DIY predictions for 2014

[bluebunny]

Someone will log onto DIYStomp to report that they received a brand new, etched... Sonic Death Ray Phaser.......

Don't be daft.  That'll never happen...   

[haveyouseenhim]

Some idiot on the forum will end up shooting himself in the foot with a high power rifle and the resulting screams will inspire him to make a pedal that sounds like it.

I thought you were more a shotgun kinda guy, Mike?  No matter.  Looking forward to seeing that pedal...   

Nah. I'm into anything that will throw a piece of lead down range. Although you are somewhat right. I shoot a lot of skeet. (Dirty jokes ahead)

[CodeMonk]

i predict 2 lovely twins will play a metallica song on harps...

And I predict the same 2 twins will do the Doctor Who theme on harps.
(Yeah, I'm a Dr. Who geek. Have been since the Tom Baker days).

[amptramp]

Someone will build a rechargeable battery-powered effect that uses an electric toothbrush wireless magnetic charger that you sit the unit on when you are not using it.  There is a run on Braun toothbrushes.  RF or optical links from and to pedals means there will be no interconnecting cables - you just put them on your pedalboard and load in the information of what the pedal receives from and what it transmits to and it sits there.  Change the frequency or colour filter to bypass a pedal.  Hum and noise disappear.

[Electron Tornado]

Another harp duo - Harptallica: 

+1 for Doctor Who




Prediction for 2014 - 3D printers allow DIYers to manufacture their own germanium transistors, tailored to desired specs. NOS germanium market tanks. Same 3D printers allow for DIY manufacture of any other electronic component with either surface mount, or through hole interface.

[JFace]

LM301 op-amps become all the rage.

I'm honestly surprised they aren't more popular. I did a side by side shootout of a bunch of popular chips for overdrive and the LM301 was pretty nice. When I purchased it at my local electronics store I was confusing it with the LM307 (what! this store sells discontinued RAT chips! No way!) I still prefer the LM307 

[anchovie]

Someone will write a program that analyses air-guitar performances in front of a webcam/Kinect, emitting in realtime the sounds that would be produced if an actual guitar was being held.

[nosamiam]

Wax cylinder recordings make a comeback as a delay element.

Move over Echoplex  



^ Part of my band recording onto wax cylinder at the Edison Laboratory, Orange, NJ. I'm playing the miniature Les Paul. My favorite part was watching the cylinder-op frantically blowing wax shavings off while we recorded so they wouldn't get wedged under the cutting stylus. Notice how the bell is suspended; that's because it IS the cutting stylus. Incredible experience and an honor. Doing some research before recording I found this highly suggestive technique for fingering handling the cylinder:



29. more D'Astro sausage

Mucca Pazza!!!!

[Mark Hammer]

Anyone intrigued by the photo and recording should check out Stroh violins ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroh_violin  http://www.apartmenthouse.co.uk/strohviols.html ), an instrument I can best describe as the violin equivalent of a dobro - strings assisted by mechanical amplification.  They were used in the early days of recording to produce an acoustic signal of sufficient amplitude to make the needle cut the surface of whatever the recording medium was.  I have a vinyl recording of a piece by Argentinian composer Mauricio Kagel that uses an entire string quartet of them: 2 stroh-violins, one stroh-viola, and a stroh-cello.

In fact, in those early years of recording, there were house bands employed by Columbia, et al, to play the same tune again and again and again, all day long.  Keep in mind that the discs were cut directly and entirely mechanically, so maybe a half dozen copies could be cut in one shot, and the next 6 would require another performance of the same piece.  It can be said that one of the factors contributing to the popularity of John Philip Sousa ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Philip_Sousa ) was that his brass band marches were so loud that many more copies of a recording could be made at once, leading to greater availability and wider distribution of the recordings.

Of course, once there were microphones and magnetic tape, that changed everything.

[mth5044]

Prediction for 2014 - 3D printers allow DIYers to manufacture their own germanium transistors, tailored to desired specs. NOS germanium market tanks. Same 3D printers allow for DIY manufacture of any other electronic component with either surface mount, or through hole interface.

If it goes that far, why not just print out all the parts already connected? A continuous circuit. Then house it in some kind of... black.. plastic... rectangle with little legs for interface points. We'll call it... an 'integrated circuit'!

