discontinued Archives - Guitar Effects - Subdecay

TremCoder – Tremolo / Sequencer

brian marshall — Fri, 10 May 2019 19:45:03 +0000

Feature rich Stereo Tremolo/Sequencer that keeps it simple.

The TremCoder gives you options but won’t require a masters degree in modular synth madness to operate. A variety of LFOs drive a stereo tremolo/panner and lock into your groove with tap tap tempo.

But wait, where’s the tap tempo switch? External input? Nope. You just tap the bypass switch twice and the tremolo starts on the following beat. Tap up to five times for greater accuracy. When tapping stops the effect turns on like magic. After two seconds simply press the switch once to turn the effect off.

How does stereo work with only one ouput jack? You’ll need a TRS Y cable for stereo panning.

Stereo tremolo demo:

Listen with headphones or decent speakers to get the full effect.

Controls:

Depth: Controls the effect depth.

Speed: Selects ratio for tap tempo in LFO modes. Selects sequences in sequence modes.

Shape: There are 9 LFO shapes and 2 sequence banks

Short Pulse: Shorter on time than a square wave. 33% on time.
Square: Same as Pulse but on 50% of the time.
Long Pulse: longer time than a square wave. 75% on time.
Sine wave: The classic modulation waveform for a tremolo effect.
Triangle: Similar to the sinewave. Less “throb” or “bounce.” Especially useful for a wide panning effect.
Ramp / Saw: It’s like half triangle and half square.
8 Step / 16 Step: These are similar to sequences, but particularly useful for panning.
Sequences: Individual sequences are set by the speed knob and all have fixed ratios.
Bank A: 1-3 are simple LFOs modulated by another LFO. For example Bank A Seq. 1 is a sine wave with the amplitude modulated by a slower triangle wave. This makes the tremolo effect fade in and out over four beats. A5 – A11 are simple rhythmic patterns. A10 and A11 are timed with triplets.
Bank B: All 32 step rhythmic patterns that repeat over a four beat measure. Unlike Bank A, these are not depicted on the pedal. (See the Sequence B drawing.)

The post TremCoder – Tremolo / Sequencer appeared first on Guitar Effects - Subdecay.

Prometheus DLX – Resonant Filter Chrome

brian marshall — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 17:26:49 +0000

The most versatile filter pedal on Earth just got better.

After a year in development we present The Prometheus DLX. An analog filter with digital control. We made sure to not build in any artificial limitations. The filter sweep goes above and below normal guitar frequencies, and works well with other instruments such as bass and synthesizers. Select between lowpass, bandpass and highpass filters, and virtually unlimited ways to manipulate them.

We took the mad science of the original Prometheus and multiplied it, adding features that not only increase the sonic possibilities, but also make it easier to use. The DLX is a re-imagined Prometheus that uses all the knowledge we gained from The Quasar DLX, and our experience making the most exciting filter pedals in the world. We also added some improvements. More resonance? Yep! Tap tempo? You got it! For even more headroom the DLX will operate at 18 volts. There’s even an internal switch to add a dry signal blend to the bandpass filter. (See, we love you bass players too!)

While the options are nearly infinite, we made sure to keep things simple enough so that the average guitar player could figure them out in a few minutes.

The Prometheus DLX has nine basic functions:

Analog envelope – forward and reverse.
Step – tap tempo step filter based on 7 LFO shapes.
Trigger LFO – tap to trigger one LFO cycle.
Manual LFO – Manually control LFO speed.
Warp LFO – tap tempo LFO speed with wave shape warp.
Pixilated Envelope – sample/hold envelope control.
Envelope Trigger – Envelope triggers LFO.
Envelope->LFO manual – Envelope drives LFO speed. Fixed sensitivity.
Envelope->LFO – Envelope drives LFO speed. Variable sensitivity.

In each of these settings, the WARP control and TAP/HOLD serve different purposes to get the most out of each effect.

The expression pedal input can be used with any non-envelope functions. Depending on the shape & mode settings the expression pedal has a different effect. For example, in trigger LFO mode the LFO shape is mapped to the expression pedal. Select the ramp wave for a “standard wah” effect. Choose the saw wave for a reverse wah. The triangle/square wave is especially strange.

