Memories of NAMM '06

[smallbearelec]

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Updates.htm

[BILLYL]

Really COOL.  Will have to go next year............

Bill

[A.S.P.]

Thanks!

some more pics (by Alfonso Hermida) to be found following this link:
http://musictoyz.infopop.cc/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/4066066091/m/7171088663

[Peter Snow]

Someone over on the SDIY list posted this link. http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2006/index.html    Mostly pictures of synths but enough guitar pedals to be of interest here also. 

One I have not seen before is the EH Hog - some kind of guitar synth and octave pedal rolled into one.  Does anyone know anything about this?  Is it new?  Also the EH 2880 multi-track looper - looks really cool.  A nice pic of Paul's Frostwave pedals there also.

Cheers,

Peter

PS: Check out Eric Barbour's Metasonix tube synth. Awesome! But I bet it's expensive.

[RDV]

Thanks!

some more pics (by Alfonso Hermida) to be found following this link:
http://musictoyz.infopop.cc/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/4066066091/m/7171088663

Ha!
I thought everybody knew R.G. was 7 feet tall!

RDV

[hank reynolds 3rd]

http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2006/eh_hog.html

damn ,that looks like something tasty!!!  if it isn't dsp, i'm guessing it uses the 4017 trick from C.A's mods to the rocktave ( 1 and 2 oct's down,plus 5ths down ..)
I'm sooooo envious, as I'm trying/planning to do this with a pearl octave i'm working on cloning and modding....GGrrr, damn Namm

[PharaohAmps]

Re: the new EHX stuff - I'm a New Sensor dealer (mostly for parts but I occasionally buy pedals to use or resell) and I got a new retail price list the other day with my '06 catalog.  There's some other new stuff in there besides the Hog and the 2880 (which looks real cool,) like a "Metal Muff," and more.  I'm placing an order this week and was planning on getting a Hog to try out, but the retail on them is real high.  Heck, even my price on them is real high.  Add in that you need to buy the foot controller separately (like the 16 Second Delay) and it adds up to a very pricey setup.  Not that it's not cool and funky, but if you're not REALLY into weirdness or guitar-synthery, the Hog is probably not what you want.  I got by for years with my trusty EH Micro Synthesizer, and later with my Line6 FM-4 (Octisynth, anyone?  Like a giant squid eating potato chips at a depth of 2,000 fathoms!) but even I would probably never use something like the Hog in a live context.

Anobody who wants a Hog (or 2880, or any thing else EHX-related,) PM me.

Matt Farrow

[Mark Hammer]

http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2006/eh_hog.html

damn ,that looks like something tasty!!!  if it isn't dsp, i'm guessing it uses the 4017 trick from C.A's mods to the rocktave ( 1 and 2 oct's down,plus 5ths down ..)
I'm sooooo envious, as I'm trying/planning to do this with a pearl octave i'm working on cloning and modding....GGrrr, damn Namm

Not even close.  My guess is that this unit is to the P.O.G. as the Holiest Grail is to the Holy Grail.  In other words, largely digital, with more features tapped in the bigger more costly model.  When I tried the P.O.G. this past autumn, my first impression (after "Why don't *I* have $4000 to throw at this right now?") was that the filter sounded great - "If only there was a way of controlling the filter for expression purposes".  Clearly, that has been tended to.

The P.O.G. and H.O.G. are both polyphonic, meaning that the additional octaves and filter sweeps are applied to more than one note at a time.  From what I can tell, Microsynth sales are about to settle down a bit.  If this thing is priced right, it could easily displace the Microsynth as well as a variety of special-pickup guitar synths.  The P.O.G. doesn't need anything more than a normal guitar, and if the H.O.G. works as well under those conditions AND does more tricks, I think we have a winner.

[zachary vex]

great talking with you, Steve.  sure were some nice people at NAMM, huh?  8^)  especially at that one booth downstairs... good friends are good to have!

thanks for doing what you do.  it's a heck of a cool thing... if someone had a notion, they could start a pedal company and basically run the whole thing ordering from you in small quantities, and make a buck the first month!  woohoo!  one-stop shop for pedalmakers!

[zachary vex]

...When I tried the P.O.G. this past autumn, my first impression (after "Why don't *I* have $4000 to throw at this right now?") was that the filter sounded great - "If only there was a way of controlling the filter for expression purposes".  Clearly, that has been tended to...

hey Mark!  within 4 hours of purchasing my POG, i put in an expression jack to control the filter with an Ernie Ball Jr. cheapie volume pedal.  i even modded the pedal using its own holes to put in two pots for shaping the range of the pedal to make the sweep more exciting... everything in the POG is voltage-controlled.  just be careful when drilling into the case, not to hit the circuit board!  soldering to the board is a bit of a pain... i soldered to a via at one point.  i only had to cut one trace... the 1/4" insert disconnects the internal filter sweep slider but leaves it as a high-point limiter (its wiper becomes the master control voltage going to the expression pedal).  that way, when the expression pedal is disconnected, the unit functions as normal, and when it's connected, the internal filter slider sets the limit for how bright the filter can go, and the expression pedal sweeps the filter, and the pots on the expression pedal set what position the pedal goes through the most dramatic change.  it requires a stereo cable, of course.  works perfectly... people fall down when they hear it.

[aron]

From time to time I have offered EH pedals at (what I thought were) great prices, only to have very lackluster response. Oh well.

As far as NAMM, yeah, those were the days. If I manned the booth, I missed all the new stuff. If I played at the booth - I had to play a little too soft. If I walked the show, I did have fun, so in the end, I just walked the show :-)

[SeanCostello]

If the HOG is like the POG, I would put some serious money on it being DSP based. Definitely has that pitch shifter sound. I wonder what chip is being used (as I basically wonder for any DSP-related posts). I would like to try one out and see if it is "deglitched" or not. "Deglitching" can result in a far glitchier signal than a less intelligent pitch shifter, depending on the input.

