Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer

if you know how a ring modulator works this is pretty easy to use. set your frequency and mix and start playing. the filter switch is a really nice touch...it doubles that amount of sounds.

using this with an arion sad-1 and mxr micro amp thru a epi valve junior...sounds really great with very little noise (only with the frequency turned high and the effect switched on). their are so many sound available it awesome. the only drawback is certain notes can be much louder/softer than others due to what frequencies are being played. the sound is extremely smooth, compared to the ring mod on my korg ax1g the eh5000 is much better. the only thing i wish it was capable of would be to do trem sounds (the oscillator does not go this low)

i have only had it a week or so, but it seems to be built well, and i dont abuse my gear so i think it will last.

havent dealt with ehx

for the money and sound quality, this pedal cannot be beat. if i had had the money to spend, i would have gone for the moog. however, this pedal is insane and makes incredible noises. from psuedo-octave effects to rayguns and buzzy synth sounds...its capable of almost anything...

it's easy if you understand what it does. also pretty easy to figure out

sounds very good. i love to use it on vocals for a robot voice and an easy filer sweep type sound by blowing into the mic and turning a knob. also on guitar, it can add some sweet beefiness or harmonics to your guitar tone. works great with single notes, much like an octave divider.

seems pretty tough

they answered my email

overall i am glad i own it, but i might not replace it if it were lost because it's something of an extravagance rather than a necessity. i play lots of rock, space, metal, weird, noise etc. it has somewhat limited uses, but what it does it does quite well. a very cool pedal. awesome for robot vocals, and i bet it can blow minds when used with a wind instrument. when i run it through a mic on stage it will also effect the drums and bass which can be pretty cool. my old drummer would hear it and think something broke on his drums because it adds this weird buzzy sound. i think it sounds great when subtly applied to drums or bass. i like to have it somewhere within armreach while standing so i can easily and spontaneously add the occasional dynamic sweep with a twist of a knob.

You sort of have to understand ring modulation to understand what it does, but it is easy to get cool sounds out of it.

japanese/korean guitars> boss BD-2 Blues Driver> Dano Chili Dog> EHX Frequency Analyzer > Johnson SC-2 Chorus > Dano Tuna Melt > Arion SAD-3 Analog Delay.

Effect sounds great, the filter switch is infinitely more useful than people think as well. There is some bleed from the Voltage Controlled Oscillator, but that is normal in all ring modulators.

I use this effect for experimental music, noise, and having fun with the mix up. I don't write songs with the mix all the way up, mainly because I don't want to write down the fine tune and frequency settings for every song I write. You can get some really crazy sounds. Devo mechanical man, or with other effects it is even crazier (octave plus noisy strumming = sick solos)

I use it with the mix down so my clean guitar has either a nice chimy back drop, a metallic backdrop, or even a noisy backdrop to it. The modulation effects later in the chain help that even more.

You can technically put it in key with the chords you are playing, and that is where it really shines. It only works for a few chords at a time, but (especially with the more muddy filter off setting) you can get some amazing sounds with lower and higher harmonics that sound great in a My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" sort of way. The way you do this is by playing a chord (power chords work best, and using the other strings as drones works well) and at the same time using the bottom pot until it sounds in tune. Then you can see what other chords work good with it and write a song around that.

The switch is a little iffy sometimes, if you don't stomp on it hard enough , it will go "half on" with reduced volume. It is easy to avoid that, and I am sure easy to replace the switch, but I don't find that neccessary at the moment.

I'd gig with it without backup. I wouldn't throw it against a wall, but I don't think anything is going to happen to it's fine sheet metal body. The paint comes off, but who cares about that?

Never dealed with them, I would assume they are great.

I play a mix of shoegazer/gothic/post-hardcore/post punk. You can get useful sounds for any of those out of this box. Just be conservative with the mix and mindful of what settings you use for each song. The knobs are huge and you can manipulate them with your foot mid song if needed, which I do occasionally do.

There are two simple features I really wish they would have included- being able to patch a different sound over the oscillator, and having an expression pedal on the VCO. That is why I am not giving this a 10, despite the excellence.

This is a GREAT ring mod to get as your first ring mod. If you already have a ring mod, save your money for a moogerfooger or a Zachary Vex Ringtone.

I plan on eventually getting a moogerfooger ring modulator just because it is so much more versatile. For example- I could plug an midi controlled analog sequencer into it, hook it up with my drum machine, and the settings would change to fit every chord I play.

