by zoooombiex » Wed Aug 15, 2018 11:59 am
Thanks again to jwar for putting this together. I received the 856 and got my first taste last night.
15 minutes of WTF
30 minutes of <mind blown>
1 hr - how do I rein this in to make it usable for me?
A few initial thoughts, just FWIW
-I found the intro "walkthrough" in the manual more confusing than helpful, as it would sort of introduce a knob without really explaining it. I thought just reading the knob descriptions was the easier way to get my bearings.
-I was also a little confused by the layout/cosmetics of the pedal, both in terms of which functions were combined on single controls and how they were physically located and connected via design.
>>>E.g., it seems like it would make sense to have Len(gth), Pos(ition), and Stride/abs/uni as a little sub-set, since those are how you define the sections of the loop that will play as n1/n2/n3.
>>>Also seems weird to have the UNI switch on that toggle, since it is tied to the Pitch knob and p1/p2/p3 toggle. I get the efficiency point though of not wanting to add an entire switch for that. Could there be other options that would group things more (e.g., make the pitch knob a clickable encoder that performs the UNI function).
>>>Another e.g., the Pitch knob, p1/p2/p3 toggle, and tempo/repeat knob are interrelated and seem like it would be helpful to show them as such visually
>>> E.g., skip seems sort of unrelated to the other tempo functions in the upper right
I think I can tell that this ultimately won't be for me, which probably helps relieve some GAS and spares some $. I don't mind complex pedals or pedals with a lot of controls, but this seems to favor more studio-type uses to design a particular kind of sound/processing, and I tend to use more on-the-fly type processing stuff.
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Without trying to duplicate the manual, I thought I would throw this out as an intro to people when they first get it. It was mainly for me to organize my thoughts but hopefully it may help someone else too. It's not complete, and i'm writing it from memory without the pedal in front of me so I probably bungled something, so please call me out on that.
1. The overall gist of the pedal is that you can record a loop, and then define three sections of that loop (referred to in the manual as "notes" or "note sets") that you can manipulate separately as (mostly) independent layers. I find it easier to call those three note sets "layers".
2. The n1/n2/n3 toggle is the toggle that selects which layer of the loop you are manipulating.
3. Layer-linked controls
All the controls in the brackets on the left side [ENV, LEN, PITCH, p1/p2/p3, POS, Stride/ABS/Uni, Fade/Gain/FBK, OFST] are tied to the position of the n1/n2/n3 switch ("layer-linked controls"). I.e., when you manipulate those layer-linked controls, you are just manipulating how they affect the layer that is currently selected by the n1/n2/n3 toggle. Thus, changing their position when the toggle is set to n1 will not affect their setting with respect to n2 or n3.
The tempo-related settings in the upper right (tmpo/rep, free/quant/skip, delta (triangle), are also tied to the layer control. However, these are a bit more complex and are addressed separately.
4. Basic layer-linked controls
Most of the layer-linked controls are pretty straightforward
a. Volume: If the Fade/Gain/FBK toggle is set to the middle position ("Gain"), the "Gain" knob controls the volume of the selected layer (i.e., n1/n2/n3). Note that when you do a global clear on the pedal's settings and record a new loop in R=B, the gain for layers 2 and 3 (n2/n3) are set to 0 by default, so you don't hear them. To turn them up, select the desired layer with the n1/n2/n3 toggle and then turn up the gain knob (make sure the Fade/gain/fbk toggle is set to the middle position ("gain")).
b. Loop start position & length: By default, all three layers are the same length as the entire loop. But you can shorten each layer independently of the others and select which part of the loop you want to play back in that layer. This is controlled by the LEN(gth) knob, the POS(ition) knob, and the stride/abs/uni toggle.
-the Length knob is, not surprisingly, the length of the sample you want to take from the master loop. Full CW = the entire loop. CCW = shorter length. The knob is not linear, so small moves may quickly shorten the loop.
-POS controls the starting position of the sample. It can work two ways. (1) if the stride/abs/uni toggle is set to ABS(olute), then the POS knob dials in a fixed starting point for the sample relative to the master loop. Full CCW = the beginning of the master loop, and as you dial it CW you advance the starting point through the loop. (2) if the stride/abs/uni toggle is set to "stride", then the starting point is going to move, and the POS knob controls how it moves -- if the POS knob is turned CCW from noon, the starting point will move backwards through the master loop each on each repeat; if the POS knob is turned CW, then the starting point moves forward through the loop. If the POS knob is at noon then the starting point doesn't move. (NOTE that on this pedal it seemed like the stride setting only applied to repeats and not to the base sample of each layer (repeats are addressed later). Not sure if I was doing it wrong or misunderstanding what it was doing.)
c. Envelope: The ENV knob applies an envelope to the layer. CCW = slower attack faster decay, CW = faster attack slower decay.
d. Offset: this controls when the layer starts playing back relative to the tempo (flashes of the beat LED). CCW = on the beat, full CW also = on the beat. noon = halfway between beats.
