ahh - well spotted 12bit’s is ok - you can still do pretty good distortion with - the internal processing would be 64bit (doubles) on the 12bit input and then 12bit output. Or maybe even those MCP chips have a later compatible version that does 16/24bit. Yeah the’re using a linux base for their code - which would be poo!! You’d have to convert or write from scratch using a native system (circle .e.t.c https://github.com/rsta2/circle) which is a real pain - I don’t know if anyone has made a native arduino lib for the pi-zero - it’s a total killer mcu.
The struggle is real. I have 11 drive boxes (more if you count the nine Tube Screamers in my JHS Bonsai.) I don’t even use them anymore. Promised myself that would be it, and then I ran across the DemonFx Overdrive Preamp . . . it includes the MXR Distortion Plus and the YJM 308 and . . . just like that I’m off the wagon.
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I’m doing ok now - only bought 1 pedal in two weeks ( Dark Matter) - I think I’m cured hahahaha - maybe just one more drive pedal lol
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Well they’re just such a great thing to buy; shiny, not a lot of money, decent resale value (ha just kidding I never sell them.) Check out the video where I found this by accident, guy does a smokin’ version of the Alcatrazz “Suffer Me” outtro :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWltUvtKUI
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Phew lucky escape there for me - I don’t have single coils so the malmsteen tone via that pedal is out for me 
- good stuff tho
I take it all back, now I do want a pedal, one of these:
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Looks ok - the Zen-core stuff is OK - not amazing patch quality tho. Better off getting a really good synth (modx, montage e.t.c.), or get a EHX synth - I have the Mel9 and it’s really great.
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I just ordered a GM-800 to try a guitar synth. If I understand, it will send MIDI events that I could send into my laptop (Logic Studio), and then I can use Apple’s samples, and not the ones that come with the GT-800? But I have tin ears, I suspect that I’ll be happy with the stock BOSS sounds.
For more elaborate pedals like this, do their manufacturers have regular firmware updates?
Wow, I imagine you need pointy “Yngwie shoes” to accurately step on all those switches…but yes I love pedals myself the thing is it takes a while to learn what you like and there are variables. I personally like my Digitech Metal Master and Ive owned ot for years buty alot of folks say its lousy ,too noisy but to me it sounds just fine for “metal” riffs. I usually use a DS 1 or Tube screamer overdrive with a echoplex and univibe along with a slapback delay through a tube amp.
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hahaha Yeah, I had pretty much all of my stuff on one board but I have since cleaned it up quite a bit!
I miss pedalboards but I wouldn’t trade my Fractal for anything but another Fractal lol
My favorite compact pedal based system, before these newer infinitely more capable ones was Scott Henderson’s. He has his pedals crammed in a 4sp SKB and his floor unit was the Bradshaw RS-10 and a couple of twist knobs for volume and expression instead of full sized style. Seeing an RS-10 back in the day, I’d always think “This guy is for real!!” Now, I’d probably think “This guy’s back probably hurts”
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This had always been my conundrum about owning a fractal. I like building pedals and it would serve no purpose if I went modeler.
The current rig.
It goes
Guitar ->Aion Radian (clone of Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster) → Volume Pedal → Digitech Whammy V-> A/B splitter
A (cleans/doom) → Aion Vulcan Octave Fuzz (clone of the Foxx Tone Machine octave fuzz with mods)-> EarthQuaker LifePedal III (Rat clone with an analog octave up and a boost)-> Earthquaker Hizumitas (wicked big muff clone with tons of bass for the DOOOM O))). → Roland JC40
B (Dirt) → Cantrell Wah → DIY clone of the Dunlop Fixed Wah → DIY clone of the DOD250 (built to as close as I could figure Yngwie spec, it sounds so close into a marshall model with single coils that i consider it a success) → Yamaha THR10X
Usually the DD3 and Walrus Slö are in the effects loop of the JC40 but I was having cable issues so I haven’t connected them again.
Some of the pedal collection.
Some highlights I’ve DIYed.
Clones of
Lovetone Meatball Envelope Filter
Mutron BiPhase
DOD Envelope Filter
Boss Slow Gear
Earthquaker Depths
Boss OC2 Octaver
The Gristlizer made famous by Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle
Janglebox Compressor
Guitar Tone Company Bloody Finger
First pedal I ever built was a clone of the Univox SuperFuzz.
Here’s the pedal steel effects rig currently. I have a couple ODs and Fuzz on the floor not shown. Yellow pedal is a clone of the old 70s Mutron Phasor.
