I already found room for improvement and updated the plotting script, so the Y axis goes in 5dB increments and the X axis has better markers from 2k to 5k.
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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
I already found room for improvement and updated the plotting script, so the Y axis goes in 5dB increments and the X axis has better markers from 2k to 5k.
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I used to use REW for testing response, but when trying to set it up again recently to test the Origin Fifteen I can’t seem to get it working right with my new Mac computer. May be an interface issue (mine is old and basically obsolete and running on a sort of permanently beta driver to work with the newer computer), though I also can’t recall all the little prep steps I had to take to get REW working to measure gear originally so could be I’m missing something silly.
Nice! What program did you use, and where did you get the noise sample? I’d think you could put the sample into a track on your DAW and loop it back through your interface if you have the right ins/outs available.
I used to use REW for testing response, but when trying to set it up again recently to test the Origin Fifteen I can’t seem to get it working right with my new Mac computer. May be an interface issue (mine is old and basically obsolete and running on a sort of permanently beta driver to work with the newer computer), though I also can’t recall all the little prep steps I had to take to get REW working to measure gear originally so could be I’m missing something silly.
I am embarrassingly bad at using DAWs and I have a super short fuse when working with them.
The white noise is generated in Audacity, but for convenience, I looped it back and recorded it into a looper pedal.
Now when I want to create a graph, the work flow is as follows:
1.Hook up the looper to the pedal, along with the cable to the mixer.
2. Launch audacity, start the looper, hit record.
3. Mark a bit of the record, click analyze spectrum (the simple tool that comes with audacity) export the output (which only works as .txt file).
4. Create a graph from the text file.
With the help of artificial intelligence, I wrote a python script that creates the graph, using matplotlib.
I shall perform the first graph related thing just now, with you as my witnesses!
I recorded the Tonehammer with AGS on and all knobs noon. Then I hooked up my bass, dialed in a pleasant tone, and redid the recording, so it might or might not reveal something.
I recorded the Tonehammer with AGS on and all knobs noon. Then I hooked up my bass, dialed in a pleasant tone, and redid the recording, so it might or might not reveal something.
No affiliation, but in the TB classifieds, you can find a true pearl.
Someone is selling their Fuzzrocious BDPG.
If you are into dirt stacking, get it.
If you are into weird preamp circuits, get it.
If you are into rare and hard to find pedals in general - you guessed it: Get it.
For sale Fuzzrocious BDPG — Rare, Hand-Built Bass Preamp/Drive
Discontinued and rare!
- JoeDoe (+163 /0 /-0)
- Views: 131
- Comments: 1
- Category: For Sale: Effects and Pedals
- bdpg fuzzrocious submarine
$275.00
Someone is selling their Fuzzrocious BDPG.
If you are into dirt stacking, get it.
If you are into weird preamp circuits, get it.
If you are into rare and hard to find pedals in general - you guessed it: Get it.
I played the Storm King and the Tonehammer in an A/B setup last night.
My approach was to get them sounding more or less the same. I set the SK for a low gain drive tone that sounded pleasant to my ears.
I went for drive around 9 o'clock, where my sound was just clean enough to pass as clean when playing softly, and had some serious grind when digging in.
To match the same amount of drive on the TH, I needed to activate AGS (naturally) and set the gain past noon.
I left the 'Kick' off on the SK and set the shape knob around 1 o'clock. On the TH, I approached that sound with the treble at around 3 o'clock, the bass at 1 o'clock and the parametric set to a little cut at 180Hz.
Going back and forth, there were a lot of similarities - I want to say the amount of drive and how it reacted to my fingertips were nearly identical, also the timbre and color of the drive ... let's say some other brand made a decent copy of the Tonehammer circuit and released it in a different name, and the tests you find online claim that it's very very close to the original, and you go and get yourself one and try it out for yourself, this is what you might expect.
Let's get to what's not similar.
I did run both pedals as a drive pedal.
The signal chain was bass - TH/SK - Cali76 - Broughton RFE - Noble - Mixer - Headphones.
In that setting, the SK had a sound that felt more crisp, with a higher resolution in the top end. A bit more definition and "clarity" of the added harmonics, if that makes any sense. Switching from the TH to the SK and back felt like alternating between a 20 year old car you bought half a year ago, but never managed to get the faint smell of cigarettes and wet dog out of the seat cushions. The steering wheel and stick shift are polished smooth with use and the seat has an indent of buttocks massaged in - but luckily, the previous owner was your size and shape, so it fits well -- and a car you bought brand new six months ago. The smell of fresh plastics is gone, but it's still smelling like a new car.
As an alternative picture, you could compare the comfy chair you inherited from your grandpa vs. a new one. Sure, they don't make that kind of quality no more, but the new one you got was expensive and is very well made. It also does not have the better part of a century as a patina, that you can smell when you put your nose close enough, and it's still looking to adapt its cushioning to perfectly suit your body shape, while grandpa's chair was last upholstered in the mid nineties and already has a body shape firmly imprinted.
