 PM on December 2, 2018

This is literally how Shoegaze works (the genre supposedly having come from the performers having their eyes glued on their arsenal of stompboxes throughout their shows).

I had a DOD microphone multieffects pedal (the VoTEC) whose previous owner had badly abused to the point that it couldn't process input any more; instead it generated its own sad, pulsing-phasing noises at various frequencies depending on what settings were engaged. I never managed to use it for anything, unfortunately, because I accidentally exposed it to AC current by plugging in the wrong power adaptor and all the magic smoke came out.

But basically you don't really need a conventional instrumental source in order to make effects-bound music, just an appropriate signal generator, whether it's a failing stompbox or a noise generator that can be looped and processed into something resembling a harmonic structure. Merzbow uses a banjo-shaped thing that's just some springs on a round metal plate, and Masonna, who's performed concerts involving a shaker full of coins with a contact microphone triggering a string of effects pedals. Both of these make noise, but the content is much less white-noisy than you might expect, they can be surprisingly complex and rich.
posted by ardgedee at 12:52 PM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Truth be told, I think this might be my favorite effect pedal, even though technically it’s for singers.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:47 PM on December 2, 2018

Is this a good place to advertise a loving home for unwanted effects pedals and such? Because I kind of know someone and it might be me.
posted by loquacious at 3:34 PM on December 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

I thought the bit with the chromatic tuner was funny as hell because it me on the daily. Also I think I have like 20 pedals and I use them all a lot because I make distorted and delayed airquote music airquote. Except when I forget I’m in bypass mode on my tuner and nothing happens.
posted by nikaspark at 5:50 PM on December 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

I was view 123,546 on the video. So close!
posted by Harald74 at 3:32 AM on December 3, 2018

Pffft, this guy has clearly never been to a Noise show. Setting up pedals for an hour and playing for 10 minutes is the norm.
posted by agregoli at 5:46 AM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

if you start searching terms like "experimental pedal noise set" and even "experimental mixer set" - loquacious

"harsh noise" or "harsh noise wall" or similar terms work well too. AKA, the genre that answers the question "What would it sound like if I plugged all the weird 90's DOD pedals together in multiple feedback loops?". Amazing mainly. Merzbow - Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set seems like a reasonable example.

gearbug.com has interesting reviews of "good pedals for noise" (it is the remnants of what used to be harshnoise.com, iirc). Mostly from before the recent boutique pedal boom but still useful.
posted by alikins at 10:08 AM on December 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

airquote music airquote

Now that is a great name for a genre.
posted by alikins at 10:12 AM on December 4, 2018 [3 favorites]