ECHO DEGRADER

[UglyCasanova]

Weren't there only 10 made with etched enclosures? And those enclosures were freakin' huge.

I love the way they look, don't get me wrong, but god damn, those are some oversized enclosures.

[baremountain]

Also, regarding the degrade knob: I'm only getting noticeable changes between 7 and bout 7:30-7:45. The rest is the same. If 7:45->5:00 changes the sound in any way at all, I'm not noticing it. Is it supposed to be like this?

Afaik, the degrade knob changes the way the repeats break up/warble/modulate. I can't figure out exactly *what* it's doing, but I know that the pedal responds differently to it being in different places. What you're talking about is when it makes your input signal sound like the sample rate has been reduced to basically nothing, right? That's how mine behaves at those settings. I think the lower you have it, the more prone to overall screwiness it is.

[UglyCasanova]

^^^ yes, except it doesn't intentionally modulate the repeats. That's what the 'tape stability' knob is for. The modulationesq result of turning the degrade knob ccw is just the PT2399 being overloaded with signal, trying to process and squeeze it all back out again. Like you said, with a clean/low output signal the change in sound isn't noticeable before you get into extreme territory. I assume it's an input regulator, similar to the 'boost' knob on the V4 Seopuku Memory Loss. Try hitting it with a hotter signal.

[D.o.S.]

You could maybe talk to Jwar about etching yours?

Degrade knob did weird things with a line level signal, but it's been a hot minute so I forget exactly what it was.

[mysteryroach]

I'm aware that 7:00->7:45 is bitcrushed territory. I was listening for differences in degredation on the repeats and wasn't hearing anything - so was either bitcrush or no change at all.

I just tried boosting the signal into it and still got nothing. Unfortunately I only have 2 instrument cables and a small patch cable at the moment (the rest shat the bed), so can't test my adding more clean boosts in front of it - can only chain 2 effects at the mo, so could only use one other pedal to boost the signal.

However I'm now hearing it a bit more on high levels of feedback (and I'm pretty sure with much smaller time periods too). I.e. if I let it feedback into much much much higher than the input volume, the higher the output volume gets the further up the dial the degradation knob can be before you hear noticeable differences of degradation on the repeats. E.g. up to 10:00 on the regen dial like the guy in the video if I let it feedback. However he's not letting it feedback nearly as much. I have to let my signal feedback a lot to get to that point. Maybe he's running a hotter signal though?

Presumably it's working properly? I really have to push the feedback to get this effect though, so might have to run a compressor after it in order to get proper use out of the degrade knob - or may just YOLO-it and learn to love the wild volume levels. I'll also test with more boosts also and see how that works out.

Still keen to know how I could go about cleaning the pot. I'd like to be able to let it feedback and adjust it to the desired level of breakup, and do so cleanly - rather than poison my delicious soundscape with a fuzzy static every time I make an adjustment.

[UglyCasanova]

There's nothing wrong with your degrade potmeter. The crackling as you turn it is part of the circuit.

As far as characteristics of the repeats go, this is a pushed and mangled PT2399 chip. Much like the RM-1N, your pedal will sound different than mine. A minute change in the components will make a big difference in what comes out the other end. That being said, I have no idea if the circuit was changed from the big enclosure in the demo you posted. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. This is my demo. Does it behave much differently in the same settings?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMwpT2qmGtw[/youtube]

[mysteryroach]

Oh cool. Yeah thought it might be at first (i.e. simply a quirk that exists on everyone's unit) but then I tried to spot it in the demos and I couldn't hear it. Everyone else's seemed dead quiet so was worried it was just mine. However, there aren't a lot of examples to draw from and the ones that are there probably just got buried beneath what was playing (much like my own - only hear it when it's clean & the feedback loop isn't too loud&chaotic). Just making sure it should be like that. If it is, then that's all good.

It's a little hard to tell any differences in the degrade knob between mine and yours, being that it's so dependent on volume. So unless I can be sure that the signal feeding through the unit in your demo is at exactly the same level as mine, then I can't tell if it's working the same. It's probably fine.

There was one difference between mine and yours in that I'm fairly sure the regen knob goes higher. Although, again it could have been the difference in the signal I was feeding it - what I was playing, how hard I was picking/strumming etc. Mine tends to go into self-oscillation incredibly easily at 5:00 if you feed it a very small amount of sound. 3:15-3:30ish is where it typically sits on the edge of it - just repeating without much volume loss, but without feeding-back into blown ear-drums territory.

One thing I noticed though, is if the device feeds back enough (i.e. complete wall-of-sound levels), anything above 10:30ish will have the same degredation no matter where the knob is. So between 7 and 10:30 were the only areas where the location of the degredation knob really mattered. Everything above 10:30 becomes broken, even with the threshold at 5:00. And you had to really push the feedback a lot to get there to be any changes above 9.

I'll get round to finally making more patch cables and experiment with adding 2 boosts in front of it to see if it increases this 7->10:30 range. Maybe try my other guitar. Is your own experiences with the degrade knob that you can get substantial variation all the way up? Couldn't really tell much of a difference between the knob at 12:00 vs 3:00-5:00 in your vid. But it was hard to tell cause you were playing different stuff and you had the tone threshold in different places. As I said, it's probably fine. Feeling much better about it since hearing changes above 7:45.



All this being said - I've bought a lot of pedals this year, and this is the one I've probably had the most fun with. This thing = a soundscape machine. Time to join an Explosions in the Sky coverband or something.

[D.o.S.]

I would suggest early Mogwai instead.

[Dandolin]

Please.

[brndnwilliams]

Got mine last week. I really don't mean to sound like an ass but I have a lot of pedals, the good stuff, and this is the most rewarding pedal to play. Theres a level of expressiveness that I've been able to reach with the ED which I haven't felt with almost any other pedal I've played. Its so relaxing to sit with this without any goal in mind and just noodle and find the next sound on the pedal. Can't recommend it enough! Thanks!

[DarkAxel]

just so y'all know, I'm running a 10% off preorder sale for a new batch that should be arriving end of January/early February. 10% off all Industrialectric pedals till 15th January!

http://www.eaststompboutique.com/industrialectric

[raj007]

I was so floored by the RM1N I got earlier this week that I had to order an Echo Degrader as well. Will be here next week.

The RM1N has sounds I've been searching for...some I never knew I needed! Haha.

Have a hunch the ED won't disappoint.

[fuzzonaut]

RM1N and Echo Degrader is a match made in heaven. Enjoy!

The only problem will be to decide which one comes first: reverb the degraded or degrade the reverbed?

Solution: having 2 of each ....

[UglyCasanova]

Wouldn't you just need two of one of them and one of the other for that?

[fuzzonaut]

Yeah, but still, imagine 2 of each ...