SamIAm

Regarding size of uke, I would suggest a tenor (I used to have several ukes, sadly all lost in a recent fire, the tenors became my goto before I started playing the bass). The fret spacings are wider. It is not uncommon to use a low G string, where the G is an octave lower than 'normal', it gives it a richer sound. Regarding brand, Kala make good ukes and start at not silly money (High end ukes can cost thousands!). S'manth x

It is not working ... yet. I am able to identify the pedals plugged into the Pi from my software. I'm currently navigating the various online resources to collate the different MIDI commands that the Zoom pedals use (They seem to have slight variations ... and are not officially documented!) I am working on the best approach to represent each Zoom pedal in a similar fashion to the user (As much as they are capable) and have started work on the web UI. I suspect it will be many hours of work to get it to a polished place to be usable ... but it is progressing in the right direction! NASA ... lol, this ain't rocket science Before I retrained as a nurse in 2015, I'd worked nearly 30 years in the IT industry ranging from developer thru to architect thru to CTO ... so I have a fair bit of experience to fall back on. IT was interesting, it paid very well ... but it did not feed my heart; nursing (Especially working in intensive care) is interesting, the pay is criminal ... but my heart is full! And this sort of project helps satisfy the geekette in me S'manth x

Yes, I'm following the Mod forum closely ... I wish I was in a position to help financially (by either purchasing a Dwarf or investing) but I'm not. I have offered my technical abilities to help in any way they may find useful as I believe their Dwarf and the Mod ecosystem are fantastic! Zynthian is an amazing unit and it helped shape the way I was building EffektLada (Ditto the Patchbox OS and PiStomp Core systems). The thing is that all of these are using Modep ... a slightly dated modified fork of the Mod OSS software (EffektLada was using the most recent official version and so provide better capabilities) and I would not feel right about using that for the reasons I shared before. However, I am proceeding with a Stompbox project, it is using Zoom processors to apply the effects ... I've started a new build diary for it Stompz - A Zoom compatable programmable midi stomp controller S'manth x

