Trek PWM fuzz Tourbox

[oldangelmidnight]

I'm really glad that resolved itself.

[Tristan]

Tourbox landed here from Sweden!
Really digging the Mantis, it's a heavy synthy beast!
Wow, the pedals really changed, I barely recognise them compared to the older versions.
Terra sounds more modern now to my ears, and the non star / secondary fuzz seems almost more like an octave up thing,
getting some great spitty sounds out of it.
Caracol is more midrangey and definitely more synthy than the old one, still really great but different to me.
Trek is good, mostly getting one typical sound out of it now, have to play some more.
Didn't try the Gyroscope yet.

[Tristan]

Just a little bump with some more thoughts on it.
Mantis is still my favourite, it's really superb, definitely one to check out if you're looking for a sub octave fuzz.
Terra can get more classic sounds with the star / primary fuzz only, Bias 2/3 to 3/4 up and Input full up.
Caracol is most special in the low gain mode but lacks a bit of high end compared to the old one in my opinion, on high focus settings there's some kind of
whistle / high pitched noise in there that I can't get out.
Trek is cool, for me the oscillation doesn't interact with the circuit enough, I'd rather see an LFO or something to get true PWM type sounds.
Apart from the Caracol they all have expression inputs that bring even more fun so if you have an expression pedal lying around do hook it up!
I dig the printscreened bare box thing, especially if the printscreen thing could be applied a bit thicker it might be a cool easier to do finish instead of the powdercoat.

[goroth]

I agree about the printing on the aluminium. I meant to write that. It looks very original and very classy.

[Tristan]

Yeah, they're cool hey, I thought so right out of the box but I forgot to mention it in my first post as well.

[goroth]

As an aside, editing the demos is going slowly. I'll post more thoughts as each demo gets done. I just don't have enough hours in the day

[autopilot]

thx for the feedback, it really helps to continue trying to make things better. Yes, both mantis have special place, they both can get a massive monophonic synth tone, mantis into gyroscope is dope (but mantis into a lpf controlled with a expr is where the awesome souce is at), also mantis into a modulated delay. This days im digging more the fuzz mode on the caracol, the high pitch with the focus is because of the range of the filter, you can tame it with the cut knob, there's a lot of interaction with the gain/intensity, cut and focus knob, it has a bit of a learning curve. The trek didnt have enough space for a lfo (and at least it needs 2 extra knobs range and rate), from the space that was available the oscillation was the option, but for itself it is cool, but running a lfo to change the width and activating momentarily the oscillation its all sonic glory :P. Im considering making another variation 6 knob of the trek, taking out the oscillation and morphing into another pw fuzz voice, mostly because in the band im playing i dont use the oscillation, and sometimes i'm stacking the trek with another OD to get certain sounds (and the continue battle of bending over to adjust the settings and the stress of the shows) i'm thinking i should add the complimentary voice.

[autopilot]

your feedback will be mostly used in the design/fine tune of the Supreme series, which is the expanded version of the pedals (larger case more knobs), and also to continue to make a better product/tool and perhaps push me into some stuff i've been on the fence with some ideas

[autopilot]

BTW i write a lot "Also", sorry for that english isnt my natural language, and literature wasnt my strong in school

[goroth]

That's alright. I scored 46% on my final exam in my one unit of electrical engineering I took. That was the end of my experiments in electronics.

[Tristan]

No worries, it's no problem to follow what you're saying.

Could you tell me more about the Caracol, I was using it mostly with all knobs halfway or below that even.
The old one didn't have the high pitch noise while it also went higher, I could max it out without any problems and the cool thing on that one was that on max it had a very special sitar type resonance to it that I'm missing in the current version.

I think you should do that thing you mentioned with the Trek man.
The oscillation is cool but it doesn't feel like part of the circuit and it doesn't really add much to the variety of sounds in my opinion.

[goroth]

I think you should do that thing you mentioned with the Trek man.
The oscillation is cool but it doesn't feel like part of the circuit and it doesn't really add much to the variety of sounds in my opinion.

[autopilot]

Could you tell me more about the Caracol, I was using it mostly with all knobs halfway or below that even.
The old one didn't have the high pitch noise while it also went higher, I could max it out without any problems and the cool thing on that one was that on max it had a very special sitar type resonance to it that I'm missing in the current version.

ahhh i thought it was with the focus at max, no halfway, lower the cut or input knob then.

[Tristan]

Yep, sorry, focus at almost max to fully max and cut and input halfway.
Turning down the cut to only 1/4 up doesn't change anything in the high pitch noise, the cut control also seems less responsive in the lower range (below halfway)
than on the older Caracol (the custom one you made me).
If I put the input below halfway the Caracol doesn't respond evenly throughout the whole fretboard, I'm using vintage style low output Strat single coils.

[autopilot]

the thing with the focus is all the frequency range that it need to handle from the sweep, so at max is set in the verge of max range so it start oscillating (thats why the high pitch at max, higher than that is oscillation madness), ideally it needs a 2 knob configuration to fine tune the range and resonance, with this version i even starting measuring the caps (for the value tolerance in the same value around 01-10%) and the voltages in that area, to keep a consistent focus value