bobbass4k

I too would avoid the Vitriol, it's a great pedal, but it's a dod grunge clone, (which puts it in the boss metal zone family), it does big booming bass and really cutting treble, which is a sound I like, but it doesn't sound like it's what you're after. I always think of the rat as quite a full on distortion, but it has what I've always described as a "flappy" sound, which nothing else I've found emulates.

Thanks Dad, I look forward to listening to yours. Totally unrelated follow up question - Skol emphasized the sampling rule, but what if the stems have been freely released by the band? There's a song I've been wanting to do something with for ages, and the band released the stems for remixes (i just want to use the vocals), is that kosher?

Question - Does the original have to be a song that the "average" person has likely heard of? Obviously not as a matter of the rules, but more the spirit of the competition.

Only a couple of days left on the kickstarter. All extra money is going to the high school where the owner of VFE teaches for supplies etc., so it's a good cause. Click the k in the top left of the video to go to the page.

It's only been possible in recent years, USB supplies used to be (and most still are) low current, plus they operate at 5V, so when you step that up to 9V to run pedals, you effectively half the current. USB plug chargers have improved a lot in recent years, with "super-charging" technology, a lot of them just put out a tonne of power and let the phone/tablet process it. But I fail to see the point in this really, the advantage would be powering it from a laptop, portable battery etc., but they are going to struggle to put out enough current to power more than a couple of pedals, and you'd have to work hard to convince me the filtering in the brick is enough to kill all the digital/clock noise. And you're always going to have to carry your own cable because who has an A to full size B cable with them anymore? I'm sure it works great from a high current USB wall supply, but then you may as well just have a conventional power brick for cheaper.

Haven't seen anything about this here so I thought I'd put the word out, currently on Kickstarter - For the lazy - it's a 3 channel looper/mixer, each with High and Low Pass filters, send level, different filter slopes, and crucially, internal sends to the other two channels. On the surface it sounds like a boring utility pedal, but it opens up a lot of possibilities that led me to order the super DIY version for a modest $60 (incl. shipping), though a full version will run you about $250 I think. Multiband distortion with completely different pedals is a big one, but the possibilities with time-based effects are what really appeal to me, the idea of stacking delays and reverbs in controlled feedback loops makes my inner post-rock/ambient nerd go all a quiver. It's 200% funded so it's definitely happening, and VFE are a solid company so you're not throwing your money into a black hole (like some of the other pedal kickstarters...) Take a look, or don't.

It depends entirely what actual train you end up on, I think Virgin on the WCML is all the 390 or 221s (I'm not a train nerd, honest...). If so, they have a big/oversize luggage space in the coach with the bike racks (one coach up from either end. It's on the floor so you wouldn't have to list and would mostly likely accommodate a DB, but it's first come first served. There's vertical bike storage areas that would likely accommodate a DB, you could make a bike reservation, but you may have to deal with some irate commuter cyclists. (I commute on these trains everyday with a bike, so unfortunately I'm very familiar). Otherwise, if you ask nicely, they might stick it in the storage area, but it's not a guarantee.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1509008310' post='3395924'] 'Tis the [i]third [/i]'B', isn't it..? No wonder folks take the [s]pi ...[/s] mickey. [/quote] In my defence, I was 4 pints into a "quick post-work drink" at the time. You're lucky I didn't tell you how much I loved you...

Thanks for the capitalization on the second B my good man. It's a problem of my own creation but the ass jokes get every so slightly tiresome. Good crop this month, nice to be back in the mix.

I believe the appropriate term is BOOM - https://soundcloud.com/bobbass4k/aether The title is lazy, forgive me. Not my best, but good to be back on the figurative horse.

Something to bear in mind is the 2k2 in the diagram above is just a guide, it will vary depending on what LED you're using. I would start with 4k7 and see how bright it is, a higher value resistor will make the LED less bright.