We also made major improvements to the step filter in the DLX. We not only added tap tempo, but the underlying LFO rate is locked to the step rate. If the step rate changes, there is no need to readjust anything to keep the same arpeggiated pattern. The warp knob is used to adjust the ratio of the step rate and the underlying LFO between 1:1 and 1:1.5. This ensures that there are no redundant settings.

Notes about The Prometheus DLX:

Powered by an external regulated 9VDC to 18VDC adapter with a negative center 2.1mm barrel style plug.
Power supply is not included.
If using a “daisy chain” power supply all other pedals MUST be negative ground.
Current draw is less than 100mA.
Length 4.7″ x Width 3.7″ x Height 1.2″
Input impedance- 1M
Output impedance- Less than 1K.
The Prometheus DLX is hand made in Oregon.
Die cast metal enclosures for durability.
3PDT switches for true bypass switching.
Red/Green LED indicator.
Three-year limited warranty

July 2015- Version 1.5 update:

The most versatile filter pedal on earth just got better.
The improvements include:

More consistent settings between 9 and 18 volt operation.
Minor changes and smoothing of the analog envelope follower
Improved power filtering

Prometheus DLX filter video demos

Prometheus DLX demo song.

song featuring different settings and uses for the PDLX.

User demos:

Dennis Kayzer using PDLX with fuzz

Dennis Kayzer explores the PDLX and uses it with other effects including dirt, echo and a looper.

The post Prometheus DLX – Resonant Filter Chrome appeared first on Guitar Effects - Subdecay.

Quasar DLX Deluxe Phaser

brian marshall — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 00:17:35 +0000

Return of the Phase

The Quasar DLX is back in black. The original LFO waveforms return, with improvements in the phaser’s tone and usability.

Like many classic designs the heart of the Quasar DLX mkII is an analog 4 stage OTA based phaser. This phaser is made special by the features and functionality possible only with digital control. Eleven LFO shapes ranging from the tried and true sine and triangle waves to random sample/hold and even an argyle waveform. (Yes you read that right! Argyle!)

A phaser to control the world!

Control the LFO speed in three different ways. You can control the modulation speed by tap tempo, or hold down the tap switch for manual control and engage the DUAL ACTION SPEED KNOB. (Watch the demo to learn about the D.A.S.K.) The speed ranges from a 45 second sweep up into ring modulation territory at nearly 300hz.

An expression pedal can also control the speed, or manually sweep the phaser like a wah.

Turning the color knob to the right increases the intensity of the phasing. When turned fully to the right it starts to sound similar to an early 80s Roland style Low pass filter. The color knob can have a dramatic effect on the output volume. Luckily there’s a volume knob too!

The post Quasar DLX Deluxe Phaser appeared first on Guitar Effects - Subdecay.

Vocawah- Vowel Shift Filter

Brian Marshall — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 23:44:05 +0000

Human voice filter

Unlike most animals we humans have the ability to communicate with complex language. Complex language made possible with our ability to voice a wide array of sounds. The Vocawah captures the essence of our ability to articulate vowel sounds by using two parallel filters.

Like other envelope filters, the Vocawah uses your playing dynamics to modulate two filters. The parallel filters modulate in opposite directions. This creates a more intense and emotive effect than your typical wah or filter pedal. This is similar to running two wah pedals like Stevie Ray Vaughan did in parts of “Say What.” No need to sit down and use both feet to rock the wahs. The Vocawah does all work for you.

Analog design

An all Analog design offers advantages for resonant filters in terms of headroom, dynamic range and resolution. Sure, digital audio has come a long way since it’s early use in guitar effects, but this is one area where we feel analog is superior. Even the analog imperfections make filters sound more emotive instead of robotic and compressed.

Controls:

The Vocawah is super easy to dial in. The knob ranges and filter sweep are tuned to work well with guitar or bass, single coils or humbuckers.

Manual- Manually sets the opening (or frequency) of each filter.
Depth- Adjusts the sensitivity of filter modulation.
Band-pass / Low-pass switch- Sets filter voicing. Low-pass retains lower frequencies which is often useful with bass guitar. Band-pass setting typically works better with guitar, particularly when used with overdrive.

