Schumann siting on eBay!

[miskha]

Hello there!

I'm in no way related to this auction; I felt that there would most likely be interest here though! I know that Schumann pedals don't get alot of hits on eBay, so I figured I'd link directly:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Schumann-PLL-Ana...item3cb458f485

It's not a bad starting price, and there's about 6 days left. So if this is your white whale, let that money accrue and give it a shot! Hopefully this puppy will land in the hands of a deserving TB'er who will play the hell out of it! And who might, in a moment of respite from it's onslaught of sonic chaos, make some clips to augment Grygx's wonderful job!

[fu22ba55]

What the WHAT?

I have no idea what that thing is, or what it does... or whether it's worth $2500... but it's got a crazy steampunk think going for it for sure.

Are those copper dial indicators?

Crazy.

[N.F.A.]

This is a highly sought after pedal to boutique collectors. Find a youtube vid of what it does.

[grygrx]

It's been there since yesterday. The zero feedback and photos from another auction looked a little frightening at first. I see there are updated photos now, so that's an improvement at least.

[nad]

I still say grygrx's dog is better than this pedal.

And hey, this pedal rules.

[Joe Gress]

^That dog is the coolest mofo this side of the bass planet for sure. that said:


I would love to spend a day or two with this thing and play around with it. It seems so cool and sounds so exotic. I don't even know of pedal combos that sound like it.

[grygrx]

[skulletwhip]

I want a Bulldog so bad.

[FilterFunk]

Originally Posted by Joe Gress

I would love to spend a day or two with this thing and play around with it. It seems so cool and sounds so exotic. I don't even know of pedal combos that sound like it.

I second this! If you think about it, there are synth filters that go for this much or more, and they may sound great, but they're far from unique. I love the way you can mix the more standard fuzz with the craziness. And those filter-like sweeps are sweet! I can see someone paying $1500+ for this (not me, of course!), if this is their thing.

[grygrx]

Check some of this out if you find the PLL interesting.

INFANEM HarmonySynth (which I have)

The Harmony Synth takes your input signal and runs it through a fuzz section then two fully analog phase-locked loop based harmony synthesizers. The fuzz and harmony signals are then run through a resonant lowpass filter and a switchable amplitude tracking section. Individual level controls are available for the Fuzz, Harmony 1, and Harmony 2 signals plus a clean Instrument signal to blend your input with the synthesized voices.

The harmony synthesis circuits are (mostly) monophonic and identical to each other except for the interval selections available. The Range control adjusts the center frequency of the synthesizers and changes both the tracking range and tonal quality of the voices. It allows for them to be set to allow proper tracking, upward octave glitching, lower octave glitching, and anything in between. Faux polyphony can even be achieved by setting one voice with low Range to track low notes and another with high Range to track high notes. It's analog and not perfect but there are lots of tricks possible with just little tweaks of the Range.

Intervals available are:

Harmony 1: one octave down (-12 semitones), a perfect fifth shifted down one octave (-5 semitones), a perfect fourth (+5 semitones), a perfect fifth (+7 semitones), a major sixth (+9 semitones), and an octave up (+12 semitones)

Harmony 2: two octaves down (-24 semitones), one octave down (-12 semitones), a perfect fifth (+7 semitones), a major third shifted up one octave (+16 semitones), two octaves up (+24 semitones), and a perfect fifth shifted two octaves up (+31 semitones)

The Amplitude Tracking control allows the synthesized signals to follow the dynamics of your input signal. For stringed instruments, this means you get attack and decay that mimic the behavior of your strings. For everything, this means that the synthesized voices will follow swells, tremolo, and anything else that modulates your input amplitude.

Internal trimpots allow for adjustment of Instrument volume, Fuzz gate threshold, and a master volume control for the synthesized voices and fuzz. These can be adjusted to accommodate a great deal of input sources from the weakest guitar pickups to high-output synthesizers.

Internal voltage doubling allows for use of a standard center-negative 9VDC power supply while running internal components at 18V differential power for maximum headroom. The pedal is built with full-size Alpha potentiometers, Switchcraft jacks, Cliff bypass switch (wired for true bypass, naturally), low-noise metal film resistors, and tantalum decoupling and ceramic tone-shaping capacitors.

The Harmony Synth is an entirely new circuit developed here in Portland, OR. Everything from circuit design to PCB etching to silkscreening is done in-house for complete control over the quality of every effect.

and it's little brother 2nd voice (which I dont' have)

The Second Voice is the little brother of Infanem's Analog Harmony Synthesizer. It retains the
exact fuzz and harmony generator circuits of the Harmony Synth but trimmed down and
wedged into a small pedalboard-friendly 1590BB enclosure.

The harmony is a phase-locked loop-based circuit capable of generating pitches both above
and below the pitch of the input note. The Range knob controls both the tracking range and
the sound of the harmony with everything from can-of-bees buzz to subharmonic pulses
available. Subtle changes in the intermediate range of the knob change the center frequency
of the harmony and generate a filter-like tonal variation.

Selectable Intervals:
• One octave down (-12 semitones).
• A perfect fifth shifted down one octave (-5 semitones).
• A perfect fifth (+7 semitones).
• An octave up (+12 semitones).
• A perfect fifth shifted up one octave (+19 semitones).
• Two octaves up (+24 semitones).

