Count To Five

[waltdogg]

make the other person wait and just keep your damn pedal homie.

[D.o.S.]

Thanks for the reply, Scott!

Also, not that I need to explain myself, but if you guys think that buying with the sole intent of flipping is the same as getting an offer you can't refuse more than a year after the purchase, well...

A whole year. That's a long time.

[sweatshopmillionaire]

So, most of my gear discussion has happened on Facebook, and since I'm kicking it for the most part, I'd like to still be involved somewhere. Anyway, I'm Justin - hey, guys.

Rather than dig through pages of this forum I thought I'd ask a few questions:
1. How often has/does the ct5 come out?
2. Does the release rely heavily on firmware updates, or simply because it's a small operation? People who own one tell me there have been many updates/versions.
3. Is there something we can do about price gouging? I'm in love with this pedal and have tried it. Endless possibilities, but I'd rather wait and get it direct from M.A. than feed someone's greed.
4. Aside from this incredible pedal, and no offense to you, Scott, if this isn't allowed... what pedals out there are of a similar nature? I've looked at Bananana Effects' stuff, Dwarfcraft's Wizard of Pitch, Catalinbread's Csidman, Red Panda's Particle, but are there any others that have similar effects? I intend to own a ct5 regardless of anything else I pick up, I might add.

[DRodriguez]

So, most of my gear discussion has happened on Facebook, and since I'm kicking it for the most part, I'd like to still be involved somewhere. Anyway, I'm Justin - hey, guys.

Rather than dig through pages of this forum I thought I'd ask a few questions:
1. How often has/does the ct5 come out?
2. Does the release rely heavily on firmware updates, or simply because it's a small operation? People who own one tell me there have been many updates/versions.
3. Is there something we can do about price gouging? I'm in love with this pedal and have tried it. Endless possibilities, but I'd rather wait and get it direct from M.A. than feed someone's greed.
4. Aside from this incredible pedal, and no offense to you, Scott, if this isn't allowed... what pedals out there are of a similar nature? I've looked at Bananana Effects' stuff, Dwarfcraft's Wizard of Pitch, Catalinbread's Csidman, Red Panda's Particle, but are there any others that have similar effects? I intend to own a ct5 regardless of anything else I pick up, I might add.

1. A few times a year there are releases of a couple hundred I believe (no official stats, just a guesstimate) Best way to find out about the next one is via the email list on the website. There is another run coming soon. My guess would be the last of the calendar year

2.There have been several updates. Just adding extra features. There firmware updates do not happen with each batch though. Ct5's are easily identifiable by the model revision on the inside. H/I/J revisions are stuck at firmware version 0.931. The K/L revisions can be updated to the latest 0.963. They are super easy to update as long as you have a windows or mac computer and the usb cable. Linux would be easy too but there is no easy script for it built.

3. Not really. If everyone stops buying them second hand and eventually they'll stop. Not going to happen.

4. There are various other pedals that do similar things to one of the modes or others, particularly mode 1. None that I've found do the exact same thing, much less do all three. I don't know of another pedal out there that does the mode 3.

[Inconuucl]

A lot of pedals do 1, it's just a pitched delay. 2 You have to use a Zellerasn, MASF Possessed, or some overpriced white whale pedal (Autonautilus anyone?)...I guess a PC/iPad can also get you there with some of the plug ins(Replicant 2 and iDensity in fx mode come to mind). I don't think anything does what 3 does without having to hook multiple things up.

[Jwar]

Re-price gouging. Just make low ball overs on Reverb to annoy the sellers. That's what I do.

[UglyCasanova]

4. Nemesis and pitchfactor get pretty close.

Re-price gouging. Just make low ball overs on Reverb to annoy the sellers. That's what I do.

MASF watafuzz

[goroth]

4. Nemesis and pitchfactor get pretty close.

Re-price gouging. Just make low ball overs on Reverb to annoy the sellers. That's what I do.

MASF watafuzz

Pretty sure I offered Jwar 9 bucks for that, IIRC.

[Jonny5bass]

Should've made it $22.

[goroth]

The offer was made in the days before all jokes costed 22 dollars.

[hip_modernism]

Hey ya'll, corresponded with Scott about this and he suggested I post here too.