The post Vocawah- Vowel Shift Filter appeared first on Guitar Effects - Subdecay.

Echobox – Modulated delay

Brian Marshall — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 21:40:35 +0000

The instant atmosphere echo pedal.

Inspired by many effects of the past, the Echobox captures sounds that straddle the line between analog and tape echos. We went back reexamining the sounds with fresh ears, and spent time listening to some of our favorite delay using artists to create our best echo pedal ever. We paid special attention to an authentic clean signal, warm repeats, and echo dynamics.

Dynamics are not a word typically associated with delay pedals. It’s an important (even if unintentional) part of the early tape echo sound and we build that into Echobox. With repeats set to near infinite it’s easy to turn the simplest phrases into a sea of echos. Dig harder into the strings and you’ll hear a very distinct echo over the top of earlier repeats. When you hit the strings even harder the repeats exude some subtle yet pleasing distortion.

While the most sought after tape echos tend toward high frequencies with extended repeats, analog delays tend downward into soupy darkness. There are notable exceptions like the DM-2 or any analog delay in self oscillation overload. The two mediums were fighting against very different limitations. Limitations which really defined their sounds.

Most of the original designs were intended to be as clear and transparent as possible. Tape echos had to deal with the high end loss typical of recording anything to tape, especially as it aged. The solution was boosting the high frequencies when recording to tape which become more apparent as the signal is recycled.

Analog delays used bucket brigade technology which sent samples through a series of thousands of tiny capacitors. Each time the signal switched to the next capacitor a switching noise was added to the signal. With short delay times the switching frequency was well outside our ability to hear. In order to extend delay times analog delays massively cut the high end giving most a very warm echo often degrading similarly to a natural echo in a physical space. Another contributor to the analog echo sound were noise reduction circuits called companders, but added their own attack character to repeats requiring a delicate balance. Designed with too short of an attack, each repeat would start with audible harsh distortion. With too slow of an attack the beginning of each repeat would miss out on dynamics, especially if playing staccato or palm muting higher notes. The Echobox avoids companders and their attack artifacts by using a 10th order filter for noise reduction helping multiple repeats retain their musical entropy.

With the Echobox we captured what we love about both approaches. The dynamics of tape delays. The compact size and zero maintenance of analog. A warmth somewhere between the two, and LFO based echo modulation found on some units.

Control matrix – We really wanted the controls to feel intuitive and non-finickey. Just barely touching a knob won’t send a subtle effect into UFO madness. It’s one of those pedals where you can almost put it on your board, set every knob to 12:00 and never touch it again. It adds instant atmosphere. It’s easy to keep things classy, but if subtlety ain’t your style, no worries. Just crank those knobs.

Delay – sets the delay time from 40 – 666 milliseconds of delay time. (Really it’s more like 700 milliseconds, but who’s counting?) Set to dead center gives you a delay time of 250 ms. While this does not sound linear it keeps the shorter delay times from feeling all bunched up at the beginning of the dial.

Level – sets the overall volume of the delay. Turned all the way up the repeats are slightly louder that the dry signal.

Regen – Controls how long the delay will repeat itself. Set to 3:00 the echos will trail almost infinitely. Turn it up higher for a launch into oscillation.

Trails switch – Set to the up position for echo trails after the effect is bypassed. When trails are on your signal will still pass through the effect. Turn the trails switch off to directly route the original input signal to the output when bypassed.

Modulation – The depth and speed knobs modulate the delay time.

Depth – Turn the depth all the way down to completely cancel modulation. With the depth set up to dead center modulation is still subtle just adding some magic. Turning past this point it becomes more noticeable with full on pitch madness at the end of the dial.

Speed – Chorus like echos with this knob set to the left. Vibrato to the right. You can even get some chorus and vibrato sounds with fast delay times and low regen settings.

Echobox Videos

Some of our favorite settings.

What’s with all that churning and bubbling?

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Starlight – Flanger v2

Brian Marshall — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 18:35:25 +0000

Vintage Flanger tone, modern versatility.

