Fitting a 1U Rack Piece Under PT-Pro

jufros · #1 10-13-2009, 08:34 AM

I really really want to do this. If I got larger feet I think I could fit it. Anyone know of a particularly method?

gastric · #2 10-13-2009, 09:31 AM

By the time you stick a power strip, power supply (Voodoo, etc.) I'm not sure even with larger feet (which are permanently riveted, not screwed, onto the frame) if you'd be able to fit a 19" wide 1U rack item under there. But it sounds like a reasonable idea to make more use of that wasted space under there.

jufros · #3 10-13-2009, 11:57 AM

What I really want to do is figure out the best way to connect all of my pedals to a midi bypass looper, but I have enough of them that I'd need 8-12, meaning I'd either have to buy a large assortment of 4-loop units and mount them underneath my PT-Pro or wire each individual pedal into my rack at every gig (really unattractive proposition).

**TheMutt** · #4 10-13-2009, 12:29 PM

Best bet would be to find one of those pedalboards in or out of production that has a built in rack space. I know that there are some custom-made pedalboards that offer this option. Extremely heavy though.

gastric · #5 10-13-2009, 12:42 PM

I had a PedalPad with a built in 3U rack. But it only had 6" of usable depth. And you couldn't fit nearly as many pedals on it as a PedalTrain Pro, and certainly nothing extremely large like Moog pedals without losing a ton of pedal space as you couldn't fit a Moog and Boss pedal vertically together. But if you had a bunch of really short depth rack gear you wanted to use it certainly did make it nice and tidy.

IMO this is where MIDI rack gear wins. You get a MIDI foot controller, one MIDI cable runs to the gear, and it all sits tidy in a rack. Unfortunately there's simply not rack gear that can replace a lot of the specialty pedals you're using.

Your other option is to mount your pedals in a rack, switcher in a rack, rack gear in a rack, and a foot controller to control it. I've seen where people mount the pedals in drawers so you can slide them out to access the pedals to adjust them when needed. As a bonus it'd keep the pedals from getting adjusted when you DONT want them too, like the knobs on the Brown Dog which seem to move on their own thanks to the silly easy-to-turn pots used.

Just throwing out potential options and ideas.

jufros · #6 10-13-2009, 03:24 PM

A friend of mine informed me that these actually work great! I'm highly tempted to sell a guitar (gross) and buy 4 of them.

http://www.peak2005.com/i/index.php/cPath/22

gastric · #7 10-13-2009, 03:49 PM

Sounds pretty sweet. I saw some Peak MIDI foot controllers on eBay back when I was searching but hadn't heard of the manufacturer before. Based on the fairly poor English it seemed like a Chinese company advertising in the US, so I was concerned about warranty service.

But they always have good feature sets. MIDI Thru, power thru, lots of good stuff. And that particular product should fit under a PedalTrain I'd think, since they're smallish.

In conclusion. Buy one, try it, and let me know how it works.

Would solve a lot of problems with some of the pedals that have terrible bypass, yet maintain nice, tidy MIDI control.

jufros · #8 10-13-2009, 07:12 PM

Exactly. If I could switch up to 16 pedals on and off just by changing presets on the MP-201 I'd be in heaven too.

jufros · #9 10-19-2009, 01:16 AM

Well after much deliberation and planning, I've actually figured out a way to do everything that I wanted to with my rig.

This is what my pedalboard looks like at the moment (apologies for cell phone photo):

That open space in the top right corner is going to a custom built Mammoth clone w/ active sub bass boost and top-mounted jacks. I went to Lowe's over the weekend and picked up a bunch of 1 and 1/4'' rubber stoppers, a 1 and 1/4'' dowel, and a bunch of 1/4'' pads.

First, I removed the PT-Pro's stock rubber feet. Then, I sawed the dowel into pieces that were just large enough to fit inside the rubber stoppers. Next, I drilled some holes into the PT-Pro for my new "feet" and then power-screwed new screws through the feet and into the PT-Pro frame. Finally, I gorilla glued two of the 1/4'' pads underneath each new foot.

This gave me an additional 1 and 1/4'' clearance underneath the PT-Pro. So now I have almost exactly 4'' in the rear and 2'' in the front. I have a BBE Supa Charger mounted in the back right and a power strip mounted in the back left. The BBE powers everything except for the Eventide pedals, Photron, and Philosopher's Tone. The Eventides are each powered off of a 1-spot charger equipped with a line 6 adapter. The Photron is powered by an 18V AC adapter. The Philosopher's tone requires 12-18V and has its own adapter as well. These 5 wall chargers and the BBE power cord are all plugged into the mounted power strip.

I now definitely have enough room to mount a Rocktron Patchmate and a relatively cheap ($188 shipped) Peak MIDI bypass looper (http://www.peak2005.com/i/product_in...products_id/42). I've tracked down a great deal on one of the older Rocktron Pathmates which has 9 loops, each of which can be triggered on or off with each MIDI program change message. The Peak looper has 4 loops.