I mentioned the ringtone, which is a new pedal coming out by Zachary Vex, it is a ring modulator with a built in sequencer, but I would not want to get it because of lack of the huge possibilites that the Moogerfooger possesses over it.

Still, if this was lost or stolen, I would probably replace it because of my affection for this pedal. Even if I get a moogerfooger, this will still be on my board.

When I initially purchased this pedal, I was moderately disappointed by the fact I couldn't get those highly oscillated "raygun" noises like I got with a Moogerfooger Ring Mod I tried. However, I sat with it and used it more and discovered that the pedal was capable of broadly expanding my tonal palette. I find the filter switch and blend knob to be particularly useful, allowing me to mix the wet and dry signal quite a bit to get even more tones and sounds out of it, and make the sounds somewhat more palatable and useful for a guitar. The fine and shift knobs can be very finicky, with just a tiny twist the box is making a totally different sound. It takes some getting used to, but overall the pedal is pretty easy to use.

Where to even begin? This kind of pedal is the abstract art pedal I think. You can coerce such a broad range of sounds that most people will say "Well I think it sounds like..."
I use this pedal in conjunction with a Boss DS-1 Distortion through a single-channel Sunn Concert Lead head and a Carvin 4x12, also through a little Vox 1x8" combo on occasion. I must say that through a loud amp, some of the settings can become quite painful. I've run just about any instrument I own that has a 1/4" jack, mainly my Guild S-100 guitar, but I've tried it with a Jazz bass, and lots of other found objects we hooked up contact mics to. Percussion sounds great when run through this pedal, but nothing that has the danger of feedbacking; my drummer and I nearly died when we ran his cymbal into the pedal! The most impressive instrument we tried was a Didgeridoo, which with the blend knob high and the shift low sounded like an erupting volcano!
Although focusing on guitar, you can get so many sounds and tones from the pedal, it's hard to imagine, so I'll just throw out some random things I think it reminds me of. Robots speaking, insect swarms, radio static, ham radios tuning, buzz saws, power drills, heart rythms, clock chimes, huge bells, vintage synths, etc. etc.
This is the pedal that Devo really made famous, using it for almost everything, including vocals, guitar, bass, synth, drums, and so on. Another user of ring mods is Alexander Hacke from Einsturzende Neubauten, who used the effect extensively on 'Die Interimsliebenden' and 'Headcleaner', also on the documentary 'Liebslieder' he used it on the piece 'DNS-Dream' quite obviously. It's not really hard to get the sounds most other people have used ring mods with unless their gear is radically different. The sound quality isn't pristine, and it's a noisy effect, but that's just as God intended it. True bypass is nice though.

The adaptor is flimsy and not worth a shit, but it seems to be the only 40v adaptor in existence. I broke the first one I got with the pedal, so now I'll be a little more careful with this one. I plan on mounting it safely to a pedalboard once I get another pedal or two anyway. You can't use it with a battery either. Bizarre.

Worthless. I e-mailed EH about getting a new adaptor, and asked what kind it needed, and they said "We don't know, ask Sam Ash."

It is a very very good pedal, but probably only for radical music anyway. I play alot of avant garde, noise, and psychadelic guitar in a pretty violent way. I've been playing for about 3 years at this point. I love the sounds and looks of the piece, but I hate it's bizarre power supply and flimsy adaptor. Everything else is great. If it were lost or stolen (doubtful) I would definitely buy another ring mod, maybe a Moogerfooger next time though. For now I'm really happy with the pedal and it's myriad of uses. You can play as aggressively as you want, or be very quiet and subdued, and the unit will still suprise you with it's tones. An excellent value at $100.

Its easy to use. Three knobs and one switch.

I think the soudn quality for this is amazing. It sounds more like a sythesizer to me. As for versatilty there is none in my opinion. But thats not bad because they sound amazing. I say this because the manual included says that it is very versitle and will keep you getting new sounds out of it for years to come. Theres basically two sounds worth using this effect alone. Having all control knobs turned up to three. The second being turning all the control knobs up to eight. But using this effect with an envelope filter, phase, delay, and good reverb really makes for some interesting possibilities.
It can make sounds similiar to an octave divider ( in which part of the signal proccess is octavating) but with a phase sound to it. Thats having the controls on lightly. It goes from that up to the sound of deep brass bells! Sounding like a scene from star wars or something. If you like space music, say the Grateful Deads second set extravaganza of earthly tribelic new aged spiritual music. Then you will love this.