With six tantalizing LFO shapes, added control and an revamped internal design the Starlight flanger is crafted to satisfy noise connoisseurs and traditionalists alike. The triangle and sine shape gives you all the classic tones from jet plane sweep to chorus/vibrato like warbles. Try random sample/hold for teleported cyborg babble. let chords ring out with the disorientation of the Square/Triangle mix shape. There are so many possibilities you just have to try it to find them all.

Powerful Controls.

Many of the controls go beyond the range you might expect. The manual knob turns the flanger sweep down super low for nasally sitarish drone. The regen knob allows for near oscillation (and can be tuned for self oscillation via an internal trimmer.) The range of the depth knob can be overbearing paired with fast modulation speeds. Maybe that’s what you want. We’ve left the power in your hands.

From Subtle to bold.

The effect has been completely redesigned with warmer tone, more transparency and a dramatic improvement in headroom and dynamics. The depth and regen controls allow for near transparent warbles to flanging excesses brazen enough to make the 1980s collectively blush. You’ll never experience a volume drop when with the effect engaged. Deliberately created to deliver a full range effect without compromising dynamics or tone. And of course true bypass switching means it will never color your tone when off.

Still compact and easy to use.

In spite of the added versatility we managed to squeeze it all in a small package. It won’t cramp your pedal board. There are more feature laden brands out there, but too many are physically huge and include features you’ll never use. Even with the option heavy redesign it’s still intuitive and easy to use. The controls perform the way you’d expect. You won’t simply touch a knob and be alarmed by unexpected results. You won’t feel the anxiety that a sound is lost forever. No other flanger matches tone and features you’ll actually want to use in such a small footprint.

All analog signal path with digital control.

The Starlight never never never digitizes your guitar tone. Only the wonderful LFO shapes are generated digitally. Everything else has been kept as analog as possible. The shape and speed knobs control the LFO. From there everything including the depth, manual and regen knobs are all part of the analog circuit.

Credits:

Analog Design & artwork: Brian Marshall

Demos and soundclips

Knob demo: Full range of the Starlight Flanger

Song Demo: In the mix. Sean uses the Starlight Flanger in a full mix.

Andy from PGS takes a look at the Starlight flanger.

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Super Spring Theory – Reverb

Brian Marshall — Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:53:19 +0000

Drip Splash Kerplang – Spring Reverb.

By analyzing the design, sound and physics of real spring tanks we captured the nuances of tube driven spring reverb. Even something as innocuous as unplugging your guitar cable (kerplangagnangang) sounds like real deal. A tone control allows you to dial in the perfect timbre. There is also an internal reverb send trimmer serving two purposes- 1. It allows you to turn down for hotter input signals. 2. It does essentially what the dwell control does on an outboard reverb tank. You can turn it up for a more dramatic effect or back it off for subtlety.

Unlike a real spring tank the the decay knob allows you to dampen the springs for shorter reverb or bend the laws of physics resulting in long psychedelic resonating trails.

The clean signal path is all analog. JFET amplifiers carryout the send and recovery of the reverb signal for even more tube like dynamics. The Super Spring Theory is equally at home in front of a clean or dirty amp.

Some of the most authentic-sounding spring-reverb tones available in pedal form.
-Premier Guitar

…But wait, There’s more! – Room Reverb

There’s also that other reverb setting. ROOM. Don’t think of this as your typical subtle ambiance room reverb. That is certainly possible with the decay knob rolled back. The decay knob alters the dimensions from a broom closet to a cavern covered in ceramic tile with reverb trails over three minutes long.

Like no other reverb pedal on earth.

Every aspect of the Super Spring Theory was designed from the ground up. You won’t find a “reverb brick” inside. It’s not a datasheet design from someone else. The Super Spring Theory uses our own DSP reverb algorithms that you can’t get anywhere else.

More options

In 2011 we set out to create the most realistic spring reverb simulation ever. The Spring Theory was born with authentic sound, feel and dynamics. Since then we’ve been taking notes for the next evolution.

We listened and we know what you want. New features are packed in the same pint sized pedal. Now you can hear reverb tails when bypassed. Separate level controls for the dry and reverb sounds along with the new wide range tone control allow for subtle reverb to in your face salt water splash.

Demos and sound clips

Explore spring reverb settings with the Super Spring Theory.

