Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[le lambin]

I’ve had a few days with the Soma Cosmos and, like all their other gear I’ve had, I find it inspiring and frustrating simultaneously. It’s inspiring because it boldly does a specific thing- a looper for phase music. It does this well, and the results are surprising most times. It’s frustrating because I sometimes try to wrangle it into performing a certain way, which it doesn’t want to do. Or it spits something out I didn’t expect it to. That’s a me problem, not the unit’s problem.

It’s definitely worth it when everything clicks and sound is bouncing around between the speakers- I’ve lost a lot of time already in a good way. I’m using a pair of EDPs along with the Cosmos and it’s just a lot of fun switching between the 2 very different workflows on the fly. I guess I just need to get comfortable with it more and learn how to play to it to get those magic rhythmic loops. Good stuff!

[gila_crisis]

I’ve had a few days with the Soma Cosmos and, like all their other gear I’ve had, I find it inspiring and frustrating simultaneously. It’s inspiring because it boldly does a specific thing- a looper for phase music. It does this well, and the results are surprising most times. It’s frustrating because I sometimes try to wrangle it into performing a certain way, which it doesn’t want to do. Or it spits something out I didn’t expect it to. That’s a me problem, not the unit’s problem.

It’s definitely worth it when everything clicks and sound is bouncing around between the speakers- I’ve lost a lot of time already in a good way. I’m using a pair of EDPs along with the Cosmos and it’s just a lot of fun switching between the 2 very different workflows on the fly. I guess I just need to get comfortable with it more and learn how to play to it to get those magic rhythmic loops. Good stuff!

I have the same with Looperlative LP2 vs. GlouGlou Loupè: 2 totally different loopers and workflows. But most of the time I use the LP2, it covers better my looping needs.

Back to the Cosmos: did you try to swap the firmware? There is also a "rhythmical firmware" that let's you use it more like a normal looper. Also have a look on youtube at Andre Lafosse's tutorial.
He showcases many good tricks.

[MaxMaps]

My Amp has arrived

I am so strapped for time that I will be picking it up after Christmas - I cant fukking wait!

[le lambin]

No I haven’t messed with the firmware- I would like to see what it’s like, but I enjoy regular cosmos being a weirdo.

Andre lafosse is the man- I watched every edp video of his I think. I didn’t know he made a cosmos video! I will def watch he is the guru

[lumena]

My Amp has arrived

I am so strapped for time that I will be picking it up after Christmas - I cant fukking wait!

What amp? Is it loud?

[MaxMaps]

My Amp has arrived

I am so strapped for time that I will be picking it up after Christmas - I cant fukking wait!

What amp? Is it loud?

I bought the Freidman JEL-20 in the shiny red tolex - It's based off of Jake E Lee's marshal rig when we was writing and playing with Ozzy, ( which is cross between a plexi and a JCM800)

for 20 tube watts this fucker will be very loud. The best part is that is has a power soak built it so I can run this to my two notes and not play through a speaker.

Pics when I get it.

[dubkitty]

i was delighted to discover last night that the CMC Effects guy also makes a clone of the Catalinbread WIIO, an unobtanium number i deeply regret missing out on. it's a v.2 clone which isn't as great as if it were a v.1 clone, but i'm still chuffed. i'm really not in the drive/OD/amp model pedal market, but i thought the WIIO was exceptional in that regard. maybe i'll just park it on top of the amp and use it as a preamp module. so now i'm getting a Tone Bender MKIII, a Buzzaround, and the WIIO from the guy. i hope he does them soon (he builds to order) because that MKIII/Buzzaround competition for the #2 fuzz spot (fuzzy but not OTT) is the last thing standing between me and getting the whole damn setup done. or at least done for now.

[dubkitty]

i think i devised a simple solution to enabling manual fadeout of all 3 loopers with a foot pedal. the box would have three isolated parallel channels for each looper's signal with an in/out switch that would assign the individual channels to a effects loop with a mini volume pedal run in it. does this sound plausible?

[le lambin]

i think i devised a simple solution to enabling manual fadeout of all 3 loopers with a foot pedal. the box would have three isolated parallel channels for each looper's signal with an in/out switch that would assign the individual channels to a effects loop with a mini volume pedal run in it. does this sound plausible?

As long as everything is going into one amp, it’s doable. You’re essentially summing the 3 channels into one, then running the combined signal into an effects loop.

As far as keeping all three channels separate but having one volume control for everything…I’m not sure how you can do that without a triple gang pot controlling volume on 3 parallel loops or clever digital switching. I think the problem is separating the 3 signals back out once they have been combined into the single effects loop- but maybe some of our resident pedal wizards can chime in.