Im not sure I would "gig" with this effect. I play music to make people as well as myself happy. If I used this effect I would end up scaring the crap out of everyone I think.
I have less then 3 hours of time using this. So I have no idea how reliably it is. There are no photoelectric sensors such as on the q tron so I just cant see what part on it could break. Its almost impossible unless you use improper input levels. Like running a power amp signal into it or some other idiotic idea.
A backup lol I barely have a onstage set of gear to use. Backup lol Man perhaps when I join a big hair band and use hair spray to frow out my hair and change my name to Johhny Cool and wear sparkely robes with crown hats and become a lush.

I cant see it being broken.
I cant see them not fixing it.

If you like new aged spiritual music. Or making your guitar sound like a loud vibrating gong. Or a wierd flange noise then this is the effect for you.

Three knobs, two switches. Very easy to use right away if you are a seasoned pedal head.

Whoooa! This thing is an alien's pedal. If you need a pedal that will give you "The Day the Earth Stood Still" kind of vibe, here it is. Sounds much better than the Moog ring mod and costs half as much. A deeper, more resonant tone to be had here, and more expressive. I prefer a 'lower' pitch setting and the sound is like a giant bell of doom tolling. Use a clean tone preferably to get the maximum nuance and expression.

Made in NYC. Built solid. Kind of large in size.

Frikkin awesome. I have a bunch of other pedals that help with the otherworldly soundscape experience and this one fits perfectly. A special effects pedal par excellence this is. It would be unreasonable to expect you to use this all the time, unless you are a truly eccentric weirdo.

My only gripe is that if there should of been an expression pedal application for this. Maybe we here who post reviews get spoiled with what we have and want it all the time, so it's a minor drawback for something that sounds so cool.

I could imagine that this would sound great with a drum machine or other instrument.

It's kind of easy in the sense that once you get to know it, which doesn't take too long, you can get things done. But it does take a little tweaking and understanding of how this thing works in context. If you have a good ear pitchwise, it makes it a little bit easier. Manual is short and doesn't say much, but it's enough to getyou going.

I basically got this for the purpose of generating noise, and it does this well. ButI've actually found that you get better and goofier results when you actually try to set it the right way, rather than just twisting knobs until you hear sonic puke.

There are actually a lot of cool tonal options available, and they will change depending on what notes you play, since this thing is "key sensitive". You can pull out steel drum honks and metallic buzzes on some notes, and get a subtle vibrato and even a little bit of chorusing on others on one setting without changing a thing. The note you've tuned it to will almost sound unaffected sometimes. This is why I actually like tuning it to a note...you'll get different, bizarre results all over the neck without a whole lot of work. One thing about that: It doesn't necessarily tune to any E, B, C, G, whatever. If you tune it to, say the E played on the 12th fret of the 1st string, lower register Es will still sound a little weird. But that's pretty cool if you ask me. I prefer the filter on because the bass frequencies just seem to eat up the whole signal.

I've been pretty impressed with the recent EH products, and the FA has the solid jacks and pots that all my other EH pedals have, but the filter switch seems flimsy and chintzy and lacks the solid "clunk" and travel of the depth switch on my Small Clone. It doesn't feel like it would be very resistant to a whole lot of abuse. But the pedal itself looks and feels very well put together.

I like shoegaze, older country and blues, garagey rock, and the like. I've been playing for 15 years, and own a lot of stuff.

I really like this pedal. Mainly, I pair it with my MXR Blue Box and one of my couple of fuzzes to get weird sonic washes and clunks ala My Bloody Valentine. There's also a songI've demoed thatI've wanted to put a short, washed out church bell-like part on and this sounds like it'll fit wonderfully. It really is alot of fun to work with, and actually opens up the fretboard a little bit in a weird way. I find my self exploring new melodic ideas and often am able to find notes and tones which help change the mood of a song or inspire new parts. In a weird way, it helps bring to light different kinds of double stops and triads...a lot of cool things to work with. I wouldn't call it a learning tool, but it certainly freshens up the ears a bit and helps refresh how notes and harmonies work. And of course, it rules for flat out noise.

This post is in response to the last review....in response to your thoughts on your fine control needing callibration due to the fact that it doesn't do much until shift is near max...mine does the same so I think your ok there. Other than that it sounds like someone sold you a very used unit and claimed it to be new. Mine was used and all switches were tight. I purchased the worm new and it didn't have a scratch on it top or bottom. Did you not inspect the pedal before you bought it? Seeing as I'm from Canada too I'd like to know where you got yours so I can avoid shopping there. As for schematics I don't know a single pedal manufacturer that includes them with their product...(amps sometimes but never pedals). Search the net you will probably come up with something.

p.s. three reviews back was mine and yes I still think this pedal sucks.

