Here at Reverb, it's no secret that we historically love seeing music-makers explore the vastness of the pedal realm in unexpected ways, whether it's Lara Somogyi's sonic experimentations on the harp, thereminist Carolina Eyck's untouchable pedalboard sorcery, or the time William Kurk went full Inception by learning what happens when you play synthesizers through synth pedals.
So we wondered: What if you sample the sounds you make using effects pedals and make a beat? We asked YouTuber and expert beatmaker Jeia to explore this topic in a limited video series.
The first pedal Jeia selected is the Rainbow Machine by Earthquaker Devices.
The Akron-based pedal purveyors of EQD refer to their invention as a "polyphonic pitch mesmerizer" and honestly, that description is unimprovable. It's a wild curiosity, and a true joy for experimental musicians, noise lovers, and now… for beatmakers, too.
In the video above, Jeia finds sonic gold by running a guitar and a Roland JU-06 through the Rainbow Machine. Taking the pitched tails created by the Rainbow Machine, she then composes a truly sick beat with the help of her Native Instruments Maschine MKIII.
Jeia’s next sonic adventure is brought to you by the Meris Mercury7.
This Meris machine was inspired by the sounds Vangelis conjured while composing the soundtrack to the 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner. This backstory makes all the sense in the world when you hear the pedal’s long decay and lush reverb capabilities. But what happens when you take those cinematic soundscapes and use them to make a beat?
In this latest release, Jeia learns that it’s “impossible to make bad sounds with this pedal” and taking the moody tracks she laid down on guitar and bass, she ties it all together by crafting a deeply chill beat using the Native Instruments Maschine Plus in standalone mode.
Finally, Jeia took Earthquaker Devices’ Arpanoid out for a test drive.
So how do you take a swath of arpeggiated sounds and make a beat with it? Honestly, we had no idea how this one was going to turn out, but (spoiler alert) Jeia absolutely triumphed.
It didn’t take long for her to discover that this particular pedal does one thing very, very well: it arps. Jeia paired this complex polyphonic beastie with the Arturia MicroFreak, the Roland JU-06 and MC-101, and chopped up the resulting samples to produce a truly unique beat.
For more experiments and inspiration, head over to Jeia's YouTube channel and subscribe to see the newest videos as they're released.