[dubkitty]

that's not what i intend. i want the three channels to stay separate and discrete while they're in the volume contraption, with each of the three channels individually switchable into/out of an fx loop with the volume pedal in it. the channel would go to the VP and then back to its own original channel, and then out the back as one of three outputs that will then go to my 3-into-1 summing box whence the single output goes to the limiter and then the amp. when no channels are switched into the fx loop it'd just be a powered, isolated 3-channel pass-through box. it seems so simple that it's hard to believe it wouldn't work, and if i didn't hate soldering with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns i could probably build it myself. hell, i used to work at a semiconductor firm doing product datasheets so if i looked up the symbology i could draw the circuit diagram in about 5 minutes except for electrically isolating the 3 channels and adding the channel switch LEDs. if i wanted to fade a single output i'd just put a vanilla VP between the loop board output and the amp; i need to be able to fade any of the three in/out individually. with the ability to fade one loop's output while bringing in a new loop using the input volume pedals i can effectively crossfade loops like a rave DJ.

[dubkitty]

i emailed the guy at Saturnworks with a detailed explanation of what i'm looking for and a possible circuit diagram i cobbled together this morning, so soon i'll know if it's a possibility.

looper fade box.jpg (33.21 KiB) Viewed 2359 times

i got an email this morning from Catalinbread announcing their end-of-year b-stock sale, so i had a look. i've wanted a Katzenkönig forever, but never got around to it so i looked and sure enough they had one for $119. being all strategic and shit i decided to see what used ones go for on Reverb, and i now have a $90 used K coming in the mail sometime soon. after aggressively resisting the drive/overdrive category of pedals for decades i'm suddenly interested because i need something that's not clean but not as aggressive as the Distortion+ which i think has gotten meaner as the transistors age. they are 45 years old, so it wouldn't be surprising if one or more have deteriorated. it seems like it was a lot smoother 20 years ago. i did some complicated figuring and worked out that i can cram one CMC-sized top-jacks distortion box on the lower tier of the big board if i change out my old Polytune for a Polytune 3 Mini. so i guess i'll need to order another of those 1-into-2 9V DC power cables, or get one of the wee MXR bricks and run it from the second DC Brick's 18V out. i can't believe i ran through 16 outputs already.

[coldbrightsunlight]

This is a fun idea!

Looks like the theory of it works, only thing I wonder about (not being enough of an electronics person to know the answer) is whether it would be difficult to keep the overall volumes the same with all this switching, thinking particularly if everything IS routed through the FX loop, then you have 3x the same output signal then getting summed together in the 3-1 box. Whereas if nothing is, you have 3 separate outputs being summed together in the 3-1 box. Feels like this would make a difference to perceived volume?

[dubkitty]

the only time more than one looper would be in the FX loop would be if i was ending a segment using multiple loopers simultaneously and wanted everything to fade out at once. i can imagine having everything going at once if i tried to do an "An Index Of Metals" kind of layers-of-serrated-racket thing, but in practice i've never done anything other than fading from one looper to a second looper. even if having all 3 in the fx loop would be a problem the ability to fade one looper without affecting anything else, which is the main point, would be worthwhile. it's a lot easier to work around stopping multiple loops than it is to fade a loop with the looper's level knob.

if this turns out not to work i guess i could try those pedal-knob attachments that look like the keys you used to wind up spring-driven toys and fade with my feet, but that seems like a really kludgy solution in comparison especially if i'm playing out of the house and have to wear shoes. not to mention that it would be tricky to reset the loop levels to what i've established as unity gain between the loop and the incoming input. even if i marked the spots with glow-in-the-dark paint my feet, though fairly prehensile, would have trouble being that exact. the 1440 would be OK though because unity loop gain = Level at 100%.

[Paul_C]

I decided a couple of weeks ago that 2024 would be a year of no guitar or amp purchases, only pedals.

Since then I've had an almost complete about face (not for the first time) and might buy another Telecaster.

I'm certainly thinking about buying some pickups (Bootstraps) which I have in one guitar and really like.

I do plan to build myself a few more pedals too when I have a moment.

[dubkitty]

i seriously thought i was just about done when i "finished" the looping board and got down to the fine-point tweaking that's still happening with the main board. at this point i'm torn between wanting things to be just exactly perfect (h/t/ Bob Weir) and wanting the building phase to be the fuck over with. i discovered that the reason why the Fender tube tremolo sounded strange was because it was only getting 120 mA from the daisy chain or MXR DC Brick and it needs 200-230 depending on whether the knob LEDs are on or not so the wee tube was totally underpowered; i'll test it running off its own OneSpot wall wart and maybe it will get a reprieve, though i think i have to keep the Menatone trem regardless. so now i feel like i need to change out the 2x DC Bricks for a proper (and painfully expensive) Voodoo Lab 12-spot PP Mondo and their 8-spot expander that runs off a dedicated 12V output on the Mondo. that'd be 20 x 9V DC outs, and i seriously couldn't fit that many inputs on the board even with my magic shoehorn and an unlimited supply of low-profile patch cables. i really don't have $450 to splash out on a power supply solution at present. i've about run through my FSA account and am getting dinged with unreimbursed dental and ER expenses like crazy ATM. god, this shit is expensive. i'm pretty sure i'm in over $1000 just on connecting cables over the last 13 years, and half of that shit is Hosa LOL. but i keep hearing stuff in my head that the current raft of pedals can't give me.