Endangered audio research ad4096 analog delay

[rustywire]

All fuzzes oscillate if your gain-staging/amp/know-where-to-stand game is tight

[Eivind August]

Ya, but glitcharpeggiosuboctaves though.

[rustywire]

[popvulture]

AD-999 is fucking awesome. I believe Eiwind had one and flipped it? Someone did, I remember PMing about it.

Ya, I PMed you I think. Kinda regret selling it, but trying to limit myself to stuff that gets used regularly, and it did not replace the magic of the AD9. Still a fantastic delay, though. Such beautiful repeats.

My AD9 is my favorite pedal I've ever owned. I've thought so many times about getting the 999 for the longer times, but just haven't pulled the trigger because I'd rather buy other things.

I've wanted an EAR forever too but have always passed it up for the same reason. I also must add that it's, to my eyes at least, one of the best looking pedals out there.

[fcknoise]

AD-999 is fucking awesome. I believe Eiwind had one and flipped it? Someone did, I remember PMing about it.

Ya, I PMed you I think. Kinda regret selling it, but trying to limit myself to stuff that gets used regularly, and it did not replace the magic of the AD9. Still a fantastic delay, though. Such beautiful repeats.

My AD9 is my favorite pedal I've ever owned. I've thought so many times about getting the 999 for the longer times, but just haven't pulled the trigger because I'd rather buy other things.

I've wanted an EAR forever too but have always passed it up for the same reason. I also must add that it's, to my eyes at least, one of the best looking pedals out there.

bolded for truth. and only reason I want one

[jrfox92]

Definitely amazing looking enclosures.
Honestly, they could just sell the knobs and sell those for $300.

[Chankgeez]

… but what about the knobs on these?

[EndangeredAudioMark]

Hi there everyone! Thanks for the interest in the AD4096. We are releasing a newer version later this year in a custom enclosure, with custom-made knobs, with clockable tap-tempo, expression control, and some new modes for the expand switch. I don't know what the price will be but it will be south of $400.

Todd had originally wanted the first delay to be ~800ms, but the extra BBD circuitry added much more to the cost that he couldn't do it at the time. If you've ever looked inside one of those things, you can tell there is hardly any room for anything. Adding the extra BBD is making the board bigger and adding an expensive part in an already cramped enclosure.

We finished shooting the delay upgrade video, and once we're done assembling our Gristleizer orders, we will have it edited and posted online for those who wish to buy the upgrade kit and DIY. You can also send it into us and we can do it for you for an added fee.

For the next version (and every pedal from here on out) we are making our own custom enclosures from folded metal. We also bought a knob molding machine to make our own custom knobs, some of which we'll be selling to the public for DIY projects. We can even take your CAD files and make custom knobs that you can resell on your own websites.

The knobs that everyone loves about the old delay were super expensive - the company that made them usually sells to scientific equipment manufacturers (I saw one on a machine in an optometrist's office once). They were not a good company to work with, and before you ask, no, they do not sell just one or two at a time - you have to buy hundreds. We also don't like them and wouldn't recommend working with them so we will not confirm who made them.

As for people who think that $300+ is too expensive for a handmade through-hole analog delay like ours, please remember that factored into the price is the months and months of development time, which needs to be recouped somehow. Many people who get a little building experience and can eyeball the unit cost often don't take R&D into consideration when they scoff at a high price. This is often because either they don't value their own time when building, or they are cloning something.

Although the AD4096 is based around the skeleton of the DM-3, it is NOT a clone of the DM-3. In fact, the AD4096 resembles the DM-3 less than the DM-3 resembles the original BBD chip manufacturer's schematic that that pedal was based on.

In case you don't know this already, many audio effect schematics are based off of component manufacturers' designs. They do this to sell more expensive chips. However, Todd Kelley, the designer/owner of EAR, reworked every single portion of this circuit, tweaking it obsessively.

So, although its ancestry is the DM-3 - which we picked for its gorgeously smooth dark delays - the AD4096 is its own design completely. The Infinity Mode alone took 2 months to develop. Altogether the R&D for the first version took 8 months. The new version has taken more than a year on top of that.

