Dumble in a box pedals list

Always loved Larry Carlton and Robben Ford’s tone, and even tried to build my own Dumble clone at one point. It didn’t sound good, and I didn’t have the expertise or time to make it sound good. Anyway, 13 years later and I’ve moved on in the music I play, but I still get GAS for that tone. Recently there have been more and more pedals trying to get that sound, and some of them are starting to come close. Here’s a list of the ones I know of:

I’ve owned both a Fishbone (Zendrive) and an SOV-1. When I compared the two the Fishbone sounded closer to me, less saturated and more touch sensitive. It was also smaller and didn’t run off mains voltage, so I kept it. Having heard demos of the Simble I was tempted to get one of those, however recently I’ve just bought a Fulltone Fulldrive 3 to replace my Fulldrive 2. I found that with the comp-cut mode, I could get close to the Dumble sound too. I hope to put up a comparison soon, but first impressions are, the FD3 comp-cut sounds more open and transparent (something I wanted out of the Simble) and is even more touch sensitive than the Fishbone, but a little bit more saturated when playing harder. The fishbone has a more pronounced midrange, making it to my ears sound more like Robben Ford, and the FD3 comp-cut more like Larry Carlton.

Update: Here’s a demo of the Fulldrive 3 (Comp-cut mode):

Oh I almost forgot, there was also the infamous Freekish Blues Joyo Alpha Drive

Low cost made in China pedals

A list of some of the low cost pedals coming out of China these days. In some ways its a good thing, but Bill Finnegan of Klon Centaur fame, and some interesting things to say about when any company (not just Chinese), just clones a pedal, rather than offering their own unique interpretation. Anyway, on to the list:

In addition to the effects pedals, Joyo make tube amps, as do Bel Cat sometimes branded as SubZero. An “honourable mention” also goes to Behringer, while a German company, are made in China and compete in terms of value.

Small single-pedal sized multi effects

I’ve been searching for a single-pedal sized multi effects pedal to fill the last spot on my pedal board. Personally I want something that could do octave up/octave down (like an EHX Pog, but in a smaller/cheaper pedal) and the be a delay or chorus if I need it. After Googling, I didn’t find much of a definitive comparison list, so here’s a list of what I found. Let me know if you know of any others.

Update 1: I realised the iStomp Shape Shifter plugin doesn’t do chord/polyphonic tracking very well, so that’s now out. There is the Z-Cat Poly-Octaver 2, which also has Reverb and Chorus, so that’s almost multi fx – 3 pedals in one. There’s also the Mooer Pure Octave (and other mooer pedals) which are so small, you can get more than one for the same space on the board for different effects.

Update 2:
Polyphonic Dual Octave Harmonizer List:
– EHX Nano Pog
– EHX Pitch Fork (More features than the POG)
– Z-Cat Poly-Octaver 2 (has a 20ms delay)
– Earthquake Devices Organizer (turn the octaves down to have less woble)
– Earthquake Devices Pitch Bay (has a little distortion even with gain turned down)
– BOSS PS-6 Harmonizer (tracking issues with Chords)
– Mooer Pure Octave (doesn’t sound like it tracks well)
– TC Electronic Sub-n-up (and sub n up mini)

Update 3:
Neunaber technology just announced their Stereo v2 pedals, which while only doing a single effect at a time, can have up to 4 effects switchable with 2 presets each. I recently bought a Slate v2, and if you’re looking for something more high end than everything else on this list check them out at neunaber.net.

Update 4:
A few other multi effects pedals:
– Nux Mod Core (Modulation only)
– Hotone Xstomp (and Xstomp mini)

Digitech iStomp
The iStomp itself is one of the cheapest around, and Digitech recently made most of the iStomp pedals free. I’ve owned one of these before, and it does have an octave up/down effect. Main disadvantage is that it requires an iPhone to change effect, and its also a little wider than a standard pedal.
Zoom Multistopm MS-100BT / MS-50G
Unlike the iStomp, this pedal has more editing features onboard and can do more than one effect at a time. Like the iStomp the MS-100BT can be updated with new effects via an iPhone (MS-50G is standalone), but there is no octave up/down sound yet.

