New Glou Glou filter/gated fuzz pedal - Pralines

[Quatschmacher]

Just hit my Facebook feed:

Edited July 7, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

@tonyxtiger

[Quatschmacher]

As far as I can see it looks to have big knobs for “fuzz”, “mix”, “filters” and something else ending in “...ck” (possibly “feedback”, i.e. resonance). Looks like four filters with their own frequency control and what looks like “mod” for modulation depth. Can see an LFO knob with fast and slow speed settings. The knob for mod source suggests that only one source can be used at a time and looks to be “LFO”, “Exp” and I guess “env up” and “env down”.

 

Independent attack and decay knobs too!

 

I can’t see what the LFO control knob does, whether it’s for selecting wave shape or whether it is indeed possible to have it in addition to the envelope.

 

There does appear to be at least one more large knob on the periphery so I can’t see what that does, maybe something for the fuzz part or a filter mode (LP/BP/HP/Notch) switch? I was surprised that the fuzz has a flip switch as opposed to stomp switch.

I’ve asked for him to post a full shot. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

49 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

I’ve asked for him to post a full shot.

No joy, he replied saying it was a teaser. Further pictures in a month. 

[Quatschmacher]

It’s four parallel resonant band pass filters. I guess you’ll be able to create formants.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Daz39]

Gosh. Tasty praline!

[Quatschmacher]

I’m sending Olivier a link to this thread so he may well read or comment. 

[Al Krow]

Thanks for sharing this Q. This pedal does look very interesting. I've had a quick conversation with Olivier. He has confirmed:

1) As an alternative to (i) 4 band pass filters (BPF), this can be made available with (ii) 2 BPF and 2 Low Pass filters (LPF) or indeed (iii) with 4 LPFs; [my preference is likely to be (ii)];

2) all filters (whether BPF or LPF) will have a 5 octave frequency range from sub bass to treble and resonance goes from flat to self-oscillation;

3) UK price = 360€ (i.e. circa £320). Given that a decent gated fuzz by itself e.g. the Mastotron is £129, that seems fairly priced;

4) current draw is 200mA (at 9V), which should be well within the capacity for most decent PSUs;

5) The Fuzz is a variation of the Lovetone Big Cheese gated fuzz.

Olivier is of the view that with the gated fuzz this pedal will work great on bass; I'm inclined to agree and I'm definitely tempted!

Edited July 6, 2018 by Al Krow

[Quatschmacher]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Thanks for sharing this Q. This pedal does look very interesting. I've had a quick conversation with Olivier. He has confirmed:

1) As an alternative to (i) 4 band pass filters (BPF), this can be made available with (ii) 2 BPF and 2 Low Pass filters (LPF) or indeed (iii) with 4 LPFs; [my preference is likely to be (ii)];

2) all filters (whether BPF or LPF) will have a 5 octave frequency range from sub bass to treble and resonance goes from flat to self-oscillation;

3) UK price = 360€ (i.e. circa £320). Given that a decent gated fuzz by itself e.g. the Mastotron is £129, that seems fairly priced;

Olivier is of the view that with the gated fuzz this will work great on bass; I'm inclined to agree and I'm definitely tempted!

Holy cow! That’s amazing news! Option 2 sounds great. Presumably by setting the mod depth to zero and opening the filter fully on 3 of them, you’ll be able to use it as a “normal” single filter. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

More specs after discussion with Olivier:

The “fuzz” knob is a drive control, which begins to gate at half position.

“Filters” knob controls filters’ volume

”mix” is dry signal on the left filters on the right.

The fuzz runs into the filters (not parallel).

4 pole filter - yay!

Mod selector is between LFO/Exp (or CV)/envelope up/envelope down

It’s possible to modulate the ENV (or EXP/CV) with the LFO when LFO switch is in the HIGH position.

It’s also possible to modulate the LFO speed with the ENV (or EXP/CV)

 

Edited July 6, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

I’m really excited about this one! Can’t wait to hear samples. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Al Krow]

Quick update:

Olivier is going to test option (ii) i.e. 2 BPF and 2 LPF because adding LPF is likely to impact the levels, as LPF magnifies the signal. But, subject to this, Olivier agrees that this option could be really interesting on bass;

Can't see why your setting suggestion won't work - there is going to be a LOT of tweak-ability on this thing with four filters each capable of individual adjustment.

