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Source Audio Sorcerers Society (S.A.S.S) Part 3

#1,141
Mo'Phat said:
I will be joining this society today - Manta and OFD on the truck with Hub, Orbital and Dimension on order. These and a couple other faves will be replacing an M13 that I've been using for years.

Question for those 'in the know' regarding the midi switcher -

Is the 4-button prototype posted on page 52 the form factor that will be manufactured? Meaning - four presets available before changing banks?

Also - will this be available in 2014? Any ballpark idea of a price point? I've been leaning toward the Midi Buddy for price, size, and 10 presets available per bank. But will wait to make a decision until I know as much information as possible.

I think it could only help to keep the midi switcher in the family of SA products.
Click to expand...

You are #191. Always nice to meet a new member. I am Roger, and I have a soft spot for TB......especially SASS members!

So, the 4 switches can operate in 3 modes:
Mode #1 is Normal: up, down, active, favorite
Mode #2 is Bank: 1, 2, 3, 4 (hold down 1 and you will jump to the next bank, hold down 2 and you jump down a bank, etc.)
Mode #3 is Seq: Like normal, but you can define a special order sequence

I do not think we will see this in production until at least next spring. We have not made a production order yet.

I have no idea of our production cost yet, so not clear on the sell price.

Hope this helps.
 
#1,143
rsmith601 said:
Sorry for the delay in responding to this. I was preoccupied with reading the Vertex thread in the Gear Page. That situation is proof to me that a vast majority of people who think they hear things don't know what they are talking about. Smeet's phaser shootout and the Vertex story indicate a vast swath of the analog boutique pedal market is BS.

At least when you buy SA you know you are getting 100% non-analog non-boutique. Ultra-Pure digital tone right from Bob and Jesse's lab with no marketing mojo!

OK, now back to serious topics:
The 3 digital outputs are really 3 MIDI channels over either the MIDI physical interface or the USB physical interface.

If you are using this device with the Hub, you could use either the 10K expression out, or you could use MIDI.
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks, that mostly clears everything up. And the multiple-channel MIDI is actually a pretty cool bonus! So you can do all of the main functions (calibrate, on/off, different tapers) separately on each channel?

If I were being SUPER picky I would love to have two 50k's instead of two 10k's, but other than that it seems awesome!

Oh and about the Vertex thing...I agree. It mostly boils down to, people are bad judges of how objective they can be. They think they are stripping away extraneous info but they don't realize how it is still affecting them.
 
#1,145
rsmith601 said:
You are #191. Always nice to meet a new member. I am Roger, and I have a soft spot for TB......especially SASS members!

So, the 4 switches can operate in 3 modes:
Mode #1 is Normal: up, down, active, favorite
Mode #2 is Bank: 1, 2, 3, 4 (hold down 1 and you will jump to the next bank, hold down 2 and you jump down a bank, etc.)
Mode #3 is Seq: Like normal, but you can define a special order sequence

I do not think we will see this in production until at least next spring. We have not made a production order yet.

I have no idea of our production cost yet, so not clear on the sell price.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...


Much appreciated, Roger. I'm not a new member to TB - just to SA products. I've been around for nigh on 11 years.

Thank you for the insight on the modes and ETA - I'll pick up something else to either tide me over, or be my permanent solution.
 
#1,146
Adamixoye said:
Okay, thanks, that mostly clears everything up. And the multiple-channel MIDI is actually a pretty cool bonus! So you can do all of the main functions (calibrate, on/off, different tapers) separately on each channel?

If I were being SUPER picky I would love to have two 50k's instead of two 10k's, but other than that it seems awesome!

Oh and about the Vertex thing...I agree. It mostly boils down to, people are bad judges of how objective they can be. They think they are stripping away extraneous info but they don't realize how it is still affecting them.
Click to expand...
There are also 7 built-in LFOs, each with multiple waveforms assignable to each output. You can control the speed of the with the pedal. Jesse showed me a demo with the EQ where he had the 3 MIDI signals operating differently to control different bands on the EQ. It was very cool. In a month or so we will put out a document or video which will make this all more clear. For now, you know what I know.

I remain frustrated that some of the tones in our multi-tone pedals destroy the one tone coming from a boutique analog single-tone pedal. Ours sell for $169 and are very expensive and complicated to develop (3 deeply talented and experienced full time engineers). Theirs sell for $250, and in the case of Vertex, are created by someone who does not even know the I-V plot of a simple silicon diode. There are hoards of people on TGP and also on TB who worship this stuff and perpetuate the illusion and hype. Smeet's blind phaser test provided significant evidence that most people are not objective until they are forced to actually use their ears. There are still vast swaths of folks who will not buy the Orbital, because they think it sounds digital. If I could only get each prospective customer to do a blind test before buying a pedal, then we would be all set!! (sorry for the rant....back to work!)
 
