what would you add to this looping board?

[dubkitty]

i'm almost to the end of wiring up my triple-looper board. it's taken quite a bit of fiddling to solve various layout questions raised by general space needs, functionalities, and particularly the sizes of the Ernie Ball A/B volume/pan pedal and the Gator power supply. i wound up putting the A/B farther to the back edge than i wanted to; i prefer having treadle pedals as close to the near edge as possible so they're more reachable, but it proved impossible to route the cables in/out between the deck slats without creating excessive bending of the cable ends which i don't trust. so now the end of the A/B hangs over the far edge of the board so i can route the cables outside the frame. this opened up a little more area for the PS, which i intended to mount with the long axis parallel to the deck slats for maximum cable space.

but the PS has a jack for a proprietary (or at least unusual) 3-pin male plug configuration that's smaller than a standard US AC cord socket and thus can't take a standard right-angle AC cord adapter, which is located at one end of the box. the size of the PS forces a troubling bend in the power cord because it's squeezed in next to the A/B pedal and leaves no room to remove the PS power cord. i don't want to move stuff around every time i plug the board in/out, so i decided to try rotating the PS 90 degrees. this fits pretty well, and also opens up a potential space for another pedal.

however, having worked on the extended board setups for so long that i've gotten just about everything that seems useful, i have no idea what i'd add at that (end) point of the chained boards. here's what i have now on the looping board:

Saturnworks 1-to-4 active splitter (upper right)->2 outputs to A/B pan pedal and one to separate Dunlop mini volume->A/B outputs to 2 Ditto x2 loopers/Dunlop output to EHX 1440 looper->looper outputs to active Saturnworks A/B/C summing box with channel on/offs (center right)->Boss LM-2 limiter (upper left).

so my utilities are sorted. i'd love to be able to fade the loopers out without using their level controls, but i can't deal with 3 more pedals because i can't get the board too large or it becomes impractical to reach everything. it's already more spread-out than optimal.

if you were going to add anything between the summing box and the limiter, what would it be? i have a couple of Boss GE-7 EQs i used in the first iteration of the multiple-looper concept so that's an obvious answer, but that requires even more bending-and-stretching than i currently have to do, which is way too much. there's not enough room for a double-width enclosure. it's probably better that proposed effects be subtle rather than obvious because it's going to be affecting everything coming out of the loopers, which will already have been electronically macerated before reaching the loopers. seems like either modulation or reverb would be the best bets, but i'm 100% open to suggestions. i don't need any more compression, though. see board layout below.

what_here_sized.jpg (106.6 KiB) Viewed 2579 times

[Zork]

What kind of music do you play? If more dub/ambient, I'd chose a delay. If more rhythmic/beats, maybe a glitchy stutter pedal like Catalinbread Csidman or Malekko Charlie Foxtrott. If more repetitive Sequences, maybe a simple Pitch Shifter like EHX Pitch Fork. If none or all of the above, some kind of high pass filter, probably Ibanez LF7?

[dubkitty]

ambient-adjacent loops, mostly improvised. i think there's different use cases depending on whether the added effect is before or after the loopers. when the full 3-board setup is in use i already have three delays so i'm not sure i need another, especially because the end of the signal chain coming off the main board is delay->delay->reverb->reverb which is to say two delays and two reverbs already running straight into the splitter box. perhaps something muddy to use for dub effects would work; i'd need to figure out whether doing dub FX would work better before or after the loopers. a pitch-shifter could also work, but that might have to go before the looper inputs so it doesn't get confused. i'm not really into glitch stuff, or at least haven't heard the pedal that would get me interested.

i also remembered that the longish-term plan is to get an active crossover so i can bi-amp once i get a proper bass amp. that would fit, and the location of the empty area would let me go summing box->limiter->crossover if i moved the LM-2 there and put the crossover at the end like god and nature intended.

so, at this point the best candidates are

1.) murky delay
2.) pitch shifter
3,) EQ/filter
4.) crossover
5.) reverb

the idea of a Fairfield Shallow Water (or other subtly wonky modulation) is also interesting, but might be redundant because i have a SW on the front-end board.

i have to think about what i'd do to my signal with each particular option. harmonies pleasant and not-so-pleasant with the pitch shifter? where would a delay for dub effects work best, especially since i won't be able to deconstruct the loop that's running like a real version and will have to simulate those textures? would an EQ be better to do dub things at that end of the chain where i could e.g. knock out the highs or bass like you'd do when working at the console? or one of those Colourbox-style console simulators? what about a filter you can sweep with an expression pedal (sold separately)? what's a good reverb that can go huge, still fit in a single-width box, and isn't the Catalinbread Soft Focus (main board) or Boss RV-3 (front-end board)? does a reverb exist that allows you to sweep the reverb depth/time with an expression pedal? should i just fuck off and put a crossover on anticipating getting the bass amp? any other ideas?

[dubkitty]

it only just struck me after having it as part of my signature text for 13 years that having the Best Palindrome Ever there is perfect for someone whose major pursuit is doing loops.

[dubkitty]

I WANT TO GET THIS DONE SO I DON'T HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT ANY MORE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Speaking of palindromes, something like the OBNE Reverse, maybe? Drop in some post-looping textures.

[dub]

You could shove a box/riser there the same height as the power supply and then you could stick a pretty big pedal on top.

[D.o.S.]

You could shove a box/riser there the same height as the power supply and then you could stick a pretty big pedal on top.

Yeah like a DD-200 or an RV-200 or something, which would help you with a lot of what you'd like to fit.

[dubkitty]

You could shove a box/riser there the same height as the power supply and then you could stick a pretty big pedal on top.

unfortunately, if the board gets any taller it'll be too high for the lid of the hard case to close. i already have to hold the lid closed in order to latch it.

[Zork]

You could leave the space empty and see what you miss along the way?

[dubkitty]

at the moment i'm leaning toward relocating the splitting/summing boxes by rotating them 90 degrees and placing them side-by-side and leaving it at that. they're crammed in so close together that if i have a problem with one cable i'll wind up having to tear up that corner fo the board to get to it. this would allow me to have the initial board input on the right side rather than the top edge as well. but whenever i see a tempting empty spot on a board i think "what can i put there?" as seems to be the constant case with this particular board, no decision is final. i may just take suggestions now and implement them later, though. i'm so burned out on messing with this project that i think i'm just going to stop. the point of diminishing returns may have been reached.

i also have to solve the A/B pedal location problem. i really don't like having it anywhere but as close to me as possible, because this little operation is already stretching the bounds of old man ergonomics. i'll probably try trimming the long plastic reinforcements that come out of the plug covers and see if that gives them enough flexibility at the ends.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I'd probably leave it empty unless you've got a great idea. If sonically the sound isn't missing anything, it's good?

[dubkitty]

i wound up rearranging the stuff already on the board. everything works. see "Let's see your PEDALBOARD" for details.