If option (ii) works well, I'm going to find it very hard to resist this new unit and I suspect that may be true for a number of us on filter / synth quests. Hmmm...going to have re-think my pedal board layout again and just when I thought it was safe to go back into the woods...😄

(PS added points 4 and 5 to my earlier post, following further comments from Olivier).

Edited July 6, 2018 by Al Krow

[Quatschmacher]

20 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Further quick update:

Olivier is going to test option (ii) i.e. 2 BPF and 2 LPF because adding LPF is likely to impact the levels, as LPF magnifies the signal. But, subject to this, Olivier agrees that this option could be really interesting on bass;

Can't see why your setting suggestion won't work - there is going to be a LOT of tweak-ability on this thing with four filters each capable of individual adjustment.

If option (ii) works well, I'm going to find it very hard to resist this new unit and I suspect that may be true for a number of us on filter / synth quests. Hmmm...going to have re-think my pedal board layout again and just when I thought it was safe to go back into the woods...😄

(PS added points 4 and 5 to my earlier post, following further comments from Olivier).

I thought I hadn’t seen those last two points. Yes, as I mentioned in a PM and another thread about this pedal, the gated fuzz is modelled on a Lovetone pedal.

Did the filters have to be in pairs? 1 LPF and 3 BPFs would also be interesting if doable. 

Edited July 7, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

Did the filters have to be in pairs? 1 LPF and 3 BPFs would also be interesting if doable. 

You mentioned elsewhere that: "Having the filters share the envelope means they’ll be moving in a synchronised way (like the peaks on a phaser, which is multi peak and multi notch (aka a comb filter). It’s probably more pleasing than four filters running independently. With this arrangement it’ll be possible to create formants (dual peak resonances found in the human voice)."

Whilst it should be entirely possible to have 1 LPF and 3 BPFs (which I'm sure Olivier would happily provide for you on bespoke basis if you want this), having pairs will likely provide better opportunities for creating the 'formants' you mention i.e. a solo LPF would be "stranded" in this regard. (I could be talking complete rubbish here of course! ) Besides, I thought you were mainly into LPFs rather than BPFs?

[Quatschmacher]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

You mentioned elsewhere that: "Having the filters share the envelope means they’ll be moving in a synchronised way (like the peaks on a phaser, which is multi peak and multi notch (aka a comb filter). It’s probably more pleasing than four filters running independently. With this arrangement it’ll be possible to create formants (dual peak resonances found in the human voice)."

Whilst it should be entirely possible to have 1 LPF and 3 BPFs (which I'm sure Olivier would happily provide for you on bespoke basis if you want this), having pairs will likely provide better opportunities for creating the 'formants' you mention i.e. a solo LPF would be "stranded" in this regard. (I could be talking complete rubbish here of course! ) Besides, I thought you were mainly into LPFs rather than BPFs?

Formants are two resonant peaks so dual bandpass is best for this. So not having a pair of low passes wouldn’t stop that. Still, a pair of low pass filters might also be cool. 

[Quatschmacher]

3 BPFs and 1 LPF is also a possibility, Olivier has just confirmed.

So I’m guessing 3 LPFs and 1 BPF would also be possible.

Edited July 7, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

I’ve had another conversation with Olivier today. He’s tested the LPF option and reports that it won’t work. The fact that the resonance control is global means there’s no way to adjust the boost in output on the LPFs down individually. The PCBs are already in production so extra controls can’t be added. That’s a shame, but I’m sure the pedal is going to be awesome anyway. 

Edited July 7, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

@andybassdoyle

[Quatschmacher]

Pre-orders are open:

https://glou-glou.org/pralines/

[Quatschmacher]

First video:

 

[Quatschmacher]

Another Pralines video, this time from Olivier’s channel. I haven’t watched as I’m not on WiFi. 

[Quatschmacher]

More pralines video, fuzz this time:

[Daz39]

Noiiiiisseeee. Nice

[Quatschmacher]

I’ve hooked up Glou Glou with Zach Rizer so am hoping there’ll be a good bass demo soon. 

[Quatschmacher]

On 15/09/2018 at 15:00, Quatschmacher said:

I’ve hooked up Glou Glou with Zach Rizer so am hoping there’ll be a good bass demo soon. 

Looks like it worked!