Help! You guys who play ambient/shoegaze/weird stuff

[Pine Apple Slim]

Ive got myself another inexpensive 20"x12" board on the way to make something out of the ordinary.
Ive got plenty of power and amp options. I'm looking for some ideas, or a least a few starting points. For splitting, I have a couple of nice Radials, a simple passive 1 into 2 box, and an old MXR A/B/Y.

Heres some pedals I could use:

Delays-
OBNE Black Fountain oil can, DD3, DM2W, Mystery Brain

Verbs-
Richtone(hall, room, spring), OBNE Procession, EQD Afterneath, Nocturne El Pescadoro

(I also have the SA Collider which is stereo but complicated as hell and I havnt dug into it too deeply yet. Right now its on my main board just for normal short and long delay)

Modulation-
Blue Hippo Chorus, JHS Ser 3 chorus, Digitech Ventura, Lillian phaser, Moer Elc Lady Flanger. The Way Huge BH is darker w/a nice vibrato, the JHS is brighter. I like the vibrato better on the Hippo and the chorus better on the JHS. The Ventura is stereo and does phase/ UniVibe/ rotary, and also has an overdrive knob.

Filters-
EXH Blurst, SA Spectrum(The Blurst isn't touch sensitive so it can go anywhere in the chain)

Octave-
mini Sub n Up

Dirt-
a ton of OD pedals too numerous to mention
stand alone Nocturne Brain and JrB preamps(also included on the MB and El Pesc respectively), Exotic EP boost
silicon & germ mini FFs, JHS Ser3 Fuzz, Russian Pickle muff
Rat, Pugilist

Compression-
JHS Tidy Whitey, Diamond Jr Optical

Vol and exp-
Passive volume pedal, Hotone mini vol/wah/exp. THe vol pedał is full sized and would prob need to go off board, the mini might could go on it for expression maybe?

Loopers-
Ditto
Jam Man(the smaller one) with footswitch.
Id like to fit the Ditto in there somewhere. The Jam Man I'll prob keep off the board.

Im thinking I want some delay/verb/modulation pre dirt and some after. Open to parallel processing, stereo, dual mono, whatever. Can prob fit 8-12 pedals on the board depending on size including any splitters, tuner, etc. Im thinking a max of 2 gain pedals- preamps, ODs, Fuzzes, Dist, in any combination, or just one fav OD and some compression.

Or I could just chain up this board to my regular board to make one massive one. My regular board is approx 20"x12" same as the one on order, currently has just the basics and nice and roomy:
JoeB mini FF>SA Spectrum>Boss tuner>Lillian phaser>Russ Pickle>Browne Protein> Radial>Collider

You guys who experiment in ambient/noise/shoegaze type stuff-give me some ideas.

Thanks

 

[Lerxst]

OD, fuzz, chorus, delay -> amp w/ reverb or pedal

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

OD, fuzz, chorus, delay -> amp w/ reverb or pedal

Well thats kinda almost my normal thing. Fuzz Face>env filter>phase(or chorus/vib)>OD>delay>reverb & trem on the amp

I wanna work in some of these weirdo pedals like the Procession and the Afterneath, along with looping, vol and expression.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I think I'll start with a simple series chain into one amp. The old SF Bassman head and the big Weber Cali 15 should do the trick.
Something like:
Tuner>Diamond Jr Comp>OBNE Procession>Nobles>Pugilist>Ditto?>Vol Pedal>Ditto?>OBNE Black Fountain>DD3>EQD Afterneath
I think the big hall verb on the Procession with its 3 mod options might sound good going into dirt, and use the vol pedal to swell in and out of the remaining looped chaos.
Not sure where the Ditto would work best tho, looping the ambient chaos or before the vol pedal looping the basic riffs.

 

[Chad]

I play a lot of ambient type stuff, but never really figured out the looping thing. When I play it, it’s mostly clean, with a big reverb and some delay. When I do use dirt, it’s just a Rat. Mark Johnston on YouTube is one of my favorite guys to watch for this kind of stuff. I think he does it really well.

 

[Wyatt]

The best ambiance effect won’t fit on the pedalboard…

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I’d like to keep the pedals fairly simple, with not too many parameters and options. I don’t mind a buncha pedals or complicated signal routing but big deep pedals like the Collider and the Spectrum tend to give me option paralysis and manual fatigue.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Ok I’ve been experimenting for a few days and I’m just about there. The 1st board is my regular board which splits at the end straight into the JamMan >Carr Rambler and into the 2nd board which feeds the Bassman. I should prob squeeze a mini tuner on the first board but it’s ok for now both boards come on when I turn the strip on anyway, just no mute function on the 1st board for now.
I can have a my normal rig just into the Carr, or turn on the Bassman for the wild wet and weird stuff. The mini pedal is expression for the Afterneath for now. Still experimenting where to put the ditto but as is
I’ve made some nice 2-3 chord super wet ambient loops and had fun playing melody over them. I’m sure it will continue to evolve but this seems a good semi permanent set up for the jam room.
Behold the Spaceship:

 

[DinoMikeSr]

Loop, Verb, delay, flanger, chorus, compress/sustainer.

 

[Chad]

Thanks to this thread, I ordered an Afterneath. I had one a long time ago and loved it. Not sure why I sold it, but I’m sure I’ll have fun with it when it arrives.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Thanks to this thread, I ordered an Afterneath. I had one a long time ago and loved it. Not sure why I sold it, but I’m sure I’ll have fun with it when it arrives.

Its def fun and spacey. The mode knob plus the other controls gives you lots of tonal variation on tap pretty quickly without a lot of fuss. I haven't delved into the expression settings in the manual so I IDK what the pedal is controlling right now. Whatever the stock setting is sounds pretty cool tho.

The little Hotone mini pedal is pretty cool as well. It does vol, wah, and exp. It requires power for wah but for exp or vol it only needs power for for the LED. Right now its powered by the Boss tuner just so I can tell when its on by looking. I don't like it much for vol, it doesn't seem to sweep all the way off, might be user error IDK. Works fine as exp and its ok/decent as a wah but not as good as my Cry Baby.
My vol pedal could be better, its a no name I got used off Reverb for my lap steels. Totally passive. The treadle feel is a bit loosy-goosey for my tastes but its fine with a bit of practice. I may try another vol pedal at some point, Id really prefer something with a bit stiffer action.

 

[DinoMikeSr]