[bluebunny]

We'll call it... an 'integrated circuit'!

It'll never catch on...   

[PRR]

> once there were microphones and magnetic tape

The business of playing the piece over and over and over ended long before that. They developed ways to *duplicate* disks. Make one master, take an impression, use that to stamp-out thousands of duplicates. (This was also the end of cylinders because there never was a very good way to duplicate cylinders.)

Microphones merely reduced the need to play LOUD, and allowed some few tricks, but didn't change the duplication problem.

Tape came much later and didn't really change the disk duplication problem (except that when production was more than thousands, more than could be handled with a 5-step impression process, you could go back to the master tape and get an "original performance" again).

[Jdansti]

i predict 2 lovely twins will play a metallica song on harps...

The one on the left's not bad looking.

[Jdansti]

Wax cylinder recordings make a comeback as a delay element.

Doing some research before recording I found this highly suggestive technique for fingering handling the cylinder:



29. more D'Astro sausage

Mucca Pazza!!!!

So not like this?

[garcho]

^  


I've played a Stroh violin before, and let's just say, I'd rather drink Stroh's than play one. Flimsy as gossamer and never in tune because of that. Looks amazing, though.



MIDI outs on pedals.

[amptramp]

A new line of delays will come out with a fixed 2.58 second delay.  This is obtained by modulating an RF carrier, aiming it at the moon and recovering the returned signal.  This effect will only be available for the half of the day that the moon is visible.  Recording studios will adjust their schedules accordingly.

[Electron Tornado]

After having a look around and talking with some people involved in the business end of pedals and amps, etc, here's another prediction. The trend probably began in 2013, but anyway.....

Used pedal will begin to dominate the market. New pedal sales from big names and boutique brands will drop off steadily except for a small portion of  professional and "serious" musicians. Demand for modifications will also decline as musicians will decide to simply buy another pedal that will do what they want for the price of some mods. The community of DIYers will continue at present levels of activity.

As cyclic as trends are, and the fact that some trends have an element of "anti-" whatever the last craze was, I won't be too surprised if there's another acoustic, or "anti-pedal", or folk, or "unplugged" trend somewhere around the corner. If or when that happens, however, not everyone on that bandwagon will completely leave pedals behind.

[charmonder]

As cyclic as trends are, and the fact that some trends have an element of "anti-" whatever the last craze was, I won't be too surprised if there's another acoustic, or "anti-pedal", or folk, or "unplugged" trend somewhere around the corner. If or when that happens, however, not everyone on that bandwagon will completely leave pedals behind.

This!
1- Late night TV musical guest:  "unplugged" aesthetic buzz band.
2- year later.
3- Same show, same band, everyone singing through vocoder.


Anyhow I love that old boss AC-2 acoustic simulator pedal.

[CodeMonk]

A new line of delays will come out with a fixed 2.58 second delay.  This is obtained by modulating an RF carrier, aiming it at the moon and recovering the returned signal.  This effect will only be available for the half of the day that the moon is visible.  Recording studios will adjust their schedules accordingly.

And the mix will be determined by the phase of the moon...
(Yeah, I looked it up : http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases.phtml ).

First Quarter--------Mix :  12.50%
Waxing Crescent------Mix :  25.00%
New------------------Mix :  37.50%
Waning Crescent------Mix :  50.00%
Third Quarter--------Mix :  62.50%
Waning Gibbous-------Mix :  75.00%
Full-----------------Mix :  87.50%
Waxing Gibbous-------Mix : 100.00%

[duck_arse]

After having a look around and talking with some people involved in the business end of pedals and amps, etc, here's another prediction. The trend probably began in 2013, but anyway.....


As cyclic as trends are, and the fact that some trends have an element of "anti-" whatever the last craze was, I won't be too surprised if there's another acoustic, or "anti-pedal", or folk, or "unplugged" trend somewhere around the corner. If or when that happens, however, not everyone on that bandwagon will completely leave pedals behind.

I'm running after that bandwagon. I've started by modifing my orange squeezer. it can now be used unplugged, for all the "strohtocaster" players. I hope there's lot's of them.