Stompbox Cookbook

[sfr]

God.  Mod's, please delete this thread.

I know what I had offered to do was illegal.  Originally, it seemed like people where interested - I had serious moral qualms about it, but was willing to take the simple step of scanning the book to provide files to one other person (and I don't think anyone knows who I actually am, although it could be easily found out, so I wasn't too worried about the law)  and let them do as they will.  

Basically legally it's wrong.  Morally, it's a choice we all have to make for ourselves.  I was waffling back and forth for a while.  I was willing to do it to pass on the knowledge that's contained in this book, but felt really kinda icky about it.  The projects are cool, but I wish the layouts didn't have off-board wires coming out of all places on the PCB.  The best part is the amount of information that would let you learn to build yr own effects.
 
Well, I made that original post with the above stated opinions before I had that book in my hands.  Guys, this is a professionally made book,  a real actual book for sure, but this isn't McGraw Hill or Random House or anything.  This seems to be a pretty damn DIY deal.  Guitar Project Books?   Tracking down their old website through archive.org, it's pretty evident this is only one or two people, maybe Mr. Boscarelli himself, and that point things just feel worse.  

So I decided I wasn't going to do it, and actually felt really bad about offering to in the first place, I was kind of posting out of excitement - but it wouldn't let me delete the post.  I thought it would go away.  I should know by now this subject just explodes into arguement.  I read Slashdot enough.  I like the idea about the book being distro'd legally as a .PDF.   I'm going to do everything I can to track down and contact the publishers and author (who it looks like are probably the same person) or the authors estate and see if there's anyway something can be arranged.    I know others have tried, I've had good luck at this sort of thing in the past.  

I know we're (here I go talking like I've been here forever) all good people here, and just want information, not to steal, and I know if we could find a way to do this as a community we'd all chip in what little we could.  

What I will do is see about getting the list of libraries nationally that supposedly have the book in their holdings.  (The copy in my hands came from Cleveland Community College Library)  

Inter-Library-Loan is not some big mystery and the only strings that were pulled was that my mother was willing to hunt a little longer for me because I was her son and also worked at that library for 8 years.  Turns out she didn't need to at all, she got it fairly quickly.  

ILL is basically, your home library requests a book they don't have from another library, they borrow it and then loan it to you.    Simple.  Not all library's do it - most do.  Usually those that don't don't do it because they don't want to loan their own stuff out, and it's kind of bad form to ask for other people's books when you won't loan yours.   I've had better luck at college libraries.  (They assume it's for research, I guess?)     Regardless, ask your local librarian if they'll do ILL for you.  I'll try and get the list of Libraries with the book in their holding and post it here as soon as I can, so that if you happen to live within a reasonable distance you can take a trip.  

Anyway, I just woke up (I work nights) and I'm sure this is very poorly written.   I wish we could just go back to building effects and not arguing, I'm sorry I started this mess of things.


.joshua.

[Peter Snowberg]

BillyJ, I never said you were a racist. I want that to be very clear.

I'm sorry for any offence you took there, and I'm glad you react so strongly negative to that sort of thing. I hope you respect the offence I take to being included in the "pasty white" category even though my skin is pretty fair and you could easily cast me into that category on sight.

You haven't sold any of my designs either, right? OK.

It was a very broad analogy just to try to demonstrate that you can't assume he is from a background more privelidged than 98% of the people on the planet. He may very well be, but you cannot assume that. His background may have had less opportinity than yours.

Billy, you could much easier terminate this by saying, "I understand." and leaving it at that.

I hope the author is found and you get the book according to his wishes, free or otherwise.


It seems like such an easy thing to track this guy down and ask. He may WANT it to be distributed freely, electronicly. Many authors are happy to see this happen after publishing stops so long as the credits remain unchanged. You never know.

-Peter

[puretube]

So if I work hard for a tubezipper I can do whateverI like with it with your blessings?

Yes, bang exactly that one box against the wall, throw it off a tall building, give it as a present to whomever you like or dislike, or let it be stolen from stage right after your gig;
or open it up, check it out and build a copy of it for yourself and burn your fingers doing so, and bang/throw/present/let be stolen either the original
or your copy.

No, don`t go to the store saying you wanna buy one, but beforehand you wanna hear how it sounds at home with your axe/amp, open it up to check the innards, make a copy (...burn your fingers...), and bring it back to the store saying: it`s not worth it now I know what`s in there, and I`m gonna show the world what`s in there, and I want everyone out there to build their own.

(The car/health issue didn`t deal with any copyrights or so - that was just alittle private add-on).

B.T.W.: Stated you made a record (CD), spent all your money for studio a.s.o., invested months composing, then weeks recording,had 1000 copies or more printed for a lot of money: how`d you think about a situation where after 5 sold copies people start burning copies themselves,
giving them away as presents for friends, maybe even bringing a copy to an independent radio-station who play the songs from one of those "bootlegs", so they don`t know whom to pay royalties to?
And so, when even more people start liking the tunes, thoses "burners" start: "oh, yeah, I could hand you a couple more copies".
Yes, that would be some kind of recognition, would make you proud in first instance.
But what to do with the leftover 995 copies you worked hard for?
Yes, those first 5 copies aren`t yours anymore, once you sold them.

I haven`t written that book yet - was just a metapher.

Will write it after dealing is done, so that everyone can build his tube-things (...and burn his fingers...).
But: write it to sell it - not to see the contents of it on the web after
1 copy sold, and 999 printed and paid for, lying on the shelf.
Maybe some heir will be able to buy some food from the royalties in
case I should be gone early...

