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The Iron Ether Xerograph Low Pass Filter & more!
- Thread starter Kwesi
- Start date
Okay, so the Iron Ether lineup so far is:
Xerograph (units for sale)
Cygnet (website seems to imply that it's for sale)
Big Brother to Xero (few weeks out)
Square Wave Synth (ETA unknown)
...sound about right Taylor? I'm trying to stay on top of it because 1) I like supporting TB'ers and 2) you seem to have an excellent handle on what a lot of us are after.
I'm not able to view any of the pedal images on your website, so at the risk of asking a stupid question, could you provide a description of the Cygnet?
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
Not a stupid question at all, the website is not really up yet, but should be by tonight. Here are the specs on the Cygnet:
Features:
-100% analog signal path, optical tremolo
-Waveform knob: Selects the waveform used to modulate volume. Offers Up Ramp, Down Ramp, Square/Pulse, Triangle, Sine, Hypertriangle, Inverted Hypertriangle, and Random Step waves.
-Multiplier knob: Multiplies your tapped tempo, allowing you to set faster rhythms than you can tap, or tap on the beat and set the multiplier for triplets rhythms.
-Speed knob: Sets the speed of tremming manually. Turning the Speed knob overrides the tapped tempo; tapping in a tempo overrides the speed knob.
-Depth knob: Sets the intensity of the effect, from light wavering to full on/off.
Width: The Width knob changes each wave differently. It simultaneously changes the on-to-off ratio, and changes the hardness of each wave. This control allows you to morph from silky smooth trem sounds to hard repeat percussion sounds, and stuttering sonar blips.
-Gain mini-knob: Allows you to adjust the output gain to compensate for more extreme settings which lower average volume.
-Tap switch: Tap twice to set the speed. Tap once at any time to re-align the trem with the beat (if your drummer starts drifting, for example )
-Measures 4.7 x 3.7 (12cm x 9.3cm). Runs on industry-standard 9 volt DC center negative power supply. True bypass.
--Custom Options:
-Expression jack for speed
-Expression jack for multiplier
Features:
-100% analog signal path, optical tremolo
-Waveform knob: Selects the waveform used to modulate volume. Offers Up Ramp, Down Ramp, Square/Pulse, Triangle, Sine, Hypertriangle, Inverted Hypertriangle, and Random Step waves.
-Multiplier knob: Multiplies your tapped tempo, allowing you to set faster rhythms than you can tap, or tap on the beat and set the multiplier for triplets rhythms.
-Speed knob: Sets the speed of tremming manually. Turning the Speed knob overrides the tapped tempo; tapping in a tempo overrides the speed knob.
-Depth knob: Sets the intensity of the effect, from light wavering to full on/off.
Width: The Width knob changes each wave differently. It simultaneously changes the on-to-off ratio, and changes the hardness of each wave. This control allows you to morph from silky smooth trem sounds to hard repeat percussion sounds, and stuttering sonar blips.
-Gain mini-knob: Allows you to adjust the output gain to compensate for more extreme settings which lower average volume.
-Tap switch: Tap twice to set the speed. Tap once at any time to re-align the trem with the beat (if your drummer starts drifting, for example )
-Measures 4.7 x 3.7 (12cm x 9.3cm). Runs on industry-standard 9 volt DC center negative power supply. True bypass.
--Custom Options:
-Expression jack for speed
-Expression jack for multiplier
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
Well, you can hear what it does if you check out the soundclips earlier in this thread.
If you'd like an explanation of what's happening technically:
A lowpass filter simply lets low frequencies pass through the filter, but cuts high frequencies. The tone knob on a passive bass is a lowpass filter: as you turn it down, it cuts highs at a lower and lower frequency, but the actual amount of cut is the same always. As you add filter stages, or poles, the filter cuts high frequencies to a lower level. My filter is up to 4-poles, which is considerably more extreme sounding than a passive tone control, as you can hear. The frequency at which the cutting begins is called the cutoff.
Now the really interesting part is when we feed the output of this filter back to its input. We get "resonance", which means that low frequencies still pass just as before, and high frequencies are still cut, but the small band of frequencies around the cutoff get boosted, and as we increase this resonance, you get a midrange peak. When you sweep this peak around, it cuts some frequencies and boosts others, which creates the sort of vocal quality of the filter.
Without sweeping it around, it can be used to cut all the harmonics of a bass out and let only the fundamental frequencies through. If you haven't ever heard the fundamental notes of bass on their own, you'd be surprised to hear how deep they are, even just in standard tuning. This can be used as a static filter to create huge dub sounds.
If you'd like an explanation of what's happening technically:
A lowpass filter simply lets low frequencies pass through the filter, but cuts high frequencies. The tone knob on a passive bass is a lowpass filter: as you turn it down, it cuts highs at a lower and lower frequency, but the actual amount of cut is the same always. As you add filter stages, or poles, the filter cuts high frequencies to a lower level. My filter is up to 4-poles, which is considerably more extreme sounding than a passive tone control, as you can hear. The frequency at which the cutting begins is called the cutoff.
Now the really interesting part is when we feed the output of this filter back to its input. We get "resonance", which means that low frequencies still pass just as before, and high frequencies are still cut, but the small band of frequencies around the cutoff get boosted, and as we increase this resonance, you get a midrange peak. When you sweep this peak around, it cuts some frequencies and boosts others, which creates the sort of vocal quality of the filter.
Without sweeping it around, it can be used to cut all the harmonics of a bass out and let only the fundamental frequencies through. If you haven't ever heard the fundamental notes of bass on their own, you'd be surprised to hear how deep they are, even just in standard tuning. This can be used as a static filter to create huge dub sounds.
I'm afraid that I have no sound on my computer at the moment due to an icedent involvin the sound card and a dodgy fan 
IIRC, as of a few months ago, Kwesi had never used effects. And now he's preaching the love.
My, my, this addiction is swift.
So true and sooooo much fun
!ditto...
...for everything
Yeeeeeeeah I want that too. I'll wait until the Elder Xero is done and buy 'em both. Or maybe just until the website/order form is up. How many of your pedals do I have to buy before I get Iron Ether stock options, or at least a t-shirt?
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
Yeeeeeeeah I want that too. I'll wait until the Elder Xero is done and buy 'em both. Or maybe just until the website/order form is up. How many of your pedals do I have to buy before I get Iron Ether stock options, or at least a t-shirt?
I will send you a punch card with your first purchase. After 12 pedals, you get a free footlong sub mailed to you, with extra mayonnaise, wrapped in "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirts.
I hate mayo. Make it hot sauce and you've got yourself a deal.
No fair! Aaron gets all the cool stuff
You can have my mayo.
Maybe just expression control of condiments?
Out of context that is a questionable thing to say to another man. Or woman for that matter.
As for me I just want the "World's Greatest Dad" T-Shirt. That way when the kids are old enough to question my parenting skills for spending their college fund on Taylor's pedals I can say, "read the shirt, punk."
Very true. Hence, making a relatively cheap 2 pedal method of getting dubstep sounds on bass when we have a massive thread going on how to get dubstep wobbly tones
Xero serial #2 should be headed my way soon
I hope I can use it to whip something up for the illustrious TB Noise Compilation v2 (shameless plug, I know).
I hope I can use it to whip something up for the illustrious TB Noise Compilation v2 (shameless plug, I know).
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
