TB looper - 3PDT vs relays

[Crash!]

Howdy.

I've built a coupe of vero pedals successfully and am now looking at building a true bypass looper so I can activate/deactivate any of my pedals from a single row of switches rather than having multiple 'levels' of pedals to step over.  I have also recently discovered relay switching instead of using a 3PDT but have not used it in any builds.  I like the look of this kit: http://www.muzique.com/schem/bypass.htm

Does anyone have any experience, opinion or thoughts on if either switching method would be better for a TB looper?

Cheers,

Crash!

[senko]

Try both out and see what you come up with.

Relays sometimes feel like overkill to me, and require a little bit more extra circuitry to operate.  They are nice, though,  and with the right digital circuitry + buffering, you can easily turn off multiple pedals and come up with some presets/channels.  It really depends on the time and effort you'd like to expend.

You could just make a true bypass with a mechanical stomp switch and see if you like it (there are some quirks with pops and built up capacitor charge). 

[Crash!]

Yeah, I'm really trying to avoid the usual popping and noise, which is why the relay switching interested me.  It appears that using relays does away with those problems and gets you reliable, silent switching.  The kit in the OP comes with a PCB and micro controller, seems like a reasonable price and is a small size.  From what I've read it seems like the perfect choice, I was curious if anyone had any experience and could confirm going this way does indeed eliminate the usual noises associated with 3PDT switching.

[Mike Burgundy]

relays can be debounced/slowed down compared to regular switches, but only up to a point. They do still suffer from all problems associated with mechanical switching - which it still is. If you really want to make it pop-proof, maybe have a look at CMOS switching solutions. GEOfex has an article up on just that, using a CD5043 multiplexer.