Chronology of effects and are there more to be discovered

[Maude]

Whilst in traffic on the way home my idle mind started wandering.
What order were effects invented/discovered in and do you think there are any left to be invented.
As things like the wah effect were discovered by accident (messing about with a tone control made a noise like the mute on a trumpet I seem to remember), I assume there must be sounds that are waiting to be stumbled upon but I wonder what they could be, or do you think everything's been done. Presumably before the late seventies nobody had dreamt of a sound like a synth so what's the next big thing, and what was the last big breakthrough in effects pedal sounds, probably was the synth pedal I suppose.
What was the first effect, chorus, reverb or delay maybe?
Too many questions, educate me

[cheddatom]

distortion was probably the first effect? Interesting though, I'd like to read a "history of effects"

All the newer effects seem to be variations on existing ideas. Controlling a parameter with playing dynamics, or with a midi pattern or a fancy expression gizmo. Having said that some of the newer pedals from EH seem almost like new effects, and the Korg Miku pedal is definitely a bit new - I couldn't think of how to recreate that sound with "normal" pedals!

[uncle psychosis]

It really depends on how you define "new"---there are only so many things you can do to audio signals. There's only about half a dozen fundamental things you can do to a soundwave, its how you combine them that creates specific "effects".

Even things like the Miku, which seems a bit nuts at first, doesn't really do anything particularly "new". Its fairly common synth techniques but controlled by a guitar instead of a keyboard.

That's not to say that people aren't coming up with new ideas for making cool sounds, but they're basically all just going to be different versions of stuff that already exists. Luckily there's an infinite way of combining them to do interesting things

[tauzero]

Historically, probably distortion, then echo using tape loops, ring modulators, and then as semiconductors got into the act, phasers and waa-waa. Later on, with bucket-brigade devices, chorus, flanger, reverb. Then as integrated circuits increased in complexity, digital delays, and eventually the current effects modelling systems.

[elephantgrey]

I think that advancements in technology will lead to new and interesting types of effects that wouldn't even be possible beforehand.
Take my favourite type of effect, the bitcrusher. It is a side effect of how ADDA conversation works.
Personally I am excited about what quantum computing will bring.

[uncle psychosis]

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1461232577' post='3032632']
Historically, probably distortion, then echo using tape loops, ring modulators, and then as semiconductors got into the act, phasers and waa-waa. Later on, with bucket-brigade devices, chorus, flanger, reverb.
[/quote]

Flanging is *possibly* even older than overdrive (there's certainly not much in it).

It was discovered in the 1940s, legend has it by a certain Mr Les Paul. The original effect was made by manipulation of tape machines (hence the name). Bucket brigade implementation came *much* later.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='elephantgrey' timestamp='1461233116' post='3032639']
Personally I am excited about what quantum computing will bring.
[/quote]

Exploiting quantum uncertainty [i]in the time domain[/i] raise the possibility of negative delay, where the delayed signal occurs fractionally before the played signal. At present the theoretical maximum for a negative delay stage is in the picoseconds, but by chaining many stages in a chip (much as bucket brigade chips chain multiple stages), it could be possible to generate negative delays long enough for us to hear. Imagine hearing your echo signal just before you play it!

I think it will be a few years yet before the costs come down though - I would expect the first units to be expensive high-end studio rack units.

[BigRedX]

When is it deliberate effect and not just a by-product of the equipment being used to amplify or record the performance?

Overdrive and compression has been around since valves were first used in amplification.

Reverb can simply be the product of the acoustic space used for the performance.

[cheddatom]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1461317582' post='3033585']
Exploiting quantum uncertainty [i]in the time domain[/i] raise the possibility of negative delay, where the delayed signal occurs fractionally before the played signal. At present the theoretical maximum for a negative delay stage is in the picoseconds, but by chaining many stages in a chip (much as bucket brigade chips chain multiple stages), it could be possible to generate negative delays long enough for us to hear. Imagine hearing your echo signal just before you play it!

I think it will be a few years yet before the costs come down though - I would expect the first units to be expensive high-end studio rack units.
[/quote]

I know nothing about quantum computing. Is there a simple way you can explain negative delays? Obviously a computer won't be able to tell which note I'm going to play before I play it, so how does it work?

[tauzero]

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1461317121' post='3033580']


Flanging is *possibly* even older than overdrive (there's certainly not much in it).

It was discovered in the 1940s, legend has it by a certain Mr Les Paul. The original effect was made by manipulation of tape machines (hence the name). Bucket brigade implementation came *much* later.
[/quote]

That was an effect on recorded sound - don't think a tape system was ever used to do flanging as a live effect, which is what I assume this is about.

[probablypike]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1460969530' post='3030149']
distortion was probably the first effect? Interesting though, I'd like to read a "history of effects"
[/quote]

After reading this thread I had google for a pedal documentary, expecting there to be some kind of "History of..." deal, but I was rather disappointed. The best I could find was:

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World
Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized The World
Beautiful Noise (About the shoegaze scene in the 90s- looks great, but not what I went looking for.)

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1461318950' post='3033600']
I know nothing about quantum computing. Is there a simple way you can explain negative delays? Obviously a computer won't be able to tell which note I'm going to play before I play it, so how does it work?
[/quote]

[url="http://www.explainthatstuff.com/quantum-computing.html"]This explanation[/url] is about as simple as it gets. But yes, the quantum computer would 'know' what note you were going to play a fraction of a second before you played it. On the macroscopic level (the world of 'big stuff' that we inhabit) that makes no sense, but there are other apparently nonsensical large-scale effects that flow from phenomena at the quantum level - an example is the famous [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment"]double-slit experiment[/url] in which a photon simultaneously follows two different paths.

/physics

[cheddatom]

very interesting, thanks!

[Maude]

[quote name='probablypike' timestamp='1461320867' post='3033618']


After reading this thread I had google for a pedal documentary, expecting there to be some kind of "History of..." deal, but I was rather disappointed. The best I could find was:

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World
Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized The World
Beautiful Noise (About the shoegaze scene in the 90s- looks great, but not what I went looking for.)


[/quote]



I think a book on the history of effects and how they came about would be really interesting, I don't know how much call for it there would be though.
A lot of effects seem to be the by product of something else.

[SimonEdward]

My understanding is that vibrato was probably one of the first 'effects', along with reverb (obviously). Up until recently, I hadn't considered Tremolo as a useable effect on Bass! Ah, the perils of owning a multi-effect unit... More here: - http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/19777-a-brief-history-of-tremolo