Major Project

[don]

Hey, I've built a few of the schematics on here, and I'm loving it. I'm currently in my final year at university studying audio production. For my major project, I'm planning on producing a multi-fx pedal unit, incorporating about 8-10 different effects.

Listed are the effects in which I'm hoping to produce (and examples of specific base pedals):

Compressor
MXR Dynacomp

Envelope filter?
Seamoon Funk Machine

Octaver
Boss OC-2

Overdrive
Dumbloid Special

Fuzz?
Fuzz Face/EHX Bass Big Muff (the bass BM is so much better than the guitar one)

Phaser/Flanger
MXR Phase 45
TC Vortex Flange

Chorus
Keeley Seafoam

Vibe
Diamond Vibrato

Trem
Boss TR-2

Spring Reverb

Delay?
(Open to ideas for a pretty simple (but still nice) delay)

I'm thinking about making some form of 'patch bay' to allow for custom effects chains within the unit, rather than linking the I/O to each circuit in a fixed manner.

Just wondering if anyone has any sort of experience/advice in doing this sort of thing?

[Frank_NH]

Sounds interesting (and ambitious!).  The three areas I would focus on:

(1) Power supply.  With eight effects drawing at least 10 mA a piece, make sure your power supply is adequate!  Put a lot of design effort into this.

(2) Grounding and noise.  Make sure your grounding layout doesn't introduce ground loops or other sources of noise.  I would also consider the use of shielded cable for I/O connections.

(3) Switching.  Put a lot of thought into the switching scheme.  You don't want to end up with something that's difficult or confusing to use.  

Also consider the effects order and finally the enclosure size.  Nothing like building this up then finding out that the enclosure is too small.  

Let us know how it goes!  

[don]

Cheers for the advice, I'll take it on board and see what research I can find! It's likely going to take a lot of work, should be worth it if I can pull it off though! You don't happen to know of any enclosure suppliers that could custom make one to a specific size?

[Neil mcNasty]

Build a 12 channel looper and get rid of this question forever.

[don]

I'm avoiding the realms of digital technology, but please feel free to expand.

[makefast]

I don't think anyone has recommended digital anything.

For enclosures, I might go with one of the sloped Hammond ones:  http://www.hammondmfg.com/dwg16.htm

[Travis]

Folded aluminum is no bueno IMO. You need steel for folded enclosures. Those folded aluminum enclosures crush and bend easily. You could brace the inside, that's probably the only way it's a good idea

[Beaker]

+1 on everything Travis has said.

The best, strongest (and cheapest) option for giant sized enclosures are folded galvanised steel electrical enclosures.

Something like these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galvanised-Steel-Adaptable-Mounting-Box-Electrical-Enclosure-300-x-300-x-50mm-/290709911420?hash=item43afa9377c:m:mBEZNjqq6R0qd3olAhSajmQ

They come in a huge variety of sizes too. I have one that is 12" x 6" (300mm x 150mm) for an upcoming project.

[Muadzin]

Neil mcNasty wrote

Build a 12 channel looper and get rid of this question forever.

I agree. Even if you manage to work out the power supply grounding issues, what if you tire of certain effects? I constantly swap effects in and out of my board as I constantly discover new sounds and tire of old ones. Also priorities change. I used to use a dual signal chain split at the beginning, nowadays I barely use that second chain any more and I'm thinking of eliminating that splitter. Try doing that with a multi-FX.

But if you're going to, I advice to group some effects together that you can activate all in one go with one switch. I currently have two multi-loopers that I have configured so to minimize pedal board tapdancing.
1st looper has 8 loops with 6 switches.
Switch 1, filters. All things boom chicka wow wow.
Switch 2, pitch shift. Whammy and stuff.
Switch 3, subloop of switch 4, selects between a loop with fuzz pedals and overdive/distortion. And by the way the best Big Muffs are from Skreddy.
Switch 4, clean or dirt. Selects between a loop for clean stuff and switch 3 which selects between my dirt pedals. One stomp to shut things up.
Switch 5, lead or regular. Most complicated switch. Selects a loop with a Skreddy P19 muff for searing lead tones, or..... sends the signal to switch 4 for clean or regular dirt. This means the signal goes from switch 1 to switch 2 to switch 5, while switches 3 and 4 are basically subloops of switch 5. As I said, supercomplicated. But I want to be able to go to my lead tone from either a clean sound or a dirty sound without stacking stuff.
Switch 6, all my modulation pedals. Woosh, warble, chop chop.

2nd looper, signal gets split for a stereo sound.
Switch 1, harmonizer. Eventide Pitchfactor. Absurd over the top monstrosity that can do so much more then the simple Iron Maidenesque guitarharmonies I subject it too.
Switch 2, delays and reverbs. TC Novadelay and Line6 M9. No DIY stuff as that's just kids stuff. I need tap tempo's, presets, subdivisions, reverse delays and over the top reverbs.

Creating the stereo loops was incredibly hard as there don't really exists any layouts for how to wire a switch for stereo routing. You can wire a 4DPT switch as a dual millennium bypass, with only one side used to switch on a LED. I ended up using two relay boards both wired up to a single momentary switch as I experienced some pops with the 4PDT switches. And pops are insanely annoying when they activate a loop with an active delay pedal.