Glitchathon

My Ultimate 3-in-1 Pedal: Zvex Machine, ProCo Rat, and Big Muff

2009-06-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

For the past half-decade or so, my main tone pedals have been Zvex Machine, ProCo Rat, and Big Muff Pi, hooked up in that order. To be more specific, the Rat is a Keeley Rat set on Phat setting, and the Big Muff is actually an MJM Foxey Fuzz.

I recently embarked on a project to combine all three pedals into a single pedal. I decided to use stripboard and did my own layout using DIY Layout Creator. I sized it so that it can fit in a 1590DD Hammond box. For this project, I used the Zvex Machine schematic from FreeStompBoxes.org. My ProCo Rat used the original schematic from ProCo, with a few changes. I played around with clipping diodes and found that adding a germanium diode in series to one of the silicon diodes worked really well. I also tweaked the tone frequency range to have less treble when the Filter knob is turned to the left, and less mud when turned to the right. For the Big Muff circuit, I used the schematic for the Skreddy Mayo, which is also available on FreeStompBoxes.org. I socketed the transistors and found a great combination with BC183C on Q1, and BC239C for Q2 thru Q4.

Here are the gut shots of this pedal. The left third is the Zvex Machine, the middle third is the ProCo Rat, and right third is the Skreddy Mayo clone. This is really no different than doing three different pedals, and housing them into the same box. The only precautions I did was to decouple the power, which consists of using a 100 ohm resistor in series with 9V+ and then a 100uF electrolytic capacitor to ground for each of the three circuits. I also wired the 3PDT switches so that the input to each effect is grounded when bypassed, but I tend to do that with all of my effects projects these days. I contemplated using shielded wires since this is a lot of gain in one box, but it ended up not being as noisy as I thought it'd be.

Here is the final pedal, with knobs. I used an ultraviolet, white, and blue LED and aluminum knobs. I got the enclosure from Pedal Parts Plus, powdercoated in prismatic black. I didn't even bother labeling the knobs, since it's pretty much just gain, tone, and output (from left to right) for each of the three circuits.

How did it turn out? Well the Zvex Machine circuit sounds exactly like my original. It is nasty and cuts through the mix like a machete, and is just awesome! The ProCo Rat admittedly turned out mediocre. It sounds similar to an original Rat, other than having slightly more output, but my Keeley Rat still sounds better. But the Skreddy Mayo/Big Muff clone came out amazing! Probably the best Muff I've ever heard. Kudos to Skreddy for sharing the circuit.

It's great having my 3 favorite pedals in one box. I kind of like using this more than the three separate pedals and it makes my effects rig cleaner and more compact, which is always nice!

Here's a soundclip of me playing Joy Division's New Dawn Fades using different combinations of the circuit.

Lightfoot Labs Goatkeeper Demo

2009-05-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

Lightfoot Labs has released V2 of their amazing tremelo pedal called the Goatkeeper. It is different than other tremelo pedals in that it offers tap tempo speed control as well as a four stage sequencer. It also has all of the standard wave forms (sine, square, ramp up, ramp down) as well as user set waveforms (through a unique waveshaping feature).

You can easily use it as a classic tremelo pedal by simply turning off three of the four stages and using a sine wave form.

Additionally, the Goatkeeper is capable of extremely deep and choppy helicopter-like trems, using the square wave form. With most other tremelo pedals, if you set it to a deep square wave form, and you increase the speed, it usually gets to a point where the circuit cannot respond fast enough to create a choppy sound and the trems start to blend together. The Goatkeeper, on the other hand, manages to keep chopping away even at fast settings, until it gets into ring-mod territory!

Here's a basic demo that I did of the Goatkeeper's basic function.

At the time I did not have an expression pedal so I used a knob in a box. But it's a LOT more fun being able to control with your feet!

Here's another demo I did where I also got to show off another one of my favorite pedals, the 4MS Atoner. A quick word on the Atoner: this is a circuit that shifts the input pitch down octaves and fifths at jump-points. What does that mean? I have no idea, and just wanted to sound smart! But basically it produces the thickest, swarming, bumblebee, breathing wall of fuzz you've ever heard. It is downright huge sounding.

Finally, here's a video of me showing what kind of sync'ing possibilities you can do by combining a delay pedal with the Goatkeeper.

Just set your delay first to whatever speed you want (works nice with slower delay times like 1 sec). And then play a chord and listen to the repeats. Tap the Goatkeeper to the sound of the repeats. And that's it. The two pedals are sync'd up.