Update:
I’ve just seen that this has a pitch shifter, so you could at least get octave up or down, but because you can run more than one effect, you might be able to add it twice and get both up and down.
It also has a Z-Organ patch which seems to a polyphonic up/down effect

Update 2:
I bought one of these, none of the pitch effects including the Z-Organ track well at all, and while its a fun pedal to own, its not good enough for nice ambient swells.
Korg Pandora Stomp
This pedal does tons for the price, but seems a little complicated for live use. It does have pitch shifting effects, but I’m not sure if it can do the octave up/down thing.
Behringer Digital Multi-Fx FX600
Behringer make great value stuff, and this pedal seems to have a really straight forward interface. I’ve heard bad things about the sound quality on this one though.
Beta-Alvin Multi Effects ME-100
One of the new low cost pedals to come out of China, but I’d never heard of this brand before. Seems to have a nice simple interface, but a limited array of effects.

Pedal and amp list

Current Pedals
Custom 4 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor
TC Electronic Sub n Up
Besbeco Weeper Wah (converted into switchable volume/expression pedal)
Empress Reverb
DMC.Micro MIDI switch
BOSS RC-3 (rehoused with second footswitch)
Fishman Aura Spectrum DI (Acoustic Pedal)
Cioks DC-5
Empress MIDI Box 2

Amps
Mesa/Boogie DC-5
Fender Tweed Pro Jr.
Trace Elliot TA-50 (acoustic amp)
Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue
Fender Super Champ XD
Fender Blues Jr. with Billm mods
Two-Rock Jet 22 Head (sold very quickly)
Victory V40 Viscount Combo (current amp)

DIY Pedals
Custom 4 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor (Flip-Flop switching overdrive)
Custom 3 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor (Similar to Keeley Tone Workstation)
Custom 2 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor (Similar to Wampler Dual Fusion)
Custom Smaller Two-Rock Footswitch
Custom Neunaber ExP (x2)
Blues Jr. Footswitch (x2)
Mini Expression Pedal
Empress Tap/Hold footswitch

Previous Pedals
Digitech RP1
Alesis Volume Pedal
Alesis Nanoverb
Crybaby 535Q
Ayan Smooth n Slim (Twice)
Line6 POD (Twice!!!)
Marshall Blues Breaker
Crybaby Wah
Homemade Fuzzface Clone
Digitech RP100
Ernieball Stereo Volume Pedal/Pan
Little Lanilei Spring Reverb
Analog Man Stereo Chorus
Fishman Aura 16 (Acoustic Pedal)
Digitech iStomp
Fulltone Fulldrive 2
Maxon AD-80 Reissue
Fishbone Overdrive Special (Zendrive Clone)
TC Electronic Flashback Delay
Fulltone Fulldrive 3
Neunaber Slate v2 (Wet Reverb)
TC Electronic Alter Ego v2
Electro Harmonix Pitch Fork
TC Electronic Stereo Ditto Looper

Pedals owned for a short time just to try
Zoom MS-100BT
Behringer GDI-21
JOYO 6 Band Eq
JOYO Sweet Baby
Electro Harmonix Soul Food
JOYO JDI-01
Diago Little Smasher
EHX Caliber 22
Chase Bliss Gravitas
Line 6 Pocket POD
Korg Pandora Stomp
Nux Mod Core
TC Electronic Dark Matter (2 because one had a fault and was replace in warranty)
Carl Martin Headroom Real Spring Reverb
Line 6 HX Stomp

Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Circuits

I was looking into moving my Fulldrive 2 circuit into a smaller pedal enclosure (Hammond 1590BB) so that it took up less space on my pedal board. While I was looking into it, I realised that my Fulldrive 2 was one of the few pedals that could easily be moved into a smaller enclosure.

