Meris? Blade Runnery? Ottobit, Polymoon & Enzo!!

[Interstellar Burst]

I'm sure that's the case and its really not the end of the world. I find that its best not to introduce stutter halfway through using the sequencer, or the transition is quite jarring in stereo when the signals suddenly merge

[Sasquatch]

If we could have just not talked about dicks and pedophilia or whatever for one thread I'm sure they would. Small businesses love when their SEO results link to a discussion about Jesus Was A Robot and his boner.

Never change, ILF.

I've been a little quiet because I've been burning the midnight oil working on the next new sounds, which I promise you'll love.
Actually, search engine linking did not even cross my mind until you mentioned it!

[Sasquatch]

For me the sweep of the bits control is really bunched up between 11:00 and 12:00. I'd almost prefer that area was most of the sweep of the pedal.

I'm switching presets with a DMC3XL and its cool but it seems like the Ottobit doesn't load a preset just because the DMC3 is on that preset. I have to activate the preset with the DMC3 and that means holding the switch and waiting a second. Kinda kills the dynamics of playing a bit. Is anyone using MIDI and getting better results?

Good feedback. That means you are living mostly in 16-bit land. SEGA-A-A-A-A-A-A

Not sure what is going on with your DMC3. The Ottobit will load a preset when you send it a program change message. Maybe there is a setting inside the DMC3 that holds off on sending the program change? I use my Ottobit Jr. with a DMC4 gen3 and it works great, and the patch switching is immediate.

[Sasquatch]

The Ottobit has changed my music and I like it

This quote means so much! This is the highest praise I think I have ever received. It takes a lot to be invited into someone’s creative process, and to then impart even the tiniest bit of influence means the world to us!

Thanks for all the feedback, and I'm glad you are loving both pedals. We're working hard to make the best possible pedals, and I can't wait for you to see what's next.

[Sasquatch]

I'm not too familiar with bit crushers; the only other bit crusher I had prior to the Ottobit Jr was the BIT setting on a Dr Scientist Bitquest. I noticed on that as well that there was a fairly wide range on the knob where I didn't get any sound.

I know two test subjects doesn't make for a conclusive experiment, but perhaps that is just the nature of bitcrushers?

You are absolutely right. Bit Crushers are extremely destructive to the sound because they are throwing away information (bits).

Our "Bits" knob works by throwing away no bits at max, and then throwing away all of the bits save 1 at minimum. Our internal DSP is running at 32 bits, and the Bits knob works by throwing away 1 bit at a time until you get to the 1 bit signal when the knob is at minimum.

For the Ottobit Jr. (as opposed to the 500 series Ottobit) I added an additional gain scaling that doesn’t kick in until you get below a 9 bit signal. This scaling was tuned to match the average signal from magnetic pickups.

[Sasquatch]

I'm definitely past the initial honeymoon phase with my Ottobit, and I'm still loving it and getting a lot of use out of it. For me also, it has changed my music.

I do have my own little things where I'm like ugh wish this was a little different. But design is always about compromises, and for an initial foray into pedals, at a $300 price point, in this tight little package, I think Meris got so much right.

My main wish is that they had borrowed the idea of little preset button/placement from the Nemesis. I would rather have paid a little more for a device with some preset ability built in, without have to take up extra board space for a switch or Faves or Disaster Area box. Presets seem so essential for something this complex.

Haven't much been using the bit knob, but yeah I guess that because I wasn't getting much range of effect out of it. I do think bit crushing has an inherently steep curve. Sample rate gets me where i want to go anyway.

Haven't noticed volume issues but I'm running it on an aux off a mixer so its irrelevant. The thing that drives me a little bonkers is the dry kill. "With DRY MUTED, the pedal delivers wet only in active mode; in bypass, the entire pedal is muted". Like whyyyyyy would you mute everything in bypass? I get that there are cases where someone might want that, but that seems like a 2% use case. 98% of the time you still want the pedal to pass the dry signal through when its bypassed. What it means for me in practice is that I can't have any other pedals in a chain on this aux channel. I have to devote one to the Ottobit alone, which it's good enough that I'm doing but it's still regrettable. This just seems like a design flaw to me, especially when it would have been possible to have a third configuration in the setup menu. Can has update plz?

Speaking of which, is the firmware update-able on this ? No USB port.

Thanks for the praise and feedback, ritz!

"Kill Dry" was meant for use with an external mix control. All DAWs, some effects switchers, some amps, and some guitar preamps (though not all) have a mix control on their effects loops (my marshall jmp-1 for one). The "Kill Dry" feature allows you to make use of your external mix. When "Kill Dry" is engaged, the bypass state of our pedal is muted because (for setups that rely on their external mix), having the pedal pass a dry signal would mean that the dry would be added to whatever dry the external mix was providing, which ultimately would give you an unwanted volume boost.

[macsearcher]

For me the sweep of the bits control is really bunched up between 11:00 and 12:00. I'd almost prefer that area was most of the sweep of the pedal.

Good feedback. That means you are living mostly in 16-bit land. SEGA-A-A-A-A-A-A

Yes, SEGA land is the sweet spot for sure but I believe that the poster is saying that all of the sweet spots are within a very small knob turn. It would be really great if they were spread out over the entire sweep.
Several users have asked if any of these issues can be solved via Firmware updates or if the pedal is firmware updatable. Can you comment on that?
These are not criticisms, merely feedback from users and a lot of people seem to be seeing similar issues.