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#1,147
Yeah the digital bias can be hard to overcome. So many people arw shocked that my dirty tones are coming from a digital pedal (Bass OFD).

I think much of that bias comes from 30 years of bad digital products! The tech had to catch up, and arguably has, but it's hard to get somebidy to eat sashimi after only trying grocery store sushi for years..
 
#1,149
The SA pedals definitely have an amazing bang for the buck ratio. But, beyond that, they have an amazing bang for the board space ratio. Honestly, the 4 SA pedals I have on my board have saved me TONS of board space, TONS!!!!!!!!!!

And, honestly, the Manta, Orbital, OFD will give many many many analog pedals a run for its money. It won't replace all my analog pedals.

I did not mention the dimension because most serious competitors out there are digital anyway. The Multiwave, well, there is no analog pedal like that :)
 
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#1,150
This! I'm not a dirt guy, but I like experimenting so much that I bought all of the non-dirt SA pedals to always have. Wanna tweak my reverbs, or completely change the whole shebang? Done. Tired of my filter sounds? So many sounds it's hard to get the same one twice! More modulation than I'll ever need. But, for the price, I'm glad I have too much on the board. It's not like I have $1k of different flavors, I have all of the flavors but only use two presets at a time.

GREAT for keeping boundaries on a board. And you can shrink or realllllllly expand those boundaries! ;)
 
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#1,152
FretNoMore said:
Rats, I was going to switch out some pedals on my board for the SA pedals I just bought, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't just keep it as is and start on a second all SA board instead to get the full benefit from MIDI, patches and whatnot. :nailbiting:
Click to expand...

If it were me, I'd go with the latter. Depending on the SA pedals you have, if you've got enough to cover all the ground you need/want, why compromise. Then you can either take both boards or either one. That's just me anyway.
 
#1,153
rsmith601 said:
View attachment 458861

Did someone say something about MIDI foot controllers? This is from the lab. Note the expression input port. There is also USB for getting things all set up. Lots of thought being put into this.
Click to expand...
Can you tell us anything more about this (size, ETA, price)?
I'm planning a new pedalboard and it needs a controller ... ;)
 
#1,154
I'll almost certainly be getting a Soundblox 2 pedal in the next couple of months, and I'm particularly interested in the applications of the expression pedal. Can you set the expression pedal to do different things based on which preset/scene (via the hub) you have selected? Or do you have to manually change the function of the expression pedal? For instance, can I assign the expression pedal to the speed knob on the Orbital Modulator for one preset, and then have it assigned to the feedback option for another preset, without having to manually switch the expression pedal function in between songs?
 
#1,155
FretNoMore said:
Can you tell us anything more about this (size, ETA, price)?
I'm planning a new pedalboard and it needs a controller ... ;)
Click to expand...

Well, the size is kind of right there with comparison to the DEP. Just a few posts ago Roger said "probably not this year" for an ETA, and also said he had no estimate on price.
 
#1,158
Eugene B said:
Can you set the expression pedal to do different things based on which preset/scene (via the hub) you have selected? Or do you have to manually change the function of the expression pedal?
Click to expand...

Yes, each Hub preset can save unique EXP/HH control settings for each pedal.

Eugene B said:
For instance, can I assign the expression pedal to the speed knob on the Orbital Modulator for one preset, and then have it assigned to the feedback option for another preset, without having to manually switch the expression pedal function in between songs?
Click to expand...

Yes, just change Hub presets and voila!

To keep the gears churning the Hub also lets you control ALL of your SB2 pedals simultaneously with EXP/HH. Each pedal in the Hub scene can have it's own unique control setup. Sweep the filter frequency on the Manta while also controlling the Reverb Send on the Dimension and Drive on the OFD. With one expression. All saved forever in a preset. Which you can then share with the community. :)
 
#1,159
gastric said:
Yes, each Hub preset can save unique EXP/HH control settings for each pedal.



Yes, just change Hub presets and voila!

To keep the gears churning the Hub also lets you control ALL of your SB2 pedals simultaneously with EXP/HH. Each pedal in the Hub scene can have it's own unique control setup. Sweep the filter frequency on the Manta while also controlling the Reverb Send on the Dimension and Drive on the OFD. With one expression. All saved forever in a preset. Which you can then share with the community. :)
Click to expand...

Are you answering a general question about the Hub/expression pedal functionality or are you beta testing the Reflex?
 

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