Dr. Distorto

[aron]

Forgot about this sample. This is the Dr. Distorto line 6 pedal. Note that this is the best I ever got it to sound. It's quite wacky.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/sounds/drone.mp3

[MartyMart]

Sounds awesome !  - like a cross between guitar/synth and bagpipe !!

[AL]

I wasn't going to listen to that until I read Marty's description. Bagpipe !!! 

Yeah that is definitely wacky. Could be pretty useful in a few spots though if used sparingly.

Great name. Dr. Distorto. Sounds like Jack Kirby named it and then sent the pedal off to fight Captain America.

AL

[oldrocker]

Hey, that sounds pretty darn cool.  There's almost a wah up after the note is held.  Is there a slight reverb added?  Very dark sounding gloom distortion. 

[aron]

Yes, I have my reverb/delay added. It's so wacky - you guys should try it one day. One day it will do what I have on the demo, another day, complete chaos.

[Mark Hammer]

The Dr. Distorto fills a niche that was vacated by the old Boss DF-2 Super Distortion Feedbacker when it disappeared off the landscape.  The DF-2 synthesizes a single note by tracking a note that you hold for a bit (long enough for the pitch to be detected).  You can adjust the balance between unity pitch and octave up in the added note.  It stays for as long as you hold the foot treadle down, such that you can even play over it like an accompanist holding down a synth key.  It tracked reasonably well most of the time, though not perfectly, and could sound a wee bit like an octave up resulting from feedback.  The on/off and unity/octave balance were the only parameters you could adjust in the simulated feedback, though.  I am not overly crazy about the distortion sound on mine, though it is serviceable.  The feedback aspect is the principal feature on this baby.

The Dr. Distorto (http://line6.com/tonecore/drdistorto.html) ups the ante a bit by introducing better control over the simulated feedback, such as the rate at which it "blooms", and the relative blend of distorted input signal and synthesized output.  Though a better pedal in many respects, the DD still appeals to a narrow niche, the same way the DF-2 did.

For those interested, Behringer is coming out with a clone of the DF-2 this summer.

[MikeH]

What I want to know (in cases such as the DF-2 and others) is if the pedal is popular enough for another company (especially one as large as behringer) to start cloning it on a wide scale, why doen't boss start producing it again?

[Steben]

DO these pedals work at low "own" distortion settings, such as when place after a FF for example?

[Mark Hammer]

What I want to know (in cases such as the DF-2 and others) is if the pedal is popular enough for another company (especially one as large as behringer) to start cloning it on a wide scale, why doesn't Boss start producing it again?

It's an analog pedal.  My sense is that the direction taken by the bigger companies is to make as many of their pedals digital as possible.  Once Behringer releases all those Boss clones this summer, I don't know that there will be any incentive for Boss to stay in the analog game.  They certainly can't corrupt their "brand" by moving to budget chassis/pedals to become competitive, and if they can't compete with Behringer or Danelectro, price-wise, then why the heck stay with analog?  Particularly if the potential market for that pedal is divided up amongst two manufacturers, who would make money at all?  If I was them, I'd probably see mid-priced feature-rich hard-to-clone digital pedals as my only hope too.