To help me "get my groove back" after losing my gear in the fire, the BC family was wonderfully generous in helping me out ... it's all about the bass! I've received a couple of older Zoom effects processors and they are going to form the core of my signal chain (All the elements of the Phoenix Rig were gifted to me by generous BC members ... I cannot express how grateful I am!) The Zoom units are quite powerful in the processing they can perform and can sound quite good, however there are a couple of "challanges" to the way I setup the effects and gig. Configuring patches This is done on the unit using the small display and controls. I came across a free application called Tonelib that makes the process of building and configuring patches significantly easier; it's a funky bit of software! Selecting patches when playing Sadly this is suboptimal! With one or two footswitches, it is hard to go directly to a patch, there is support for scrolling through a list of patches but it is not ideal. After some research I found that a few clever folks had figured out that the Zomm processors accept MIDI commands to select and reconfigure patches and effects. And so I am building Stompz. It will be based on the Raspberry Pi that did not get baked in the fire. Yesterday I went into my makerspace and spent several hours starting the physical assembly. The enclosure is the back of an offcast of an outdoor light a bit like this Is is almost perfect for the job. I drilled and filed a few holes for the foot switches and an expression jack socket. Stompz has 5 footswitches, an expression pedal jack input and a small OLED display panel (I've yet to figure out the best way to mount this so it's currently just sticking out the top) It will be based on a Raspberry Pi that did not get baked in the fire and, apart from the foot switches, is made up of items that I have been able to salvage from the flat or are offcasts ... super economical! The finished Phoneix Effects Chain will look like this At present the only thing in Stompz is a USB battery that is powering both Zoom processors. The foot switches are laid out so that it is easy to press two adjacent switches, so from a UX perspective it will be possible to have 5 x Switch press 5 x Long switch press 4 x Pair switch press 4 x Long pair switch press. This will allow for some quite powerful manipulation of the unit during a gig, either turning on/off individual effects, selection of preconfigured pedalboard layouts and snapshots. The OLED display (I might add another as it is quite small) will display what Stompz is up to and indicate what each switch will do. Stompz connects to each Zoom using a USB cable, which provide both power and will carry the MIDI data; The Zoom MIDI message format is not officially documented, but there are various resources on the web from which I should be able to build a full list of available commands. At present I have successfully been able to change patches on a Zoom but I believe it is possible to reconfigure patches as well as the various settings for each of the effects in a patch. I'm hoping that I can do this without killing any audio tails as it will allow me to drive some of these changes using the expression pedal. With the two Zoom processors connected in serial the rig will support a total of nine effects in a chain; I'm toying with the idea of running them in parallel which might allow for some splitting of frequencies for different processing ... not totally sure how I would wire this up yet. I'll be writing some bespoke code to allow for: Defining the action of the footswitches. Configure/manage/select "Pedalboards" (A collection of effects and their settings used in a particular song) This will let me configure which effects I want to use and their settings and (hopefully) link the expression pedal to the desired effects. Ideally I'll be able to treat Stompz as a single effects unit and it will decide itself which effect to place on which processor. Configure/manage/select "Snapshots" (A group of the settings for all of the effects in a pedal board) Access to all of this via a web interface (Or maybe also a smartphne app) over WiFi. The idea is that I can setup my pedalboards and tune the settings as I desire in advance and save them. During a gig I can use the foot switches to select a particular pedalboard for a song and switch between snapshots as I play, to load the settings for the verse/chorus/bridge/etc. All of this will be run on the Pi which will send the MIDI commands to configure the Zoom processor units. With my EffektLada project (Now put on ice) I had intended to run a MIDI synth and sequencer on the Pi which could be driven by a MIDI keyboard; this will allow for the generation of sophisticed drum tracks as well as being able to produce the occasional "special sounds" that we have used in some of our numbers (Like shakers, cow bells, xylophone ... even some horns or organ snippets). I've a couple of salvaged microcontrollers that can do button/motion sensing and send MIDI over Bluetooth to the Stompz allowing for small handheld battery powered units to produce effects. This will require the addition of an audio output from the Pi so is definately a Version 2 or 3 feature. Other possibilities are to use Pi based effect plugins in the signal chain and even record on the Pi. Now the basic physical assembly is complete I need to wire up the innards and start designing/writing/testing the software to achieve all of this. Hopefully I can make a start on this later today ... I am starting back at work tomorrow and I need to sort out some shoes that will help me survive the 12.5h shift on my feet (I am so looking forward to being back bedside nursing, it feeds my soul) so my time will be constrained. Stompz may not look as elegant as the all in one systems from the likes of Line6, Moddevices or the current gen Zoom units ... but it will get the job done and then some and I will be able to craft it to behave exactly the way I wish, which cannot be said of an off the shel unit which are generally very configurable, but only in the way the manafacturer determines. And the things that makes it all possible is that the cost is mostly effort, the various elements have been donated by the amazing BC family, have been salvaged from the fire or scavanged from castoffs ... no significant financial burden and the time I spend to bring it all together is free! More to come ... S'manth x

TL;DR I’ve stopped work on this project. The Mod platform is rather amazing, the fact it is OSS is a major factor. I recently became aware that Moddevices are not some super conglomerate raking in piles of dosh, but are one the verge of collapse, with many employees deferring salary to try to keep things afloat. it seems wrong to me to benefit from their hard work when they are not, and so I am shelving Effektlada. One day I hope to be able to purchase one of their Dwarf units (Think HX Stomp on steroids) but for now … S’manth x

Gorgeous!!

Much to my delight (and to my surprise!) when I hooked the Pi+Audio board up to a monitor I saw this: The two lit LEDs on top and the text on the screen indicate it has successfully started up and initalised the audio card! S'manth does a little dance of happiness! Now to play hide & seek for some jack sockets ... S'manth xx

