Got me a Mel9: Take me to School

[fldrvr]

Hey girl:

I've got a Mel9 inbound. I wanna hear all about those fresh settings. Gimme your successes and failures. What are good pedal pairings? Sound clips may be rewarded with nudes.

Lay it on me

[moid]

Flute and Cello are the best You may find yourself overwhelmed with the urge to buy a cape and play prog rock for a long time. Don't fight this. Go where it takes you.

You might get less note wobble if you either play better than me (not hard) or try a compressor first before you get to the Mel9.

There was a fair bit of discussion about it here:
http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=60453

I like to put a reverb on either side of the Mel9 for blissed out drones that last for days... a delay in there can also do wonderful things. Chorus sounds good with some settings. The brass mode can be good into an over drive if it's not too distorted. I thought the choir settings would be really useful but can't seem to get them to work with anything I play. I don't think it blends that well with whatever music you have coming into the pedal; I've found that leaving it on full wet and no dry works best for me, but there is a second output for your dry output that is handy to have. The Mel9 only handle the three highest strings on my bass. It does try to play the low E string, but gets very confused (not in a cool way, it tends to cut out and wobble randomly... but maybe that's fun for you? It'll take you 10 seconds to find out if you like that sound). Definitely best on guitar.

You may have to play Strawberry Fields repeatedly.
This might not be a bad thing.

Other musicians may disagree.

Ignore them.

They do not understand true beauty.

[manymanyhaha]

For power, it doesn't like the Strymon Zuma, prefers the VL PP+.

It might be the longest serving pedal on my board, indispensable.

[ck3]

I would second moid's suggestions regarding use of modulation and add that flange and phasing can sound amazing with many modes. Also, the ability to blend wet and dry allows for the option of running a doomy, fuzzed out signal into the Mel9 that can sound utterly ominous when paired with the choir or string modes. I recorded a Vick Audio 1861 demo a while back that featured sax backing via the aforementioned blending method. You can also run other synthy or EHX 9 series pedals into the Mel9 and create multi voice layers in real time. The One Spot CS7 is another brick power supply that works. Lastly, string slides and related tracking glitches with the orchestra and string modes can create a Middle Eastern texture, especially when playing in harmonic minor keys.

[_r_]

Just a question - does this thing sustain for as long as it has a signal going into it? I have a Sonivox Mellotron software instrument where notes stop sounding after 6 or 7 seconds even if you're still holding a key down or whatever, emulating the original Mellotrons getting to the end of the length of tape I suppose. What I'm asking is if it had a Freeze or an E-Bowed guitar or something going into it would it create infinite drones? I'm suddenly becoming very interested in this pedal...

[fldrvr]

I think so? It seemed to when I tried it out last night. The "Sustain" knob i believe holds the note for a bit after you end the note, but as long as you'r pumping signal into it it seems to keep sounding

[Errant Tiger]

I love my Mel9 but find it extremely temperamental - sometimes it sounds great and sometimes it tracks all over the place, especially when I first hit the strings. (Of course, another way to say this might be that my playing is extremely inconsistent). I put it second in the chain, right after my Rat, which I sometimes use to subtly drive it. My favorite things to put after it are my Phase 90 at its lowest setting and then some longish (800 ms) delay, to keep it sustaining. Flutes are the best (if I could just have a flutes pedal I totally would), followed by strings and cello.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Flutes are the best (if I could just have a flutes pedal I totally would), followed by strings and cello.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Aural-Dream-Flute-Tone-A-Synthesizer-guitar-pedal-through-the-tone-synthesis-algorithm-into-the-flute/32878163368.html

Never had the money/recklessness to plunge into any of these Aural Dream instrument tone-sim pedals (as much as I love the ludicrousness of the idea of having an oboe sim pedal).

[Errant Tiger]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Aural-Dream-Flute-Tone-A-Synthesizer-guitar-pedal-through-the-tone-synthesis-algorithm-into-the-flute/32878163368.html

Never had the money/recklessness to plunge into any of these Aural Dream instrument tone-sim pedals (as much as I love the ludicrousness of the idea of having an oboe sim pedal).

Whoa. Color me fascinated. To the youtubez!

[UglyCasanova]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Aural-Dream-Flute-Tone-A-Synthesizer-guitar-pedal-through-the-tone-synthesis-algorithm-into-the-flute/32878163368.html

Never had the money/recklessness to plunge into any of these Aural Dream instrument tone-sim pedals (as much as I love the ludicrousness of the idea of having an oboe sim pedal).

Whoa. Color me fascinated. To the youtubez!

First video that showed up for me was "worst sounding pedal ever?". Gotta watch that when I'm at the computer.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

First video that showed up for me was "worst sounding pedal ever?". Gotta watch that when I'm at the computer.

I was actually super-curious about these when they came out, and there was utterly nothing online. Now I'm having fun looking. There are heaps of awful tones in these... that I would probably have a lot of fun with.

[fldrvr]

Yeah these seem pretty turrible, but maybe in a good way? The Crystals Harmony one looks intriguing..

[moid]

If anyone wants to hear the Mel 9 used very thoroughly, every track on my band's latest album features it:

https://mushroomsinshampoo.bandcamp.com/album/autumn-melody

[coldbrightsunlight]

These aural dream pedals sound awful but maybe in an OK way. Except they all seem to sound the same.