EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine Polyphonic Pitch Modulation Guitar Effects Pedal

I wanted to like this pedal so bad, but it's just not hooking me. It doesn't stay on my pedal board anymore, but every once in a while I get it back out and play around with it hoping that I click with it. I don't intend to sell it or get rid of it because I'm hopeful that one day we'll come around to each other.

I personally don't play guitar, but bought this pedal for my boyfriend who is really into experimenting with pedals and sounds (he plays in a few different "shoe-gaze" type groups). At first he was just kind of obsessed with how crazy and different it was, so I bought it for him just kind of for fun. For the first month or two he just tried to get the craziest sounds he could out of it, by using it on different guitars and also an electric keyboard, and he was fascinated by it. After experimenting with different equipment as well as daisy-chaining it to other pedals, he started using it in recordings and during shows. He continues to find crazy sounds and is using it way more than I thought he would.From what I've seen with it, pretty much every sound that comes out of the pedal itself is a spacey-trippy kind of noise, which can honestly only be used so often before it gets annoying. But, what had first been meant as a pure novelty gift, has become an open door to a lot of different, new noises and effects when used with other pedals and techniques. It's also ridiculously responsive...I played around with it by just strumming a couple chords and the sound that was produced was pretty crazy. At some points you couldn't distinguish the notes being played at all...it was just this crazy, complex mash-up of pitches and effects. But, with some control and combination of pedals there's a lot of different ways this pedal can be used.I'm not the best person to give an opinion on this pedal, but I've witnessed it being used many times and its one of his most-used pedals. After six months he's continually finding new ways of using it, and he's very happy with it, and so are his other bandmates. It's a pretty neat thing, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes really heavy effects and fun noises, or even more-subtle, different noises as well.

May this be a message to old school cats...this thing has an amazing chorus with all the warble you may need. Kick on the Magic for a wild song transition or crazy solo. The younger cats will dig it for the out of control sounds that are easily dialed in as well. There have been a lot of complaints about the usefulness of this box...As an old rock geezer...let me make it clear...there is magic here in this box.

This is the first pedal I have sent back. I could not get a sound that I liked from it.

In my quest for a psychedelic vibe, I ran across the Rainbow Machine through YouTube videos. I thought it was trippy enough, and the clincher was all the comments how it sounded like the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet. I should have payed more attention to observations like "one trick pony" and "when you're making more noise than music". Earthquakers own website romances it as "wild and out of control" made for "experimenters, adventurists and noisemakers".Make every effort to borrow/demo this pedal first. If you're comfortable spending what amounts to be a car payment on a few hours in the discovery of "what is music?" then the Rainbow Machine is for you. I found its purchase to be a bum trip, wishing later I would have bought more of a tool than a toy. I will mention for $225 it does NOT come with a power supply, for this kind of money it should.

Initially I was expecting the Rainbow Machine to only be applicable for adding weird and crazy noise for when I do transitions between songs on stage or noise sections of songs, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that with a little careful tweaking this is a very intriguing polyphonic pitch shifter and can simultaneously be used as a chorus/vibrato and a sort of "faux" delay. The "magic" function on the pedal takes everything to the extreme, making the pedal flip out with cascading tones all over the place. I will say that this pedal lends itself to more psychedelic and experimental music, so if that's your bag, give it a shot, but if you're interest in something a bit more straight forward, it might be hard to get that bang for your buck. I play shoegaze music which is dreamy, noisy and psychedelic in nature, so it suits my needs well.

You already know what this pedal does. It's easily the most fun to use pedal I've ever owned, and it makes me think creatively about the way that I play. What it does, it does well. However, I've yet to find a practical use for it in a band setting (maybe an exception if you're doing some really out-there experimental stuff). This is mostly a fun toy to play around with and push your creativity.

Had an audible hum even without the guitar plugged in. Returned for a refund. Seems like it should have been a fun pedal but can't get past the hum.