3Leaf Audio Club - Episode 2

[labeledbass]

Spencer told me they were the same circuit except one of the Proton's controls has a wider range than the Chromatron's -- but I can't remember which. So essentially, the Proton can do everything the Chromatron can, but the Chromatron can't do everything the Proton can.

Until you plug in an expression pedal, the range is much farther replacing the sens with that

 

[Naack]

Can someone with experience talk a little more about the similarities between the Chromatron and the most recent (V4?) Proton circuits? I read earlier in the thread that the current Proton is the same circuit as the Chromatrong but with fewer controls and no effects loop. Is that right?

I ask because I recently redid my board and no longer utilize the effects loop of my Chromatron. My main gigging band is also trending in a "no amps on stage" direction which suits me just fine, but I'd like to add a cab sim to the end of my little Pedaltrain Nano+ board for that and can't do it without making some room. If the Chromatron and current Proton do in fact sound the same (more or less) then that would be a good spot for me to start making room.

Well... if you are wanting to get rid of that Chromatron once you get the Proton, let me know!

 

[cosmicevan]

V4 is the chromatron in a smaller package yes…and they do sound very similar. I have the proton on my board while the chroma takes a break.

 

[CTC564]

I’ve been looking for the latest version of the Proton for quite awhile now…is he due to make any more?

 

[silky smoove]

I’m not at my studio but my wife was willing to run out and grab a photo of my Chromatron. I wanted to confirm my suspicion about my preferred setting of the attack knob, which you can see from the photo is maxed out. The V4 Proton has a fixed attack, and unless it’s fixed at a similar position to this then I suspect I wouldn’t like it as much. I’ll watch some videos to confirm.

 

[labeledbass]

I’m not at my studio but my wife was willing to run out and grab a photo of my Chromatron. I wanted to confirm my suspicion about my preferred setting of the attack knob, which you can see from the photo is maxed out. The V4 Proton has a fixed attack, and unless it’s fixed at a similar position to this then I suspect I wouldn’t like it as much. I’ll watch some videos to confirm.

View attachment 4454146

Whoa, questions --- with your attack like this, can you play fast like this, at all? doesn't it take forever for the envelope to open up? also the sensitivity, I haven't even tried it maxed like this, but does this create an always triggered situation? Heres mine, I run the boost a little higher now.

 

[silky smoove]

with your attack like this, can you play fast like this, at all?

Yeah. It works great.

doesn't it take forever for the envelope to open up?

No, it opens normally. I don't like a really quacky filter sound, nor do I like that ultra long dub filter thing, or the intro to Tom Sawyer. Still, there's no issue with it opening and closing in a reasonable time.

also the sensitivity, I haven't even tried it maxed like this, but does this create an always triggered situation?

Nope. I can play lightly and not get the envelope to trigger at all or I can play normally and have it respond in a predictable way. If I engage the Tronographic Rusty Box I have just upstream of it on my board it opens more readily due to the slight level increase and the additional harmonic content. With these settings I end up with a pretty "normal" (whatever that means) filter sound when using my Dingwall Super J or either of my Warmoth Jazz basses, one of which is loaded with EMG JAX pickups and the other with EMG JVX.

 

[labeledbass]

Yeah. It works great.


No, it opens normally. I don't like a really quacky filter sound, nor do I like that ultra long dub filter thing, or the intro to Tom Sawyer. Still, there's no issue with it opening and closing in a reasonable time.


Nope. I can play lightly and not get the envelope to trigger at all or I can play normally and have it respond in a predictable way. If I engage the Tronographic Rusty Box I have just upstream of it on my board it opens more readily due to the slight level increase and the additional harmonic content. With these settings I end up with a pretty "normal" (whatever that means) filter sound when using my Dingwall Super J or either of my Warmoth Jazz basses, one of which is loaded with EMG JAX pickups and the other with EMG JVX.

Wow, so most of the control is before the filter, interesting. Similar to running a boost in front of a drive, I have nothing in front of mine except (for the most part) passive basses, so the filter is doing most of the work, sensitivity wise

 

[kranahan]

Enabler in the classifieds. No affiliation.

 

[silky smoove]

Wow, so most of the control is before the filter, interesting. Similar to running a boost in front of a drive, I have nothing in front of mine accept (for the most part) passive basses, so the filter is doing most of the work, sensitivity wise

My board is a tuner into an Octabvre into a Rusty Box into the Chromatron. I could put the Octabvre and the Rusty Box in the loop but I like the tones I’m getting as-is and it gets done with fewer cables this way. Super simple setup. I used to have a Doom in the loop but I wasn’t using it and recently sold it here on TB. The Chromatron has always been at the end of the chain or with a compressor after it.

 

[friend33]

Whoa, questions --- with your attack like this, can you play fast like this, at all? doesn't it take forever for the envelope to open up? also the sensitivity, I haven't even tried it maxed like this, but does this create an always triggered situation? Heres mine, I run the boost a little higher now.
View attachment 4454189

i have the Wonderlove, but my settings are typically pretty similar to yours. I had the same reaction about the sensitivity and attack knobs - it really wouldn’t work on my unit for how I like to use it. It’s possible that units vary, but more likely just that people like to use things in different ways.