In these analogies, the Tonehammer is the old and the Storm King the new model. The crispness of the top end can't really be copied in the TH. Riding the treble knob high only gets you so much in terms of "Airy presence" in your tone. In my setup, going past 3 o'clock only introduces unwanted noise, so I could not ride it any higher. The SK has a baked in curve that you can't really manipulate that much with the single tone knob vs. the three band on the TH, but the SK is set right. There is a certain heft to the low end, and everything feels well balanced.
I want to say that with the result of that single playing session, I'd prefer the SK in the drive pedal position. You can't tweak it much, but it's baked in sound is set just right.
I'll try and get a measurement tonight, provided I find the time to do so.
My approach was to get them sounding more or less the same. I set the SK for a low gain drive tone that sounded pleasant to my ears.
I went for drive around 9 o'clock, where my sound was just clean enough to pass as clean when playing softly, and had some serious grind when digging in.
To match the same amount of drive on the TH, I needed to activate AGS (naturally) and set the gain past noon.
I left the 'Kick' off on the SK and set the shape knob around 1 o'clock. On the TH, I approached that sound with the treble at around 3 o'clock, the bass at 1 o'clock and the parametric set to a little cut at 180Hz.
Going back and forth, there were a lot of similarities - I want to say the amount of drive and how it reacted to my fingertips were nearly identical, also the timbre and color of the drive ... let's say some other brand made a decent copy of the Tonehammer circuit and released it in a different name, and the tests you find online claim that it's very very close to the original, and you go and get yourself one and try it out for yourself, this is what you might expect.
Let's get to what's not similar.
I did run both pedals as a drive pedal.
The signal chain was bass - TH/SK - Cali76 - Broughton RFE - Noble - Mixer - Headphones.
In that setting, the SK had a sound that felt more crisp, with a higher resolution in the top end. A bit more definition and "clarity" of the added harmonics, if that makes any sense. Switching from the TH to the SK and back felt like alternating between a 20 year old car you bought half a year ago, but never managed to get the faint smell of cigarettes and wet dog out of the seat cushions. The steering wheel and stick shift are polished smooth with use and the seat has an indent of buttocks massaged in - but luckily, the previous owner was your size and shape, so it fits well -- and a car you bought brand new six months ago. The smell of fresh plastics is gone, but it's still smelling like a new car.
As an alternative picture, you could compare the comfy chair you inherited from your grandpa vs. a new one. Sure, they don't make that kind of quality no more, but the new one you got was expensive and is very well made. It also does not have the better part of a century as a patina, that you can smell when you put your nose close enough, and it's still looking to adapt its cushioning to perfectly suit your body shape, while grandpa's chair was last upholstered in the mid nineties and already has a body shape firmly imprinted.
In these analogies, the Tonehammer is the old and the Storm King the new model. The crispness of the top end can't really be copied in the TH. Riding the treble knob high only gets you so much in terms of "Airy presence" in your tone. In my setup, going past 3 o'clock only introduces unwanted noise, so I could not ride it any higher. The SK has a baked in curve that you can't really manipulate that much with the single tone knob vs. the three band on the TH, but the SK is set right. There is a certain heft to the low end, and everything feels well balanced.
I want to say that with the result of that single playing session, I'd prefer the SK in the drive pedal position. You can't tweak it much, but it's baked in sound is set just right.
I'll try and get a measurement tonight, provided I find the time to do so.
And that shows why the TH smells a little damp while the SK feels more crisp, does it not?
Interesting differences in the charted measurements — but I guess I'm not the only one to strongly prefer your usual illustrative verbal descriptions...
Of course it's nice to have both!
Wall of text > graphs, got it!
It's been a while since I wrote anything about how great the Effectrode Tube Drive is.
The Effectrode Tube Drive is still great!
The Effectrode Tube Drive is still great!
Informative, entertaining, influential.
I will be sailing the Rhine River on a Christmas Cruise next week!
Good question. Yes, the curve of the TH shows a bit more below 200 Hz. Which is no wonder because the bass is at 2:30
As you can see, the Shape knob does a low end roll off and a boost in the area of 300-3k
To my eye, the change from minimum to noon is no way near as drastic as the change from noon to max.
...where you said it might be a mid boost.
While it technically qualifies as a mid boost, you will have to admit that there's more going on than just that.
I find it fascinating to evaluate something with your ears first, then measure it, look at the graphs and see what happens.
Apologies if I missed it in your writing, but does the Shape control seem to come before or after the clipping circuit?
In writing, my impression was that the shape control is a post-drive treble control that might or might not do more.
It certainly increases or decreases the amount and sting of the sizzle.
When we're talking about the Tonehammer, I'm not entirely sure how the whole thing is made up, and I already suspected than more than one gain stage is possible - and on the Storm King - it might be that the internal routing is more complex than input - clipping -EQ - output.
