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NPD DSM Noisemaker Drive Maker

#41
Dsmnoisemaker said:
Postal service last month, worldwide, was abysmal. I have to refund/repost 5 lost units (that's literally 5% of my production, add to that 7 units retained at customs, and 2 units i sent to "reviewers" that vanished..that's 14% of my business just gone )...so thank you for considering the drive maker!!
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Wow. That is terrible. Sorry to hear that. I'll do my part :)
 
#42
Dsmnoisemaker said:
Thanks for your insight..from the beginning of the design phase i was worried that the excess of versatility could be detrimental as a product, but, if well done, it could be its biggest asset. I ran a small poll between my FB friends about 1 trick pony vs versatility, and versatility won by far. Ussually versatility comes by sacrificing good tone, so i spent more than a year designing it so the pedal would sound amazing AND be the most versatile available.
So far, the bass players that had tried and bought the first units are very impressed with the tone..just like the omnicabsim it has a learning curve so you can visualize a tone and model it accurately.. They also were afraid that they will miss the blend knob..but by carefully setting the voice knob and the gain at the right spots, the drive is so transparent that is not really necessary. Is not the same as a blend knob, though, but different.
As a common impression, they were most blown away with the "broken" setting..it is just mean!!
I will be working hard to make a better demo video with a decent player..mr excane has one on his way, so I'm very very stoked to hear his impressions..
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The versatility is a huge selling point and I totally get why you went the way you did. If the high standard set for tone by OCS is met in this pedal I'm sure I'll be happy as a clam. I am just a mids snob and the frequency listing a little higher than I would like it, making mids switch virtually useless for bass for me. Then the guitar bass toggle cutting mids isn't desirable to me either. I would have preferred it to be flat mid, slight treble cut, and a little bass boost. But that's just a case of wanting it all, and to my preference which really isn't the point of this pedal. If the guitar setting is basically flat response, I can always leave it flat response on the mids, leave it set on guitar and adjust mids to taste before the drivemaker. I'm sure the mids switch is just killer with guitar though, the entire guitar demo was super rad. I guess I've twisted my own arm and I'll just have to find out for myself. Ordered!

Dsmnoisemaker said:
Postal service last month, worldwide, was abysmal. I have to refund/repost 5 lost units (that's literally 5% of my production, add to that 7 units retained at customs, and 2 units i sent to "reviewers" that vanished..that's 14% of my business just gone )...so thank you for considering the drive maker!!
Click to expand...

Wow this is brutal. Hopefully my order eases the pain a little bit. :thumbsup:
 
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#44
Justice Graves said:
The versatility is a huge selling point and I totally get why you went the way you did. If the high standard set for tone by OCS is met in this pedal I'm sure I'll be happy as a clam. I am just a mids snob and the frequency listing a little higher than I would like it, making mids switch virtually useless for bass for me. Then the guitar bass toggle cutting mids isn't desirable to me either. I would have preferred it to be flat mid, slight treble cut, and a little bass boost. But that's just a case of wanting it all, and to my preference which really isn't the point of this pedal. If the guitar setting is basically flat response, I can always leave it flat response on the mids, leave it set on guitar and adjust mids to taste before the drivemaker. I'm sure the mids switch is just killer with guitar though, the entire guitar demo was super rad. I guess I've twisted my own arm and I'll just have to find out for myself. Ordered!



Wow this is brutal. Hopefully my order eases the pain a little bit. :thumbsup:
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Hey thank you for ordering!!
Funny thing is that none of the first users even mentioned the post eq options..that makes me think that they are OK with it..or maybe they are still discovering the clipping and voice options which is a whole dimension to play with..
Some bass players use big muffs and rats for drive, which are mainly for guitar..and some use Darkglass drives which are 100% for bass..this is somewhere in between..
 
