*Requires Zoia Firmware 5.0!*
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“Phantom Appendage” is my attempt to recreate the “Phantom Limb” (by Discomfort Designs), a chaotic delay/looper quite similar to (if slightly simpler than) the Chase Bliss “Habit”. If you are familiar with “Phantom Limb”, you will feel right at home here! If not, you can keep reading or watch the video quick start guide, linked at the very bottom. (I wanted the video to embed in the page, but it doesn’t seem to be doing this. Any ideas welcome)
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Signal Chain Overview
The pedal is fully stereo. Incoming audio [p1] is routed into a carousel [p3] of eight loopers [pp4-7] and a delay line [p2]. Only the L signal goes into the odd numbered loopers, only the R signal goes into the even numbered loopers, and the (mono) delay line takes both. In each cycle of the sequencer that controls the loops [p3], the input is recorded and then played back three times. The second of these playbacks is in reverse.
All nine of these recording devices are always on, but they each have an individual vca that determines whether their output is audible or not. These paths all feed into one master vca [p3], before being sent through a stereo “freeze” delay line [p2]. A switch [p2] determines whether the freeze delay lines or the nine other delay/looper lines will go on to the filter.
Whatever mess comes out of the switch then hits a low pass filter [p1], and then a modulated delay [p1]. The dry audio [p1] also is fed into this delay, before being sent to the output [p1] along with the looped content .
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Many of the loopers will randomly toggle an additional playback speed, with a likelihood set by PITCH CHANCE.
Looper 1: x4
Looper 2: x2
Looper 4: x1.5
Looper 5: x0.5
Looper 7: x2
Looper 8: x0.5
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Feature comparison vs Phantom Limb (Discomfort Designs)
New features:
– Stereo!
– Independent level controls for loop, delay and overall output signals.
– Tap tempo input for the delay
– Independent controls for delay modulation
– An independent control for length of the freeze loop
– A control determining the likelihood that the grains will be pitchshifted.
– Fade in/out controls for the main loop bypass
Missing features:
– High pass filter
– Pitch-shifted delay
– Intelligent scanning of the main buffer when activating freeze mode.
– Changing “main buffer length” does not impact freeze loop length
– CHANCE does not impact delay modulation or position of playback start from buffers.
Aside from the above (please send me your corrections), I believe that Phantom Appendage is a very accurate copy.
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Caveats:
-Your Zoia must be updated to Firmware patch 5.0, lest it runs out of DSP and explodes.
– Adjusting the filter value will result in temporary CPU overload, leading to clicks if there is audio running at the time (and thankfully nothing more during my testing).
– Using the buffer clear feature multiple times within the buffer length could possibly lead to playback of some old audio.
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Thanks for trying my patch! Feedback is very welcome.
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More information about the Phantom Limb:
https://www.guitarpedalx.com/news/gpx-blog/discomfort-designs-unleashes-fantastic-phantom-limb-9-x-simultaneous-randomized-microloopers-and-multimode-delay-multi-fx-pedal
Update your Zoia to Firmware 5.0:
https://empresseffects.com/blogs/support-zoia/updating-firmware-on-the-zoia-and-euroburo-latest-version
