Designing a Meatball clone, input wanted

[Spencer!]

***Update 4-8-08: It lives! Pictures posted below, sound clips to follow.***



Hey guys, I'm designing a Meatball clone, but I'm doing things a little differently. It will of course be much smaller and cheaper than the original, but my main goal is to make it easier to use. I've got the control layout mostly figured out, but I'd love any input that Meatball users have on what they would like to see in a clone.

So far, here are the controls I've decided on:

Knobs:

Attack
Decay
Sensitivity
Intensity

Switches:

Color (yes, I'm turning the color knob into a color switch, which should make it way easier to use)
Up/Down
Frequency (this will be a 3-position, leaving out the lowest position, which I found to be not very usable)

Jacks:
In/Out
FX loop Send/Return
The pedal jacks are gone; they were pretty much useless for most people anyway.



Comments? Suggestions?

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by Spencer!

It will of course be much smaller and cheaper than the original

Good luck with that.

Originally Posted by Spencer!

The pedal jacks are gone; they were pretty much useless for most people anyway.

While I don't know what "most people" find useful, if I bought a Meatball clone I'd be disappointed if there was not even one expression pedal input.

[Spencer!]

Originally Posted by bongomania

While I don't know what "most people" find useful, if I bought a Meatball clone I'd be disappointed if there was not even one expression pedal input.

Perhaps "clone" isn't really the word I'm looking for. It uses the same components and circuitry, but values and controls have been changed to make the pedal retain the same sound, yet be easier to use.

The expression pedal jacks are really finicky; they only really work right with one type of pedal that is not readily available. Hell, even Mario at Robot Factory doesn't put them standard on the Meatwad. Eliminating them is necessary to fit the pedal into the box I'm using (4.5in x 3.5in x 1.25in).

[markjazzbassist]

the features that mattered to me

Decay
Attack (kinda, but really i just kept it in the same spot)
colour
intensity
up/down
filter setting (Hi, Hi-mid, low-mid, low)

I kept everything else dimed (Blend, Sense, and Full [the 1/2 and off settings were IMO useless])

Good luck. I loved the sounds available with the Meatball, i just didn't like searching for them and then losing them and then constantly tweaking.

[Spencer!]

Originally Posted by markjazzbassist

the features that mattered to me

Decay
Attack (kinda, but really i just kept it in the same spot)
colour
intensity
up/down
filter setting (Hi, Hi-mid, low-mid, low)

I kept everything else dimed (Blend, Sense, and Full [the 1/2 and off settings were IMO useless])

Thanks for the input. The half/full/off switch will be permanently on full, and the blend will be full on. I need to keep the sensitivity knob because this needs to be adjusted to the output of each guitar or bass.

I'm tossing around some ideas for the attack knob. I was thinking about only giving it the first half of its range, which I think will suit most people's purposes well.

Good luck. I loved the sounds available with the Meatball, i just didn't like searching for them and then losing them and then constantly tweaking.

I think this feeling was shared by many. This is my reason for making this pedal.

[Silent Fly]

Originally Posted by Spencer!

Perhaps "clone" isn't really the word I'm looking for. (...)

I agree, I don’t think you are cloning. "Redesign", "improve"...?

Best of luck and keep us informed about your progress.

[grygrx]

Umm blend is like 1/2 the magic.

[speak_onion]

Looks like it may not be so easy to get a consensus on what controls are useful, and which ones aren't. Maybe that's why the meatball has so many controls. . .

[Spencer!]

Originally Posted by grygrx

Umm blend is like 1/2 the magic.

I know this is a feature many people like, but I don't really like the way it works on the meatball. I personally think a blend knob should be its own pedal, and that's the next pedal I'm going to make.

[Benjamin Strange]

The blend knob is super important - some settings sounded best with it all the way up, some sounded best halfway.

That pedal sounds the way it does because all those controls work together - take away features and you don't have a Meatball anymore.

[Spencer!]

Prototype boards have been ordered and I'll have a few prototypes built in 2 weeks or so.

The board is 3in x 4.25in!

[astralis]

I built a Meatball clone myself, and it was nice but... I almost ALWAYS set it up to get the same tone that I got from my Mutron III clone. It was a great pedal and all and i liked having it, but I ended up giving it to my guitar player...

Blending is soooo important! I blend just about every effect I use and have an overall blend as well. The Splitter-Blender from ROG is hours of fun. I love taking a boost with a lpf on it and a crazy distortion like a rat and blending the two together and then using that loop with another one to blend all of that into a phaser, then having a master blend for clean tone... I'm having way too much fun with this circuit, haha =].

[SFjonstarr]

Maybe you could put on a toggle switch that went from 50-50 wet/dry to 100% wet. Then you could use the full range of the color knob.

[Spencer!]

Prototype boards arrived!

Here are some pics next to the Meatball for a size comparison.

[bbe]

when this is all done, ill buy one.

[Stu L.]

Subscribing, as I have all the parts for a MB filter

[Spencer!]

I got it working today, and it sounds great! There are still some bugs to work out, but hopefully I'll have some sound clips posted tonight.

[Toasted]

Spencer, did you design that PCB yourself?

[Spencer!]

Not exactly. I've got a good friend who had a degree in electrical engineering, and this stuff is cake for him. I designed the size and feature set, and he used a computer program that automatically routs the board.

[jonpopu]

Originally Posted by Spencer!

a computer program that automatically routs the board.

Well that's pretty nifty! Looking forward to soundclips.