Not hard to use. 3 knobs, 3 jacks, and 2 switches give me all the control I need while keeping the device simple and manageable. Doesn't complicate my life with useless bells and whistles (pun intended). I wouldn't change a thing.
I'm puzzled by the "Fine" control. It doesn't have much effect until the "Shift" knob is near maximum. Maybe my unit needs calibration?
The manual (one page) is spartan but adequate.
I wish a schematic had been included. If in 10 years this thing conks out, the company is nowhere to be found, and I ask a tech to take a look, a schematic sure would make things easier.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the best pedal Electro-Harmonix makes. I used to own the Big Briar "Moogerfooger" ring mod, which had more features and cost twice as much, and I prefer the Frequency Analyzer.
The Frequency Analyzer has a very deep, raw, penetrating sound compared to the Moog. The Moogerfooger had a squelch/gating circuit, which was very annoying. The Frequency Analyzer doesn't have one and your notes can really "ring" out instead of being abruptly cut off. I think the absence of a noise gate is 90% of why this device sounds better to me.
The voltage control options on the Moog looked good on paper, but in practice, I didn't find them all that useful. Sweeping a ring mod with a footpedal or an LFO tends to get old real fast, but maybe that's just me. The Frequency Analyzer sweeps nicely, as long as you're content to do it by hand.
One thing I do miss about the Moogerfooger is that it could do amplitude modulation, in addition to ring/frequency modulation. You could get a decent tremolo using its built-in LFO. You can't do tremolo on the Frequency Analyzer, not that tremolo is the reason anyone buys a ring modulator in the first place.

The unit I got was supposedly new, but had lots of blemishes straight out of the box (a few minor scratches in the metal, a few deeper ones in the plastic padding on the bottom). I'm still waiting for an explanation from the store I bought it from. I hope these pedals don't come from the factory looking like this.
The "Filter" switch on my unit was very loose. So loose, in fact, that I thought it might've been broken before applying power to the unit. The slide switch on another EH pedal I have "snaps" just like a switch is supposed to. Again, I'm not convinced I wasn't sold a display model as new, but if that's not the case... Tsk! Tsk! Quality control, folks, Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y C-O-N-T-R-O-L...
The 40VDC wall wart would be a real hassle to replace if it got lost or damaged, but I figure EH must've had their reasons for going with such a non-standard power supply. Maybe the higher voltage increases headroom and keeps noise down. This pedal is totally quiet and I don't hear any bleed from the internal oscillator.

Good stuff, but I am concerned about possible build quality issues.

The pedal has three knobs, one for wet/dry amount, one for tuning and one for fine tuning. There's also a switch to filter out the high note. As people have said it's impossible to get "moving harmonies" with this pedal as the advert suggests. However if you tune it to any major note and turn the mix knob down you can get a nice chiming chorus effect or a subtle octave type effect if you use the filter switch.
The other reviews spell it out: you play a note and tune the knobs accordingly. It's not that hard but there's more to it than a tubescreamer.

I use a Tele with a RAT, Blues Driver, MXR Blue Box, Boss DM2, the EH Frequency Analyser and a Volume pedal when I use guitars. I play lofi rock or I make noise with pedals at home by setting up loops and I also make all kinds of electronic music. This pedal is used to various degrees in all of them.

Ring modulation is rarely used in guitar music, and let's face it this thing is marketed to guitar players. There's Devo and the Paranoid solo and the guy from Incubus with his vile Gonkulator but not much more. A ring modulator takes two signals and adds two new notes (one above and one below) based on the sums and differences of the oiginal signals. This makes a bell-like chiming sound. When there is only one signal (from a guitar) the second signal is generated by an internal ossilator. You can tune the ossilator to any key and the pitch of the new notes changes, making harmonising possible in theory. But as we have already seen this thing is not good for harmonies. Things often sound out of tune and pretty horrible. Ring mods make a bell-like sound and bells contain very strong non harmonic elements. I have been able to get some simple harmonies out of this. Tune it to B and I play a simple riff using B G and E using roots and fifths only and it sounds great. It sounds like a metallic octaver, but it's not synthy like an octaver or digital like a pitchshifter and you can play chords too. The tracking is flawless and playing chords makes chaos but it always tracks all the notes perfectly.
Everything sounds very metallic which is part of it's charm. It's not a pristine sound but it's not supposed to be. Like fuzz pedals different ring mods have their own personality and each one will have their own fans. More expensive ring mods are often smoother sounding. It's a robotic sound. Use it on vocals and sound like a Darlek (or Cher).