[ritz]

I'm switching presets with a DMC3XL and its cool but it seems like the Ottobit doesn't load a preset just because the DMC3 is on that preset. I have to activate the preset with the DMC3 and that means holding the switch and waiting a second. Kinda kills the dynamics of playing a bit. Is anyone using MIDI and getting better results?

Good feedback. That means you are living mostly in 16-bit land. SEGA-A-A-A-A-A-A

Not sure what is going on with your DMC3. The Ottobit will load a preset when you send it a program change message. Maybe there is a setting inside the DMC3 that holds off on sending the program change? I use my Ottobit Jr. with a DMC4 gen3 and it works great, and the patch switching is immediate.

DMC3 does have two different modes to switch presets. Sounds like your using the one meant for jumping to a specific preset without having to activate a bunch in between.

[ritz]

"Kill Dry" was meant for use with an external mix control. All DAWs, some effects switchers, some amps, and some guitar preamps (though not all) have a mix control on their effects loops (my marshall jmp-1 for one).

Haha good info, schooled. I sometimes forget that I am an outsider in terms of stuff like this. I am the 2%, I guess.

[manymanyhaha]

nice posting spree sasquatch, I like your stuffs. Keep it up

[whoismarykelly]

I'm switching presets with a DMC3XL and its cool but it seems like the Ottobit doesn't load a preset just because the DMC3 is on that preset. I have to activate the preset with the DMC3 and that means holding the switch and waiting a second. Kinda kills the dynamics of playing a bit. Is anyone using MIDI and getting better results?

Good feedback. That means you are living mostly in 16-bit land. SEGA-A-A-A-A-A-A

Not sure what is going on with your DMC3. The Ottobit will load a preset when you send it a program change message. Maybe there is a setting inside the DMC3 that holds off on sending the program change? I use my Ottobit Jr. with a DMC4 gen3 and it works great, and the patch switching is immediate.

DMC3 does have two different modes to switch presets. Sounds like your using the one meant for jumping to a specific preset without having to activate a bunch in between.

I need to read the manual a bit more. Im spoiled by my RJM switcher that is much easier to program and understand. Can the DMC be on a preset and send the program change without sending the CC message to change the bypass status? I'd basically like to be able to scroll through the DMC on the fly to a preset and have that be ready in the Ottobit for when I want to turn it on with the Ottobit bypass switch. Right now if I scroll to a preset on the DMC and hit the bypass switch on the Ottobit its still on the last sound and the only way to activate the preset selected on the DMC is to use the delayed "hold for a few seconds" method which blows for trying to turn the pedal on in time with playing.

[Jwar]

What about what I mentioned with the dead spot in sweeping? Any insight on that?? Any updates planned?

[Sasquatch]

What about what I mentioned with the dead spot in sweeping? Any insight on that?? Any updates planned?

I find the opposite on the Ottobit Jr. It can be too loud with my setup and the Merc7 too quiet. Odd. LOL

OH! There's also a dead spot in the sweep for the Merc7 with the blend. It cuts the signal completely when sweeping to the full toe down position. It's where I'm almost all the way toe down. Now I'm using a EV5, which is a 10K pot and I haven't checked if it requires something else. So take that with a grain of salt.

Hi jwar,

I see where you are coming from; you would like the mix knob on the Mercury7 to slowly fade to full wet. I can also see how this relates to your exploration of the "Kill Dry" mode.

Here is some background on how the Mix knob on the Mercury7 was designed to work.
First, the mix is done in analog, which is handy in a couple ways, your dry signal is never colored and has no latency. The mixing in analog also gives you up to a 6db boost without clipping when the dry signal and wet signal are added together, which is nice.

As for the taper of the "Mix" control, I view time based effects (reverb, delay) as additive to the core sound, I get bummed out when I step on a bypass switch for a reverb and my dry signal drops, or when having my wet level just right, but having my dry signal altered. I usually just want to add to the sound I started with, not take away. So, you are definitely right in referring to it as a blend. For most of the knob travel, the dry is at 0db (same as bypass) and you are gradually adding the Wet (reverb) signal as you crank up the Mix. The last position of the Mix cuts the dry as an added feature for those who want full wet effects, but don't want to operate in "Kill Dry" mode. I can see where you are coming from though, and the feedback is appreciated.

Because of a number of reasons, we don’t have plans for a firmware update at this time.

[Sasquatch]

Yes, SEGA land is the sweet spot for sure but I believe that the poster is saying that all of the sweet spots are within a very small knob turn. It would be really great if they were spread out over the entire sweep.
Several users have asked if any of these issues can be solved via Firmware updates or if the pedal is firmware updatable. Can you comment on that?
These are not criticisms, merely feedback from users and a lot of people seem to be seeing similar issues.

Got it. The “Bits” knob is broken up into 32 slices, from 1 bit to 32 bits, and works like a 32 position switch. Since the knob works like a 32 position switch I tried to keep the regions set to work in a useful way. If you turn the knob slowly you should be able to hear the transitions as your throw away the bits one at a time.

[Sasquatch]

nice posting spree sasquatch, I like your stuffs. Keep it up

Glad you enjoyed it