 

[jdjk7]

Whoa, questions --- with your attack like this, can you play fast like this, at all? doesn't it take forever for the envelope to open up? also the sensitivity, I haven't even tried it maxed like this, but does this create an always triggered situation? Heres mine, I run the boost a little higher now.
View attachment 4454189

I thought those settings looked weird too, but I guess if it works, it works. My one gripe about the whole circuit (Chromatron or Proton) is that I find it hard to settle on where the Sens, A/D, and Tone knobs should be. I sometimes go for low sensitivity but higher A/D values, or vice versa (which smoove has taken to an extreme).

 

[silky smoove]

Out of curiosity I tried the settings that @labeledbass posted and the filter wouldn’t even close. Just a constant, muddy, indistinguishable blur. Out of curiosity I pulled up the Zachary Rizer YouTube demo of the Chromatron. He’s a TB’er but I don’t recall his username so I can’t tag him. I tried many of his settings. He’s playing a Dingwall (AB, or possibly a Z/Prima), I’m playing a Dingwall (SJ) so my expectations were that the results would be more similar than different. Curiously the sounds he was getting were NOTHING like what my Chromatron would deliver. I now have a couple thoughts:

1. My Chromatron was from the first run. Spencer was still at The Bass Shop in West Seattle delivering them when I stopped in to buy one. He told me that mine was the first one sold in Seattle. Perhaps the controls were revised on later runs such that my rather extreme looking settings are more in line with more modest controls on later run pedals.
2. There’s something wrong with my pedal.
3. My three basses are somehow wildly different in output and frequency response than everyone else’s. This one is more to state the absurd than to be taken seriously.

Addendum: Go to about 4:16 in this video and listen to the tone. Imagine that but slightly darker and that’s what the admittedly extreme settings I posted above sound like on my Chromatron despite his controls being in noticeably different positions.

 

[friend33]

When you say it “wouldn’t close”, do you mean it wouldn’t open? I think of the vowel part of the wah/wow sound as the part where the filter is “open”. Maybe my terminology is backwards? (“Muddy mess” describes, to me, what it sounds like when the filter does not “open”.)

 

[labeledbass]

Out of curiosity I tried the settings that @labeledbass posted and the filter wouldn’t even close. Just a constant, muddy, indistinguishable blur. Out of curiosity I pulled up the Zachary Rizer YouTube demo of the Chromatron. He’s a TB’er but I don’t recall his username so I can’t tag him. I tried many of his settings. He’s playing a Dingwall (AB, or possibly a Z/Prima), I’m playing a Dingwall (SJ) so my expectations were that the results would be more similar than different. Curiously the sounds he was getting were NOTHING like what my Chromatron would deliver. I now have a couple thoughts:

1. My Chromatron was from the first run. Spencer was still at The Bass Shop in West Seattle delivering them when I stopped in to buy one. He told me that mine was the first one sold in Seattle. Perhaps the controls were revised on later runs such that my rather extreme looking settings are more in line with more modest controls on later run pedals.
2. There’s something wrong with my pedal.
3. My three basses are somehow wildly different in output and frequency response than everyone else’s. This one is more to state the absurd than to be taken seriously.

Addendum: Go to about 4:16 in this video and listen to the tone. Imagine that but slightly darker and that’s what the admittedly extreme settings I posted above sound like on my Chromatron despite his controls being in noticeably different positions.

Do you have that rusty box before it? if you're attenuating the signal some how that would explain having to push it that far, generally going directly into the Chromatron, if they are consistently built, there will be a range between about 1-1.5k ohms that every bass sits. Putting pedals in front changing the level and impedance could drastically change it though, but about where mine is works for all my active and passive basses. But hey, if you like what it does, doesn't matter! lol

 

[silky smoove]

When you say it “wouldn’t close”, do you mean it wouldn’t open?

I’ve never been 100% on filter terminology. Open… closed… It was stuck in whichever state it’s in when you sound like you’re underwater.

Do you have that rusty box before it? if you're attenuating the signal some how that would explain having to push it that far

Nothing on my board is always on, and everything is either at unity gain or a tiny boost. The Chromatron behaves identically with the bypassed pedals in front of it or when plugging directly into it with either an active or a passive signal.

But hey, if you like what it does, doesn't matter! lol

Exactly!

 

[cosmicevan]

I’ve been looking for the latest version of the Proton for quite awhile now…is he due to make any more?

Only Spencer knows.

 

[labeledbass]

Only Spencer knows.

I don't even think he knows..

Let the clone wars begin lol

 

[Ricky Caboverde]

For those with experience in this area, is the v1 Groove Regulator still considered a great pedal among currently available filters?

 

[silky smoove]

For those with experience in this area, is the v1 Groove Regulator still considered a great pedal among currently available filters?

I've owned the V1 Groove Regulator as well as a V2 Proton, whatever version of the Wonderlove was purple with gold'ish lettering, and currently use a Chromatron. To me, yes, the V1 Groove Regulator is still an excellent pedal. Out of the ones I've owned I'd say that my old Groove Regulator is my second favorite only losing out to the Chromatron.