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Thanks guys. It's great to be back.

Edit: just found some Tycho and gave it a listen - it's good stuff!

Isn't it? I discovered his stuff when I was trying to find music I could listen to while working/studying. Most ambient or synth based stuff just doesn't resonate with me but his stuff is so organic and musical, and he uses plenty of guitar, which is cool.

Dude, that DI bass pre looks the business. I wonder how that would do as a studio bass DI.

Thanks, I love this thing so much I'm afraid I'm gonna turn into the edge and never turn the delay off. Welcome back as well.

Nothing wrong with turning into the Edge. hehe

Rad pedal and I really enjoyed seeing you with your son. That's the absolute coolest. Great video!

sweet build! I have some old prototype version of this that I need to build. This is inspiration

Looks amazing in and out. I really like the white enclosure with black graphics and controls. It's super sharp. It sounds really nice in both clips. Solid work.

Wow, nice job man, and a little congratulations on getting your stuff a little notoriety.


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Thanks Jimi!

Thanks my buds.

This is a 24 point TRS patchbay that I was commissioned to do by the musician Tycho. He had spotted my Epic Looper build and liked the graphic design aesthetic. I initially turned him down because I always end up taking way too long on builds and I hate the pressure of keeping someone waiting. He changed my mind though because he was super laid back about it and was willing to wait as long as needed.

It's kind of funny because I didn't initially figure out who it was. I noticed that he had a huge IG following, then I realized I had already been listening to, and really enjoying, a lot of his music. Throughout the whole build process, he has been super patient. Any time I updated him with progress or pics he was super friendly and encouraging. It's so cool to interact with someone in that domain who is enjoying some pretty significant success and is humble and cool. If you haven't listened to Tycho you should!

This build was deceptively tricky. He wanted it to be half-normalled and fully point to point because he was getting crosstalk issues with his existing PCB card based unit. He also wanted it in a 1.5U form factor and he likes the look and feel of the plastic jacks and wanted green nuts on all of the inputs. Sounds pretty straightforward, no? Holy cow.

I discovered that 1.5U enclosures are not something you can just go buy in quantities anywhere close to 1. So, I had the brilliant idea of mounting a 1.5U face plate to a 1U chassis. Of course I had already purchased 50 Cliff solder lug jacks. They are not compact. Had I known how challenging this would be I would have used different jacks or insisted on a 2U enclosure.

It was scary doing all of the drilling and trying to get everything located so that the graphics would look good, the scribble strips would fit and I wouldn't run into any of the chassis hardware. In the end I had to do lots of cutting and bending jack lugs and I drew up a mounting plate that would allow the jacks to be properly located and spaced without fear that they could rotate and short on each other. I also drew up a wiring jig that allowed me to hold all of the jacks in proper orientation while I wired them. I can't imagine not having had that option.


















I also had to 3d print brackets that I could mount to the sides of the chassis to screw the faceplate into. These had to be thick enough to accept mounting hardware but thin enough to squeeze between the edges of the rack rail. I had to do a lot of cutting and grinding. I basically had to take off the entire front of the chassis to make room for all of the jacks.














As for the circuit, I looked at a few different configurations before settling on one that keeps all grounds isolated from the chassis and only connected per circuit. I figured out the easiest way to visualize how I wanted to do it was to pop out one of the cards from my cheapo patchbay and build the same circuit point to point. It's not hard to imagine having crosstalk issues with these when you consider that these cheap bays just have 24 of these sitting side by side. Hopefully he will have no such issue with this one.









The black brushed/anodized look was achieved with vinyl wrap. The graphics on the front are printed vinyl that my buddy Forest Dukes made for me. The white numbers on the back and the logo are vinyl that I cut on my cricut. The logo is the same black vinyl as is covering the chassis but I rotated it 90 degrees to catch the light different. I think it looks pretty cool.

The overall graphic design was a collaboration between Tycho and myself. He's not only a world class musician, he's also a world class graphic designer. Granted, it's a simple design but getting things to fit AND look good is always tougher than it should be and it always looks easy in hindsight.

Anyway it feels amazing to have this one off my plate. I'm really happy with the way it turned out despite its many flaws and I'm excited to get back into some of the pedal projects that have been waiting in the queue because of this one. Thanks for looking!

Hey all. I haven't checked in here in months. I haven't even looked at a single post! There is no particular reason other than the initial shift when covid hit putting me on a different trajectory with work and home life. It made me too busy for just about anything else. Then I just kind of got caught up in taking care of my property and enjoying yard work etc.

So, why am I calling this a confession? I'm going to post a build report. I hate not being part of the MB community for months on end and then jumping straight in with a build report. It just feels slimy and self-promoting. But that's what I'm doing. Build report forthcoming and I am looking forward to some major catching up around here.

If you get really hard up for alcohol don't overlook the gas pump. I ride mopeds (the kind with pedals, not a scooter...) and I have to remove the alcohol from the pump gas or it deteriorates the seals and hoses on the bikes. It also messes up the oil mixture on the two stroke motors. It's a PITA.
To remove the alcohol you add water to the gas, shake it, and let it settle out into layers. (Try two to one water to alcohol. IE, 10% alcohol in gas, add 20% volume of water.) The alcohol will bond with the water and settle on the bottom of the container. Separate the fuel and alcohol by decanting. (I use a three liter pop bottle to make the layers easy to see.)
Then you pour salt into the water/alcohol solution to remove the water. About a four to one ratio, water to salt. (Or you could distill it.) The saltwater solution will sink and the alcohol will be the top later after it settles. Decant it again.
Then if you want to up the concentration of alcohol further let the liquid freeze and spoon the water ice out.
The alcohol I have removed this way is what I use to make solder flux using pine resin I collect from trees nearby and cook down. (Hey, I like science. It's free, and it gives me something constructive to do.)
Look up videos on it, it's all very easy to do.

I like this guy^^^

https://www.modzbynasy.com/ is the site you're thinking of. It's a good solution and they offer an incredible selection of colors, but unfortunately they only offer a handful of enclosure sizes, most of which have been out of stock for some time. Definitely something to keep tabs on though, with enough interest from the DIY pedal community there's always the chance that they'll expand their offerings in the future.

Yeah. I think that's the one.

Food for thought... Learn to love Tayda!

That's not going to happen for me. I will occasionally use them for some stuff. Powder coated enclosures? I don't see it.

I recently wanted to buy some blems from PPP and they also instated a $50 minimum order on everything.

It was nice knowing you PPP. All the best.

Yeah. It's a big downer. Somebody around here posted awhile back with a link to a vape mod shop that sells powder coated enclosures. It may be a good solution. I wish I could remember the place. I'll post a link if I find it. Also stomptown was showing me that smallbear has some new colors.

That is otherworldly beautiful. Congrats! Good catch on the buzz.

Has anyone else been following UAD's announcement of their new LUNA DAW? I lurked on a couple UAD and Gearslutz threads that mostly devolved into Mac vs PC wars and a lot of angry speculation about its worthlessness.

I have to say that I'm pretty interested in this. I doubt I'm going to stop using LPX any time soon but I can imagine this greatly speeding up tracking and possibly mixing. There's more useful info in this Warren Huart video than anything else I've seen.

I'm kind of excited about it! I recently started using an Apollo twin MkII duo and I'm on a Mac so I'll be ready to give it a whirl when they release it. I do wish the Neve summing were free but considering that they're offering the whole daw for free I'm not going to complain.

The relevant part of the video starts around 11:00.