Favorite effects:
nasty harsh fuzzes that make you alter your playing style to them (anything gated or octave is a plus)
Super ambient digital shimmer reverb pedals
I’m not affiliated with them at all but to anyone who’s handy with a soldering iron Aion effects makes really nice clone kits of famous effects. Having messed around in the DIY space for over a decade they are the best I’ve ever seen. Quality all around. Saves a chunk of money and I’ve put together most I have in an evening.
@shabtronic You gotta get the companion piece now, hahaha
Yooooooo!!! Some beautiful stuff there!! The newer “boutique” pedals are absolutely stunning!!
My setup was simple but I loved it! A Lance Alonzo guitar custom made for me that played as good as a brand new Suhr into an Axess Electronics buffer/splitter that I had made with 2 outputs. One for a tuner and the other through the pedals into a 30th Anniversary Marshall. The pedals were a Deja Vibe, CE-2 Chorus, DD-5 Delay, whammy, wah, Full Drive 2, ultimate octave, and a few misc on standby but I rarely used them. Eventually for my last band, I skipped the pedals and used the 2 outputs for the 30th head and a Dual Recto (80/20 split) into a single cab I wired for it. Best METAL!! tone ever!! All those are gone now….
So much advancement was made from when I retired and when I came back that I’m still blown away at how much is out there now. I’ve gone through a ton of gear in my day and if I still had it all, I doubt I’d have thought twice about a modeler. I got rid of all that when I quit so instead of rebuilding piece by piece, I kinda have every thing ever made now lol It took me month to create my own presets because I was just playing with all the cool sounds from my favorite players.
Now that I think about it, and since you make pedals, I’ve always had the idea of taking the guts out of a bunch of pedals and putting them into a custom box where the knobs, switches and lights are the only things that poke through the top. Aluminum maybe? They’d be hard wired together and the power would be a combo of whatever was needed and all stuffed in it. I figured it would save some space and look cool as hell, but I could never bring myself to do it.
Is that a crazy, stupid or pointless idea?
The Pete Cornish / Dave Gilmour type of thing.
Neil Young’s “Whizzer” that physically controls knobs on his Fender Tweed.
Its a good deal for touring players less moving stuff to go wrong but I think modelers have basically killed the logistics of that type of build at this point outside of the blues lawyer rock doctor jam band type analog purist circles.
I’m more interested in making double pedals of classic effects pairs.
Or doing troll level prank stuff (putting the guts of a klon centaur type circuit inside a boss metal zone housing). Entire pedal board of just metal zones. Watch the analog purists have a panic attack.
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Wow! Yeah, pretty much what I was talking about. See, so much advancement… lol
That double pedal thing you’re talking about is actually kinda brilliant. I could think of some dope freaking combo’s I’d have payed a fortune for back in the day!!
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One I’ve wanted to make is a Boss HM-2 clone but there are no knobs it’s just internally wired to be like the pedal has all the knobs maxxed to get the best downtuned fast rhythm guitar tone of all time. (It doesn’t really need to be maxxed just the treble maxxed for the signature saw bite tone)
Maybe I can get an IKEA deal and sell the Swedish buzzsaw next to the Swedish meatballs 
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Oh hell yeah!!!
One thing I never knew and didn’t even consider until I saw it in a Fractal preset was a drive into a dirty amp…. That’s the best shit ever!! lol
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I can basically get the classic Neil Young proto grunge setting on a combo of my JC40 with the effects off and a heavy dirt/fuzz hitting it with the THR10X in conjunction. I got a Gretsch a couple years ago and pretty much nailed the tone from Rust Never Sleeps w/ the octaver.
To me tone is more about learning how to get the sounds you imagine than using 1:1 what certain players use. That’s where I don’t like the mentality of modelers trying to model every detail of another player’s rig. Its more fun to chase tones with wildly different gear. Or use a tone as a jumping off point.
I had a pretty filthy lo fi Burzum Filosofem tone on my Line 6 POD before I ditched it by using nothing but a fuzz pedal model and some verb and no amp model so modelers are cool for an easy way to do weird stuff like that. Where you would break something trying to do it with conventional gear.
I was a kid in a candy store on day 1 with my Fractal. I had to be. Over 15 years without playing and all of a sudden everything in a box!!
I have tons of my own presets now but they’re still using what I’d consider the GOAT amps anyway. I was never one to hear a sound in my head and aim for it. Aside from the guitars themselves, I usually grabbed what was suggested to me or what I saw players I liked had. Then I tweaked it to my liking. I’ve always envied the players who could do that.
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