A delay is generally very easy to sync up with a tremelo pedal or a drum-track. The reason is that with delay, slight errors in sync'ing are non-cumulative. This means that slight imperfections in sync'ing will trail off in a matter of seconds, and new delayed notes are continuously resync'd to the beat of the tremelo through human playing. Give it a try with a Goatkeeper sometime!

There are actually many more features I haven't shown. Such as the waveshaper that I mentioned briefly. Also, there is LFO Out and Sync In jacks that allow you to control other pedals with its advanced sequencing and waveshaping abilities. It also allows you to input a click track or drum machine to set the tempo, giving you sync'ing capabilities.

Lightfoot Labs Goatkeeper V1 sound clips

2009-05-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

I did these soundclips for the Lightfoot Labs Goatkeeper V1 several years ago. Austin from Lightfoot Labs sent me early versions to make soundclips during the development phase of the original Goatkeeper. Although the Goatkeeper V2 is new and improved with additional features and improved sound quality, these clips still give you a basic idea of what the Goatkeeper is all about, which is tap tempo, sequenced tremelo.

The sound quality of these clips are not very good as I recorded directly into a crappy soundcard. So please excuse the quality.

Here's a clip of me playing Radiohead's "Planet Telex", giving an idea of how the Goatkeeper sounds as a classic tremelo, set to sine wave.

Planet Telex Riff

Here's the ProCo RAT going into the Goatkeeper (square wave): Recorded on the production model, the Goatkeeper alternated between divisions of 8 and 16, on a very fast setting. Even with the RAT on a mild distortion setting, the super fast stutter bends the notes making it difficult to make out the chords. Towards the end, I tapped a slower setting to allow the listener to hear the goatkeeper settings more clearly.

2 Stage Stutter

Here's the MJM Foxey Fuzz going into the Goatkeeper (square wave) with the stages set at 1-3-mute-8.

Pinched Harmonics

Here's clean guitar going into a generic Line6 chorus into the Goatkeeper (ramp up). This has the goatkeeper set at increasing divisions (can't remember exactly, but probably something like 3-4-6-8), with no attention paid to rhythm.

Ramped up Ramblings

Here's the Keeley BD-2 Freak Fuzz going into the Boss PS-5 into the Digitech Digiverb and into the Goatkeeper (ramp-up). This was recorded on a beta model. The Digiverb was set on a very slow reverse reverb setting and turned on only on a few select spots during the clip, when a real rushing swell was needed. The PS-5 is set on T-arm (whammy) with the Goatkeeper set with a ramp-up at maximum depth and divisions at 1-6-3-8.

Screeching Swells

Here is the MJM Foxey Fuzz going into the Boss PS-5 into the Goatkeeper (square wave). Recorded on a beta model, the stages were set at 1-6-2-1, with a square wave at maximum depth. After the tempo increase, the PS-5 was used for some whammy effects.

Fuzz Pitch Shifted

This is a clean guitar going straight into the Goatkeeper with a user-set waveform. I set a very quick ramp-down waveform, with the stages set at 1-1-1-2.

Ultra Short Staccato

Here's the Zvex Machine going into a Moosapotamus Dirty Bird into a Goatkeeper (square wave). This was recorded on a very early breadboard version. The Machine and Dirty Bird were used to create a mostly static, white noise, allowing the Goatkeeper to be the main driving force of the passage.

Tremmed Noise

Here is a clean guitar going into the Boss PS-5 going into a generic Line6 fuzz and into the Goatkeeper. This was also recorded on a very early breadboard version. The PS-5 was set on harmony and the Goatkeeper stages were set at 16-16-8-4.

Harmonized Trem

4MS/Commonsound Atoner Build

2009-05-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of 4MS / Commonsound's effects pedals, and have been building their circuits for personal use since 2003. Over that time, I've built 2 Noise Swashes, 2 Triwave Picogenerators, a double Phaseur Fleur, Tremulus Lune, and an Atoner. Out of all of them, the Atoner is my favorite. What's interesting is that this is the last 4MS pedal I built, mostly because I never could figure out what the hell it was supposed to do. I built it more out of curiosity than anything else.

First of all, for those that are unfamiliar, Commonsound is a collective group of innovators who design effects pedals and synths. It is headed by Dann Green, who also founded 4MS Pedals. They offer completed builds (customized to your specification) of their pedals, or kits for the DIY'ers. They also offer PCB's, allowing you to obtain a professional quality PCB while sourcing the rest of the parts yourself. If you are already regularly building pedals and accustomed to buying electronic components and enclosures, this is the best way to go. If you want, you can even make your own PCB or use a stripboard or perfboard, and simply read the Commonsound wiki and Kits section, which has all the documents you need for building your pedal, provided free of charge from Commonsound.

