This patch (as well as another, “Spring Flerb,”) arose out of the question “what can a diffuser do?” Lots. When you apply an LFO to the diffuser size, it does wacky stuff.
Signal flow: Stereo inputs to two diffusers, which can be manipulated a bunch of ways:
-L stomp switch engages an LFO;
-Middle stomp switch determines which one (in order: random (white), square (blue), triangle (green), ramp (red), sawtooth (yellow). (Front panel displays which one is active);
-R stomp switch sets tap tempo of the LFO.
Bonus feature: press and hold the R switch for 1 second and it toggles the modulation on the diffusers to maximum. Makes a lovely swirling chorus sound.
The controls are highly interactive. I find the first two waveforms work at any LFO setting:
-The random jumps to different amounts of “drippiness” from the glittery reflections of the diffuser;
-The square wave forms a nice percussive ratcheting sound;
-The triangle and ramp and sawtooth get REAL WEIRD REAL QUICK. Like, Rainbow Machine-esque sounds at slow speeds, bitcrushed explosions at anything faster (nice for percussion sounds with muted string plucks!).
One of the things I’m still experimenting with is where to put what controls, on which switch. I should implement Christopher’s great CV invert trick, but for now there’s a fun quirk to this interface, which I almost don’t want to change: if, for example, you wanted to turn on the modulation, the tap tempo LFO rate jumps to almost zero, as it doesn’t hear a second tap yet, and depending on the waveform MORE WEIRD THINGS HAPPEN. Square wave is the least fun in this; it’s a diffuser pseudo-spring sound that just turns on and off very intermittently, and not necessarily at a convenient time. Random wave hangs out on one sound for a while, then changes eventually. The other three slowly glide, making new interesting modulation textures.
Hours of fun. Open to suggestions on how to improve this!
VIDEO NOTES/TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Dry
0:06 Engaged via Midi (Disaster Area Designs QConnect)
0:13 LFO engaged (L switch) (on Random LFO)
0:24 Tap tempo (R switch)
0:34 Percussive string slapping and plucking
0:39 Switch to Square Wave LFO (Middle switch)
0:49 Switch to Triangle Wave LFO
0:58 Percussive string slapping
1:05 Ramp LFO slap/muted percussive sounds
1:14 Sawtooth LFO slap/muted percussive sounds
1:32 LFO to very slow, turn on modulation (all one stompswitch press)
1:49 Same settings but faster tempo = wild!
1:58 Back to Random, with fast tempo and mod
2:04 LFO off, just mod (note: mod rate not connected to tap tempo)
2:21 Mod off, weird pseudo flanging remains leftover
2:32 LFO engaged again
2:39 Square on very slooooow LFO.
3:05 Almost thirty seconds later, the square wave finishes its cycle
3:10 Fast tempo… maybe too fast
3:13 That’s better.
3:18 Percussive SLAPS and scrapes with square wave
3:33 Triangle
3:45 Bypassed again, just for a breath of fresh air. (I should’ve probably done that with the QConnect.) Notice that this turns on the mod before bypassing. (Maybe I should raise the slew amount?)
3:47 Engaged, just mod. (Or, very nearly just mod; LFO rate is so slow.)
3:55 fast tempo, Random, with mod. Subtle and lovely.
4:05 Meant to do medium tempo, ended up really slow. Cool.
4:13 Medium. That’s better.
At this point the video stops, because I kept jamming and started turning on other pedals (like the Thermae next to it). So fun!
Shot on an iPhone 6 with a Rode Videomic Pro.
Signal Chain: Danelectro Danoblaster ->[huge pedalboard with lots of pedals, mostly bypassed, but also using] Chase Bliss Condor -> [more bypassed stuff] -> ZOIA -> [more stuff] -> Mesa Boogie Studio 22 amp. No audio processing of any kind has been done to the audio.