If you do have any issues with them let me know, I've got a big strip in the transistors drawer, I'd be happy to drop a few in an envelope (and an ESD bag of course...). I think you'll be fine though, before bitsbox started selling adapter boards for the SOT-23s I just used to solder leads then blob them in epoxy to use them as through-hole substitues... That was definitely not a graceful solution, but they all worked.

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1500454580' post='3337819'] That's all that's soldered in at the moment - I've measured the voltage drops as suggested by Julian at Schalltechnik (very helpful chap) and I get 0.7 Gate - Drain/Source and 1.3 D-S/S-D The D-S/S-D are a volt higher than they should be so I suspect that I've overheated the transistors. [/quote] How are you measuring the D-S voltage drop? It isn't as simple as it is for the, G-D/S, internal capacitance can skew the readings. Try shorting source and gate and check the reading again, 1.3 sounds about right to me, as long as it's not fully short or open its probably fine. Like static, it's actually pretty hard to kill a part with heat. I'm not sure where this perception of smt parts as delicate faberge eggs comes from, but it's really not true.

I work with smt pretty much every day, I've never actually seen an smt part (or any part actually) killed by static. ESD precautions are generally overzealous, and with good reason, but handling them with esd tweezers and just not licking them or rubbing them on the dog will usually be more than adequate.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1493366030' post='3287742'] It's probably been asked before but... what is it all? [/quote] Gah, I was hoping no one would ask... From L-R, Top to bottom (with vague description) - Bare with lots of small knobs - Sequencer that puts out CV to drive the LFO on the Pitch Pirate/Phaser/A few others Orange - Auto swell, a la Slow Gear Purple/White Knobs - EQD Bit Commander Clone Bare/Multi Coloured Knobs - Very quirky gated fuzz, based on the 4ms noise swash but with a few tweaks Half Bare/Half terribly painted - Tweaked Mantic Vitriol/DOD Grunge clone Blue/Black Knobs - EQD Sea Machine Chorus Clone Bare/Blue,Red,White Knobs - Tweaked Mid Fi Pitch Pirate Red/Painted by a shroomy donkey - Digital Delay with super deep modulation/gain section and momentary oscillation Black/Old PA knobs - Rusty Box clone Bare/Blinky - Rattle Crow clone Blue/Black knobs - Tweaked Mastotron Clone Pink/White Knobs - Heavily tweaked Rat Big Purple -Uber phaser/Lovetone Doppelganger clone Black/Perverb - DBA Reverberation Machine Clone Black/Orange paint - Tweaked DOD FX25 Clone Bare/2 knobs - Phat Phuk B Clone Bare/Green Knobs - Tweaked Forest Green Compressor Clone I think that's all of them...

I'm still alive! And i have an idea too.

Finally put something back together after having everything in bits for ages -

Bitsbox are great, reliable, fixed postage cost and no minimum order quantities. They're more expensive if you're stocking up and you'll struggle with more unusual/obsolete ic's/transistors, but if you're buying last minute for one or jobs (as I invariably do) they can't be beat.

I hear galloping riffs and foreboding sunsets. In 7/8 of course.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1475905595' post='3149613'] To mark my big pedal swap, I started to make a new board yesterday. Just needs the power socket hole to be drilled in the side, then prepping and painting. And pedals attaching of course. [/quote] That's some lovely work, how are you gonna secure the pedals? Seems like it would be a tad inconvenient to velcro, tie wraps through the holes?

I call her "Matilda" (not really) - Christmas Mode - Descriptions available upon request - there's a lot of them and I'm a lazy, lazy man.

Inside circle is boost/cut, outer circle is q factor/centre frequency. The inner knobs follow resistor colour bands (couldn't get any brown though so I had to settle for dark red for 1), though because I preferred the way it looked, the outer circle is reversed... The sweepable centre frequency meant marking the frequencies each band covered would have been super complicated, I've calibrated the bands to cover a fairly comprehensive range, so really it shouldn't matter, red is low, grey high, everything beyond that is down to the ears.