Sean Costello

[A.S.P.]

From time to time I have offered EH pedals at (what I thought were) great prices, only to have very lackluster response. Oh well.

you got the wrong audience, here...

As far as NAMM, yeah, those were the days. If I manned the booth, I missed all the new stuff. If I played at the booth - I had to play a little too soft. If I walked the show, I did have fun, so in the end, I just walked the show :-)

go Frankfurt MusikMesse (march 29th - april 1st 2006),
they got a "soundsafe" booth...

[Mark Hammer]

Zach,

1) I *meant* to write $400 (Cdn, of course), and didn't realize I had typed in $4k.  Just so people  know, it is NOT all that expensive.

2) If installing an expression pedal is that easy, you've motivated me to think about getting one, although that H.O.G. is "hogging" my attention!

3)  I liked it with the filter just *sitting there*. I can well imagine that being able to control it would make it as expressive and impressive as I dreamed it could be.

Question: Seeing the various "Seek" pedals you make laid out in a row, the number 8 comes up regularly with respect to the sequencer stages.  Now I realize there are limits to how much you can shove in those boxes and still be able to twiddle the knobs, and I also figure if you have a basic building block (like an 8-stage sequencer) that works dependably, it's not wrong at all to think about the different contexts where it could be exploited to good use.  All of that being said, though, in your bench experiments, do you find that different kinds of modulated effects actually need different degrees of sequencer specificity to bring out their nuances?  Or conversely, can you actually live easily with LESS specificity - meaning sequencer stages - for some types of effects?  I'm not complaining or pointing out weaknesses.  I've just never had enough experiences with sequencers to have a gut feel for what might make me pine away for just 2 or 3 more sequencer stage, or leave me wondering what I was going to do with those 3 left over stages.

Incidentally, if others have sentiments or experiences in this area, I'd be curious about their take as well.

[The Tone God]

All of that being said, though, in your bench experiments, do you find that different kinds of modulated effects actually need different degrees of sequencer specificity to bring out their nuances?  Or conversely, can you actually live easily with LESS specificity - meaning sequencer stages - for some types of effects?  I'm not complaining or pointing out weaknesses.  I've just never had enough experiences with sequencers to have a gut feel for what might make me pine away for just 2 or 3 more sequencer stage, or leave me wondering what I was going to do with those 3 left over stages.

Incidentally, if others have sentiments or experiences in this area, I'd be curious about their take as well.

When I created The Original Vanishing Point which only had four stages I personal thought that was enough to get the "feel" for the effect. People seem to want more, and few other things, so I went off with what is now the current Vanishing Point with ten stages. I can see some addition advantage to having more stages. Usually you end up setting the speed to some multiple of the song's tempo so each stage becomes less of a per beat and more fractional allowing a nauance change in a beat/note akin to a touch of bent note or vibrato when playing.

The draw back I found though is since most trimpots are log it is hard to duplicate the previous stage if you don't want to have that change within the signal beat. To solve this I put in a series of "clone" switches that connects the previous stage pot in place of the current stage pot. This way it is exactly the same setting for the stages. A simple and nice feature that I like.

Andrew

[A.S.P.]

how about a reset-button ("Brubeck.switch") for: "Take Five" ? 

[moosapotamus]

The technosaurus cyclodon (16-step sequencer) has only four toggle switches that allow you make any number of steps active you like. They are labled +1, +2, +4, and +8. All off enables all 16 steps. All on enables 15 steps. +1 and +4 on enables five steps. And so on... Pretty simple slick.
http://www.technosaurus.ch/images/cyclodon.jpg

~ Charlie

[soggybag]

The +1, +2, + 4, + 8 switch idea is a great idea. Seems pretty simple. I like the Zvex idea also of the 4, 8, 6 switch. Combined with the random mode and you've covered the most of the usable options.

When will the Ring Tone and other new stuff be adde to the ZVEX site? I'm curious to get a better look and maybe a listen to the new items.

[SeanCostello]

http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2006/eh_hog.html

Just saw an interesting button on this:

SPECTRAL GATE

Whaaa? Are they actually doing FREQUENCY DOMAIN processing in this pedal? Or is this just a fancy term for freezing the contents of a delay buffer?

Most effects called Spectral ____ imply the use of FFTs and IFFTs, and usually some form of phase vocoder manipulation. Spectral Gating in the frequency domain would imply having gating on individual FFT bins, where signals below a certain amplitude are sent to zero amplitude. The results can sound like bad MP3 compression, or RealAudio, which is annoying when you are trying to listen to music, but can be cool as an effect.

I suppose that EHX could be using an MP3 encoder/decoder chip in the HOG, with some seriously abusive programming. However, I would still guess that they are doing time-domain processing, and that the Spectral Gate term is just a delay buffer freeze. I don't know of any stompboxes that perform frequency domain processing, apart from some simple autocorrelation to figure out splicing points for time-domain pitch shifters.

I REALLY want to know what chip or DSP EHX is using.

Sean Costello

[analogmike]

As far as NAMM, yeah, those were the days. If I manned the booth, I missed all the new stuff. If I played at the booth - I had to play a little too soft. If I walked the show, I did have fun, so in the end, I just walked the show :-)

Right on, it gives me headaches working a booth but I had a great time walking around. One day was not quite enough, but I did get to meet almost everyone including Zvex, RG, Alfonso, etc etc etc
Since we don't want to add dealers anyway (too busy!) not having a booth is perfect.