behold, the almighty Thor

Been up all night making a fxpedal. Found the case at a local market, and I just had to fill it with something meaningful. At runoffgroove.com I found pcb layout and schematics for a pedal they call 'Thor'. Which they claim is a Marshall 100W Super Lead adapted for use as a stompbox.

delaybonanza

got the case and the pcbs from some crazy circuit-bending kids on ebay a few years ago. And it's been with me on every concert ever since. Done quite a bit of soldering work on it. Had to stabilize the circuit and make it more predictable.

AMS RMX16

My adventures in the exiting world of audio-electronics continues with an upbrush in my AMS rmx16 - the all time favorite reverb, ever!... Its an evergoing project to keep this thing alive, and every year another component goes down. The chips are a nightmare to swap. And sone of them are almost impossible to find. Thanks to David Kulka for all the good tips

I've searched and looked for the schematics for the AMS rmx16 for two years now. It seems like it was never released. So I just had to jump in, and see what could be done with my limited knowledge. After cleaning the unit for old stuff and sticky glue (thanks to degreaser)
After cleaning, I changed almost all the capacitors. probably around 100! I even took out some of the pF caps. Ugh... Found some nasty tantalums in there plus some really rusty ribbons. Then I cleaned the buttons and swapped some of them, +swapped the battery, and rebuild the PSU plus the components placed below the battery.

look! new tantalums!

- Got the new fan, buttons and ribbons from www.studioelectronics.biz. .... Wonder how long it will last before it goes down.... again

FX router

An on-stage effect router for external vocal-delay/distortion FX's. Nothing special, just 4in and four out hooked to the joystick through some resistors, and a true-bypass.

On the first concert, it kept falling down from my keyboard to the stagefloor. The solution? Make it heavier. tied a stone inside (haha).

DIY BOLT -

If you have any electronics ability, modifying your own gear can be a very satisfying experience.

You don't need to be an expert to crack open your equipment and start making changes. You basically need the ability to solder and desolder neatly, and you should be comfortable reading schematics. With very little electronics experience, I've been able to modify several pieces of equipment.

gear manipulations

G-SPOT SPRING FLANGER- cheap - flangers have a tendency to lay itself on top of the sounds, instead of blending in they often sound superficial. I have installed a small spring-reverb into my Flanger. I grabbed the springs form two mini guitaramps and stringed them inside. It makes my job more exiting to create alterations of everyday instruments. Is there anything more joyful than a huge, massively over-engineered effects pedal covered in LEDs, tiny switches and retro synth knobs? There are many reasons people choose to modify commercial musical gear. Upgrading internal components like capacitors and op-amps can clean up the overall sound. Likewise, providing a cleaner power supply can reduce hum and increase headroom, and help add fullness to the low end. Adding extra controls and patch points to an analog synthesizer can yield a much more expressive instrument, and allow you to interconnect it with your other gear.


SUGARDADDY 3000

Is a combination of a wahwah, a delay and an boss overdrive
pedal. Circuit bending is the art of ripping apart electronic toys and turning them into sound/music-making devices. The process of circuit-bending involves taking cheaply available electronic soundmaking toys and adding extra wires, knobs and switches to make new connections between parts of the internal circuitry and chips.

Waves Of Infinite Harmony

At the moment, I’m really into springreverbs. I collect them, and I’ve bought both organs and amps, just to get a hold on those springs. I’ve got them in all sizes, and I’m dreaming of building a big spring-reverb chamber, where I can route the signal into the springs that will make the best fit with the mix.

If you like the sound of a trembling springreverb, you should check out the reverbs in the old houseorgans. The ones that hangs in a wire are the coolest. On my Philicorda organ, I have installed extra inputs and outputs, so that I can use the springreverb separately. I’ve used it on everything from vocals to drums.
Here's a picture of the inside of my RA-500. Notice the speaker glued on the metalbox in the middle. I did the filmmusic to a 70'ties inspired spagetthiwestern film once, and I ended up placing sending deep sounds through the metal into the stereo springs. It was so cool, that I installed it permanently with a jack-input for the speaker on the front.

Here's a picture of the front of the unit. Four additional jack inputs, going to strange circuits making the springs go bananas.

oh and, The old trick with running the sound through a piano while holding some keys down still works - if you are up for it. That way, you can play and extent the harmonies in the reverb.

I Was Born On Planet Fuzz, Planet Fuzz

I like to record guitars and stuff with as little distortion as possible. It reduces the possibility to play around with the sound later on. To get the distortionchains to blend in with the music, I always record them through a speaker. Often with distant mics. Here is a pic of one of my smaller distortionunits. I've heard that it is rare, but I don't know much about it. It gives a light distortionsound, and I used it in a buschain or two. Does anybody know anything about it?

SHAKY TAPE DISTORTION

run the bus/sounds sound through a tape-delay, but turn the delay to zero. Record it again. The idea is not to get a delay sound, but to let the tape work on your track.

an old tape will give you shakier results

works to get life into samples and loops. Old MC cassettes can also be used.

treat sounds with amps

To get an old-organic sound , I often find myself running tracks out and through a speaker. (re-amping)

Instead of turning up top with EQ use a small speaker with a thin sound and blend it in through a separate track.
Like this old philips speaker can driven and recorded to a separate track - to inject some distorted high-end

filtered distortion

Everything sounds better with a small touch of distortion.

The MS10 has an unbelievable cool and unique overdrive sound, which blends well with other sounds, and with the filter you can put it where you want in the soundscape.

waveshaper = 100% PWN.
pitch = +5
peak = 0
and a jack in "trigger in", to keep the external input going

Fantastic on vocals and bass, oh and very cool on double bass. wohoo!