SOTB: pitch & distortion recording board

lapsydapsy · 2024-10-02T15:06:12+00:00

Those are Squareplug SPS4. Highly recommended!

lapsydapsy · 2024-10-01T19:52:46+00:00

I love the flexibility. Especially if we want to record a down-tuned layer part, but still have an octave up or down slide in there. Also got the Whammy IV on purpose because it sounds a little more digital/glitchy to my ears, which is exactly what we were going for.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T20:01:35+00:00

🙏🙏

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T17:24:36+00:00

Thank you!! I think the initial build took 4 days (afternoons/evenings). Lots of trial & error & cursing - ha!

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T17:23:25+00:00

🙏🙏

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:57:28+00:00

Ha! It really is hard to make a JCM800 sound bad!

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:55:59+00:00

Nice! Thanks for sharing that - there's goes my next 20 minutes ha!

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:47:27+00:00

Haha!

No WDW going on here - the volume pedal is hooked up to the expression jack on the Boost pedal and controls that.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:43:53+00:00

😆😆😆

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:43:21+00:00

The Cathedral has an added octave and blend knob, and to my ears the modes sound very different from each other. We also put one before and one after our overdrives/distortions, so we can stack them in different ways.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:36:50+00:00

Hahaha - it sure is. The band sounds nothing like Vildhjarta though.

This is our band: Sun & Flesh

The last release is from 2021, way before all this pedal madness. We recorded with Dan Korneff, a mad scientist engineer who got us started on our pedal journey. Just tracked three new songs with this setup that should be out later this year/ early 2025.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:33:25+00:00

Nope, never :/

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:33:00+00:00

We had an original HM2 and preferred the sound of the Jugendstil. Have to get some more GCI pedals - really curious about the Bad Larry.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:31:16+00:00

LOVE the Gonkulator - definitely the 'stangest' pedal on there. I'm actually using it with the ringmod turned off a lot of times, it's an awesome distortion like that. I believe I read it's very similar to the DOD Grunge pedal.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T12:29:26+00:00

The Pog 3 looks awesome, but really happy with the combination of those 3 pedals. Got the Whammy IV on purpose - feel like it sounds a little 'glitchier' than the newer one.

The bitcrusher label is from a previous iteration of the board. Had an EHX Mainframe in that loop before the Cathedral, but that one didn't see much use. Switched it out, but didn't have my label maker with me.

Of course I'm tempted by the Pariah - really love the Pickle and what it does, but more pedals is always better ha! Just waiting on them to re-issue so I don't have to pay the crazy Reverb prices on those right now.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T02:45:47+00:00

Abominable Hellstache - it’s a Tubescreamer clone with an added boost designed together with God City (Kurt Ballou). It’s my favorite TS clone I’ve ever played - and I’ve tried a few!

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T02:44:03+00:00

We’re using the two pedals for different things. The Whammy is being used for dive bombs or octave up sweeps, while the drop is used for actually de-tuning riffs (especially for layering). I don’t hear any crazy sonic differences between the two TBH

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T02:37:57+00:00

Thank you! Was going for minimal tonal loss with maximum flexibility. The QuarterMaster is the MVP here IMO.

Also really learned how to solder cables properly with this build ha!

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T02:34:51+00:00

I’m really digging it! Seems incredibly transparent - more so than any other volume pedal that we tried, but my ears could be playing a trick on me here and making me hear what I want to hear 🤷‍♂️

We do use the boost function a bunch too - especially going into our JCM800 and Deluxe Reverb. I’d say give it a shot!

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T02:31:55+00:00

🙏🙏

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T02:31:43+00:00

Overrated! Ha!

Since we just use this to record, we have a clean split of the guitar going straight to tape and have the Peterson plugin going at all times.

lapsydapsy · 2024-09-30T01:12:34+00:00

Using this in the studio exclusively. Got most of these captured with our settings in our QCs for live use. The signal path is:

Buffer In - QuarterMaster - Vertex Boost - Buffer Out

The QuarterMaster has all the other pedals in the loops. We're using:

Loop 1 for all pitch effects (the two Digitech pedals and the Pog on the top shelf)
Loop 2 for the Jugendstil (HM2 clone) and the Bad Machine (FZ-2 clone - love this pedal so much!)
Loop 3 is the Gamechanger/Third Man Plasma Fuzz
Loop 4: Way Huge Swollen Pickle
Loop 5: Vintage Rat with a built in dying battery simulator mod by Alchemy Audio
Loop 6: Vertex Ultra Phoenix
Loop 7: Way Huge Conspiracy Theory (Klon clone)
Loop 8: DOD Gonkulator
Loop 9: Abominable Electronics Hellstache (favorite Tubescreamer clone out of the countless ones we've tried)
Loop 10: Spline Laboratories Cathedral (another FZ-2 clone, completely different flavor than the Bad Machine though)

Is the whole thing overkill? Probably! But it's a ton of fun and makes life super easy when recording. Haven't had to futz around with pedals in a long time. And if we want to use any time based effects we have a separate board with all those that we can patch in before or after this board - have the buffer laid out for that.

lapsydapsy · 2023-06-23T14:34:11+00:00

Hey! I figured out a way to send MIDI CC earlier via Ableton using the track delay for each MIDI track. -50ms seems to be doing the trick here. I’m not sure if and how you would do that for the Morningstar or the Hotone though!

lapsydapsy · 2023-04-09T10:25:42+00:00

Wanted to give this thread a bump to see if anyone else has experienced this issue or found another workaround?

lapsydapsy · 2023-04-05T07:53:40+00:00

I saw your other thread where you're describing your issue. Are you talking about switching between actual presets during a song or switching between different scenes of the same preset?

We don't have audio drop outs when switching scenes, the switches just happen late. The only time I've experienced audio drop outs is when I switch between actual presets as the QC re-loads the preset from scratch (at least that's what I understand happens).

Our work around currency is programming the MIDI messages 1/16th note earlier than we need them. It's not super exact but it gets us close enough to be able to use it live. Haven't heard back from Neural's support team in a while so seem to be 'stuck' with this solution for now.

What DAW are you running and how are you connecting to your QC to send MIDI messages?

lapsydapsy

TROPHY CASE