Monthly Archive for July, 2007

Opsound or Duck And Cover

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kubton
on July 20, 2007
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Last post was on Soundsnap which reminded me of another great site filled with free samples Opsound. Both these sites are give a place for all those unused samples and sounds forgotten on our hard drives to go to maybe used by another. A nice idea that someones sound that didn’t work out or some gift snippet could become inspiration for another.

Another great source for free samples is the Internet Archive. They have audio but the really cool stuff is the video they have especially The Prelinger Archive. This collection of ephemera is great for cutting up and setting it to your music. And there are a million lines of nutty vocals just waiting stripped off and loaded into a sampler.

Besides the music and media possibilities you just might learn something(from a turtle even) like how to survive a nuclear holocaust from the 1951 classic Duck & Cover.

Soundsnap or Another Way to Share

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kubton
on July 20, 2007
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I just found this new site called Sonundsnap it seems pretty cool. It basically is a place to share samples. Use the the ones there and upload your own to be used. What could be wrong with free samples.

Overdrive Preamp/250 Reissue

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kubton
on July 19, 2007
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Maker: DOD

Year: Currently in Production

Fame: I reissue of a famous and beloved pedal from the 70’s

Mojo Factor: It is based on some thing old, famous and looks retro.

Price: Extremely affordable.

General Sound Description: It is a nice soft clipping overdrive.

Who it’s for: Someone that wants the sound but does want to fork over for the the original. Anyone that is looking for an affordable and good sounding overdrive. A lot of bass players love it.

Controls:

Knobs:

gain

level

on/off (footswitch)

Schematics, info, etc.:

This is almost identical pedal to the MXR Distortion +

Schematic

Tone pad clone

GGG clone

Reviews

Sample

Modibility: See above.

Plugins or Everyone Loves Free Stuff

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kubton
on July 19, 2007
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My website Kubton.com is still under massive construction but the Free Plugin Guide is up. It is list of the best free VST plugins organized by category. I hope it will help wade through the thousand of plugins out there. Some real jewels are included.

Darkware or Tools to Destroy Your Audio

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kubton
on July 19, 2007
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Darkware has a whole bunch of plugins to mangle your audio. If you like glitchy, nasty, freak sounds and experimentation they are for you. Pretty hardcore stuff including R-rated skins. The effects are like the digital version of circuit bends.

The Hammer of the Gods or the Man Behind the Curtian

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kubton
on July 18, 2007
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I just watched the American Master Les Paul: Chasing Sound. It was a good show but focused more on his excellent musicianship than the technical stuff. It is most like available on the web if you wish. What an amazing man. He is both in the Inventors and Rock N’ Roll hall of fame.When most hear the words, “Les Paul” they think of the famous guitar model that has somewhat become the “Hammer of the Gods.” It is associated with heavy music from guys like Page, Townsend, and Slash. That is a shame though because he invented what is now the referred to as multi-tracking or over dubbing. He called it, “sound on sound.” He start out doing it on wax with homemade equipment built out of car parts. Later, he figured out how to make it more practical by doing it on tape about and hour after getting the one of the first Ampex tape recorders from Bing Crosby. Later Les and Ampex built the first 8-track recorder in his garage in 1953/4. Talk about about an influence on music. Even without his contributions to electric guitar development or his pioneering effects devices. Not to mention hit records and shows on TV and Radio. Anything you listen to now has it finger prints on it but to most people I his legacy is veiled by the guitar that bears his name. He was the first to lose the the studio as an instrument to create new sounds rather than just capture them. That might not seem the big of a deal now in the age of Ableton Live but then WOW.

Into his 90’s he still gigs ever Monday Night. How many people that played Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, and jammed with Jazz greats like Django Reinhardt are still gigging?. Plus the guy never has stopped tinkering.

It might the fact that I am a little geeky but I think the coolest thing he did was build one of the first practical electric guitars out of a 2 X 4. That should be the “Hammer or the Gods.”

Fab Flange

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kubton
on July 17, 2007
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Maker: Danelectro

Type: Flanger.

Year: Currently in Production.

Fame: Not much

Mojo Factor: Its plastic shell holds a mojoless soul.

Price: Super cheap.

General Sound Description: A basic flanger that does the that sweep effect that we all know and love.

Who it’s for: Some that just turn some cans into the recycler and has a few extra bucks. Or a beginner that doesn’t want to make big investments yet. It has toy like prices so if you just want to play around with it the price is right.

Info: Sample

Modibility: At the price it is dying to be rehouse modded and bent.

Manufacturer’s Sales Pitch:

A knockout.

DS-1 or The Levitation Controls for a Land Speeder.

Published
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kubton
on July 17, 2007
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This ugly thing is my modded Boss DS-1. It reminds me of the 1st Star Wars movies. Maybe because it just has a bunch of random knobs all over the place like the control panels in those films. That and it completely lacks guards rails.