#46
Dsmnoisemaker said:
Hey thank you for ordering!!
Funny thing is that none of the first users even mentioned the post eq options..that makes me think that they are OK with it..or maybe they are still discovering the clipping and voice options which is a whole dimension to play with..
Some bass players use big muffs and rats for drive, which are mainly for guitar..and some use Darkglass drives which are 100% for bass..this is somewhere in between..
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I will definitely give a post usage opinion since all this is just speculation at this point. I will without a doubt use it, the question is will it be able to push other dirt of my bass board or my guitar board. I'm actually hoping it will be able to be used on my nano+ and replace both an EQ (basically used for gain and clean boost) and a muff clone. I know it will handle that with ease. It will get a fair amount of time with both acoustic bass and guitar if it goes on the nano so that should be interesting. Bet it wasn't designed with that in mind. :laugh:
 
#47
Justice Graves said:
I will definitely give a post usage opinion since all this is just speculation at this point. I will without a doubt use it, the question is will it be able to push other dirt of my bass board or my guitar board. I'm actually hoping it will be able to be used on my nano+ and replace both an EQ (basically used for gain and clean boost) and a muff clone. I know it will handle that with ease. It will get a fair amount of time with both acoustic bass and guitar if it goes on the nano so that should be interesting. Bet it wasn't designed with that in mind. :laugh:
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You can set it on low gain, high volume, and basically you get an xotic bbpreamp with an extra boost function ..
One cool trick i use is to drive other pedals or the amp input, set the drive maker kinda clean with volume boost, and set the boost level high..then i have slight dirty tone when bypassed, crunch when activated, and high gain when boosted..
 
#48
My Drivemaker finally arrived and I got to sit down and knob fiddle for about an hour direct into my recording interface before I went to bed. A very wide range of sounds (as if that was ever in question). Almost every setting was useable for me unless you got to extremes on the knobs. I was pleasantly surprised by the broken clipping setting, actually found some stuff I might use (think unoiled rusty chainsaw). All three mids settings were useful which was one of primary concerns. Not going to kick any other dirt off of my board but definitely want to put it in the chain and stack it with a couple things and see what happens.
 
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#49
Justice Graves said:
My Drivemaker finally arrived and I got to sit down and knob fiddle for about an hour direct into my recording interface before I went to bed. A very wide range of sounds (as if that was ever in question). Almost every setting was useable for me unless you got to extremes on the knobs. I was pleasantly surprised by the broken clipping setting, actually found some stuff I might use (think unoiled rusty chainsaw). All three mids settings were useful which was one of primary concerns. Not going to kick any other dirt off of my board but definitely want to put it in the chain and stack it with a couple things and see what happens.
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Hey i´m soo glad you got it OK and tried it!
Yeah the Broken setting is what makes this unit "different". The Dist and OD are quite straightfoward and made to get the response and feel of classic pedals by tweaking the knobs.. But the "broken" setting is like "***?" i couldn´t call it fuzz, because it is not a fuzz per se, and it reminded me of a small class A tube amplifier i tried years ago, that i cranked it all the way.. It sounded like the amp was going to explode anytime and was very fuzzy in tone, but the sponginess and compression was great..

BTW, boosting this pedal with a TS is just awesome..

I´m now building a small batch before i take a small vacation in february..
 
#50
Dsmnoisemaker said:
Hey i´m soo glad you got it OK and tried it!
Yeah the Broken setting is what makes this unit "different". The Dist and OD are quite straightfoward and made to get the response and feel of classic pedals by tweaking the knobs.. But the "broken" setting is like "***?" i couldn´t call it fuzz, because it is not a fuzz per se, and it reminded me of a small class A tube amplifier i tried years ago, that i cranked it all the way.. It sounded like the amp was going to explode anytime and was very fuzzy in tone, but the sponginess and compression was great..

BTW, boosting this pedal with a TS is just awesome..

I´m now building a small batch before i take a small vacation in february..
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Yeah looking forward to getting some time this weekend to noodle around on both bass and guitar. I'll have to try it with a TS, but I'm actually looking forward to stacking it with a B7K and a Damnation Audio MBD-1. The broken setting with a treble boost at low gain seemed to be getting into B7K territory already so interested to see what I can get with them in sequence. I'm thinking this really might be a nice pedal for some layering to bring back some tone not necessarily present with some of the other drives.

