Pitch and Yaw

[newfish]

Hi All,

I had one of *those* ideas in the car this morning.

There I was stuck in traffic, wondering if it would be possible to have a more '3D' wah style enclosure.

Obviously Forwards / Backwards would be the conventional control' - but imagine what would happen if you could tilt the pedal through a few degrees to the left and right.

There'd have to be some limit to the left / right travel since no-one wants to turn their ankle mid-solo.

Applications straight off the bat to me would seem like LFO-based effects, like controlling the speed of a Tremolo with the Forwards / Backwards movement, then being able to alter the Depth with the 'Tilt'.

Univibe / Delay / Phasing would also be much more responsive.

Maybe not a Wah style enclosure at all - more of a computer Trackball sort of motion. 

Could this be done?  I'm not that 'up' on engineering know-how, but I suspect one or two members here are, hence why I'm suggesting it here...

Cheers!

[Gus]

Something like the fuzz wah?

http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0234500004

[newfish]

Yes - *exactly* like that!   

Bah!  Foiled once again.  I'll have to rely on the good old fashioned "Henchmen and Bikini Girls" method of taking over the world.

Still, Summer's here, y'know...?

Will still be trawling eBay for old Atari-style analogue sticks to play with.

Most discrete way I've found so far would be to use Playstation thumb controllers

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=160255359987&Category=127746&_trksid=p3907.m29

...depending on the resistances involved of course.

It's all guesswork so far...

[Roobin]

What about a pedal that goes forwards/backward (wah), turn left right (Fender) and does twist left/right so that the sole of your foot is now no parallel to the floor, but at an angle. Maybe using a mouse ball type thing?

Also on Harmony Central FX, sometime back someone tried experimenting with a PS2 joystick and an oscillator (on the Beavis site), not sure how far they got...

[soulsonic]

Will still be trawling eBay for old Atari-style analogue sticks to play with.

Don't get real Atari ones - they don't have pots in them - they're just switches. I disassembled those a few times when I was a kid.

What about a pedal that goes forwards/backward (wah), turn left right (Fender) and does twist left/right so that the sole of your foot is now no parallel to the floor, but at an angle. Maybe using a mouse ball type thing?

Sounds like a good way to get a broken ankle.

Actually, what about a big Track Ball? A big heavy one like out of an old coin-op. You could roll it around with your foot. That might get a little crazy.

[Roobin]

Sort of like: http://www.greatgamedatabase.com/GGDB/DetailsZoom.asp?Cat=All.Coin-Op&VID=503&PID=4813&NID=1&TID=ControlPanel. Hmm attach a large treadle...But it looks to be only 2 axis?

[StephenGiles]

I'm feeling seasick already - memories of a force 8 gale in the Bay of Biscay!

[Roobin]

Now here's an idea - what about suspending some sort of ball of grip in the centre of a cube with bits of elastic holding it in place. By tugging the ball around, you could manipulate fx settings, then let it spring back to the centre. Or if you has really weak elastic, it could oscillate and the oscillations get smaller. To measure, you could but strain gauges in the elastic.

On another vaguely related note, I wonder what a spinning pickup would sound like.

[drewl]

I used to work on pitch and yaw control consoles for aircraft....oh nevermind.
you might lose your balance if the wah tilts to the left and right....

[JOHNO]

Im not sure what a spinning pick up would sound like but it sure would be a sight to see.
EDIT; it that how ya get the leslie speaker sound?

[Roobin]

In retrospect, it would probably be a bit dangerous to play. It would also need lights. Lots of lights.

[Naz Nomad]

... sounds like you need to source an old Lowrey organ or similar.

They had a paddle each side of the expression pedal that made the note flat or sharp ... neat idea, it'd be a monster enclosure though.