How to turn your TC Electronic Shaker vibrato into a thick lush chorus effect reminiscent of the legndary Boss CE-1!!!

[Baloney Balderdash 322]

 

I needed a lush chorus effect so I decided to experiment with the Toneprint editor to turn my TC Electronic Shaker Mini into one.

I am aware that you can actually chose the modulation type of this pedal in the Toneprint editor, giving you a few options for different chorus models, but non of them were really lush enough sounding for what I had in mind, so I tried to see if it was possible to achieve by blending the vibrato model with cleans, since that is basically what a chorus effect is, and boy did I succeed.

The result was a thick lush chorus effect somewhat reminiscent to that of the legendary Boss CE-1.

 

Here is the walk through on how to program it in the Toneprint editor in case you want to try it out for yourself :

 

First of all chose the "Pete's Vibrato" template (not sure if this actually matters, as in if there are some parameters not accessible with the retail Toneprint editor that was used to create the templates, or not).

Then edit it as follows : 

 

First toggle the "Kill dry" switch off in the "Router" tab

 

Then go to the "Modulation" tab and set following parameters as explained :

- Modulation type : Vibrato

- Modulation active : On

- LFO Waveform : Triangle

- HiCut : 5 kHz

- Output Level : -7 dB

- Delay Time 2 : 5.1 ms

- Delay Time 3 : 10.1 ms

- Feedback : 30.5 %

- Feedback HiCut : 8 kHz

- Vib Ramp Time : 21 ms

 

Then go to the "Mapping" tab and edit as follows :

- Assign the Depth knob to : "Modulation - Depth 1" ;  "Modulation Depth 2" ; "Modulation Depth 3" (this is really the big secret behind the lushness of this Toneprint, cause even though the Depth parameter for Modulation 2 and 3 are not adjustable under the "Modulation" setup tab, they can be controlled by assigning a knob to them, and they do actually have a big influence on the tone of the chorus/vibrato effect)

- The 5 points for the Modulation - Depth 1 curve : 35.6% - 70.3% - 80.1% - 87.9% - 100%

- The 5 points for the Modulation - Depth 2 curve : 6.6% - 43.8% - 54.7% - 62.9% - 75.8%

- The 5 points for the Modulation - Depth 3 curve : 21.5% - 57.8% - 68% - 75.8% - 88.7%

The exact curve points for the 3 parameters are important in order to obtain the right balance between them.

 

- The range of the Speed knob : 200 mHz to 1.60 Hz for "Modulation - Speed" (you are of course welcome to expand the range of this knob, but I personally think this range makes most sense)

 

- The range of the Mix knob : 0% to 100% for "Modulation - Mix" (if you got the Shaker Mini you assign the Ramp knob to "Modulation - Mix" instead of "Modulation -Ramp")

 

- The Ramp knob will not be assigned to any parameters, as in changing the "Modulation - Ramp" to "No selection", though in case you got the Mini version of the Shaker you assign the Ramp knob to "Modulation - Mix" instead of "Modulation - Ramp"

 

 

**) Additional note : --{* An even thicker chorus effect can be obtained by lowering "HiCut" to 4kHz and "Feedback HiCut" to 5kHz, though at the expense of definition and a tendency to easily get quite muddy. Likewise by raising the "Feedback HiCut" above the suggested 8kHz frequency it is possible to make the chorus sound more shimmery and sparkly, but at the expense of fullness. *}-- :

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash