Glossary of Guitar Effects
There are numerous effects options available to the guitarist, especially the electric guitarist. This question is intended to gather and cultivate a set of answers to questions in the form of:
What is insert guitar effect here for? How does it sound?
Please create a single answer for each effect and feel free to edit answers to make them more comprehensive and / or accurate.
It might also make each answer more useful if there were an example listed of a good representative recording of the effect.
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Pitch Pedal / Whammy Pedal
Although this might fit in the octaver pedal, it deserves a category of its own. This pedal raises or lowers the pitch of the incoming sound. Most models and emulation go from one octave below to two octave above. Lowering the pitch by an octave enables you to simulate dive-bombing without a floating tremolo for example.
The opposite, going up one or two octaves, is famously used by Tom Morelo (Audioslave's "Like a stone" solo, among others), Matthew bellamy ("Fury" and "Muscle Museum"), and Johnny Greenwood("Subterranean homesick alien"). Other famous users from the top of my head: Satriani, Buckethead, Steve Vai.
Although it's less frequently used, the Whammy pedal can go to intermediate intervals, minor second, fifth etc.
Harmonizer
This unit can play the harmony to any lead you're playing: it's fifth, or third. The difference with a whammy pedal is that it respect the interval of the scale you're in. Of course you'ld have to tell the unit the tonality and scale type before-hand.
Tremolo
Modulate the volume of the sound at a given rate and intensity.
Fuzz
Fuzz gained much glory from the sixties and seventies when popularized by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix. Today, fuzz pedals have evolved into a staple for some bands and is capable of producing everything from a singing, warm sustain to a scratchy, velcro sound. The mainstay of a fuzz pedal's sound is produced by an electrical component called a transistor. Fuzz pedals today can be created from silicon transistors, or germanium transistors. Silicon is known to produce a slightly harsh or bright sound (some consider it sterile) while germanium typically accentuates the low end and produces a warmer sound. Just as extreme settings on a silicon fuzz pedal can easily produce a harsh, glass-like sound, extreme settings on a germanium transistor based fuzz can produce an overly warm, and muted tone.
One unique application of a fuzz pedal involves starving the pedal of voltage--which will produce a scratchy, velcro-like tone. This is desirable by some musicians because it is a highly unique sound and is often employed by more avant garde musicians. This sound can be achieved by purchasing a power supply with a sag output, or using a nearly dead battery, although the pedal won't last long when using that method.
Another application of a fuzz pedal is available when the user has control over the the amount of feedback signal routed back into the transistor loop while the pedal is engaged. By configuring the feedback to more sensitive levels, the pedal will feed back into itself causing oscillation*. As the pedal oscillates, certain frequencies will be produced, causing a singing sustained note without the guitarist playing anything at all. The player can consequently play over the note produced to cancel out the feedback loop, but once the player stops the pedal will feed back into itself producing the configured signal once again.
*The oscillation concept can be though of as exactly like a delay pedal set to infinite repeats. As the pedal feeds back into itself, the sound compounds; however unlike a delay pedal fuzz pedal oscillation is not additive.
Octave
Octave effects take the input signal and produce synthesized tones that are one or more octaves above or below it. They can be blended in with the input signal to harmonize with it in real time. The effect can be synthesized by monitoring the waveform of the input and multiplying or dividing the observed frequency by, for example, 2 (to go up or down an octave) or 4 (to go up or down two octaves). This takes advantage of the fact that tones that are an octave apart have a 2:1 frequency relationship; the frequency of the tone one octave higher than a root tone is always double the frequency of the root tone.
Because they're acting on the monitored waveform, octave effects sound best on, and are meant to be used for, single-note riffs. For this reason, they are popular with many bass guitarists and soloists.
Compressor/Limiter
Compression is used to reduce the dynamic range of a signal. It can be used at the top of the amplitude range, to reduce the volume of a specified range of inputs, or at the bottom of the amplitude range, to increase the volume of a specified range of inputs.
In the case where a compressor is used to reduce volume it may be referred to as a limiter.
A more in-depth description can be found on this question: What Does a Compressor Pedal Do?
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