Do they make this... because I might

[proxy]

I'm starting to accumulate enough pedals where tap dancing is getting annoying when I'm with the band.

I was thinking of building an all anolog but digitally controlled looping system. The system would have a box with a lcd and 10 pushbuttons on on a board for the guitarest where a pedal board would be and a rack piece of gear with the brains. It would have 10 pairs of in-out jacks for you to input your pedals. And one quarter inch out to control a simple clean dirty amp. On the foot controller ten puch buttons and an lcd to show the current bank of presets you are using. I could set it to hold 200 banks and each bank would hold ten presets (A preset being one button that turned the dirty on your amp, a phaser, and boost).

I'm sure I could build it, I have enough programming knowledge as well as digital electronic knowledge. I'm sure I could build it for about $250 bucks.

Any units already on the market like this, and if not, think there would be one? To me its a alternative to going all out rack&midi since I like my pedals

 

[itbepopples]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

bradshaw makes such devices. i dont know how to get in touch with the guy tho. slash uses a few things by him. im sure someone can point u in the right direction.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

A Bradshaw rig is gonna cost A LOT more than $250

 

[proxy]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

A Bradshaw rig is gonna cost A LOT more than $250

I looked them up and I tihnk I could do it better too

 

[Artie]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

I would think that you could do this for a lot less than $250. There's two different approaches that you could use. (Thousands, actually.)

You could use an LED above each footswitch to avoid the complexity of the LCD. Have each switch activate a relay that switches on the appropriate effects chain.

Or, use an up/down switch system to increment/decrement a counter, that would address a PROM, that you'ld manually program with the desired output lines.

I've been working on that one as an add-on to the guitar itself. A simple switch that would sequence through a predetermined effects array.

Artie

 

[proxy]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

I'm thinking of using an lcd because I think I'm gonna use a basic stamp chip (probably parallax), and I might as well take advantage of the processing.

I would use an eleven digit binary number to store all the presets, each digit representing on or off for an effect.....

 

[proxy]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

For 250 I'm figuring....

50 to 60 bucks for the micro controller
100 bucks between the chassis's.
20 for an lcd
60 for all the electrically controlled switchs and 1/4 inches.
10 for plug from board to rack piece.

I'm high balling on those numbers to be safe.

 

[Artie]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

I'm thinking of using an lcd because I think I'm gonna use a basic stamp chip (probably parallax), and I might as well take advantage of the processing.

I would use an eleven digit binary number to store all the presets, each digit representing on or off for an effect.....

I've never played with those stamp chips, so they never pop to the front of my mind, but that sounds like a cool way to go, that could reap lots of options. I'd love to hear how this turns out.

 

[proxy]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

I've never played with those stamp chips, so they never pop to the front of my mind, but that sounds like a cool way to go, that could reap lots of options. I'd love to hear how this turns out.

They are pretty badass. You program them typically in Basic, which as the name denotes is pretty easy to learn. Someone who doesn't even know how to code could read basic source code and understand the gist of it. They typically have like 22 pins that you can can tell it to make an input or output. Then you can work your programming magic .

 

[Artie]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

Yeah, I've seen them in my electronics catalogs. I do quite a bit of BASIC programming, so maybe I should break down and get one to play with.

 

[proxy]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

Yeah, I've seen them in my electronics catalogs. I do quite a bit of BASIC programming, so maybe I should break down and get one to play with.

Ah good, someone I can bounce my Basic questions off of later.

Right now I'm programming my basic idea of how it would run in Java, please tell me Basic supports arrays? I imagine it would, and I hope it does because it'll make those banks alot simpler.

 

[AcidBurn]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

There a quite a few companies that make them:

http://guitargeek.com/search?qt=g&q=switcher&x=0&y=0

The Rocktron Patchmate is the most popular I would say.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

The "bank of pedals" thing is the very reason I started using a signal processor. It was just easier to use preset patches. Of course, one has to do one's homework prior to being onstage, but it's a very easy system to use, once it's set up.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

I'm just gonna step in and say, I had no idea i was sharing a forum with a bunch of friggin geniuses. Almost every post on this thread made me go "Whuh?" Thank you for humbling me.

-X

 

[fatigueofheart]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

dude...it's very complicated to build one. Also you need some relay switches which can vary in price.

 

[FireBros.]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

For the guys on this forum, the Digital Music Ground Control system seems to be the most recommended unit. I have one and it has worked pretty good. I don't use it much these days, as I tend to use a lot fewer effects lately, maybe just a phase I'm going thru. Any way they aren't cheap, but they work well. You could check Musicians Friend for a current price.

 

[Artie]

Re: Do they make this... because I might

Ah good, someone I can bounce my Basic questions off of later.

Right now I'm programming my basic idea of how it would run in Java, please tell me Basic supports arrays? I imagine it would, and I hope it does because it'll make those banks alot simpler.

I'll answer what I can. I used to hang out in one of the Basic forums online. And yes, basic supports arrays, although, it may depend on which one you use. I use QuickBASIC 4.5, which has the built-in compiler, so that you can generate stand-alone executable code.

But I don't know to what degree that will transfer to a "stamp".