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Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:00 am
by solitud
Hey,
Pedalgrid is a new database and pedalboard planer. It is a branch of the well known ModularGrid database for modular synthesizers.

You can search the database by category, name, manufacturer and place those pedals on a virtual pedalboard with dimensions of your choice.
It is possible to automatically make screenshots of your boards and post them here for discussion.

What's special is the open approach: everyone can upload pedals so your boards can be complete at least in your fantasy.
Users already uploaded over 1.000 pedals to the database.

It is free to use so I hope it is o.k. to post it here. I am happy for every feedback!


Image
pedalgrid.net

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:10 pm
by PeteeBee
Looks great! I will definitely use that if and when I step back up to a big board that actually takes some planning.

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 9:12 pm
by Blackened Soul
This will take off and then everyone will get sick of pedalboards and they will go the way of the rack mount multi-effects unit.

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 9:41 pm
by oscillateur
I've been using Modulargrid since its first week and I entered some of my pedals in Pedalgrid when I noticed it existed too (PS-3, RV-3, Context, etc.) :).
Nice work, thanks :).

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 10:21 pm
by UglyCasanova
I could make half of my board. #JustSnowFlakeThings

Really though, I like it. Looking forward to seeing it grow. (Twss)

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:42 pm
by Benn Roe
It's actually really easy to add stuff too. I added a few things earlier today so I could use it to layout the board I'm building toward.

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 2:46 am
by actual
Pedalgrid is great, it's so much nicer to be able to fully visualize what you're planning. I've added 20 some pedals since the launch, which reminds me, some of them need descriptions.

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 4:55 am
by solitud
Thanks guys for kind words!

One thing about the image upload that might not be clear:
Pedals on the planner look best when the images are transparent around the edges. The PNG format can do this.

But most pedal images are not transparent PNGs, so we have added a function which clears the white background in JPGs and replaces it with transparency. This works quite well in most cases.
So, if you have an PNG image with transparency you should upload that, it will be untouched. Otherwise upload a JPG with white background.

Never upload watermarked images or remove watermarks. Upload the original images of the manufacturers when possible.

To make the scaling work it's important to enter the correct width of the pedal. The scaled image is calculated by the original width of the image and the width you entered in the upload form.
If the pedal looks monstrous big, you typically have entered the width of the package and not the pedal itself :)

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 5:11 am
by actual
Pics with white background work like 95% of the time, but sometimes there'll be a glare on the pedal, or the pedal itself will be white, which can create some strange results. Would it be possible to have a cropping function like they have on imgur, to replace the automated cropping as an option? Or is that expecting too much? Maybe if you could choose between a wider definition of "white" and something like only #FFFFFF

See the Phasor here for instance:
Image

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:34 pm
by solitud
actualidiot wrote:Pics with white background work like 95% of the time, but sometimes there'll be a glare on the pedal, or the pedal itself will be white, which can create some strange results. Would it be possible to have a cropping function like they have on imgur, to replace the automated cropping as an option? Or is that expecting too much? Maybe if you could choose between a wider definition of "white" and something like only #FFFFFF
Yes, white pedals are problematic, the algorithm is not good to decide what is background and what is the pedal.
For now I just go through the problematic pedals and edit/crop them by hand. That is possible because I keep the originals.
Also everyone can always upload better images to pedals that are already in the database.
But since there are a lot of pedals lately, it's hard to keep up and there should be a better, technical way, I agree ...

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:03 pm
by actual
Okay :)
It's really great as it is already though.

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:05 am
by mysteryroach
Maybe have the ability to add popular plug types? Not like: automatically place them onto the pedal or anything that would require fancy new features - but just the ability to add them into the picture and position them yourself, so people can have a scale representation of how much they need to account for whatever type of plug you're using.

Also: consider gathering data on power requirements, including current draw.

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:11 am
by UglyCasanova
A one-row pedalboard would be ace too! Like pedaltrain nano and nano plus size. :zen:

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:51 pm
by actual
You can do custom sizes like the one above :)

Re: Pedalgrid.net - yet another pedalboard planner

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:00 am
by UglyCasanova
I wanna see the board, come on now. :p