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Opps.. I stated my question wrong.  What I meant to say was that I want to run a keyboard (with line level out 1-2volts?) through the delay not a modular synth (10v plus).  I'm assuming that the delay is designed to accept a guitar signal which is much lower voltage then line level.  I think it may just be a case of having to lower the gain on the input opamp but I'm just not sure which resistors to change.  Sorry for the confusion.

Is there distortion when it's 100% dry?

A 9V circuit should normally be able to handle 1-2V of input; humbucker guitars get that high all the time. The answer will be different if it's present in the dry path or just the delay.

The trick is, I have no idea what transformer I would use.

Jacob

Smallbear categorizes them by milliamps, which is helpful. This one can power the strymon.
http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/Detail?no=597

Almost nothing about the ZP would be appropriate for line-level signals, which from a synth are often as much as 12V/-12V peak to peak. First you'd have to knock it down to 1/4 of that just to avoid overdriving the dry path (which runs on 9V), and it has to be under 2.5V peak to peak to avoid overdriving the PT2399. You can't run the pedal on higher voltage because you'll melt the 5V regulator, and you can't get more than 6V (absolute max) to the pt2399 in any case.

Essentially the only thing you can do is put a volume control on the input. This will knock down the volume of the synth, but of course it's also going to massively reduce the volume of your signal when you turn on the delay.

I'm pretty sure that's one of the most impressive group shots that can be posted.

There's something unusual about the Strymon power supplies, beyond just their mA output and that they're a separate supply. If I try to use them to power a gain pedal, it's horribly noisy, almost like the case isn't grounded, regardless of how good the power filtering is in the pedal.

There isn't really a way to "isolate" a split DC source. The thing that makes power supplies isolated is the transformers. You would need to make a two-output, two-transformer power supply that can give you at least 250mA (and preferably 350 to be safe), and that's just not going to be smaller than a one spot and Strymong power supply.

If it helps, I use a One Spot and the El Cap's supply on a small power strip on my board, and it takes up very little room. I think it would fit mounted under a PT Nano, but I'm not totally certain.

The Fatpants 2013 has a buffered bypass option and fits in a 1590A. It's a very good 18V FET buffer and a great sounding preamp when on.

Although I love the AMZ Mosfet booster as a boost, MOSFETs make poor buffers. There's a lot of treble loss despite the good input impedance characteristics, and the drain biasing limits the total headroom. There's really no advantage to doing that ... you can make a separate FET buffer for the bypass with a mere four parts. Plus anything you do to switch the same transistor to buffered bypass output will create horrendous switch pops.

The Klon's buffer is a textbook op amp buffer. There's nothing special about it; it's not even optimal.

Would putting a normally closed momentary in series with the power going to the LFO opamp work?

Yes, but you'd short the power. That's why I suggested shorting one of the VB resistors. Still interrupts the oscillation but doesn't risk damage to anything else in the circuit.

In an op amp design, I think you can momentarily short one of the Vb divider resistors. However, this isn't going to put you at the top of the cycle necessarily. It might start from the middle or bottom of the cycle. But it will definitely start the cycle from the same point every time.

Really the only way I know to do what you're talking about for certain is a microcontroller, like the TAPLFO. Despite the cost, that thing is not difficult to work with.

think of a non-diffused LED as more like a flashlight bulb. Light comes from one source and is brightest on a certain axis. The plastic holding the diode is clear.

A diffused LED will spread light evenly across the surface of the LED plastic. The plastic is usually colored.

You can diffuse any LED by rubbing the casing.

It's also important to know that blue and white LEDs are almost never diffused. Consequently, saying "diffused" is sometimes shorthand for saying "not a superbright." This can be important if forward voltage is a consideration.

I should do this sometime, but I'd set myself too high a goal and want to do full instrumentation on every song. After a while, the tracking alone would be too hard to finish, never mind the mixing and songwriting.

Although I ended up going with FAWM again, there's another challenge you might find better suited to what you want to do: The RPM challenge. That one is simply 35 minutes of music. Lots of instrumentation to me means more opportunities for complicated instrumental sections, something that can't be composed when you're just trying to reach a number rather than a minute mark. You can be adventurous in different ways.

Me, Joe Scala, and Mosno had originally been planning to do the RPM challenge, but Joe ended up being on vacation for the first couple weeks, so mos and I went FAWM instead. Our idea for it was pretty cool, too, and might still materialize (just not as a challenge): we would each come up with two complete sets of lyrics, hand them to the other two singers, who would then write music for them and sing them, and then we'd get together and play all six songs. We all have different styles and different tastes, so I think it would have been awesome. Maybe that'll be the next Baltimericana EP.

Despite all my mixed feelings about my actual output at the end of these challenges, in the end I know that they are making me a better writer, so I can recommend at least attempting something like this once or twice in your life.

Actually, I figured it out. It was a 5-knob overdrive that I ended up deciding to use a different color and wanted. The lower row of knobs was supposed to be offset but I think I also didn't like that idea.

Unfortunately, I can't tell anyone what the pedal was, because it's a secret! oooh, mysterious!

Thanks for the listens, guys.

That is awesome. One of my cousins did nanorimo - the novel writing one, and enjoyed it

I've thought about doing nanorimo -- and Forrest did something similar on his own recently. One of the people in my gaming group did it, and she's a nurse, so I have no idea where she found the time. I think part of my problem is that the process of sustaining emotional honesty for hundreds of pages instead of just 24 lines of lyrics turned into something that required health-destroying obsessive mindsets for me. But I seriously miss long-form writing and I should get off my butt and finish a third rewrite of the novel I "finished" in 2006. (Which I already have a local press interested in.)

"Winning" a personal challenge is a funny way to put it, but hey, FAWM puts a little trophy when you hit 14!

FAWM, for those who don't know, is a self-challenge to write 14 songs in the month of February. Despite getting a late start and having a few weeks of feeling bad due to illness, I even finished a few days early in part thanks to some collaboration with my friend Mosno.

I wrote a blog post about the process. I figure most people here have an interest not just in music but in creation, and it also contains some thoughts about balancing a large number of hobbies and interests.

I hope you guys enjoy reading. I'll leave the set list here for anyone who just wants to hear some tunes and aren't so interested in reading my lengthy post. I do want to stress that these are demos, self-recorded and self-mixed, so there are a few rough spots. But I am always open to honest criticisms and suggestions about the songs, because it's always a process.

[cloudset]http://soundcloud.com/jon-patton-3/sets/fawm-2014[/cloudset]

One of my favorite modulation pedals ... the "whirl" setting is well worth the price of admission.

Smallbear and DIYStompboxes both sell FETs that are known to be genuine.