Pedal unification.

[vfr800fiman]

So after building a lot of pedal projects, and buying box after box to put them in, I thought of something :idea:
Has anyone ever considered putting all the effects boards in a rack mount enclosure? You could have a set of 1/4" jacks on the front panel for each effect, and re-order the effects like an old fashioned switch board with patch cables. I supposed you could make an uber footswitch board with all the stomp switches on it with a multi-conductor cable plugging back into the rack panel (AMP CPC type connector).
You can then even build-in a nice filtered power supply in the same rack box.
Any one ever done something like this?
Just a crazy idea.
Glenn

[Rodgre]

I've got a few things along these lines. One I built, and the other someone else built.

I took a bunch of small fuzz circuits (fuzz face, muff fuzz, fuzzrite, jen fuzz, octavia, etc....) and put them in a desktop box (that I bought from Radio Shack a few years ago. I powered it with a bipolar supply to get negative 9v for the fuzz face, and put toggle switches to bypass effects. It's a noisemaker, for sure, and it needs an update. I'm debating on rebuilding it from scratch sometime soon.

I also have a mysterious rack box that I got from a music store which someone mounted the guts of a Mutron Phasor II, a Boss BF-1 flanger, an MXR Distortion +, a Dynacomp and an Envelope Follower, and had an external foot controller with bypass switches for everything. It's very elaborate and pretty cool. Hell, if there was a Memory Man in it, it would probably be my whole rig!

Roger

[mlabbee]

This is madness!  Sheer madness!

Seriously, I've given it some thought - look at all the DIY modular synths out there that work exactly the same way - common power, mini patch cords, etc. - no reason why you couldn't do the same with effects.  

I'm not sure exactly how you do the switching -  if you use footswitches, they'd have to just control logic (otherwise adding in a long signal path like that would cause all sorts of problems), but that seems like it shouldn't be too hard.

[Mark Hammer]

Comes up here, again, and again, and again.

Well worth doing EXCEPT that you need to think of switching differently.  If you are accustomed to the simplicity that stompswitches provide, you will need to re-align your thinking and start thinking in terms of relays or FETs or CMOS switching, because the sad fact of the matter is that you can't stick a bunch of stompswitches on the front of a rack mount chassis.

The rear patch panel is quite feasible.  I know because I had such a package for a couple of years about 15 years ago.  If you decide to go through with it, I strongly urge you to include both an active splitter (2 or 3-way) and a mixer.  The options that make themselves available with parallel processing are too numerous to list.

[David]

Check out "Jimi in a Box", Grasshopper!  On GEO.  There all your questions will be answered.

[aaronkessman]

i think of this alot. the problem is switching. it's probably better to keep the stompbox format and just have one very long stompbox. i think RG mentions this when he talks about how to make boxes from aluminum 2x4 brackets on his site.

its a very appealing idea.

[Gilles C]

I saw a console like that in a pawnshop here in Quebec.

A 3 feet high full of Craig Anderton's effects... and a few of Boss effects. Maybe some other names, I don't remember well.

Looked very Rock or Metal.

Knobs and switches on the front panel, jack at the back.

[MartyMart]

Buy "Electronics projects for musicians"  by Craig Anderton, its showing its age a bit now, but he gives very detailed instructions on how to do this, and you also get some cool circuits, like "tube sound Fuzz"  a compressor etc etc,  good learning fodder !!

Marty.

[vfr800fiman]

Thanks for all the responses.
I've been meaning to buy that book.
Yes, the switching would have to be done with some logic circuit. Luckilly, I work with a few EE's, so they should be able to help me with this aspect of the project.
I knew I should have done the dual major in college (ME/EE)!
Glenn

[DDD]

Very very very good idea, but what about travelling with such a big thing?

[RedHouse]

I'm moving toward something like a unified setup too.

I'm kinda leaning toward RG's metal stud idea except using the wider or 2x8 metal studs using them lengthwise so I can make a long  box about 24" long. Or possibly some extruded aluminum I've seen around that might fit the task.

My plans are to assemble 2 of them that will lie parallel to each other, each holding a train of effects, hooked up in MY favorite chain but some having I/O jacks accessable from the outside for re-patching in a recording environment.

1. will be dedicated to the Trower/Hendrix sound, Univibe, FuzzFace, octavia, minimal ReboteDelay set for slapback, and a Chorus.
2. for other effects I like, OD/TS, Tycobrahe, Green Ringer, mod'd McTube, Phase90/100, SmallStone, Tremolo, Chorus, Flanger, PT80 delay and Reverb.
(with an option to plug in box 1 just before the delay)

Possibly each having a small headphone amp built in at the end of their chain.

I love having and using effects where appropriate, but I hate it when you get them dialed-in just right for a song or two and then got to tweak them in-between songs for some other sound during a set, seems like it's real hard to get them re-arranged in a hurry, and more importantly get them just right.

[R.G.]

I think you've seenthis one, but look if you haven't.

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/FXRack/fxrack.pdf

One other idea I had kicking around was to use two of the 2x6 or 2x8 sections with effects in them, and set the thing up with some spacers and hinges so I could fold two of them together effects-to-effects on removable hinges along the long side. This would make the studs into a steel box for transport. Heavy, but ...tough...

[guitarhacknoise]

or if your not that handy, don't have all the tools, or just lazy:
http://www.paia.com/fracrak.htm

and they also have Craig anderton's book and some kits for it:
http://www.paia.com/epfm.htm

-matthias

[Johnny Guitar]

This is exactly what I am trying to do here. I am intending on mounting all (well most of) my effects into the PAiA FracRack eclosures (see the link from guitarhacknoise above) and having a large foot comtroler hooked up remotely for swithcing.

As others have mentioned this is a big and dificult project and no one is currently supporting the switching technology part of the picture (I mean no one that I've seen is offering PCBs, schematics, BOM and instructions for something like the Millenium bypass). I know my feeble electronics skill are not yet up to the task of breadboarding such a project. I know that I will need to have a great many switches in order to make it work.

I'm hoping that someone will offer some switching PCBs and the rest soon. I know I would buy a whole bunch. The switching scheme looks simple enough that you could probably put (justifably) two switch circuits on one PCB -- I would still buy a bunch!

John

[guitarhacknoise]

hey johnny,
if you check out R.G.'s link above, it shows you how to make your own stomp box version of the "Frac rack" .  if you wanted you could attach tabs on the side and have a rack mountable stomp box, now this is where the switching would be needed.
I think C.A.'s book, Epfm, has a cmos electronic footswitch project in it.  Although I think the design is from around the mid to late 70's and there is probably a way better circuit out there with less noise and popping.
Basically, go to GEOFEX . The 8th article and the 14th article from the top.
RG's got ya covered.
-matthias
I think C.A.'s maybe a hellova lot simpler, but not as many control options.