These things are cheap and less than wonderful so I got one with the intention of modding it. The Keely mods are of course famous. So, I looked into it here at the Keely site to get an idea of where to start. I also found these excellent tutorials from Overdrive Spider about performing the Keely mods.

I didn’t see the sense in changing the caps unless the values were different. So, I did the cap and resistor mods to different values. The Keely mods alter the clipping section to either the ALL SEEING EYE or THE ULTRA. They do sound impressive don’t they. Of course you could put a switch in to get both but I was not satisfied there.

I tried out my own diodes combinations. I really liked the 2 yellow 5mm LED’s the best(I am not sure if yellow is special I just had ‘em.) Go figure. I encourage you if you are modding it to try different things. Anyway that knob under the tone control is not a pot. It is the tiny 1p6t rotary switch from Small Bear. So, instead of 2 I have 6 clipping options. I t was a tight squeeze. I point to point wired it keeping wires short as possible. Granted some of the differences are subtle(as the distortion is turned up it becomes less differentiated) between the different diodes but some of the are quite different. I understand clipping a little (unlike many other things) so it is fun and easy to play around with. Something like this can really be used with most distortion pedals. The only draw back is there is a volume difference between the different clippers. 4 diodes could be used to keep the volume up. After the mod is seems less harsh and smoother. I good thing to my ears but maybe not to yours.

The toggle switch is one of the bends suggested by Overdrive Spider. Thanks to him for that. I never thought of bending it for some reason. When I was kid I thought I was breaking everything come to find I was being cool and bending it. The one problem with the bend is it introduces noise which is a good thing for a circuit bend. But if it is left on and the pedal bypassed you still get noise. Never the less it is cool.

Here is another DS-1 mod link.

Black Finger

Published
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kubton
on July 16, 2007
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Maker: Electro-Harmonix

Type: Compressor

Year: Currently in Production

Fame: Its uniqueness sets it apart from the herd.

Mojo Factor: Tubes and vintage style circuit doing compression the old fashion way earns serious mojo points. Plus there is a sense of danger stomping on 300 volts.

Price: Expensive.

General Sound Description: An analog chorus and digital echo(that sounds pretty analog) pedal that is highly tweakable.

Who it’s for: Someone that wants true tube compression in pedal form. Or some that wants the relative transparency of tube compression in pedal form.

Circuit: 2 12ax7 tubes running at a full 300 volts! On tube gain one tube for the photocell compressor section. LED’s and incandescents as light sources.

Info: Review Manual

Manufacturer’s Sales Pitch:

THE BLACK FINGER IS THE ONLY OPTOISOLATOR PHOTOCELL, DUAL VACUUM TUBE COMPRESSOR PEDAL ON THE MARKET! SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It means that the Black Finger uses the same professional-grade techniques that the most revered, vintage and mega-thousand dollar, high-end studio compressors use, except that it’s in the form of an affordable, compact foot pedal! Two different light sources (LED and lamp) provide distinctly different readings and offer uniquely varied compressions. One tube handles the compression stage while the other manages the gain stage. And unlike other “tube” hyped products on the market, which use 9 to 50 volts, the Black Finger’s design allows a full 300 volts of swing to be utilized. This makes it a true tube compressor in every sense.

Whether used as part of an effects loop or with direct guitar, bass or voice, the Black Finger will give music the type of treatment that simply cannot be achieved via plug-in emulation or with any other analog or digital product that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars.

The Black Finger breathes life and warmth into any musical instrument or recording and makes it sound magical. It’s further proof the Electro-Harmonix is changing the way players think about their pedals.

Yet Another Clone or OH! so Juicy

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kubton
on July 16, 2007
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I found these free plugins from BTE Audio. It was a complete accident one of those serendipitous search events on the Internet. Anyway I downloaded them and tried them out just a little. The are pretty good. I am not sure the world needs another Tube Screamer clone digital or otherwise but the TS Secret sounds like a overdrive pedal alright. I compared to the Simulanalog TS clone and it was pretty similar. The Secret sounds a little more “alive” maybe be dependant on the sound going in but it has a gui witch gives it an edge.

I liked Juicy77 best. I got some good sounds from it immediately. It is simple yet versatile. My kind of thing. It has the controls to give you tweakability but doesn’t go overboard. Despite being referred as a high gain amp don’t think of it only as this on goes to 11 kind of thing. Good clean sounds are there also. I am assuming it is based on the Gibson Vanguard GA-77 which had a high gain channel (lead button on the plugin.) I am not sure how closely it modeled on the GA-77 spec but even if you are not familiar with the GA-77 you might be with a Vox AC30. The high gain channel on the GA-77 is the same circuit as the brilliance channel on a AC30. How much the same read this. The speaker simulations are good but I like the fact you can turn them off. Nice detail. All around pretty cool.