This gives me a total of 13 loops. Discounting the Philosopher's Tone and the first LS-2 at the beginning of my chain (only used as a buffered 3-way splitter to feed the trigger input jacks on the Photron and Fatman), I have 13 analog pedals and 3 Eventide pedals on the board. Since you can both recall patches on the Eventides or, as of the latest software updates, bypass them with MIDI program change messages, I'll have exactly enough loops to put one pedal in each loop. I'm also now using an ADA MB-1 MIDI controllable preamp.

So, whenever I change programs on the MP-201, I'll be able to do the following...

- Engage or bypass any pedal on my board
- Recall an MB-1 patch (tube or solid state or a blend, 5-band semi-parametric EQ, tube overdrive, chorus that I won't use much, compression threshold and ratio)
- Set the cutoff value on the Moog MF-101 LPF
- Set the cutoff value on the Photron
- Set the frequency and wave values on the Freqbox
- Recall patches on all 3 Eventide pedals or bypass whichever ones I'm not using
- The kicker: pre-programmed expression control of any parameters on all 3 Eventides, cutoff on MF-101 and Photron, and frequency and wave on the Freqbox with the MP-201's expression pedal.

I'm pretty much positive that this will address my main gripes with my synth bass rig. For one, I'll be able to switch through as many sounds per song as I deem artistically legitimate instead of relying on two or three that I can tap dance to as long they don't require more than 3 separate taps at the absolute maximum. Secondly, I'll be able to build a huge library (100 or so) of patches that incorporate both analog and digital pedals. This is going to be huge. I'll be able to walk into any audition or studio gig and a seriously diverse library to offer in response to any requests. I'll also completely retain the ability to tweak everything myself manually by leaving all of the bypass loops open.

All I really need now is the PGR4 bypass looper and I think I'll have successfully put together a very professional setup here. The pedal board project has taken countless hours of planning and deliberation, but I think it probably rivals my favorite synths as the most personally artistically expressive piece of gear I have. The difference with the board is that it took a really significant amount of creative energy to build it and make it come alive.

fightthepower · #10 10-19-2009, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jufros

That open space in the top right corner is going to a custom built Mammoth clone w/ active sub bass boost and top-mounted jacks. I went to Lowe's over the weekend and picked up a bunch of 1 and 1/4'' rubber stoppers, a 1 and 1/4'' dowel, and a bunch of 1/4'' pads.

Open space? lol.. some great gear there, but that thing is busting at the seams!

jufros · #11 10-19-2009, 06:16 AM

Haha I know I know. I really just obsess over flexibility and routing. If I had to ditch something, it would definitely be the Orbit. It's really unique but I think it's my least-used pedal. I'm currently using it for one song. I normally don't keep pedals I use that infrequently. If I can't incorporate it more often in the near future, I'll definitely be selling it.

I'm also thinking about mounting a 3-way splitter underneath and kicking the first LS-2 off.

gastric · #12 10-19-2009, 06:58 AM

For your next trick we want to see what you lug that mofo around in.

It definitely will not fit in the stock hard case, and probably not the stock gigbag. There's too much stuff hanging over the edges.

Once you get all the MIDI stuff programmed and functional we'd all love a video demonstration of the MP201 controlling everything.

jufros · #13 10-19-2009, 08:15 AM

I actually had a friend make a case for my Korg Triton a while ago. I hit him up about doing a similar one for the new pedal board and he said he'd be willing granted the time. It would be really reasonable to go with him so I'll probably do that.

I've definitely been slacking off on clips and/or demos but life has been fairly busy lately and part of me thinks it might be better to just record a bunch of them and host them all at the same time. I might be able to do a few later this week though. Is there anything in particular you'd like to hear?

As far as board space is concerned...

I'm definitely still designing this thing but I'm positive that the first LS-2 will be leaving. I'll be mounting a buffered splitter underneath and plug my bass into that. I'm just looking for the right splitter. The Axess BS-2 seems like a good option but it's $150. I think I can definitely get away with a 2-way buffered splitter, run one output to my pedals, and then passively split the 2nd output into the trigger inputs on the Photron and Fatman. Anyone know what the most cost effective and compact unit would be? I don't need a stomp switch at all.

Ideally, I'd like to be running the Modfactor and Timefactor in parallel loops. I've tried this out with an LS-2 and the results were absolutely fantastic. Most notably, I was able to get really awesome polyrhythmic sounds by, for example, assigning the Modfactor's LFO to subdivide in triplets while the Timefactor was subdividing in duplets. Tremolo/Digital Delay, Rotary/Tape Emulation Delay, and Square Wave Phaser/Reverse Delay were some of my favorite combinations. I'm looking for a MIDI controllable parallel looper / blender to accomplish this.

I've talked to a few people about custom designs and if I just wanted 2 inputs with on/off controls for each and one output, it wouldn't be unaffordable. If I wanted to be able to recall specific blend ratios with MIDI program change messages, it would definitely be much too expensive. Another solution would be to pick up a used 2-channel Rolls mixer and stick it in a MIDI bypass loop. Either way, I'll be mounting this equipment underneath the PT-Pro as well and so ultimately have both LS-2's off the board. That will definitely give me some breathing room but more importantly, some really unique ways of running tempo-based modulation and delay.

I might also sell the Orbit fairly soon. I really really like it but it would a) give me more than enough room with the above mentioned changes and b) help finance them.