Winston Psmith

Yhup: @Caevan - I'll wait and see how much it is, but that 500mA output is very impressive. Now, if only it had an AC out for old Whammy pedals, and a few other oddballs, like my Digitech Space Station.

Love the major power output, but will it mount underneath my Pedaltrain boards, like the Voodoo Lab PP2+ does? Ah, just checked the site, and they say they'll have a mounting bracket available soon. Excellent . . .

I have the Mel9, and like it very much. I've used it in some of my recordings already, although it might not stand out in the mix. I never picked up on the other three, as my mass of Synths cover all the Organ/Piano/EP sounds I might ever need. The tracking is quite good, although I like dialing back the Attack knob, so the sound 'swells' when you play a chord. There's a built-in Vibrato effect on most of the sounds, which you can't dial out, although a detailed review in Electronic Musician said that part of what we're hearing is related to the sample looping? In either case, it's there. Favorite sounds are Orchestra, Strings, Clarinet & Brass. I can get much more interesting Choir sounds out of my Synths, and IMHO, the Saxophone sound is just awful. I mentioned this in a previous post regarding the Mel9, but bear in mind that the original Mellotron had a distinctive, slightly grainy tone, when playing back the tape loops that provided the sound banks; I suspect part of that sound was the playback mechanism itself. The Mel9 reproduces that tone, very well. Listen to the opening of Genesis' Watcher Of The Skies, or the opening of King Crimson's Court Of The Crimson King, for some good examples. EHX included both of those tunes in their demo video, and the results are pretty convincing. If you've ever wanted the sounds of the Mellotron, it's well worth the $200+/-.

Nice work, WPS! It is surprisingly subtle in the mix. You'd laugh if you'd seen the signal chain I assembled to get that particular sound. First thing, I tied a scarf around the guitar neck at the first fret, to act as a string damper; open strings are not your friends with this box. Next, I ran it into a simple Splitter box, to send the signal out to two different MFX processors. (If you're using either Random 1 or 2, the MIKU Stomp won't repeat the same words/syllables you just played, as it's randomizing selections from among hundreds of mono-syllabic Japanese words. You can use one of the 'Ohh', 'Ahh', 'Lahh'-type sounds for consistency, but they're much less interesting. To get all three 'voices' to sing the same thing at the same time, I had to split the signal into multiple voices all 'singing' in chorus.) One processor was set up for a Stereo De-tune, +/- a few Cents either way, to fill out the sound, the other for a Mono Echo, with an Attack Delay added, to give it a little depth, while taking out some of the initial attack on the notes. After that, I had both Processors going into a small sub-mixer, where I could work out the balance, then out to my digital recorder. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, all that processing helped to 'smooth out' the sound, and make it somewhat less artificial?!?!? Hey, it's what I do . . .

CEB, here's a link, so you can hear how I used it. Untouched By Human Hands - The Winston Psmith Project

Very cool! I've been impressed with Earthquaker's products, just trying to decide which thing to afford first. FWIW, you can get very close to those sounds with the Particle Verb effect in the Line 6 M5/9/13. It's a Pitch-shifted reverb that deconstructs whatever you send it, and you can control all the parameters via Expression Pedal.

Seems to be a matter of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing (apologies to St. Paul). The pedal only got over here because a few folks heard about it and demanded it. When the gear guy at my FLMS told his Korg US rep about it, the rep thought it was a prank, until my gear guy showed the rep a video from Japan?!?!? The iPhone app still isn't available over here. There's supposed to be some convoluted way to create an iTunes Japan account, but IDK?

CEB, I've got one, used it on my most recent album project. It's tricky, much like a Mono Synth Pedal. When I use it, I tie a scarf around the top of the Guitar neck, between the nut and the 1st fret, to act as a string damper. Unless you're using one of the "Ohh, Ahh, Lahh" sounds, there's no way to get it to repeat what you just played, or to create semi-coherent phrases, without the iPhone app, which is only available in Japan.

Never Let Your Guitar Drink Alone . . . [video:youtube]

To quote Sgt. Schultz - "I see nothing!" Probably my machine doesn't have the latest Flash player, or something?

Sadly, I don't have the money right now, which is probably a good thing. I am, however, in favor of adapting Synth Modules for Guitarists. A whole realm of crazy sounds you can't touch with 'normal' pedal effects. Part of why I got into Synthesis, to begin with.

I second Caevan's enthusiasm for that phrasing! I have to say, I liked the idea of these effects, but what they make me think of is Synth Modules, adapted for Guitar? Crap, I may wind up going Modular AND diving back into pedals, all in one fell swoop . . .

I will! I believe that I have that issue at home- I picked it up (I really need to renew my subscription), and haven't even looked at it yet... EDIT: It's the September 2016 issue that I picked up; I haven't seen the October 2016 issue yet- what/who is on the cover? Sorry Caevan, long day yesterday. Paul Gilbert is on the cover. Mine just came in the mail, the other day.

Just for fun, check out Michael Molenda's review of the Mel9 pedal, in the Oct. 2016 issue of GP.

Sooo...did you get this yet? I don't recall hearing the end of the story. Lots of things got in the way, recently. Nothing too critical, here at home, but just getting life back on track, more or less. I'll check back with the maker this week, see what's up with the box. At one point, he had two slightly different models to A/B. Follow-up later . . .

