The general Bananana thread

[whoismarykelly]

I keep watching the demos for this pedals because they're so fun and still sound so good!

Can anyone confirm whether the MANDALA and/or AURORA use the FV1 chip? Certainly sounds like it to me.

The Bananana duder confirmed it on one of his instagram posts.

I initially wanted a Mandala as it seems like a more versatile Raptio, but it doesn't seem to be dethroning the Raptio from those who have/had both.

For me its the size of the Bananana pedals. Anything in a 1590A kind of sucks for mounting to a board and stepping on. Most of the time if you don't hit the switch perfectly you'll kick the pedal off the board accidentally. And they are especially bad for Pedaltrain boards. If they we're bigger I'd own at least two Mandalas. Maybe I'll just buy one and rehouse it at some point.

[hotknife]

Nice ninja edit. Had to log on to Instagram, as I did not remember having posted that.

For me its the size of the Bananana pedals. Anything in a 1590A kind of sucks for mounting to a board and stepping on. Most of the time if you don't hit the switch perfectly you'll kick the pedal off the board accidentally. And they are especially bad for Pedaltrain boards. If they we're bigger I'd own at least two Mandalas. Maybe I'll just buy one and rehouse it at some point.

Thanks! The size problem definitely makes sense. My Tararira kinda has the same issue and it's not something I'd stomp on as often as a Raptio/Mandala. The good thing is the arcade buttons are supah sensitive.

[Eivind August]

I think elevenstrings got a custom dual Mandala built into a normal sized enclosure, might be worth asking Jumpei.

[whoismarykelly]

After a couple months of considering it I finally got a Mandala today to investigate it as a Raptio replacement and I think its going to do the job nicely. Sound quality is quite a bit better, feature set is more diverse. It also seems to be better at emptying the buffer when you let off the switch so you can capture a new sample without the old sample interfering which is an issue I have with the Raptio. Only thing that's tricky is its too small for me to use on a board so I might have to rehouse it into a bigger box. But that might also leave room to turn the hold/pitch and latching toggles on the top into footswitches. Need to poke around in the guts to see if its manageable.

Edit - Potentially a tough rehouse in the disassembly portion. Jacks need to be desoldered from the board in order to remove the board from the enclosure. After that it would be a piece of cake but desoldering jacks is always a huge pain. Board looks robust though so it could go alright.

Edit 2 - Solder sucker FTW. Debating whether or not to keep the arcade button as the main actuator. Im not sure I have a drill bit that big though.

[mr. sound boy king]

Hadn't heard of the Mandala until just now. That's some hot fire. I'd want to use it on a drum machine to get old skool pitch up / down drum n' bass snare rush.

[whoismarykelly]

So I got a Mandala, and it's almost really cool, except mine doesn't seem to work properly.

I'll be in momentary mode, when all of a sudden it'll change to latching, or vice versa. It does this on its own, not from flicking the momentary/latching switch. It doesn't get corrected from flicking the momentary/latching switch, or from turning the pedal off or on. The only fix is to unplug the power jack and put it back in. Then like 20 seconds later of playing the pedal, the same thing will happen. The footswitch doesn't work well-Sometimes it won't turn the pedal on at all, no matter how hard/soft I press on it. Sometimes the pedal won't turn off-I step on the switch repeatedly and nothing happens. Again, the only fix is to unplug the power jack and put it back in- The pedal works normally at first, and shortly later the same problems arise. I have to take the power jack in and out constantly. The music store I bought it from included a note saying to make sure it gets 200 mA. I have it powered through a Voodoo Lab 4x4 output capable of powering pedals up to 400 mA. I tried playing the pedal through a one spot, and the same issues are present.