And so it began ... Note the soot stains on the parts of the housing lying by the hacksaw, these are the inside surfaces illustrating how much smoke got into the case! After removing the bottom of the housing, the Pi came out no problem. Further nibbling away at the housing and the audio card was nearly ready to come out. The interconnects were next (and this picture shows why the top of the case had such a funky topology) I cleaned up the Pi & audio card using alcohol and a cotton bud, trying to get as much as the residue off as I could. The Pi uses a micro SD card as its "disk drive", this appeared intact and running all of the diagnostics on it from a linux computer, no errors were reported ... a hopeful sign! I powered on the Pi, the usual boot up sequence of the LEDs occurred ... a really hopeful sign. The Pi uses a micro HDMI port for display and I don't have one of those adapters any more so I'm not sure if it actually started up OK. I was unable to find it on the list of WiFi networks when I did a scan; I thought it was last configured to act as a WiFi access point so I could connect to it in the absence of any other WiFi system, possibilities are: It may not have started up correctly. I may not have configured the WiFi the way I thought I had. The WiFi electronics may be fried. I think I can pick up the necessary adapter cheaply whcih will allow me to connect the Pi to a monitor/keyboard/mouse and check out the problem, hopefully it is 2. Next step (if it works) will be to attach the audio card, see if it is recognised and then try to hook up some in and out jacks to see if it will process any sound. I'm visiting my makerspace (With it's Aladdins cave of equipment and components) later today so will have a chance to try that there . S'manth x

I like your thinking! However, the jack sockets are plastic and deformed in the heat of the fire, I also need another case that can house the foot-switches and display.

As some may know, I recently experienced a fire in my home. Very little survived the inferno, my EffektLada unit did not go unscathed! Pre-Fire Post-Fire I am going to strip down the HR Giger-esque remains and see if the guts are still working. But first a description of the unit. EffektLada A Raspberry Pi based multi F/X unit. It runs the open source MOD ecosystem software created by Mod for their Dwarf & Duo X units. A Pi4 is a little more powerful than the heart of the Mod Dwarf, so even tho it is running Pi OS (A general purpose operating system) it should still deliver comparable (or even slightly better) performance. Hardware Main core is a Raspberry Pi 4b with 8Gb RAM (A 4Gb should work well, I happened to have an 8Gb I could repurpose). (Cost apx £75) Audio card is a HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC Pro (Cost apx £55) There are also various interconnects and jack sockets. The housing is a custom 3D design/print. Software The foundation is Pi OS, a linux operating system specifically for the Pi. This is tweaked in a variety of ways (more later) to optimise it for real time management of audio. The magic is performed using Mod Host & Mod UI, which are both part of the Mod ecosystem. There is a similar system already in existence (And it heavily influenced EffektLada) called Patchbox OS, it runs a modified version of the Mod software called Modep. I configured EffektLada is a similar fashion, but with two key differences It uses a more recent version of Pi OS. It directly uses the Mod HOST and Mod UI software from Mod (Modep is a fork of these) so that it is possible to easily take advantage of improvements & bug fixes that Mod develop. As well as using EffektLada for FX processing (There are apx 600+ high quality plugins for it, think of these as a library of pedals from which you can construct a pedalboard ... all for free!) I intend to use MIDI, with a keyboard (and later some planned custom built MIDI controllers) to allow the generation of drum backing, sound effects and other bits and bobs for our gigs; given I'm already wired up with my bass rig, it makes sense to wrap this up in the one unit. The unit pictured was the first generation prototype, totally operated by its web interface. The rebuild will incorporate some foot switches and a small display to allow for on the fly switching amongst various patches/settings. I've started the delicate task of trying to extricate the innards of the melted unit and will post up more details with pix when I can. If the Pi is "baked" then this diary will have a long hiatus, PIs are nearly impossible to come by (Except at insane prices) in the aftermath of the chip supply chain issues following Covid.

I popped back yesterday and ended up having a chat with someone who lives on the floor below mine; he said that a B&W cat had been in and out (and in and out and ...) of the church they opened up round the corner to take in the residents (As they had all flooded out in their nightwear and were not let back in again till the next morning). I choose to believe it was Kitty Kitty x

Great thinking! I use a M5Stamp C3U Mate (Which is very small. has a really low power drain and is very cheap). https://thepihut.com/products/m5stack-m5stamp-c3u-mate-with-pin-headers I could even use the LED dot markers to indicate the power level so very hard to miss ... hmmm S'manth x

