TH custom effects

[Encore]

does any one have real world info/experience with the TH custom effects "Effect Control V1.2 – KIT" ?  I was thinking if I have 10 or 12 pedals (at home  experimenting) connected there is really going to have to be some signal upkeep. then I thought well, some kind of switcher. but now that I think about it I guess a true bypass in the pedal would pretty much be the same thing as a switcher. any way your thoughts.

[stallik]

The kit you point to is a relay based switching system for up to 5 pedals it has muting to keep switching silent and can operate in 'radio button' mode if required. In other words, it's a looper. They also have a modular, programmable version.

Not quite the same thing as a bypass switch in your pedal. Are they useful? Depends on how good you are at tap dancing which is what it can be like if you have lots of pedals to switch at the same time

[Encore]

ok, thanks for the reply, now the learning lesson; "radio button mode" you push the button and the pedal turns on or off? " it's a looper" to me means to record a phrase and it can be played back over and over. I thought a switching system was like, all the pedals are on and a single button on the switching system can pick any nmber of pedals to output. to be programmable means I can choose pedal 2 and pedal 5 to output or 1 and 3 and so forth?

[stallik]

Unfortunately,  I hear the description 'looper'  used in 2 different contexts when it comes to pedals.
a. To describe a looping audio phrase (as you describe)
b. To describe an audio path through one or more pedals (a loop) which can be switched on and off either manually or, in the case of a programmable looper, one button can affect multiple loops at the same time.
Radio buttons describe a system where you press one button and the others turn off -like an old radio

Perhaps better terminology would be audio looper & pedal looper?  Whatever the correct terminology, I've clearly abbreviated it and added confusion. Sorry.

In your situation, with 10-12 pedals, I'm not necessarily convinced that you'd need a separate switching system at all. That would depend on how each pedal is wired for bypass, what kind of pedals they are and how many you would have switched on at one time.

Let's say all of your pedals were true bypass. There would be almost no degradation of your signal while they were all off. Turning any or all on would affect the signal but no matter how you arrange the switching, the affect would be the same. Kind of the point of having that pedal

If the pedals are not true bypass, things might be different. There might be some tone sucking, extra noise and so on and this might lead you to think some kind of pedal looper would be worthwhile BUT. What if one of your pedals is not true bypass because it has tails to the sound when switched off?

Personally, I'd do some A/B testing. Guitar>amp and Guitar>pedals(switched off)>amp will tell you if it's too noisy, dull etc. I'd only consider a pedal looper if I wanted to reduce tap dancing or locate all the foot switches in one place

[Ben N]

Yeah, we have some terminology traps in pedal world. A looper can be a device that saves a bit of playing to play it over and over, or a switching device that allows you to bypass or otherwise manipulate a loop within which other devices mess about with your signal.

A tuner can be a gadget that helps you tune your axe by showing you whether a particular note is in tune, or it can be one of those six little geared machines on your headstock that you thread your string into and then turn to make it sharper or flatter.

Gain can be the increase in the voltage or current of a signal when it passes through an amplifier, or it can mean the amount of distortion imparted to a signal in a distortion device or amplifier.

It would be nice if we could avoid these traps, but, absent that, we should always take care to specify when using such multi-meaning terms.

[stallik]

Oh, and you might find this interesting

[Encore]

nice, once again thanks for info. I should then explain the purpose. I have all these pedals (home built with all you alls help of course)and every one has an opinion as to what pedasl fits where in the chain, compression first, then wah, then this then that. was thinking of a switching system that would do that but now that I see it written down instead of just in my head that is a pretty tall order.

[stallik]

RG Keen describes a programmable FX switcher over at geofx (link above)