This pedal is still a useful tool. The range is huge - you can shift the notes so low you can only just feel it as your amp and the floor rumbles or so high it's a painful feeling in your ears (A bit like Aphex Twin's Ventolin). The filter switch means you can go REALLY low at least 3 or 4 octaves down. You can get all kinds of anarchic noise, atonal sounds and all sorts. The noise player will love this pedal. Electronic musicians will find this pedal much more useful than guitarists because it lends its self much better to electonic music.
There's no noise at all and not really any loss of volume or tone. My pedal appears to be true bypass (The signal goes through when the pedal is switched off and the power is off. I can plug in the jacks the wrong way round and the signal still goes through). The mix knob means you can go from all ring modulated signal (two new notes only) through to just your original note.

It broke when I carried it through the snow to a gig in winter. It didn't like the cold. The case is steel but it's still no Boss pedal. I wouldn't like to drop it. The wall wart gives me concern.

Wonderful. The pedal broke and I emailed EH. They replied in three days and explained where to send it to get it fixed. It cost $15 dollars and it cost them $25 dollars to send the fixed pedal back to me. They made a loss to help me and it wasn't even in guarentee.

This pedal is a useful tool but it's not something you will use all the time. It is an extremely versitile pedal and most people will be able to find some use for it somwhere. Subtley is the key here. It's an atonal effect and you should only use the mix knob at about 9 OClock or it can sound like hell on toast. Unless you WANT atonal hell on toast of course, in which case you will love it.
I actually made someone feel sick when I was using this in a noise band. I was adding a scorching abrasive high pitched noise behind the distortion I was playing for a song and someone had to run out of the room. There's a point on the mix knob where it scorches your ears and it hurts. If you like the sound of that then you'll love this pedal. It has two outputs so you can set up feedback loops with fuzz pedals and then add some ring modulation to the noise you create. Great! I suppose you could also use two amps and have one atonal and one normal but I've never tried it.
I have some problems with this pedal:
It's HUGE and takes up the space of three boss pedals. For a pedal you'll only use once or twice in a set this is pretty stupid. Other EH pedals are pretty big but at least you use them quite a lot. The electronics are only the size of a boss pedal and the rest of the case is empty. How stupid is that? The wall wart is 40 volts and the cable is very thin and liable to break so it definately must be mounted on a pedal board. If the power goes then the pedal will be useless. You can order a new wall wart from the EH site though but it's more hassle.
There's no LED which is a pain. Every pedal should have a LED if you are playing live because you can't always hear yourself if the venue has poor monitors or a deaf soundman. With a potentially atonal effect like this one it's absolutely manditory or you might end up sounding really bad and not know it.
There's no way to use expression pedals. It's good fun to warp the pitch knob while you are playing and make theremin sounds (in fact a theremin works in a similar way to this pedal). The pitch knob is the bottom one and it's quite large so you can use your foot, but an expression pedal would be easier. Devo taped this pedal to their guitar and it proves my point.
The ring modulation effect is simple and has no LFO. Most ring modulators will have a tremolo as well as the new notes. This pedal sounds wonderful with a tremolo pedal on clean sounds, but that's two pedals to turn on and off so you'll need a line selector. I just don't bother.

Overall this pedal is a very versitile tool. It has a lot of diverse uses and I recommend it. It's not just for atonal noise, but that's the main focus. If you want to develop a weird sound (as Devo did) then you're laughing. If you are in a straight band than it may be hard to find a use for this pedal. Most useful settings are so subtle you might just as well not bother live. But lots of bands like Sonic Youth and Tool have used a ring mod to great effect.
This is the best budget ring mod available. I've tried or owned them all from frostwave to Lovetone and I chose this one for it's lack of expense and it's good sound. It's not as good as the Moogerfooger or Lovetone but they cost $100's more. (The absolute worst ring mod I've tried is the DOD Gonkulator BTW.) You can get a frequency analyser for $50 on ebay. This pedal gives a good sound and its very useful in the studio. It gives Colorsound and Black Cat ring mods a run for their money. Drums through this pedal sound great. More regular guitar use is a bit more limited unless you play in a very experimental band. It's not essential but it's still a lot of fun. I like this pedal and I'm sure you will too once you're played with it for a bit.