My DIY Pedalboard

tubedude · Dec 10, 2020

GMC said: ↑

Sound wise, there's a lot to discuss. The Mobius is a lot more featured than a Lunar offers in terms of selectable modes. One of the attractions that the Mobius offers is a User Interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate on the fly. Probably more so than most larger digital panels. It's got that big mode dial that is very easy to operate. I can call up a patch using my Boss ES-5 and then spin the dial to any one of it's nearby modulation settings / patches. This is fast and easy to use, but can be a bit irritating if the specific chorus I'm looking for is patch #2 and I've jumped in at #47. With 12 clicks on the dial...that's a lot of tuning. Of those 12 modulation options, I found some were more useful to me than others. I like the d-bucket and Multi Chorus options. Both are nice and clear chorus sounds. However, the tone control is useless on bass and the mix is a parallel blend and not so useful on bass. If I loose some low end and dial in the mix, It waters down some of the chorus effect too. I've often felt that a variable LP filter on the clean side would fatten up the loss of low end that chorus effects often cause. But that's not on offer on the Mobius. Enter the Lunar with it's Low retain control....guys are SA...this needs to be assignable to one of the unit's 4 device knobs. No bassist needs the Mix control on the Gemini.
I found two Chorus sounds that I liked from the cloud patches: "Wet 80's CE-5 for Bass" and "Dual Chorus". I haven't yet found a Corona multi (TCe) patch yet...so I might need to make one myself. Patch 1 & 2 sorted.

Next on the Mobius dial is the Flanger setting, that I hardly used. In all my Boss ES-5 patches...I have only 1 with a flanger. The mobius offers a lot of different flanger settings. To be honest...I found one that I like and then looked for something similar on the Lunar. One slot 3 loaded on the 6 patches list...tick.

The Rotary on the Mobius is amazing. It's easy to use and by hitting the tempo button it can flip between 2 speed settings. It's one of the best rotary sims I've used, the Lunar has two Resonator effect types, they don't thrill me as much as the Mobius offerings. I found a cloud patch "lesliemr" and once I dialled in the control a bit more...I've got it to a place where I like it. It's not quite as good and the Mobius if I'm honest...but it's close enough and I can assign the speed knob to an external midi expression pedal...nice. However...there are better sounding rotary options on my nearby H9.
Next up is the Vibe, on the mobius it's a funky and strange effect...covered completely by the Lunar's Vibe Effect type. I think the Lunar's offering is more versatile and has a greater speed range and adjustable LFO shape. I loaded "Chop Tremolo" into slot 4 and I like it a lot. I didn't expect it to cover this much ground and makes a good vibe and Trem option.
The Phaser option on the Mobius was good, but the Lunar's options are simply fantastic. It has a clarity and movement that the Mobius can only dream of. Surprisingly I loaded 2 of these, the Stock "Classic" and "Multi" went into patch 5 & 6. So that's my Lunar loaded. I can only add more patches from the scenes on my Neuro hub.
The other Mobius settings: The Filter. It's good, but I never used it as a filter. For me, this function is covered by either my H9, my C4 or my new EQ2 (once I get my head around that feature, and the volume swell option). The Pattern Trem is a nice feature, but u have similar options on my H9's, The Vintage Trem is fantastic, but I'm finding similar options on the Vibe Effects Type on the Lunar and again similar options on the H9's. The Swell never worked reliably for me, I prefer to swell with an expression pedal. The Formant is replicable on the Lunar, just not something I'd use. I had one patch using the Quadrature and to be honest...I don't miss it much. The Destroyer setting is more useful for a guitarist...and I have similar on the H9 or I could EQ2 it better...although I doubt that I'd bother.
So is the Lunar a replacement for a Mobius? Yes and no. If you like all the other weird and wonderful features of the Mobius then you will find the Lunar lacking in certain areas or patches in a direct feature comparison. If you are looking for a dedicated modulation pedal that stays in the niche (where the Mobius creeps out of into other areas) then yes it's more than capable.
The Lunar gains with it's small foot print, Low retain option and flexible 4 band EQ. It has a HPF that's a sweet addition. I was surprised at how useful the one knob tremolo is on the Lunar. It easily matches the flexibility of the Vintage Trem on the Mobius and then exceeds it with the Vibe Effect Type.
I think the Resonator options aren't quite as good as the Mobius. However, they are still very good and more than usable. I have since found that there's a Rotary patch on my H9 that is better than both of them. I should have gone looking earlier.