@Dannyalcatraz - I'm with you on the first part ("Pedals are just tools . . ."), less sure about the second? As much as I love my Guitar Synths, I also love the idea of being able to get those Mellotron sounds out of my favorite SG, without mounting a plastic blister on its face. I'll be heading up to my FLMS to check out the Mel9 this coming week. I may even have a video to share . . .

Mark, I'm sorry you didn't like the sound of the MF Delay. It seems from your post, and the one following, that you might prefer a much shorter Delay setting than the 700ms the MF tops out at? Old-school Analog Delays topped out at around 300ms. BTW, that gets you right in for that classic Cure/Siouxsie sound, Analog Chorus or Flanger into short Analog Delay. If you're a fan of Robert Smith's sound, a nice Analog Flanger will get you most of the sounds from Faith. IIRC, Robert Smith turned all the knobs on his Boss effects to the same setting, possibly Noon? There's an old issue of GP I'll have to dig out, to make sure, but it was something obvious, like that. While I agree with Larryz that the Carbon Copy is a very nice Analog Delay, I can't imagine that it will give you anything you don't already get from the MF Delay? It should sound, and behave, almost exactly like the MF. If you're going to try out another Analog Delay, try the Waza Craft re-issue of the Boss DM-2; that'll give you a classic 80's Delay sound. If you don't like what it puts out, maybe Delay isn't the sound you're looking for? One last thought; try the Delay in front of your amp, instead of putting it in the Effects Loop. Back in the 80's, we tended to run our pedals right into the amp; the only folks I saw using the Effects Loops were the guys running rack effects.

Glad to be of service, brother! Still owe you an email, too, I haven't forgotten!

My general rule of thumb is that anything I would tend to treat as an Instrument voice (Ring Mods, Synth Pedals, Octave & Pitch Shift effects) goes at, or right near, the front of my signal chain. Same goes for most Filter effects. If they're meant to be dynamics-driven, like an Envelope Filter, I want them to get a consistent signal level coming from the Guitar. The "Frontal Lobe" box held those types of effects, with my MXR Micro Amp first in line as a Buffer/Boost, followed by my SV2 Slow Volume (Attack Delay), so the SV2 would always get the same signal strength to drive it. I have been looking at The Arpanoid pedal, and I have to admit, I'm not sure where I would place it in the signal chain. Most likely, I would experiment until I found wherever it responded best to my playing. Two suggestions: Octaver into an Envelope Filter can give you some PHAT Jaco/Stevie Wonder-style sounds. Run that mix into a nice slow Phaser effect and all you need is your own Hot Tub Time Machine. Second suggestion: 'Tune' your Ring Mod (dial in the Frequency to match your Root as best you can), then run it into an Envelope Filter. You'll get anything from thick Synth-like tones to Robot Frat Party tones, complete with gastric distress. Have fun, whatever you decide to do!

AFAIK, the changes are mostly, if not entirely cosmetic. The first run of pedals were all black, so on a dark stage, it was hard to see which was which. Now, they all have a 'silver triangle' motif. Mini Moogerfoogers

Danger, Will Robinson!!! I did that with 4 Pedaltrain boards. One for front-end effects like Ring Mods, Filters and Pitch Shift effects, (The Pre-Frontal Lobe), one for OD/Dist. (the Big Box of Noise), one for Mod effects (the Motion Sickness box) and one for Delay/Reverb effects (named, as you might guess, the Tardis). While I've always been fond of Wilde's axiom that ". . . nothing exceeds like excess." this was really pushing it.

No question! This will be my first 'custom', hand-assembled nut job pedal, so I'm very happy to get it. I also like knowing that the folks who built it are local, so if anything goes wrong, I have someone I can take it back to. We'll meet up next week, so I'll have more of a report then . . .

Well, folks, I got an email from the folks who built the Schumann PLL clone, and they're offering me the pedal for essentially the cost of the components. Talk about an offer you can't refuse . . .

Caevan, you and I both love these things! It might be worth your while to have the SV-2 checked out. Guyatone went out of business back in 2012/13?, so all of those little Guyatone boxes have gone way up in value. When I traded my Guyatone pedals in, the only one I kept is the SV2. I also have a Behringer Slow Motion . . . for under $20, it's worth keeping around. One thought - I usually run my SV2 right at the front of my pedal chain, so that it always reads the same signal strength coming from the Guitar, something I learned from using my original Slow Gear. If I have anything in front of it, it'll be a Clean Boost, like my MXR Micro Amp, that's on all the time. I keep hoping that Boss will reissue the Slow Gear as one of the Waza Craft series; so far, they've brought back the DM-2 and VB-2, which were out of production since the 80's, and the Slow Gear is one pedal they've been asked to reissue, many times. For anyone who has one of the Line 6 M5/9/13 multi-effects, or the big green DL4 Delay Modeler, the Auto-Volume Echo works as an Attack Delay, and you can even dial back the Delay effect, to use it as just a Swell effect, if you like.

I was out playing at 2016 RobotFest today. Lots of fun, lots of very cool, but non-musical, devices, and then I saw two guys sitting at a table with a Squier guitar plugged in to ???? I stopped to admire their set-up, and they invited me to try it out. What they'd built, among other things, was a version of this - Schumann PLL (Phase Loop Lock) After a minute or so, I realized that I might never leave that table, if I didn't put the guitar down and back away. I gave them my card, and offered myself as a demo prop for future shows, since neither of them played guitar. It's even weirder than the description makes it sound . . .