There seem to be 3 main variations:

fulldriveshortboard fulldrivelongboard fulldrivelongboard
Short circuit board – hand wired (early original edition) Long circuit board – hand wired (late original edition) Printed circuit board (MOSFET edition)

The really early Fulldrive 2s seem to have shipped in Hammond 1590BB enclosures:

fulldrive1590bb

Ikea Standing Desks

While I was at Onoko I did a standing desk for a while. While it was really good, I found doing it 100% gave be cramps in my legs. Now that I work at home a smaller desk (in additional to sit down desk) that would take up less room and also allow me to move it around the house or even to the garden to work! I had some GERTON legs so I got a £1 piece of wood from the bargain bin and built my own. There are lots of fancy options at Ikea Hackers, but here are the other ideas I looked at:

At a height of 105cm the BILSTA Bar table would make a perfect standing desk. Its also available as just the base so you can add your own top from a piece of wood the bargain bin or any of: TROFAST / INREDA / ALGOT / KOMPLEMENT / BILLY / BILLY / FJÄLKINGE / IVAR / EKBY LAIVA or even the top off a LACK coffee table
Another bar table that works is BJÖRKUDDEN. Its quite deep so do can fit too people with laptops facing each other.
Get the GERTON legs extendable up to 107cm:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60261626/

Get any of the compatible desks, or a piece of wood from the bargain bin or one of the tops mentioned above.

There are also the BILLSTA desk legs, but they’re more expensive and less flexible in terms of tops.

Use one of the wall mounted leaf desks:
Select an item from the various wall shelves available. If you want something bigger, buy the sturdiest brackets and again get a piece of wood from the bargain bin or one of the tops mentioned above.

I hope that’s helpful. Sorry the links are to the UK store if you live somewhere else. I’m still wondering if I should eventually get a Cycle Desk!

Simultaneous MIDI/Audio with Apogee ONE for iPad

The original Apogee ONE for Mac was USB audio compliant and could be made to work with the iPad with the iPad camera connector and a powered USB hub (see video).

I just tried the the same thing with the new Apogee ONE for iPad. It is USB audio compliant and does work natively with its own cable to the iPad, but I couldn’t get it to work with the USB cable through a powered hub in the same way as the original ONE.

Has anybody else managed to get it to work?

Disable Git in Eclipse

I use the excellent Source Tree as a visual Git client, and really dislike messages about versioning when I’m coding. Eclipse’s Git colours and overall intrusiveness seem to be particularly bad. I couldn’t find which plugin to remove but I did find the following settings:

This setting will stop Eclipse from automatically attaching its Git functions:

disablegit

Update: Newer versions of Eclipse seem to use this setting:

disablegiteclipse

If you’ve already loaded some projects before disabling the above setting, you can disconnect those individual projects from Eclipse’s Git functionality here:

disconnectproject

iPhone Push Notifications with JavaPNS on Google App Engine

There have been several issues with getting JavaPNS working on Google App Engine. These included:
1) GAE didn’t support sockets or SSL
2) GAE doesn’t support signed jars, the BouncyCastle cryptography library is signed
3) GAE is transitioning to Java 7, and Java 7 has issues reading .p12 certificates

These instructions are for JavaPNS 2.2 and GAE 1.7.7, things may change on both fronts to make things either easier or harder.

1) GAE didn’t support sockets or SSL

With the arrival of GAE 1.7.7 sockets and SSL are now fully supported:
http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2013/04/app-engine-177-released.html

2) GAE doesn’t support signed jars

Remove META-INF/MANIFEST.MF from the latest BouncyCastle jar or download my modified jar of BouncyCastle 1.48

3) Java 7 has issues reading .p12 certificates

a) Generate your .p12 certificate as per Apple’s instructions

b) Install Java 6 JDK

c) Use Java 6’s keytool to convert the .p12 to a .jks

keytool -importkeystore -destkeystore CERTIFICATES.jks -srckeystore CERTIFICATES.p12 -srcstoretype PKCS12

d) Configure JavaPNS to use the .jks format instead of .p12

boolean production = false;
String device = "DEVICE_ID";
String keystore = "CERTIFICATES.jks";
String password = "PASSWORD";
String message = "Hello JKS";

AppleNotificationServer jksServer = new AppleNotificationServerBasicImpl(keystore, password, ConnectionToAppleServer.KEYSTORE_TYPE_JKS, production);
PushNotificationPayload payload = PushNotificationPayload.alert(message);
PushNotificationManager pushManager = new PushNotificationManager();
pushManager.initializeConnection(jksServer);
List<PushedNotification> notifications = pushManager.sendNotifications(payload, Devices.asDevices(device));

Thanks to Palomino Labs Blog for the hints about Java and .p12 files:
http://blog.palominolabs.com/2011/10/18/java-2-way-tlsssl-client-certificates-and-pkcs12-vs-jks-keystores/