The Blend mixes the harmony voice with either your clean instrument signal or, with the flip of
a switch, a heavy fuzz tone. Roll off your volume knob to adjust the gate of the fuzz from long
sustain to short, fast-decaying bursts of sound. Infanem values all frequencies so there is no
low-end roll-off at all and the Second Voice is friendly with any instrument you choose to
throw at it. Likewise, the harmony is not filtered to allow its full frequency range to come
through.

Volume and headroom are available in spades thanks to internal voltage doubling to provide
the circuit components with 18V differential power while operating on a standard 9VDC
negative tip power supply.

Instrument and power supply jacks are spaced evenly across the top of the enclosure for
easy, compact connection in any setup and with most any cables. Naturally, the Second
Voice uses true bypass switching.

Each pedal is hand painted in uniquely patterned blue Hammerite and screen printed in-
house. The textured surface of the Hammerite may cause small gaps in the printing but let it
remind you that these pedals are handmade tools that just happen to also look good.

http://www.myspace.com/infanem

[fu22ba55]

Where does the Evantide Pitchfactor reside in in this arena?

I'm not a pedal guy, and certainly not a digital pedal guy, but my understanding is that the above units produce intervals by exploiting the harmonics from fuzz, (like the foxrox octron) while the pitchfactor is a DSP doodad.

I love's me some fuzz, but I don't loves me some ones and zeroes.

[grygrx]

Originally Posted by fu22ba55

Where does the Evantide Pitchfactor reside in in this arena?

I'm not a pedal guy, and certainly not a digital pedal guy, but my understanding is that the above units produce intervals by exploiting the harmonics from fuzz, (like the foxrox octron) while the pitchfactor is a DSP doodad.

I love's me some fuzz, but I don't loves me some ones and zeroes.

Pitchfactor is a high quality digital beastie, quite refined..

A phased locked loop is an analog based circuit, both the PLL and INFANEM pedals have a fuzz element as well.

[Joe Gress]

Wow, its like the sound of the practical side of the PLL. (not nearly the same timbre I realize that, but a killer sound none the less) Very cool stuff Adam, I'll have to delve further into it, and at fuzzhuggers price for the Second Voice, it might not be a bad try out for some synthy harmony sounds.


How's it work for bass?

[grygrx]

Originally Posted by Joe Gress

Wow, its like the sound of the practical side of the PLL. (not nearly the same timbre I realize that, but a killer sound none the less) Very cool stuff Adam, I'll have to delve further into it, and at fuzzhuggers price for the Second Voice, it might not be a bad try out for some synthy harmony sounds.

How's it work for bass?

Yeah, $125.. cheap for the 2nd voice! Too bad they are sold out.

The Harmony Synth works very well for bass, guitar, and keys (all I've tried so far).

[miskha]

Those smaller harmony pedals look amazing! Any idea if/when more are available?

And in a seperate but semi-related vein: has anyone tried the Snazzy FX Mini-Ark? How does it stack up to the PLL?

[Unrepresented]

Originally Posted by miskha

Those smaller harmony pedals look amazing! Any idea if/when more are available?

And in a seperate but semi-related vein: has anyone tried the Snazzy FX Mini-Ark? How does it stack up to the PLL?

+1

[DannDubblewe]

Originally Posted by Joe Gress

How's it work for bass?

http://www.myspace.com/infanem

The second sound clip is on bass - it sounds amazing. Good lord...I really don't need to drop another 300+ on a pedal

edit: The first tone on the bass clip is definitely my favorite - I wonder if the Second Voice could nail that sound?

[kenstee]

http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/bri...-n-roll/10399/

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/...pll-pedal.html

NOTE: Bit of an eBay mark-up here...but, maybe it's worth it to somebody.

"I just read this piece from the New York Sun about John Schumann, who builds boutique effects pedals in the back room of Main Drag Music in Williamsburg, NYC, selling them to Radiohead and Portishead. His most interesting sounding invention is the Schumann PLL, an analog harmonizer, which costs $500 but does look fantastically cool. I liked this description of John at work: "Empty coffee cups sit neatly stacked next to an oscilloscope that Mr. Schumann uses to test the signals of his pedals. Thin ribbons of hot steam float from the white-hot tip of a soldering iron. In his cable knit cranberry sweater, faded black jeans, work boots, and signature brown hat, Mr. Schumann looks like a veteran musician."

[grygrx]

Welcome to 2011, only 6ush years after those articles. Schumann has pretty much been out of business since then.

Originally Posted by kenstee

http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/bri...-n-roll/10399/

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/...pll-pedal.html

NOTE: Bit of an eBay mark-up here...but, maybe it's worth it to somebody.

"I just read this piece from the New York Sun about John Schumann, who builds boutique effects pedals in the back room of Main Drag Music in Williamsburg, NYC, selling them to Radiohead and Portishead. His most interesting sounding invention is the Schumann PLL, an analog harmonizer, which costs $500 but does look fantastically cool. I liked this description of John at work: "Empty coffee cups sit neatly stacked next to an oscilloscope that Mr. Schumann uses to test the signals of his pedals. Thin ribbons of hot steam float from the white-hot tip of a soldering iron. In his cable knit cranberry sweater, faded black jeans, work boots, and signature brown hat, Mr. Schumann looks like a veteran musician."

[RCCollins]

I hadn't read the bassfuzz pieces Schumann in some time, so I went back and checked them out. Got a "Beavis and Butthead" laugh out if this:

"touching on the Loin seemed important because of the claim made on their website: ‘Great for bass — distortion that doesn’t cut out the low end’. "