Toni Lindgren with the Super Spring Theory

Super Spring Theory does surf

By Dennis Kayzer (one of our favorite reviewers on youtube)

No surf here. The Super Spring Theory used for less traditional verb sounds.

Functionality demo

Ryan Kiesshauer shows the range of the Super Spring Theory.

Andy from PGS shows off the reverb range.

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Variac Overdrive

Brian Marshall — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 23:14:36 +0000

Rock guitar tone has long been defined by overdriven tube amplifiers. Those tones have evolved over the years as amps were intentionally designed for more gain and a more focused overdriven sound.

You want those tones all the time, but we all live in the real world. You head out to a gig not knowing how loud you can play, whether you’re amp will be mic’d or how much of an amp you can even fit on the stage. Your practice space is tiny and even the drummer thinks you are too loud. And of course you need to practice without waking the neighbors on occasion. We get it. We’ve been there too.

The Variac Overdrive emulates both a hot-rodded tube preamp and a power amp with two phase inverter options. Chords sound huge, leads sing with clarity, and pinch harmonics come out with ease. The Variac Overdrive is an expressive overdrive pedal with the articulation and touch sensitivity of a tube amplifier. The controls are interactive along with “hidden” controls like the power supply. Dynamics and headroom are all affected by the power supply. Powering from 7.5 to 18 VDC opens up even more possibilities. More on the “hidden” controls below.

With tones ranging from AC/DC, early Van Halen, Judas Priest to Tom Morello and even 80’s hair sounds, the Variac Overdrive is more than another amp in a box. It places an entire era of rock tone at your feet. It’s based on tests of individual tube circuits, careful listening to some of our favorite rock and old school metal, and the topology of amplifiers the artists actually used.

The “hidden” controls:

These are not internal switches or knobs. No these are hidden plain sight.

Demos and soundclips

Dennis Kayzer looping & down tuning with the Variac.

The post Variac Overdrive appeared first on Guitar Effects - Subdecay.

Siren Pitch Vibrato

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 22:56:23 +0000

Before the days of analog delay/BBD IC’s pitch vibrato was not an easy effect to achieve. Most available technology either involved acoustics like rotating speakers or were impractical like modulating tape speed.

In the early days the world of music effects settled on vibrato simulations. The Univibe and Leslie being the two most obvious examples. They went on to become classics of their own.

Once analog delay technology became practical in the world of music, a number of flangers, chorus and echo effects became available in the mid to late 70’s. While the Pitch Vibrato effect was possible it was a rarity. Sometimes it was an also ran feature of a chorus effect, but the effect itself often lacked the attention it deserved.

We took great care for preserve dynamics and tone. The frequency response is tuned for a touch of shimmer. The input signal is never compressed and allows for impressive headroom even at 9 volt operation.

You’d think designing a vibrato effect would be simple. Take a chorus pedal and eliminate the dry signal. We found that what made a great chorus pedal did not translate to an exciting vibrato. Chorus effects are tuned with a slight delay to reduce comb filtering. The effected signal usually lacks dynamic range and high end sparkle. The imperfections are easily masked in a chorus effect by the dry signal. A pitch vibrato does not have this luxury.

Interaction, Dynamics and Control

The Siren not only lets your playing shine through, but also lets your playing control the effect. The enchant control senses how hard you play, and can slow down or speed up the vibrato. Keep this knob at the center position to maintain a steady vibrato rate.

The vibration knob controls the vibrato speed and intensity sets the depth.

Credits:

Design- Brian Marshall
Artwork- Greg Schober
Demo- Amir Estakhrian, Brian Marshall

Notes about The Siren:

Powered by an external regulated 9VDC adaptor with a negative center 2.1mm barrel style plug.
Power supply is not included.
If using a “daisy chain” power supply all other pedals MUST be negative ground.
Current draw is less than 100mA.
Length 4.4″ X Width 2.3″ X Height 1.0″
Input impedance- 500k
Output impedance- Less than 1K.
The Siren is hand made in Oregon.
Die cast metal enclosures for durability.
3PDT switches for true bypass switching.
Red LED indicator.
Three-year limited warranty.

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Prometheus DLX – Resonant Filter

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 22:53:45 +0000