by zoooombiex » Fri Aug 23, 2019 1:33 am
Spent some more time with mood getting ready for a show tomorrow and thought I'd share some thoughts FWIW
The clip above shows a lot of what makes this pedal great - really wide array of sounds and textures, and it really benefits from a lot of real-time manipulation.
But there are a couple of issues I keep running across when I go to use the pedal in my intended context (live improv). These aren't meant as criticisms - more of a wishlist of what would make it better for my uses. And most of these relate to being able to do smooth transitions between sounds, so in a studio/song context they probably aren't as important.
-The buffer wipe on the loop side. This is an inherent limitation in the spin chip, but it makes for some harsh transitions if you want to switch modes.
-(Unless I'm missing something) the loop side is always listening to the output of the delay side. So, for example, if you have both sides going and then want to keep the delay side going while you record a new loop, it won't record the straight dry input - it always records the output of the delay side, which isn't always what I'm looking for. This kind of feeds back to the first point, because one way to try to smooth over the transitions on the loop side is to run the loop into the delay side, then record a new loop while the delay side trails out. But the new loop will be the effected output, not the dry input. I don't know if it's possible, but it would be great if, for example, when only the delay side is on the routing toggle would control what the loop side was listening to (maybe wet/wet+dry/dry)
-Gap when changing routing. If you have both sides going with the routing switch set to delay= in only, and then you switch it to either of the other positions, there is a short dropout in the sound as the loop side gets fed through the buffer of the delay side. It'd be great if there were some kind of crossfade on that to avoid the abrupt cut-out in many settings.
-Lack of separate wet/dry volumes (in general and for each channel). At times it would be really nice to rebalance the sides. There's probably just no place to put this - but if CBA implements something like the new buttons on the blooper that could function as an ALT switch for other controls, it might be possible.
Again that's all just thoughts on my own use and may not apply to anyone else. Or maybe others have some better workarounds. Still a really fun pedal regardless.