CBA lab — a laboratory for controlling Chase Bliss Audio pedals

(Repetitive patch description incoming):

CBA lab offers automation for all six knobs of a CBA pedal, using configurable modulation sources, with additional controls geared toward use with CBA pedals. However, it can also be seen as a generic control patch for other pedals that offer MIDI control.

Because all Meris pedals use very similar (almost identical) MIDI implementations, this patch can be applied easily to many of their products. See the manual for a given pedal to adjust MIDI destinations.

With it, you can modulate parameters, sequence them, use envelope control to make them dynamic, and more. It offers access to the 8 of the 127 patches available on CBA pedals with the option to select specific patches.

All the MIDI assignments (except patch memory) are conveniently located on one page, allowing you to re-route them as you desire, and to change the channel to fit your configuration.

The default channel is 9.

Audio passes from input to output without being effected.

Footswitches:

Left — controls the left toggle of whatever CBA pedal it’s plugged into; when “Tap” is selected, this footswitch becomes a tap tempo

Middle — controls the middle toggle

Right — controls the right toggle

Page labeled “Control”:

Controls are designed to mimic, as best as they can, the layout of a CBA pedal, with one set on the top of the page, and one set on the bottom, corresponding to the respective knobs:

Parameter # — this controls the parameter assigned
Depth — this controls the depth of modulation. It is bipolar. When negative, it modulates toward 0, when positive, it modulates toward 1.
Mod on — modulation is turned on.
Mod 1&2 and mod 3 — this determines the modulation source:
When mod 3 is on, mod source 3 is always selected.
When mod 1&2 is off, mod source 1 is selected.
When mod 1&2 is on, mod source 2 is selected.

Additionally, on this page you will find some additional controls:
“Tap” — toggles the left footswitch to be a tap tempo source when it is on
“Clock source” — determines source of the clock; when off, it is tap tempo, when on, it is MIDI clock

There are also pixels along the right side that correspond to the toggles’ positions. The top is the left toggle (off means left, medium brightness middle, brightest setting means right); the middle is for the middle toggle; the bottom is for the bottom toggle. Not ideal, since it flips the toggles on their side, but it’s something (on a very crowded control surface)!

Page labeled “Mod select”:

Mod source 1 has 10 options:
1. Square
2. Sine
3. Triangle
4. Ramp
5. Sawtooth
6. Random
7. Slewed random
8. Envelope follower
9. ADSR
10. Control port

Below the switch for mod 1 are two clock dividers. They run in series and allow you to create a variety of divisions of the clock when used in conjunction.

Mod source 2 has 6 options:
1. Square
2. Sine
3. Triangle
4. Ramp
5. Sawtooth
6. Random

Unlike mod 1, mod is independent of the clock. Below it, you will find a rate control, but also the option to cross-modulate the rate from mod source 1. Note, unlike the parameter depths, the cross-mod depth is not regulated, meaning that at its extremes, the depth may exceed the limits of the rate, causing plateaus in the rate modulation.

Page labeled “mod select 2”:

Mod source 3 has 3 options:
1. The multiplied output of mods 1 & 2 (can be used to generate exotic and unpredictable waveforms).
2. 16 step sequencer
3. Slewed sequencer

You can non-destructively decrease the number of sequencer steps by placing gates on the second track. This track feeds into the sequencer’s reset, allowing lengths from 2 steps to 16 steps.

This sequencer also has a clock divider.

Page labeled “patch select”:

Choose from 8 pages. By default 0-7. You can change these and the MIDI channel they use by finding the page labeled “page management”

Page labeled “MIDI routing”:

The MIDI routing for the patch, including destinations. Change channels here. The patch is designed to cover the most functionality for the most CBA pedals, but there are other opportunities available here, such as routing the sequencer to the toggles, for instance (if you do this, note that you will need to attenuate the output, as the toggles CC range is very minute), or different bypass states of the pedal, etc.

There is a sliver of CPU headroom left in this patch, and I may use it in a future revision to make some of those re-routing options a bit easier. For now, if it’s something you want to do, here’s the place to do it.

2 comments on “CBA lab — a laboratory for controlling Chase Bliss Audio pedals
  • p1afff on said:

    Really interesting, thanks for this !

  • Christopher H. M. Jacques on said:

    A little about the sound clip:

    The first example begins with things a Condor is very capable of doing–it is modulating the mids frequency from high to low, while the gain is being modulated from low to high (drive is on). Then a square wave LFO (derived from the sequencer, set to two steps with values of 0 and 1) is introduced, modulating the volume at 12 times the speed of the triangle wave controlling the frequency, creating a phased tremolo sound. I also adjust the depth of the volume modulation, slightly, as the sound progresses so that it doesn’t dip all the way to 0.

    The next example utilizing an envelope follower controlling the LPF and the gain to create a dirty, funky envelope filter sound, such that I dig in, the more the filter is opened and the greater the gain of the sound.

    These examples barely scratch the surface.

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