Sonically, I suggest that the Lunar is slightly better on bass than the Mobius. The Phaser is simply better. But I've not yet found any Chorus pedal (and I've tried a few) on bass that really knocks it out of the park for me. I'm often left with a sense of "mehh". That's not directed at the Lunar or Mobius specifically, I think that these class of effects operate best with frequencies that the bass doesn't produce much of. I think the Lunar's Chorus options are slightly less "mehh" for me. I've found a pair of Chorus sounds on my H9 that are stronger than both the Lunar and Mobius. "Classic Chorus" on the Vintage Delay Algorithm and "Boss CE-2" in the Chorus Algorithm. The "Tumbleweed" setting on the "Tremolopan" Algorithm is fantastic too.
View attachment 4084027

For me, adding the EQ2 was a necessity and was the main reason for pushing the Mobius off my board. It was a land grab and I needed the space. I was happy with the Mobius' sounds and functions, but now that I've integrated the lunar and EQ2 in to my board and patches...and I've worked around some of the holes left by the Mobius...I'm not actually sure I'll ever miss it.
Click to expand...

No liquids on the electronics.

GMC · Dec 24, 2020

New knobs on my Aftershock and C4, still waiting for the blue versions for my Lunar to arrive:

I've bought some more power cables. A pair of 2 into 1 Y splitters and, new 5 gang angled daisy chain set (angled) and a cable extension. Now that the Mobius is gone, I have some more spare power available. So I've put the SA EQ2, Lunar and Hub on the Mobius' old power port. That now leaves my Boss ES-5, Aftershock and C4 on a single port. Reducing the power draw on that port too. I've eradicated a slight mains hum with the newer cables and better routing...not bad for an hour's work.
Next month, I'll be drilling and fitting some stereo jacks for my bass input, pair of output sockets and expression pedal jack. I bought a bag of 10 stereo jacks, the stereo-ness is only really needed for the expression pedal jack.

GMC · Dec 28, 2020

Here's my Source Audio Lunar with some blue knobs on.

GMC · Feb 16, 2021

I've had a re-org of the loops on my ES-5 so that I can fit in my new Source Audio UltraWave Beta onto my board without too many hassles. It's en-route from the USA and it'll arrive at some time when the Covid pixies are happy. In the mean time, I've moved my Source Audio Lunar / modulation pedal out of loop 5. It's now placed as the first pedal in my post ES-5 output chain. So now my out put chain looks like OUT > SA Lunar > EQ2 > H9 (ambience). I've wired so that the Lunar is Mono in but stereo out. So everything on my output is now stereo. It's the first time I've wired modulation in a pure stereo context. It also means that If I want to dial in some modulation at any point I can turn on the Lunar and / or choose any of the 6 patches. I've also gone through my Neuro Hub scenes and switch off the Lunar to bypass as it's default state. I've then gone through all my ES-5 patches and changed the commands where I would engage loop 5 (modulation) for a Midi CC signal that turns on / engages the Lunar.
So when my SA Ultrawave arrives, It'll be slotted into Loop 5 and I'll use the ES-5's loop moving ability to move it about as I need it. I suspect that this pedal might need a bit of order swapping.
I'm also looking at getting a further Strymon Ojai PSU hub so that I can get the all of my Source Audio eco-system on dedicated PSU feeds. I'm also thinking of putting the SA EQ2's power feed in a separate switch so I can easily reboot it as required. When the EQ2 has Midi din cables attached it becomes a bit sensitive to the Strymon's soft start power up.

kesslari · Feb 16, 2021

GMC said: ↑

Here's my Source Audio Lunar with some blue knobs on. View attachment 4105391 View attachment 4105392
Click to expand...

So now I'm singing "Devil with the blue knobs, blue knobs, blue knobs, devil with the blue knobs on!"

GMC · Feb 23, 2021 at 10:42 AM

Latest update. The new Strymon Ojai Expansion box has arrived and it's now in. Cables are a bit of a mess...I'll sort that all out laters. So now every digital box on my board has a dedicated 500ma PSU feed. My Source Audio Ultrawave Beta arrived earlier this morning and I spend a wee while plumbing it in. A set of blue knobs are on order from Amazon for it! Lol! I've plugged it into my Neuro Hub and assigned it Midi Ch #10...wow...10 midi devices now. Only one last analogue pedal on my board left. I've placed it in the spot where my EBS MultiComp lived (going on ebay next week) but wired it into loop 5 on my ES-5. I wanted this pedal in it's own loop so I can move it about on the board a bit. The Ultrawave has a few very useful additional features. It's got a very sweet sounding multiband tremolo and an awesome compressor. Plus there's the 8 band EQ...all of which can be accessed via Midi. It's a pretty mind blowing versatile pedal. I can see a vast array of weird synth dirt, normal dirt, compression and tremolo patches. I've already dialled in a very nice overdrive, If I can dial in some nice Muff and Rat tones...I might even flip my Aftershock.

Not quite so neat under the hood at the moment....I think I need to spend some time here and bring it all to order...

Weirdly, it's operating very well. No ground loops or hum, the lid closes cleanly and securely...everything is working as it should...just a bit of a mess though!

GMC · Feb 24, 2021 at 11:51 AM

4 new shiny blue knobs are in...thank you Amazon Prime and on my Ultrawave...looking pretty sic:

Primary · Feb 28, 2021

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