The Rainbow Machine by Earthquaker Devices isn’t for everyone, but if you love it, you LOVE it.
From a super unique take on chorus to straight-up video game alien spaceship noises, it doesn’t really do subtle. What it does instead is make listeners wonder “what the hell was that?” in the best way possible.
The pitch knob can send your original signal down a fourth or up a third, and you can add in an octave up or down. Tone can give you an analog to a digital feel, and the tracking can turn this pitch shifting pedal into a pitch shifted delay.
The magic is in the Magic. Even the manual doesn’t really explain what this does, but it definitely creates oscillation between the primary and secondary (octave) pitches, resulting in madness.
Guitar is Tunatone Teeny Tuna and Fender Player Series Mustang Bass.
Amps are Strymon Iridium, Round, B, and Fender Studio Rumble 40.
Video Transcript
Note: a machine made this, so it’s not perfect, but if you’re hearing impaired and have any questions about what we said, please feel free to ask us in the comments or send us an email with the form below.
Hey, my name is Emily and I am here with the rainbow machine from Earthquaker devices. This is a version one, but it’s mostly similar to the version two. It just doesn’t have that really cool momentary slash latching switching, and probably a couple of, but let’s get to it. Let’s start with easiest of these knobs to understand which was the tone control.
[00:00:24] It goes from more of a dark analog. You feel over here. To more of a crisp, clear, tight, brighter sound on this is the pit shifting knob kind of based on the primary. so this is going to take the whatever note you feed into it. And at the top, it’s basically a chorus and down here, it’s down a fourth, a natural forest, I think an upper third.
[00:00:56] A major third, maybe I, you know, I’m not a theory kind of person. This secondary takes whatever your primary pitch is and you can take it down an octave. And so noon is just in the normal place, slight to the right of noon is up and active. And then it’s kind of the blend. the mix, how much of it gets mixed in and the same goes counter-clockwise down an octave and then the mix end.
[00:01:30] And then the primary is just how much of that original tone is getting fed into there. It’s kind of like the mix for that tracking is if you know, what tracking is tracking is, so if something’s being taken down or up in October, if there’s a pitch being shifted or anything like that, Tracking is how quickly the computer inside the pedal recognizes the original pitch and translates it to whatever the new pitch is.
[00:01:57] That’s called tracking. If something is referred to as if you’re, firstly, has it say that tracks really well, that means it’s almost seamless tracking. You can’t even, there’s no delay between that person and that second nap. So you can almost think of this as more of a timing control, because it’s basically perfect tracking over here and really wackadoodle tracking over there.
[00:02:19]and then there’s the famous magic knob, which is controlled by, by the magic switch. And this literal manual says nobody really understands what this does. but the gist of it is it creates oscillation between these two functions. So I have my two tone 22, then my sinus rate cable, a shredder video round B.
[00:02:48] Alright, we’ll have to cross my legs. Get a pick out.
[00:03:13] Yeah, this is very famously a chorus. When this is in the North position, it’s a really unique, nice chorus that everyone who has this pedal says, it’s their favorite chorus?
[00:03:58] I might’ve misspoke. I think that the secondary might be, um, an act of up or down based on the pitch now. So it’s one of those two, uh,
[00:04:37] let’s take it down.
[00:05:06] Yeah.
[00:05:30] So that’s that perfect tracking. We were talking about sort of all the way over here.
[00:05:45] So it’s basically a little bit shifted delay.
[00:06:11] Ooh. Ooh, that’s a nice chorusy sound.
[00:06:54] just, let’s just, let’s just get that in the middle for a little bit.
[00:08:23] Madison toilets and stuff right there.
[00:08:46] very video game sounding. Alright. It’s all kind of back to the middle and let’s play with this magic switch.
[00:11:57] Oh my God, after a while, you’re just playing with your food. Right. But, that’s, that’s yeah, that’s the rainbow machine on guitar stick around. Now. I’m about to show it to you on base and I think you’re gonna like it. I think I’m gonna like it. Alright. See, in a second. Hey, I’m here with my fender Mustang from the player series, city of ramble 40.
[00:12:21] And of course the rainbow.
[00:14:12] Know.
[00:14:49]Okay.
[00:16:27] woo.
[00:17:16] All right. Let’s let’s take it back to earth.
[00:17:26] Oh,
[00:17:34] okay. So that was the rainbow machine on base. And on gets hard. This is a weird pedal. And before you buy it, you really need to know. What’s your getting into, the magic is in the magic button. It really is. That is where the wild things are. I know everybody likes to play this like a chorus, but I think it’s especially fun.
[00:17:59] Like more fun than you would expect it to be on base to just have some lifted ups. And there, I know people say this is an unusable pedal. I think that the use of this pedal is really only limited by your own. creativity and, I mean, I’m actually going to give this to a friend later today, so that’s why I’m filming a demo of it now.
[00:18:20] Yeah. This puddle it’s fun. I think it’s really fun. I think you can have a great time with it. it’s not something that I will be able to use in my, in my just normal noise making probably, I mean, I just have other, other weird things, but it is a classic for a reason. There’s so, so, so much to love in this pedal.
[00:18:42] And, I think it’s just as well was those pals that you have to appreciate it, that exists and understand how cool that is. So, yeah. Thanks for watching. Thanks for understanding. once again, my name is Emily, please like comment, subscribe. And until next time.