The cat's out of the body bag!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:27 am
ILF's Ryan Summit came to me for an Algal Bloom...custom graphic talk led to custom feature talk...custom feature talk led to further custom ideas and Ryan giving me pretty loose reigns and a lotta trust.
I got pretty obsessed, and lost many nights prototyping and testing to get what was in my head...into my ears.
Here's the result!
It's the Algal Bloom with new controls, more lows, more fuzz, bite, and more mass and more available headroom. It's stupid with lows and menace!
Here are the controls, as emailed to Ryan:
- Bloom is Bloom...it's fuzz+gain+definition. It increases gain and note separation. Rather than going mushy or washy, it holds together pretty nicely when cranked. I think it holds up well with lower tuning because of this.
- Head is headroom. As you turn it right, it becomes less clipped, but also louder and more open (favoring transistor fuzz over clipping diodes). So while turning right reduces how clipped it is, it also increases mass. So it does some big thunderous chords. Really works with big menacing chords...it lets you get this full-spectrum mass attack that's pretty cool.
- Body (Body and High work together). Body shifts a huge amount of lows in/out of your sound...but leaves your highs totally in tact. (Unlike Tone controls that make you choose either [bassy and dark] OR [bright and thin]). Body also adjusts fuzziness.
- High lets you then control your highs, separate from Body. Set your lows and fuzziness where you want it, then adjust your highs.
- Open is a switch, adjusting clipping and transistor biasing...what it does is add/remove extra clipping and compression. It controls texture, lets you choose whether you want crunch with just-a-hint of gate, or whether you want things wide-open. The Headroom knob works regardless, but this switch is kind of a pre-shaper control that's pretty effective in getting clipping where you want it.
I got pretty obsessed, and lost many nights prototyping and testing to get what was in my head...into my ears.
Here's the result!
It's the Algal Bloom with new controls, more lows, more fuzz, bite, and more mass and more available headroom. It's stupid with lows and menace!
Here are the controls, as emailed to Ryan:
- Bloom is Bloom...it's fuzz+gain+definition. It increases gain and note separation. Rather than going mushy or washy, it holds together pretty nicely when cranked. I think it holds up well with lower tuning because of this.
- Head is headroom. As you turn it right, it becomes less clipped, but also louder and more open (favoring transistor fuzz over clipping diodes). So while turning right reduces how clipped it is, it also increases mass. So it does some big thunderous chords. Really works with big menacing chords...it lets you get this full-spectrum mass attack that's pretty cool.
- Body (Body and High work together). Body shifts a huge amount of lows in/out of your sound...but leaves your highs totally in tact. (Unlike Tone controls that make you choose either [bassy and dark] OR [bright and thin]). Body also adjusts fuzziness.
- High lets you then control your highs, separate from Body. Set your lows and fuzziness where you want it, then adjust your highs.
- Open is a switch, adjusting clipping and transistor biasing...what it does is add/remove extra clipping and compression. It controls texture, lets you choose whether you want crunch with just-a-hint of gate, or whether you want things wide-open. The Headroom knob works regardless, but this switch is kind of a pre-shaper control that's pretty effective in getting clipping where you want it.
the graphic. those LED's!
so I can grab one 
