the boss surprised me with sound samples today

[R.G.]

First, let me apologize if this seems too self serving. Aron, if it is too self-aggrandizing, please pull the whole thread off the forum.

I knew things like this were possible, and of course everyone likes to hear sound clips of pedals and such. I mentioned to Bob a while back that we really ought to get more sound samples of our (Visual Sound) gear up on the web page to listen to. He said he'd work on it. I forgot about it.

So this afternoon he told me to go check the "sound samples" section at the web page - http://www.visualsound.net/v2samples.htm. Click on a pedal and it takes you to the 'settings page' where you select single coil or humbucker guitar played at that setting through the pedal. The settings are directly from the 'cheat sheet' of settings we provide with the pedals.

I had no idea they'd put that much effort into it. I thought it was cool and I'm already very familiar with the sounds of the pedals.

Again, sorry if it seems too commercial. I thought some of you might be interested in listening to the clips. If you think my babies are ugly, it's OK to tell me... 

[jimbob]

I was wondering when I would here some samples of the echo-chorus and ect..- There really were none that I could find on youtube. Great site!

[ayayay!]

Visual Sound aside, I think it's always good to have samples.  It's a huge copout to say, "Well, recordings of our awesome Mitsuchromakowatsis Modified (insert crap pedal here) Pedal don't do it justice!  You need to HEAR it first...  Uhh, which means you'll have to buy it first... uhhh, but it's awesome man." 

Don't want to skew anyones perception my butt!  Put up and record!  Oh yeah, and misspell every 2 out of 3 words for good measure...

An amp, A pedal, then buy a mic (or borrow one) and use Audacity to record it for free. 

I'm glad to hear VS finally has good clips up.  What took so long?      Good on ya! 

[cheeb]

The store where I work just got a shipment of 1-Spots and Jekyll & Hyde today. Very nice. Everybody around here drives around with those Visual Sound stickers on their cars.

[reverbie]

R.G. What is up with those new V2 switches???

I don't care what the website says, I picked up a V2 JH and there is no way that those stomp switches will last "10 million stomps" from a human foot...way less durable than a standard generic stomp switch. I returned it and scored a V1 on ebay for cheaper.

That being said, much respect.

[asfastasdark]

R.G., the Jeckyll and Hyde was made by you? My word, that thing is bloody popular!

[kurtlives]

Wait where does RG work?

[iaresee]

They even did a sample for the Visual Volume! Hehehehe...nice.

[iaresee]

Wait where does RG work?

Visual Sound

[R.G.]

R.G. What is up with those new V2 switches???

I don't care what the website says, I picked up a V2 JH and there is no way that those stomp switches will last "10 million stomps" from a human foot...way less durable than a standard generic stomp switch. I returned it and scored a V1 on ebay for cheaper.

We have about ten years of history on the standard stomp switches. Since before I got there, Bob was worried about the reliability of stomp switches and never used them in the signal path. The V1 series uses the foot stomp switch to control the electronic switching.

Can you guess what over 90% of our service calls are on in the V1 series? Yep, you're right - the standard stomp switch. That is to say, we see exactly the same reliability that everyone does for them. And reliability was declining on stomp switches, in our experience. It's funny - we actually see a pedal from the first series every now and then with the switch top broken off. We call this "flat topping" the pedal. 

So we designed around it. In the V2 series, the part you see is only a mechanical actuator, and it's easily replaceable - just screws in from the bottom. To break it, you have to either hit it so hard and/or so many times that you actually break the metal parts. The actual switch is underneath that, pressed by a compliant rubber block. That way the actual switch is shielded from the mechanical actuation, and the wear parts are easy to replace. The switch is indeed rated by its maker for 10M operations. That leaves the casting. Will it actually last 10M operations? Don't know. I always get tired of stomping somewhere between 50K and 60K stomps.  That's two stomps per 3 minute song for .. um.. divide by 60, multipy by... 312 days, playing straight through, no breaks for beer or bathrooms. Or a good long time on the road even if it only lasts for 1/200th as long as the switch is rated for.

That's what's up with them. They were, in fact an attempt to make footswitching more reliable. So far the field returns on switch problems have been just about nil. I'm sure we've had one or two, but they do seem to work. Anyway, that's where were were going and some of the reasons behind it. If it didn't work for you, I'm glad the V1 did.

[scanlory]

The Chorus Echo sounds great! 

[Zben3129]

My favorite clips are the underwater leslie and the space echo

[mac]

Again, sorry if it seems too commercial. I thought some of you might be interested in listening to the clips. If you think my babies are ugly, it's OK to tell me... 

Last time I was in Buenos Aires I tried to find VS gear at Talcahuano St, where almost all music instruments stores are located. Visited many of them, no luck. At least, now I can hear the clips!

mac

[gutsofgold]

I had no idea RG worked for them. I'm a happy 1Spot user.

[kurtlives]

I would never think RG would be a fan of the 1spot??

[R.G.]

I would never think RG would be a fan of the 1spot??

The 1Spot was not my design, it predated me at the company.

That being said, it works amazingly well. Bob had the better part of a year's worth of design iterations in that one to get it to be quiet and well behaved specifically for pedals. VS has sold many thousands of those to power pedalboards, and we get very few complaints on them. The daisy chaining setup produces remarkably good results except in some very unusual circumstance.

It seems like I'm not the only one who can do good work... 

[reverbie]

R.G.

thanks for the response and explanation of the new stomp switches. that makes perfect sense to have the switch isolated so only the actuator takes the brunt of a drunken foot.

if i can make a suggestion, you might want to actually put that info on the site to explain the new benefits of the switching b/c a lot of people and employees at the GC out here have bene complaining and talking smack on them....it could easily be a selling point rather than a deterant (which it seems to be from people and buyers i've talked to).

thanks for the info!

R

[doug deeper]

i love the one spot! but i have to replace mine at least once a year, they just start oscillating (low frequency making all of my pedals flash on and off) after a while! why is that?

[R.G.]

if i can make a suggestion, you might want to actually put that info on the site to explain the new benefits of the switching b/c a lot of people and employees at the GC out here have bene complaining and talking smack on them....it could easily be a selling point rather than a deterant (which it seems to be from people and buyers i've talked to).

I'll forward the comments along and see what the boss wants to do. Thanks for the pointer!

i love the one spot! but i have to replace mine at least once a year, they just start oscillating (low frequency making all of my pedals flash on and off) after a while! why is that?

I wish I knew.

No, I really mean I want to know. (a) has this happened more than once? and (b) can you send me  one which has failed in this way? I have not seen this kind of failure before, and I'd like to track it down, so please contact me about getting a failing one to me.

[doug deeper]

i'll see if i still have a broken one kicking around (i may!)
its happened twice that way, and my first one (the thin cable version) just broke cause i didnt take care of it!
but for real, there is nothing that beats the one spot.