Flo - 8 August 2022 So a few things occurred today. Battery Life Indicator I'd emailed John East, who said he may have one still lying in the dark recesses of his stock (My words not his) so I may luck out. Failing that, I found a circuit for something that looks like it would do the job. https://www.homemade-circuits.com/low-battery-indicator-circuit-using-two/ It claims just a 1.5mA drain so not too shabby. Side Fret Markers I've decided to use LEDs as the side dots for fret markers, a set of Neopixel type LEDs and a small microcontroller will let me change brightness and colour as desired ... just need to throw together a circuit. Power draw is not too high but I'll likely run it from a seperate battery so as not to get any chance of crosstalk with the signal chain. And the best till last ... David Dyke & Team - luthiersuppliers.co.uk I Spoke with David last week about getting some wood, what a lovely chap! In our discussion it transpired they are based just 25 miles from where I live and David generously invited me down to see the workshop and pick my wood. So this morning I had a drive through the lovely East Sussex countryside. I was struck firstly by the delightful smell of the lovely gardens surrounding the hall and then blown away by the gorgeous aroma of all the wood, all of it treated so as to be ready for building instruments. The beauty of the workshop was breathtaking. David himself planed my block of maple down to make things a bit easier for me. planing.mp4 And I received much (much) advice about trussrods, carbon rods and general knowledge from the team of expert luthiers. Everyone was so welcoming and knowledgable and the workshop was an Aladdin's cave of exquisite-ness. Without a doubt I shall be returning if (Well, probably when!) I make my next instrument ... I cannot recommend them too highly! And the goodies I came away with ... Maple Core for neck/body. Dual action trussrod Two 4x4mm carbon fibre rods Two sections of beautifully contrasting wood for the skunk stripes for the trussrod & carbon rods A combination bottom strap pin/jack (Not pictured) Next step is meticulous planning and construction of templates along with many questions about the best order to tackle construction. S'manth x (Permission was given to capture images for my build diary)

My H2N just arrived ... now to figure out how to use it 🤔! Thanks all for your guidance! S'manth x

Not cheap ... but looks just the ticket, thank you!!! Now to find 5 individual piezo pickups S'manth

Thanks folks, the H2N seems just the ticket and I've found a few good deals on eBay in my budget range. Many thanks! S'manth x

I'm a member of a 7 piece ukulele band. At rehearsal we have 6 ukes gathered in a circle (usually) with none plugged in, non mic-ed vocals as well as my bass going through an amp. We often play a piece that sounds fab but then fire up ... an iPhone to re-record it for later rehersal. I'd like to record the whole session so we can just edit the bits we liked for later listening. I would appreciate experience/adice on a decent (but not expensive) omni-directional mic I can use to just record the whole 2 hours and later edit with my DAW. Easily portable and setup a must. It will run into a Scarlet into a Macbook. S'manth x

Fettle?

Can anyone advise how they work? S'manth x

The factors that go into a pickup seem legion. Wire gauge Number of winds Scatter vs neatly sided by side Tension? Magnets used Any advice for a 5 string bass pickup? (Buy one is not desirable, I want to to make my own for the deep satisfaction it will being)

The simple beauty of that single bridge is lovely, it would really make her so elegantly uncluttered!. Mu Kala UBASS solid body has something similar. with a a single piezo strip under the nut. But I struggled twofold with it 1) For some strings it was less sensitive, often I could get no sound from my G string. I never went the route of dividing the saddle like some have 2) Intonation was awful and unadjustable, maybe it was my lack of playing skill as I've heard amazing sounds from a Kala, perhaps as Flo will be fretless 2.0 I can just adjust by careful finger placement. I do however have a hankering to have 5 separate signals so I can build some sort of pitch to midi unit, which I gather is better addressed with each string being routed individually. Why do many/most electric guitars/basses have individual string intonation adjustments? S'manth x

Just received a GSS 06B400 from @DanOwens (Ex @Hellzero I believe). I was desperate for a battery powered amp and this is perfect. Sound is fantastic, heavy (Especially for this 60 year old woman) but hey, thats what it takes to get such a great sound I gather. Condition: Pristine! I think kid gloves were worn whenever touching this rig. Communications: Top notch. Packaging: A dozen eggs could not have arrived in more perfect condition. Speed: Just a few days. Value: I'm a happy lass! A big 11/10 for Dan, a top notch BCer, would have no hesitation in dealing with him again! Thanks Dan! S'manth x

The problem (as I see it) is that each saddle will require it's own piezo pickup with the associated cost and wiring complexity ... is there a better way? S'manth

Just half an hour ago on my laptop (Well I did modify an existing one) ... what needs updating (apart from obviously the bass cab!)? S'manth x