e. Pitch: The pitch is controlled by the Pitch knob and the p1/p2/p3 toggle. These controls also implicate the repeat settings, which are noted below. For now, keep the p1/2/3 toggle set to p1. (p2 and p3 allow you to separately set the pitch of different repeats. If there are no repeats active, then changing the pitch knob with the toggle set to p2 or p3 won't have any impact on what you are hearing.) The pitch knob goes from unity in the center to -1 octave (CCW) and +1 octave (CW). It does change the playback speed (i.e., it's not timestretching)
f. Skipping playback: If the Free/quant/skip toggle is set to "skip", the delta (triangle) knob controls whether the layer plays back every time the BEAT led flashes or whether it skips 1 to 3 playbacks. If the delta knob is set full CCW, it will play back continuously every flash of the "Beat". Full CW, the layer will only play back every 4th time the Beat LED flashes. About 10:00 it will play back every other flash of the "Beat", and about 2:00 it will play back every 3rd flash of the "beat"
5. Repeat-related controls
Some of the layer-linked controls are really tied to repeats, and so may not have any effect depending on whether you have any repeats active. The repeats can get very messy and confusing. If you are hearing a slur of notes rather than just one clearly defined loop repeating, you might want to check the repeat settings (or the tempo settings, see below)
a. N1 cannot have repeats. So the layer toggle has to be set to n2 or n3 to have any repeats.
b. Number of repeats: The TMPO/REP(eat) knob controls how many times the layer will repeat on top of itself. Think of the "Beat" LED as a trigger, and every time that trigger goes off, it may just play back the layer once, or it may start a bunch of playbacks one right after the other without waiting for the earlier playback to finish.
c. Delay: The delta (triangle) knob controls the delay between the first playback of the layer and the next repeat of the layer. Exactly how much of a delay depends on the setting of the free/quant/skip toggle. But in general CW = longer delay and CCW = shorter delay.
d. Pitch: As noted, you can separately control the pitches of different repeats. The p1/p2/p3 toggle selects which repeats you are adjusting. Think of the repeats as sets of 3. p1 controls the pitch of repeats 1, 4, 7, etc. p2 is for repeats 2, 5, 8. p3 is for repeats 3, 6, 9. (That's why if there are no repeats you can only adjust the pitch of p1, because that is all you are hearing.) Once you add in repeats, you can independently control the pitch of those repeats by switching the p1/2/3 toggle to p2 or p3, and then turning the Pitch knob.
>> Pitch reset: You can re-set the pitches using the Stride/abs/uni toggle. If you just click this toggle down (to "uni") and let it go (it snaps back to center) then all the pitches in that layer (p1/p2/p3) are reset to unison. If you instead hold this toggle down and at the same time turn the Pitch knob, then you can re-turn all the pitches in that layer at once.
e. Fade: You can also fade the repeats. (Since you can only have repeats on layers 2 and 3, that means the fade knob has no effect if the layer knob is set to n1.) Set the layer knob to n2 or n3. Then switch the FADE/Gain/FBK toggle to the top ("fade"). Now the "gain" knob applies a fade to the repeats. CCW = fade out, CW = fade in.
f. Stride (?) - see above re Stride. This function definitely worked on the repeats. It didn't seem to work on the primary playback of each layer, but that could be user error.
6. Tempo controls
Since layer 1 (n1) cannot have repeats, the three controls in the upper right work very differently if the n1/2/3 toggle is set to n1, and they can control the overall tempo (the BEAT led). This can be an easy way to get some confusing things that sound like repeats but are a little different. If layers 2 and 3 are off and you are hearing multiple loops playing on top of each other, check here.
a. Tempo knob. What this knob does depends on the position of the Free/r=b/arec toggle: (1) if set to "free", the tempo knob is an absolute tempo control. According to the manual, full CCW = 10 beats per minute, full CW = 240 beats per minute. (2) if the record toggle is set to r=b OR arec, then the tempo toggle controls the tempo relative to the loop length; noon = unity, CCW = slower than unity, CW = faster than unity.
b. Delta knob: This further controls the tempo. Exactly how depends on the setting of the free/quant/skip toggle. (Note that the "skip" setting was covered above under 4.f, it doesn't impact the tempo.) (1) with the toggle set to "free", the delta knob fine-tunes the overall tempo. (2) with the toggle set to quant, the delta knob adds a multiplier to the tempo - full CW = no multiplier (or rather, a multiplier of 1), as you turn CCW it will add a multiplier of 2, then 3, then 4.
NOTE: The tempo (how fast the beat led flashes) may be faster than the length of the selected layer. I.e., the beat knob may flash multiple times while the layer is playing through one time. Every time the beat LED flashes, it will start playing the sample for that layer again - regardless of whether the first playback of the sample has finished. (Subject to the "skip" settings, above.) So even with no repeats active on n2/n3, you may hear the loop playing back multiple times over itself, which can sound like you have repeats turned on. This is probably caused by increasing the tempo to where it is shorter than the length of layer 1, so layer n1 is firing off multiple copies over top of itself every time the beat led flashes.
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That's all I can remember for now.