I wonder if this same pedal got sold a third time because I received a Mandala from Guitar Pedal Shoppe today. Pulled it out of the box and tested it for a few minutes and then promptly rehoused it because reasons. Now that I'm playing with it in the new box I'm noticing this exact same issue. Sometimes the main trigger switch will stop working and the only way to get it to work again is to cycle the power. Sometimes it works for 5 minutes. Sometimes it works for 30 seconds before it needs a power cycle. Problem on my end is I'm likely fucked because I rehoused the pedal and no one honors a warranty on a rehoused pedal. Did you figure out what the issue was with the broken one or did you just return it?

[ALLisNOISE]

So I got a Mandala, and it's almost really cool, except mine doesn't seem to work properly.

I'll be in momentary mode, when all of a sudden it'll change to latching, or vice versa. It does this on its own, not from flicking the momentary/latching switch. It doesn't get corrected from flicking the momentary/latching switch, or from turning the pedal off or on. The only fix is to unplug the power jack and put it back in. Then like 20 seconds later of playing the pedal, the same thing will happen. The footswitch doesn't work well-Sometimes it won't turn the pedal on at all, no matter how hard/soft I press on it. Sometimes the pedal won't turn off-I step on the switch repeatedly and nothing happens. Again, the only fix is to unplug the power jack and put it back in- The pedal works normally at first, and shortly later the same problems arise. I have to take the power jack in and out constantly. The music store I bought it from included a note saying to make sure it gets 200 mA. I have it powered through a Voodoo Lab 4x4 output capable of powering pedals up to 400 mA. I tried playing the pedal through a one spot, and the same issues are present.

I wonder if this same pedal got sold a third time because I received a Mandala from Guitar Pedal Shoppe today. Pulled it out of the box and tested it for a few minutes and then promptly rehoused it because reasons. Now that I'm playing with it in the new box I'm noticing this exact same issue. Sometimes the main trigger switch will stop working and the only way to get it to work again is to cycle the power. Sometimes it works for 5 minutes. Sometimes it works for 30 seconds before it needs a power cycle. Problem on my end is I'm likely fucked because I rehoused the pedal and no one honors a warranty on a rehoused pedal. Did you figure out what the issue was with the broken one or did you just return it?

The lesson here is to never buy anything from Guitar Pedal Shoppe. You would've thought they would've sent it back to the manufacturer after the second time it was returned, but noooo... "These idiots just don't understand what a noise pedal does!"


I'd say your best bet is to reach out to Bananana directly and see if there's something that can be done.

I still very much want a Mandala as a compliment to my Raptio/Revolver setup. I love your idea of the bigger footprint and footswitchable modes!
I hope you can get it working so I can live vicariously through you!

[whoismarykelly]

Me too but I'm thinking this is a potential software issue and won't be fixable on my pedal. Ill email Bananana and see if there is anything to be done. Hoping I don't have a very elaborate pedal that only mostly works which to me means it might as well be a brick since I cant count on it to work at any given point.

[Pete]

Yeah, I got that pedal from guitar pedal shoppe... After I shared my experiences with the pedal, ALLisNOISE chimed in, saying he had bought it from them before me, and had experienced the same issues. I was able to return the pedal to the store, and they reached out to Jumpei of Bananana, who shipped me a replacement Mandala (which works great) from Japan. So, I'm glad they were able to resolve my issue, and didn't fight me on it. From what I understand, they had given ALLisNOISE a hard time about it, and I figured after they saw a second customer complaining of the same issues, they'd wise up that the pedal was in fact not working properly.

But now it seems they've sold the same defective pedal for the 3rd time in a row (that we know of). That sucks man, sorry. Hopefully Jumpei can help you out. He seems like a cool guy

[whoismarykelly]

I sent him an email. If he helps me out he's a saint. It would be pretty well within reason to say "you're on your own" after I've taken his product apart.

[frodog]

[oscillateur]

Is it me or is he playing Aphex Twin's "Come to daddy" at about 2:30 ?

[frodog]

I'm not sure, only noticed Army of Me at the beginning.

[Teej212]

There's some daft punk goin on in there. This thing is pretty cool

[lost in music]

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The release date will be around late August or early December.