Furthermore, we pay our employees (like me) really well - much higher than minimum wage. By supporting our company, you're supporting a boutique pedal manufacturer that creates good-paying and rewarding American jobs, so thank you!

Since this is ilovefuzz.com, I figured while I have your attention I'll let you know that we have a sibling company, Moxtronix, that is more oriented towards guitarists only (EAR does synth gear and, eventually, pro audio). Moxtronix has a really lovely fuzz for sale called The Transtone. You can buy it from us direct, or give some love to our local dealer Heyday Music in Asheville, NC: http://www.heydaymusic.net/effects/moxt ... stone-fuzz

This pedal is something Todd has refined over the course of more than two decades. Before the internet was widely available, it was really difficult to find germanium transistors, and the ones you could find varied even more widely in quality than the NOS ones you can get today. What Todd sought to do was to create a silicon fuzz that had the flavor of germanium fuzzes. It's a very beautiful pedal that can be bitey or smooth, creamy or crushing. The momentary boost switch is great for popping out of the mix for solos.

Here is a demo of it, with 8 bars off 8 bars on that I made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi9-Ck0u_3Q

Forgive there not being more contrast between the clean/effect parts - we'll have better demos for it soon.

Also, I'm not the best "shredder," so we're going to have someone come in and do a more traditional person-with-guitar-on-a-stool demo of it. There are also many demos of it with The Gristleizer and a Rhythm Ace on our Instagram page: http://www.instagram.com/endangeredaudio - scroll down, they're near the bottom.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/endangeredaudio for news about an exciting new product from us that with bring the world of modular synthesizers closer to the guitar world. Details are hush hush for now, but if you sign up for our email list - http://www.eepurl.com/bOHU8T - you'll be among the first to know about it when we release the details.

Thanks everyone for your interest in the AD4096 - if you have more questions for me, you can reply here, or you can email me at mark at endangeredaudioresearch dot com.

[jrfox92]

This is often because either they don't value their own time when building, or they are cloning something.

Hit the nail on the head there.

[D.o.S.]

Can you just do surf rock demos of everything and ditch the dude on the stool though?

Also some of this is a little spammy, which isn't really super cool, even if it is woven well enough into an actual post.

[Chankgeez]

In case you don't know this already, many audio effect schematics are based off of component manufacturers' designs.

Just like tube amps before them.

Also some of this is a little spammy, which isn't really super cool, even if it is woven well enough into an actual post.

Any man who puts up that kinda wall of text is entitled to a small side serving of SPAM to go along with it.

[Eivind August]

That's cool, getting to know the work that lays behind the AD4096. Stoked on getting the upgrade done.

[EndangeredAudioMark]

Ah sorry if it seems spammy, was just trying to answer everyone's concerns and throw in my own 2 cents - will do better in the future!

[D.o.S.]

No worries dude.

A bit off topic, but I am curious as to what's happening with the Gristleizer? Your website says they're no more?

[EndangeredAudioMark]

@D.o.S. - We are doing with it sort of what we did with the DM-3 in making the AD4096 - basically, we're ditching large portions of the circuit, while keeping the audio path intact. The LFO is such a mess in the original, and it really has little to do with how it sounds, so adding a more modern LFO (and some other tricks) will make it a more versatile and interesting pedal. Todd has worked so long on The Gristleizer's circuit that he really knows it better than anyone, including the original creator Roy Gwinn (no disrespect to Roy, he was 15 at the time and never knew it would turn into what it did). We're also going to do some other spin-off circuits, including a possible self-contained mini-synth. The guitar pedal is great though - this is me playing through the tabletop version, but the new filter we added will carry on into the guitar pedal. Let's be honest - the original VCF mode was shite - unless you played bass, it mostly did this unusable bubbly sound-effect thing that was hard to tame. The new filter is gritty as hell but it is much sweeter and more versatile than the original. That on top of replacing the LFO is really what's justifying us leaving the name behind and making it our own thing.

These have the Transtone Fuzz on the Rhythm Ace and the Gristleizer Tabletop version 3 going through the AD4096

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEPZ98-AIqG/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEPbk6VAItM/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEPfugIAIkG/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEPia2OAIo1/