Call my head/brain/thoughts/inspiration a vacuum: yes, I created it there.

Yes, I`ve played with a lot of circuits*.

No, I honestly have never ever built any Fender circuit - nor cloned one,
nor ever "played around" with one.**

I always tried to find cheap books at the flea-markets.

The only book that was about 10 times the cover price was the one I copied from the only available original (60`s Austrian "tube-bible", 600 pages), at a time I couldn`t actually afford to do that, only to find out 2 years later, that it has been re-issued after almost 40 years!!!
Need I say I bought the re-issue?

** : Fender hasn`t been such a name in the 40`s, 50`s or 60`s electronically-wise in this old part of the world. (from that era I read the literature that my father left me). (I was .

* : I played around with a "Heathkit" circuit (early-60`s) for a shortwave-radio 4kHz (tube-)notch-filter in 1971. (I was 15).

I mixed up component-side with solder-side.
Never became a notch-filter...

Switched the frequency-adjustment trimpots for LDR`s, lit them
with the "light-organ" bulb that was hooked to the speaker-output of my old tube-radio, put my "Sex-Machine" single by James Brown on the record-player (which of course was hooked to named radio).***
Now that was the year before the "Mutron" was born.
- my biggest respect goes to Mike Beigel -
- we were playing with the same crazy ideas half a globe apart -

Took me (through hard times...) till 1996 to be able to file the patent...
(which now is part of Tube Zipper/Hot Tubes and others). (I was 40).

*** : didn`t know then, that my now-friend, a  certain "Bootsy" Collins
was thumpin`da bass on that record: playing long distance envelope-followah at my home years before he did in real time!


...just my sight of the story - I almost knew/feared that my last posting would be able to be misunderstood - that`s why I mentioned that last sentence there - not to offend anyone or run against.


BillyJ:
I don`t have the feeling people are ranting at you (as you might seem to interprete the situation).
To me it is just the contributor`s points of view how they`d deal with this
topic in public.

[BillyJ]

qqq

[Mark Hammer]

A suggestion...which may have already been made in one of the many posts which I declined to read in this thread.

Somewhere in the book are some *ideas* that are easily describable in words.  If the pedals were commercially available, many folks here would be able to buy one, use it, listen closely, and then say something like "This pedal does THIS to the signal in an interesting way, probably by doing X".

If it is simply a more complicated or different way of doing something that another design already does well, then who needs the book anyways?  Remember that part of what goes into a project book of this type (and guys like Ray Marston and Robert Penfold have done dozens more of these than Anderton and Boscorelli put together) are a bunch of designs that cover most of the bases of what people want to have in their pedal board, and don't infringe on other people's IP.  They are "original" to a degree in that they can't simply be a rip off of other published designs, but at the same time all they have to do is accomplish the same commonly identifiable tasks (distort, modulate, etc.) a little differently to be publishable as Boscorelli's work and be of interest to the idle or curious consumer.  Maybe they set the world on fire, maybe not, but the point is that project books aren't obliged to be stunning, so the value of the projects it contains remains to be seen at this point (no pun intended).  If all they are is *different*, then why bother?  If they incorporate interesting design features than can also be mimicked in existing designs via simple mods, then one can just say what they are.

Part of what requires protection as IP is the artwork and the text, and specifics of the design.  Boscorelli put considerable work into it, but as a book available to the public we are not talking industrial espionage here since the ideas are freely available and there is no law preventing anyone from discussing what they read in any public document, provided it isn't slanderous or hate-mongering when you discuss it publically.

So, if there is, (I dunno, I'm truly guessing here) a tremolo project that uses two different kinds of summed modulation, AND someone who possesses the book has built it and thinks it produces something novel enough to be worth trying, just SAY that "There is a tremolo project using two different non-synced LFO waveforms which you can mix, and it sounds kinda neat".  That would tell me a whole lot, and tell others a whole lot, and in short order someone here will have produced a comparable design that does just that.  Heck, maybe even *better* than Boscorelli did it.

This is all starting to turn into paparazzi stuff.  If some well-known female public figure is lovely to look at, all I have to know is she's lovely to look at.  I don't *need* to have clandestine photos of her boobies taken from a helicopter, and even if they are nice boobies, it's not my "right" to have such photos taken and made public.  Likewise, if there are some interesting ideas in the Boscorelli book that make a difference in what one hears and are worth discussing because of that, I'd like to know what they are...as *ideas*.  I don't need to see the nitty gritty details and board layout (the telephoto topless shot equivalents) of the design to learn something from discussing those ideas.  It is possible to appreciate the idea in a design, just as it is possible to appreciate the physical attractiveness of a public figure, without contravening IP or privacy ethics.

So, what is one of the more nifty ideas in one of the projects that anyone with a legitimate peek at it thought was kinda clever, and what did it sound like?

[Peter Snowberg]

Good post Mark.

I just left a message about finding Nicholas Boscorelli at Anderton's forum. We'll see what happens there.

I'm convinced there is a yes/no answer from the author that we can get about this whole thing.

-Peter

[puretube]

BUMP...

[A.S.P.]

BUMP...

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=47237.msg353129#msg353129

[RedHouse]

BillyJ, I never said you were a racist. I want that to be very clear.

I'm sorry for any offence you took there...

I've never heared you go off like this before Peter, oh yes, you didn't say he was being racist but that whole diatribe about pasty-whites in the '20's and 30's really had me re-reading the thread to see what set you off.