What's the next frontier in pedals?

[WhoopingHonky]

Even in my short time in the musical world, I've seen a number of thing that broke new ground in how pedals were used to twist and turn sounds in brand new ways. Digital pitch shifting from EHX, Strymon hitting the scene with their big box pedals, analog amp sim pedals, all in one digital pedalboard platforms, and infinite sustain pedals. There's been all kinds of new ground broken, but we still have some standards that won't go away. The OC-2 is still the analog octave king for many, and the Rat is still a staple.

What's the next frontier you think we'll cross? Something new in the digital space, or something analog we haven't seen? Will we finally see something that dethrones the tubescreamer?

 

[gtirard]

Amps will include digital effects, you'll end up with amps the size of the elf that offer twice the DSP power of the HX Stomp.

Then we may see AI generated FX: you'll talk to your amp and ask "can you make this distortion a little bit more organic?"… or "can you make the same sound as XX in the song YY?"

It's funny you take the example of tubescreammer:



Ok we're not there yet as you see, but… close enough to see that we'll get there eventually.

By the way, when we'll be there, some of us will still prefer analog pedals and tube stuff. It won't kill the pedals market, it will offer just more choices.

 

[bassbrad]

Musicians being the mix of nerds and liuddites will continue to drive the market forward and back inspiring equipment designers to greater creativity and simplicity. We will see companies that cater directly to customers continue to flourish like Source Audio, Fuzzrocious and Sushi box FX. We will also see builders that are able to generate designs that harness digital and analog for truly futuristic functionality like Chase Bliss. We will also see manufacturers making dull looking boxes that need engineering degrees to get even the simplest of sounds out of.
EHX will continue to surprise everyone with goodies and thinge that inspire.

TLDR More of the same.

 

[Krisfield]

Even more diverse range of musical equipment. Whatever your requirements are, whatever you can imagine, someone will be making it. And if it’s good quality gear, there will be a market, and so innovation will continue.

 

[el murdoque]

I think where we're heading right now will let us see more of the platform/sandbox approach.
Chase Bliss did the Premap MKII which has a lot of bling going on with the motorized faders and the super high quality enclosure, but the idea behind is stunning - a drive with multiple parameters that can be selected and fine tuned by the user, then saved to a bank, which can be recalled via MIDI.
Source Audio has been at it in a less boutique way for quite a while now, with good success. Their Drive, Comp, Synth, Filter (and so on) pedals come with presets, but let you create your own idea of how such an effect should work and sound.

Live music for hobbyists and those that do not fill even smaller stadiums seems to be going towards ampless stages and IEM. When you play a bar or anything that is not a pure concert venue, the possibility to turn down a notch at the mixer is a very handy feature and will give bands an edge over those that blast their tunes at "Drums battling guitar half stack" volume, with the first few rows going deaf and the patrons in the back having to scream at each other. More and more attention that was spent on the choice of amp head and cabinet(s) will migrate towards the choice of the preamp(s) on the pedalboards. We'll see more in that regard.

 

[gtirard]

Amps will include digital effects, you'll end up with amps the size of the elf that offer twice the DSP power of the HX Stomp.

Then we may see AI generated FX: you'll talk to your amp and ask "can you make this distortion a little bit more organic?"… or "can you make the same sound as XX in the song YY?"

It's funny you take the example of tubescreammer:



Ok we're not there yet as you see, but… close enough to see that we'll get there eventually.

By the way, when we'll be there, some of us will still prefer analog pedals and tube stuff. It won't kill the pedals market, it will offer just more choices.

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure: AI is the future of everything, including pedals.
The sentence "Ok ChatGPT, please make my distortion a little more organic" is probably not for 2023, but for a near future.

Deep learning algorithms just have to index all Talkbass threads, and they'll know exactly what a "warm" or "organic, 3D bass sound" is. Oh, and they'll also be able to tell you if you need P or a J, with a white or a tort pickgard

 

[BEADist]

"Ok ChatGTP, write a snarky post about this new Boss pedal. Something about how it is sounding 'digital' or artificial.."

 

[InkCow]

"Ok ChatGTP, write a snarky post about this new Boss pedal. Something about how it is sounding 'digital' or artificial.."

“Ok ChatGTP now design the pedal enclosure with the input and output jacks in the ‘right’ place”

<<system malfunction>>

 

[Jazz Ad]

AI indeed and it could be brought very far, as far as correcting pitch or rhythm on the fly like an autotune. Assisted flight so to say.
It would be frowned upon by hobbysts but beginners as well as pros would jump on it.

There are serious researches (IA again) to make faster audio to MIDI conversions by previewing what you plan to play. Catching a pitch on the fly takes time (at least a quarter period) but sorting between several possible outcomes is way, way easier and only takes a couple ms with a proper DSP.

Other possibilities would be for a synth or effect to mimic sounds you hear on the radio, like a Shazam for instrument tone.

I think we need a standard to connect digital pedals together and avoid successive ADA conversions. It could easily be implemented, all it would take is a common rule on bit and rate scaling, just like you do with video. Imagine chaining multis and digital pedals without conversion loss.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

AI indeed and it could be brought very far, as far as correcting pitch or rhythm on the fly like an autotune. Assisted flight so to say.
It would be frowned upon by hobbysts but beginners as well as pros would jump on it.

There are serious researches (IA again) to make faster audio to MIDI conversions by previewing what you plan to play. Catching a pitch on the fly takes time (at least a quarter period) but sorting between several possible outcomes is way, way easier and only takes a couple ms with a proper DSP.

Other possibilities would be for a synth or effect to mimic sounds you hear on the radio, like a Shazam for instrument tone.

I think we need a standard to connect digital pedals together and avoid successive ADA conversions. It could easily be implemented, all it would take is a common rule on bit and rate scaling, just like you do with video. Imagine chaining multis and digital pedals without conversion loss.

And the next step is AI playing the bass

 

[Jazz Ad]

And the next step is AI playing the bass

High end groove boxes and VSTis for DAWs already allow this. These process in a digital way through a sequencer of sort though. I have yet to see it happen while modulating actual sound.

 

[Wretched Banana]

We will definitely see more of machine learning finding its way to pedals in unexpected ways. AI being a sexy label to slap on the box helps, too.

But something else that's long overdue is proper human computer interaction/usability/UX/whatever you want to call it in your field applied to existing ideas--so that you don't end up with devices like Source Audio pedals that are amazing but still hated by half the community. This is finally beginning with the lowest hanging fruits such as adding wireless capabilities and proper touchscreens, but there's tons of (scientific) work to do there in both human and technology spaces, and it'll happen.