With all that being said I think this peal will really shine with one of my EMG equipped guitars. I think the broken setting with those pickups dimed may be the most horrifically awesome noises ever.
 
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#51
Dsmnoisemaker said:
Ok..
Just made a quick bass demo with it..
It's a bit long, but it is hard to show all the possibilities on a short video..


Let me know what you think..
I just used one setting on the OCSD..but with both pedals, the available tones are just infinite...
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The sound at 5:33 was so mean it hurt my feelings!:thumbsup:
 
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#52
Justice Graves said:
Yeah looking forward to getting some time this weekend to noodle around on both bass and guitar. I'll have to try it with a TS, but I'm actually looking forward to stacking it with a B7K and a Damnation Audio MBD-1. The broken setting with a treble boost at low gain seemed to be getting into B7K territory already so interested to see what I can get with them in sequence. I'm thinking this really might be a nice pedal for some layering to bring back some to not necessarily present with some of the other drives.

With all that being said I think this peal will really shine with one of my EMG equipped guitars. I think the broken setting with those pickups dimed may be the most horrifically awesome noises ever.
Click to expand...
Haha Yeah, with EMG´s the broken mode will choke like a dog with a chicken bone, but you can control that chokeyness with the volume knob, is pretty exciting actually.. With strats, it behaves more like a Fuzz face or a big muff
 
#53
Wow, looks like there are an insane amount of possibilities packed into this pedal! I am very interested. I wasn’t really looking for more dirt but this looks pretty irresistible. I love my OmniCabSim Deluxe, and I might have to get this too if I can make it fit. My pedalboard is currently pretty packed, so I can certainly appreciate that small footprint. What are the exact dimensions of the enclosure? I could not seem to find them on the website.

I know there is no legit right answer to a question like this (different gear, YMMV), but what results have you guys had mixing the Drive Maker with other dirt pedals? Does the Drive Maker work best for you in front of other dirt pedals to push them into new territory, or better after them in the signal chain to sculpt them further? The FX loop also presents interesting options. Of course, the actual right answer is always just buy one and try it yourself!
 
#55
theunknowndude said:
And here I was swearing myself off looking at any more dirt pedals... arg!

Have to say do like that it's not just another pedal.
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Hey there!!
The dimensions of the pedal is 12cm x 6cm aprox.
I'm pretty happy with your appreciation that this is not another drive pedal, because that was exacly what i was looking for while designing it.
It works very well with other pedals, either driving it or being driven by others. I know at least 1 user that likes to set it like an amp, and then boost it with a TS808 for solos, and it sounds amazing!! And also he uses the boost for driving the tube amp at the same time if he wants hi gain.
 
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#58
Ok, I'm in! Just pulled the trigger. I can't wait to see what this pedal is capable of. A staggering amount of options were showcased in that video. I am particularly interested in the nastier tones I heard. Pretty sure whatever setting is going on at 1:12 (Gate-Max, Voice-Fat) will sound absolutely crushing through my rig.
 
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#59
I got my Drive Maker today. As anticipated it really does have a ton of options for sculpting distortion and fuzz tones - Exactly what I was hoping for. The 3 switches all have a wide range of sounds locked within. The Voice knob alone has a ton of tonal variety. I definitely prefer the more aggressive sounds it is capable of with the Gain past 12-noon, and the clipping switch set to Distortion or Broken. I am also getting some nice combinations by stacking my other dirt pedals before it in the signal chain (Pike Vulcan XL & Fuzzrocious Bongripper). The Octave switch "Hi" setting really adds some interesting character. The "Broken" clipping setting is particularly aggressive and unique sounding. Just my initial impressions, but I like it a lot. I have a lot of experimenting to do with this pedal, for sure.
 
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