Long shot: anyone used the Ct5 with a battery-based pedal power option like the PedalTrain Volto 2?

When I power the Ct5 by Volto 2, and daisy chain with any (ANY!) other pedal for power, I get a buzzing noise.

- If I power all my other pedals in the signal chain with the Volto, but the Ct5 by a wall wart, no buzzing.
- If I have just have a signal chain with the Ct5 by itself and power it by the Volto, no buzzing.

Here is a recording of the buzzing/whine: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d9rf3jte7a6pxx/ct5buzz.m4a?dl=0

I am powering the following pedals in a daisy chain of power from the Volto, all engaged at once, and everything sounds super clean:

MXR Dynacomp -> EHX Nano Looper -> Flashback Triple Delay -> Warped Vinyl -> RM-1N -> Neunaber Wet Reverb

It's only when I add the Ct5 in that things get buzzy. FWIW I did all my testing with a synth to eliminate the possibility of guitar pickup noise being the issue.

I love this pedal so happy to make accommodations for it, but just in case someone knows what's up or has good experience with other battery pedal power.

I know it's a weird requirement/non-standard way of doing things. I really like being able to move my pedal board from the floor to a chest height shelf I have for when I wanna tweak things, and having a power cable makes that trickier (more likely for me to break stuff).

Thanks folks.

Edit: If it's better etiquette to move this to it's own thread rather than the mega thread lemme know and will do.

[goroth]

You've got quite a few digital pedals there. Depending on the power supply filtering they could be sending digital noise through the ground.
It could be the Ct5 causing it, but it could also be the Ct5 interacting with another pedal.
I have had bad experiences with EHX's power supply filtering, especially on their digital stuff. Test removing the Nano Looper and see if it improves things.
If not, start by putting the Dynacomp and the Ct5 in there and see if there is noise. Then add one pedal at a time until you can work out what's going on.

The Volto is designed quite differently to other power supplies where the outputs are transformer isolated and where the current draw from one outlet doesn't affect the others.

[hip_modernism]

Thanks for your help!If not, start by putting the Dynacomp and the Ct5 in there and see if there is noise. Then add one pedal at a time until you can work out what's going on.

Unfortunate news here is that, even with just the Dynacomp and the Ct5 it happens. I just took everything out of the loop except the Dynacomp and Ct5, including no longer using the Patchulator I was using to route pedals, just a traditional straight forward cabling situation now. Still getting buzz as featured in sound clip. When I unplug the Ct5 from battery, and into the wall wart, buzz goes away.

The only other variable I haven't controlled for is the fact that I'm not playing into an amp, but monitoring through a battery powered (AA, not through the Volto) Tascam DP-008EX pocket studio. Hard to imagine that's interacting with this, but I should probably drag an amp out and test to be 100%.

The Volto is designed quite differently to other power supplies where the outputs are transformer isolated and where the current draw from one outlet doesn't affect the others.

Hmm I don't totally follow this, you mean that things plugged into the wall won't affect the volto, right? The two outputs on the volto themselves are not isolated from each other, correct?

Thanks for the help!

[DRodriguez]

You wouldn't happen to have your volto charging while this noise is happening would you? USB power is notoriously noisy with audio setups.

Another other possibilities. 9v Rechargeable batteries often only give about 7.2v, or too high (9.6v). Not sure if this is the case for the volto, but it may be interacting badly with the Ct5.

The other thing I'd try is if you have a DI with a ground lift handy, give that a try

[hip_modernism]

You wouldn't happen to have your volto charging while this noise is happening would you? USB power is notoriously noisy with audio setups.

Good thinking, but alas no, not charging while doing this. Also all my tests have been done with the LED charge indicator at 3/3 for good measure.

Another other possibilities. 9v Rechargeable batteries often only give about 7.2v, or too high (9.6v). Not sure if this is the case for the volto, but it may be interacting badly with the Ct5.

Hmm yeah wish I had a voltage meter so I could test this...

The other thing I'd try is if you have a DI with a ground lift handy, give that a try

Huh, I actually have one of these laying around:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... ywQAvD_BwE

Worth giving it a shot with the white lift switch engaged maybe?

I'm out running errands but will try this tonight and report back. Thanks!