Just going to place this here for everyone to read.
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Well I just read this and and in complete utter amazement. Since we're all a bunch of electronics geeks in some respect, we l build electronic effects, I figured I should just place this here. All I can say is I think SMD is the least of our worries. Lol
I used to work in molecular electronics and let me tell you, this is still quite far from appearing in consumer electronics. That being said.... some colleagues of mine at the National Institute for Nanotechnology up in Edmonton have made an overdrive pedal which uses molecular junctions to replace clipping diodes:
Re: Just going to place this here for everyone to read.
Administrator
obviously it's just budding, i was really just kidding it really being a concern for us. figured it would be more interesting for all of the electronics geeks in the community. it really is amazing that we are at a point where something like this is feasible. that pedal does sound really good, not good enough to make me leave Ge behind, lol, but very promising for the future.
yep, all those inefficient distorted-sounding old fender, orange, marshall, matamp, hiwatt etc valve amps. all yesterday's dead technology. deep down we secretly know they've only been fit for the skip since transistors arrived.
as for moog synths, space echos, superfuzzes, etc. you can't even give that shit away nowadays. everyone wants digital modelling.
"wait a minute, doc. are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a fender twin???"
Re: Just going to place this here for everyone to read.
absolutely amazing technology, and truly over my head- molecular junction nano transistor University team scientists.. made a tubescreamer (mentioned around the 10min mark of video). sorry just had to make YATS joke.
It really is amazing. I'm wishing I understood more. always appreciate a good article. thanks for sharing.
yep, all those inefficient distorted-sounding old fender, orange, marshall, matamp, hiwatt etc valve amps. all yesterday's dead technology. deep down we secretly know they've only been fit for the skip since transistors arrived.
as for moog synths, space echos, superfuzzes, etc. you can't even give that shit away nowadays. everyone wants digital modelling.
"wait a minute, doc. are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a fender twin???"
I know you're being sarcastic there, but I do think musicians tend to be a terribly conservative lot. All this obsession to recreate vintage tone from the 50's and 60's when we should be striving to find new tone. Fire and the wheel sure as hell weren't invented by musicians, that's for sure.
Re: Just going to place this here for everyone to read.
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hey muadzin, was being sarcastic and i do share your observation re the conservative thing.
the thing that makes me laugh most is the massive amounts of time and resources the effect modelling companies invest in trying to get digital to sound like analog. that is so beautifully perverse. technology chasing its own tail. but business is business, and companies who don't tailor their innovations to address their conservative customers' tastes don't last.
i try to look backward and forward for tones and keep an open mind to the potential available in both for the sounds i want. excess all areas.
but re stompbox building, due to my relative newbie-ness, i am fairly limited to analog for the moment (pt2399, cmos chips, belton bricks, etc, included).
that said however, i have been eyeing up mick taylor's (ice-9) goldmine reverb and shimmer thread at fsb http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=26508 over the past week or so (with a two year 20 pages plus of development at diysb leading up to it http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=104291.0) and wondering how much 'new learning' it would require me to undertake to be able to attempt an fv1 dsp-based build.
it's a deep and lush sounding reverb and mick has been generous in sharing the whole project in its entirety (that's dsp code, schematics, the whole lot, for a pedal he is currently selling) with the open diy community. that's real commitment to the cause and he gets a lot of respect from me for the gesture. so the spin fv1 platform is something i've been thinking about. clip of the goldmine here.
also the arduino pedalshield things from electrosmash http://www.electrosmash.com/pedalshield looks like a very attempt-able way into diy software-controlled stomps. youtube demos sound promising.
has anyone here got anywhere with experimenting with either the spin fv1 or arduino platforms?
anyway generally speaking, as much as i love the analog tones of the past, software-controlled pedals are where the science is going in the immediate future. self-contained single-role stompboxes will give way to an array of identical switches on the floor each controlling a different set of vastly variable x/y plot digital plugins on a laptop.
the synth lot have been at it for years, a lot of cutting-edge pro guitarists do this already live, and most home studio freaks. but the live rock crowd are a generally bit resistant and sniffy about it (i include myself here, for live anyway) because the tech seems so sterile and plastic. one can't deny that pressing enter on a laptop doesn't compare with setting fire to your guitar for drama.
actually that dilemma reminds me of coverage of a recent kraftwerk gig in which the reviewer confessed that although they appreciated all the band stood for in pop culture (the legend, etc) he was forced to concede that their live gigs hold about as much charm as watching four middle-aged men check their emails.
back on topic, who knows, maybe we will have a first program-your-own pedal project thread here before the year is out?
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