PRODUCT REVIEW
EVENTIDE
ModFactor
BY JORDAN WAGNER
After the boom of small, controllable
distortion devices, musicians decided that
they wanted more. Spatial tones created
by large organs, concert halls, and backup
orchestras were envied by the common
musician and demand grew for inventions
that they could use to create their own
ambiance. They were the second
generation of single effects for guitarists, with a
sudden explosion of portable and reliable
chorus, rotary speaker, delay, panning,
phasing, and other time-based effects in
the mid-seventies.
Finally, guitarists could simulate their own
orchestras of multiple guitars at once, rattling huge cavernous halls, and ultimately
coax sounds out of their instruments that
they had not previously thought possible.
One of the companies dedicated to this
cause was Eventide, which emerged in
1970 and became famous years later for
their extraordinary pitch shifting and reverb
processors. Not only were their designs
coveted by musicians of all genres, but
Eventide became synonymous with the
“clean” effect, meaning that their designs
represented the pinnacle of what modern
technology could achieve when applied to
flawless effect processing design.
Having made waves in the stompbox fray
with their highly manipulative TimeFactor
and PitchFactor pedal, Eventide is now
presenting the ModFactor, an effects
pedal combining several modulation
effects into one device. Make no mistake:
the ModFactor is an impressive piece of
machinery. Offering ten different effects
that can be twisted and processed through
ten separate parameters, a seemingly endless amount of modulation effects can be
squeezed out of the modest-sized unit.
After you’ve dialed up a pleasant concoction of whirled chorus, space age ring modulation or smooth vibrato, your creation
can be saved into one of the forty available
banks in the device.
Several of the models offer stereo options
to enhance results, so Eventide provided
not only dual outputs but dual inputs on the
back of the unit, as well. Input and output
levels can be changed quickly at the mere
flick of a small switch on the back panel,
and you can choose between a standard
guitar input or line level input. The output
stagecanbechangedtoaccommodate
an amplifier”s front end input, or a line
level one. This way, players can achieve a
smoother response and greater clarity when
running the effect in an amplifier’s effects
loop. Eventide also provides two different
ways of controlling the item from an outside
source, using either a USB port or MIDI
ports on the side panel.
It is difficult to know where to begin with
the ModFactor. A lot of “all-in-one” effect
systems on the market promise great
sounds out of the box, but sometimes can
disappoint by really only providing a few
models that shine (and the others, not so
much). The ModFactor tackles ten different
effects: Chorus, Phaser, Q-Wah, Flanger,
Modfilter, Rotary, TremoloPan, Vibrato,
Undulator (a classic Eventide custom creation), and RingMod. After cycling through
the basic presets that the ModFactor is
programmed with from the factory, it was
clear that Eventide still is at the top of their
game after all these years. They have a
reputation for designing effects that, while
giving the player unprecedented control,
are easily capable of providing a great,
usable sound almost immediately.
