jwar wrote:whoismarykelly wrote:UglyCasanova wrote:whoismarykelly wrote: it doesn't talk about how to set up a sequence or give any explanation of the stutter function. [...] I just think if you go to the effort to print up a quick start guide it should actually give you a start. The available pitches for each step in a sequence aren't explained. Other functions in the knob range for setting a sequence aren't explained. It seems like maybe there is a skip section of the knob range?
I watched the Pedals and Effects demo when it came out and I still remember how this works, so maybe just watch that or use your ears?
I'm not saying that not having a proper manual is a good thing (although it can be), but it would literally take you 5 minutes to figure this stuff out on your own.
Having spent much more than 5 minutes with the pedal I can tell you there are many unexplained things that are tough to figure out when a manual could explain them in one sentence. Companies should provide documentation. They shouldn't provide explanation through a 3rd party video where you have to sit through 30 minutes of content to maybe get an answer to your question.
Your disappointment is bumming me out dude.
So is it really that hard? Have you contacted them and told them how you feel? I bet they'd be responsive and perhaps offer a solution.
Its a cool pedal but it falls into the category of pedals where you have to conform to the way it works rather than using the pedal in a dynamic way whenever you want. I consider stuff like the Raptio and Revolver to be way more dynamic and usable without really planning. Also note that my main interest in this pedal was the stutter function. Pitch arpeggios are things I would just play in most cases rather than have the pedal play them for me.
You have to set up the Ottobit to do what you want and then if you want to do something different you have to set it up differently. There are so many steps on each control that this isn't a 30 second process. For example, here are the divisions of the stutter knob as just posted in response to my question on TGP:
Each range (full speed, double speed, half speed) has 7 different selections. Each of these selections sets the stutter length and how may times the stutter repeats. Also min (on the stutter knob) gets you stutter off and max gets you stutter random. So 23 positions in total, here they are:
Stutter Knob sections:
Stutter Off
Full Speed, Stutter Once
Full Speed, Stutter Twice
Full Speed, Stutter Three Times
Full Speed, Stutter Four Times
Full Speed, Stutter Six Times
Full Speed, Stutter Eight Times
Full Speed, Stutter Sixteen Times
Double Speed, Stutter Once
Double Speed, Stutter Twice
Double Speed, Stutter Three Times
Double Speed, Stutter Four Times
Double Speed, Stutter Six Times
Double Speed, Stutter Eight Times
Double Speed, Stutter Sixteen Times
Half Speed, Stutter Once
Half Speed, Stutter Twice
Half Speed, Stutter Three Times
Half Speed, Stutter Four Times
Half Speed, Stutter Six Times
Half Speed, Stutter Eight Times
Half Speed, Stutter Sixteen Times
Random (combination of all of the above, plus the reverse of all the above)
All of that is unexplained in the quick start guide which means when I was thinking that the divisions on the knob were just the 5 options printed on the pedal (off, full speed, double speed, half speed, random) and making settings based on just those 5 sectors, I wasn't getting the same thing consistently because in any given sector that just under 90 degrees of knob sweep (on a tiny knob for this much function btw) there are 7 divisions. They have this information on hand so I dont know why it wasn't put in the quick start. This is the kind of necessary info you aren't going to just figure out on your own in 5 minutes with the pedal.
My main qualm with the pedal is that the stutter is primarily auto stutter in a pretty rigid structure. It may be constantly filling the buffer for the stutter function but if you hold the switch to try and freeze the next thing you play, which is apparently how it works, you dont get anything until the full next cycle. So its not really stutter on demand like I was hoping. It works a little better if the tap speed is set really fast.
Im playing with this thing all day to get a better handle on it. I might just have to continue posting every possible question to get a de facto manual out of them now rather than waiting.
Edit - people used to bitch about rack gear as having too many menus and liking the simplicity of pedals. This morning I was thinking that I would vastly prefer menus for setting this pedal up rather than making a minute turn on a knob and then waiting and trying to count how many times something was happening or counting the steps from unison to find where the intervals I wanted on the pitch sequencing were. This pedal is all the complexity of a piece of deep rack gear but with blinders on so its tough to tell what is really happening.
Edit 2 - there may also be a minimum amount of turn before the pedal recognizes you're trying to do something so all those tiny divisions you're trying to hit on the stutter knob mean you might have to jump the knob outside the range so it knows you want to change something and then try to land on the setting you want when you stop moving the knob. I was trying to go from 1 stutter to 2 stutters with a bunch of tiny increments and the knob was almost at the end of the section before it actually changed to stutter twice.
Next week I'll have both in hand and be ready to destroy the universe!!!!! 