It's quite amazing that Dann Green offers his designs for free. They even have a forum on the website for discussing mods, troubleshooting, and general questions about their circuits. I've used all of their documentation for building effects and can vouch for their accuracy and reliability.

I built the Atoner a few years before they offered professional quality PCB's, so I sourced all parts myself for my build.

I had a buddy make a PCB for me based on a recommended layout that Commonsound has on their website. This is what it looks like. Now that 4MS/Commonsound offers PCB's, I highly recommend buying it from them. It's only $18, and they are very high quality (much better than anything you can DIY at home). Additionally, if you use their PCB's, and drilling template for enclosures, you can use board mounted pots, saving yourself a lot of wiring.

Here are also some photos of the PCB populated with components. These are all standard resistors, caps, and dual and quad opamps. There is one rarer component, which is the 4151 IC, which is a voltage-to-frequency, frequency-to-voltage converter. These cost approximately $2 from either Mouser or Small Bear Electronics. Small Bear and PedalPartsPlus is a great place to buy pedalbuilding supplies, such as enclosures, pots, LEDs, rare transistors, 3PDT stomp switches, jacks, and battery clips. For more common electronic components like capacitors, common transistors, diodes, opamps, and resistors, Mouser has a great selection and often much cheaper.

The next step is drilling and painting your enclosure. If you are purchasing 4MS's professional quality PCB, you should also use their drilling template for your enclosure (which should be a Hammond 1590D or 1590DD size or equivalent). This will ensure that your potentiometers will line up with the holes and save you offboard wiring. Since I used my own PCB, and had to wire up all my pots, I was able to drill my enclosure any way I wanted to.

For drilling, I recommend a nice handdrill and a unibit/varibit, which is a drill bit with steps in it allowing you to use a single drill bit for anything from 1/8" to 1/2" diameter holes. They sell many varieties, so make sure the bit has enough steps to accommodate all the sizes you need for pots, jacks, switches, LED's, and switches.

For painting, it is always best to sand the enclosure with fine sandpaper (the kind specifically used for metals). Sand the entire outer surface and then clean it really good with isopropyl alcohol while keeping any cleaned surfaces free from your fingers, so that you don't get any oil on them. After it is cleaned and dry, use ordinary paint primer from your hardware store. Do a couple of coats letting it dry between coats. And then go ahead and go hog wild with whatever spray paint you want for your enclosure. Always let it dry between coats, and if you have a toaster oven that you can dedicate to pedalbuilding (that you will NEVER use again for food), you can even bake your enclosures for a good half hour after your coats, to improve durability.

After you are done painting, you will need to label it. The easiest way is to hand-write your labels with a sharpie. If the paint is too dark, you can even cut out little pieces of paper with the label typed on, and glue it on. After you are done, do several coats of clearcoat (drying and baking in between coats). If you glued on labels, you will need several coats, so that it will smooth over the edges of the paper. On my enclosure, I simply did a white base coat, and used blue spray paint along the outer edges. I then used brushes to brush on some yellow and red paint. I then smeared blue and and red paint all over my hand and imprinted my hand on the enclosure! This is a sure way to make your pedal unique!

You should also paint the bottom plate, though this surface is rarely seen so you can do whatever you want. I decided to have a bit more fun with it, and painted in a nice Socialist fist, which seemed fitting to the Commonsound theme!

After you are done with the enclosure, you should install your power DC jack, input/output jacks, 3PDT stomp switch (for true bypass switching), LED, battery clip, and potentiometers. You should then do all the major ground wiring between the jacks and switches, and prepare all the wires that need to be wired to the PCB. I used a hot glue gun to secure a lot of the wires, though it's not really necessary. I do it because I love playing with glue guns.

It is then time to wire to the PCB, which is my least favorite part. I actually did a very messy job, so please don't use this as a good example of how to wire a pedal! With a little careful planning, you can make it look a LOT neater. I used some plastic standoffs and more hot glue to glue the PCB to the enclosure.

And it's done! Here are a couple photos of the final pedal, complete with knobs. I like mixing different style knobs, to give it a more unique look. You can get knobs at Small Bear Electronics, Mouser, or your local electronics surplus store.

Here is a video of me jamming out on the Atoner going into a Lightfoot Labs Goatkeeper.

Hope you enjoyed the build report. I highly recommend you to go check out Commonsound. There are lots of fun circuits there!