cv I/O on pedals - what size and how do you interface?

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

just curious. MARKET RESEARCH
what size you prefer and also if and how you interface with the CV - use modular to control? expression pedal? external cv controller? other pedals? etc

[ritz]

In my experience 1/8 has a slight edge for ease of use on the tabletop. Face mounted 1/8 is so easy to plug and unplug. But for pedals, on a board, 1/4 side or top mounted is vastly superior. If it's a fixed setup you want that shit to be secure. Face mounted is an invitation for getting broken. 1/4 is more rugged. And if you're packing a board, there is a serious shortage of good small right angle stuff that goes from 1/8 to 1/4, so you end up with a bunch of maybe unreliable adapters and/or lost space. 1/4 side or top mounted is waaaay easier and more reliable. If I was doing all tabletop I'd feel different, but 1/4 is vastly superior in practice for pedals.

And obviously top is always better

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

In my experience 1/8 has a slight edge for ease of use on the tabletop. Face mounted 1/8 is so easy to plug and unplug. But for pedals, on a board, 1/4 side or top mounted is vastly superior. If it's a fixed setup you want that shit to be secure. Face mounted is an invitation for getting broken. 1/4 is more rugged. And if you're packing a board, there is a serious shortage of good small right angle stuff that goes from 1/8 to 1/4, so you end up with a bunch of maybe unreliable adapters and/or lost space. 1/4 side or top mounted is waaaay easier and more reliable. If I was doing all tabletop I'd feel different, but 1/4 is vastly superior in practice for pedals.

And obviously top is always better

thanks for that! good thoughts all around. top-mount for sure though.

[goroth]

1/4 because I am a conservative guitarist who understands no other dimensions.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

1/4 because I am a conservative guitarist who understands no other dimensions.

that's cool. do you use an expression pedal or other CV generating things?

[goroth]

Both, but I feel more at home with an expression pedal. I can get some cool stuff happening out of the cv generator, but I don't know if I could use it in any other context than "wow, that was interesting". But that reflects both the style of music I play and me as a player.

[oldangelmidnight]

If it's the kind of effect that I'd prefer on the board and wouldn't use my hands on much, I'd probably CV it with an EHX 8-Step or expression pedal and want 1/4" inputs. If it's more hands-on, I'd want to use a Korg SQ-1 to control it.

1/8" female to 1/4" male adapters are much more sturdy so 1/4" inputs might be preferable for that reason.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

Both, but I feel more at home with an expression pedal. I can get some cool stuff happening out of the cv generator, but I don't know if I could use it in any other context than "wow, that was interesting". But that reflects both the style of music I play and me as a player.

makes perfect sense to me.

If it's the kind of effect that I'd prefer on the board and wouldn't use my hands on much, I'd probably CV it with an EHX 8-Step or expression pedal and want 1/4" inputs. If it's more hands-on, I'd want to use a Korg SQ-1 to control it.

1/8" female to 1/4" male adapters are much more sturdy so 1/4" inputs might be preferable for that reason.

[jrfox92]

I say both.
1/4" at the top 3.5mm on the face.
Have the 1/4" be either CV expression or CV input (like DBA's Evil Filter).

[Jwar]

just curious. MARKET RESEARCH
what size you prefer and also if and how you interface with the CV - use modular to control? expression pedal? external cv controller? other pedals? etc

Hard question man. Nah it's easy. I prefer 1/4th size because of the sturdiness. That being said the advantage of a 1/8 is the smaller size. I would roll with either. That's what adapters are for. If you don't have a bunch of those laying around, well then you sir need to up your CV game!

I use a Ronald EV 5 for some pedals, a Lightning Wave EVA for others and I have a Moog MP 201 incoming.

I prefer to use a combination. It depends on the pedal. Certain pedals react better with a sweep than others. Now there are ways to use pedals like the EVA with an expression pedal as well. Lee informed me of that.

Check out my Instagram if you want to see the EVA in action. I'll be showing the Moog MP 201 as well when that arrives.

There are times where I also want to use a sequencer to control the CV on a pedal. For instance, the Chase Bliss Brothers works extremely well with a step sequencer. The thing is, the EVA is a wave form step sequencer. GOD DAMN IT EVERYONE BUY THEM!!!

Anyway, that's my thoughts. I'll work with whatever dude.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

I say both.
1/4" at the top 3.5mm on the face.
Have the 1/4" be either CV expression or CV input (like DBA's Evil Filter).

yeaaaaaaaah only one or the other though! redundant jacks are kind of too much on a pedal i think.

Hard question man. Nah it's easy. I prefer 1/4th size because of the sturdiness. That being said the advantage of a 1/8 is the smaller size. I would roll with either. That's what adapters are for. If you don't have a bunch of those laying around, well then you sir need to up your CV game!

I use a Ronald EV 5 for some pedals, a Lightning Wave EVA for others and I have a Moog MP 201 incoming.

I prefer to use a combination. It depends on the pedal. Certain pedals react better with a sweep than others. Now there are ways to use pedals like the EVA with an expression pedal as well. Lee informed me of that.

Check out my Instagram if you want to see the EVA in action. I'll be showing the Moog MP 201 as well when that arrives.

There are times where I also want to use a sequencer to control the CV on a pedal. For instance, the Chase Bliss Brothers works extremely well with a step sequencer. The thing is, the EVA is a wave form step sequencer. GOD DAMN IT EVERYONE BUY THEM!!!

Anyway, that's my thoughts. I'll work with whatever dude.

cool, thanks my dude!

[space6oy]

just curious. MARKET RESEARCH
what size you prefer and also if and how you interface with the CV - use modular to control? expression pedal? external cv controller? other pedals? etc

modular, other pedals, expression.

[megamaeng]

well i would use the mp-201 but I traded it away to some dude on the forumz...

I'm building one of these so the hope is that I can use a banana to 1/4 converter. But 1/4" for sure.

http://www.73-75.com/

One thing that would be awesome is some sort of attenuverter on the cv input and using the physical value of the knob you want to control to be the offset. That way you can dial in positive or negative control at a specific spot in the travel of the knob, as opposed to from the min or max. That to me is where the rubber meets the road. It also makes it much more interesting to send a single cv source to multiple locations and have them all do very different things at different scales.

[codetocontra]

I voted 1/8". Putting together a small tabletop setup with pedals and a drum machine that are relying on CV and it just makes sense for my situation. People made good points on just using an adapter, I have several TRS 1/4" to 1/8" headphone adapters laying around. Would be great if the CV range and limit was listed clearly somewhere. I have a few things I am afraid to plug together because of possible limitations. Very curious to know what you are working on.

[oscillateur]

Top mount 1/8" means you'll make people using eurorack happy, and that's a pretty big market these days.
Top mount is pretty important here, you need to know where you're plugging stuff and having to look at the back of a pedal is not convenient at all...