Korg Multi/Modular effects board.

[Greg Moss]

Reading R.G.'s post in the Dream Enclosure forum topic ( as well as his FXBus project) reminded me of a pedal like multi effect that a friend of mine had.  I Believe it was made by Korg, and it looked like one of those older "3-5 descrete effects in one box" type effects made by Korg, Yamaha, and others.  The big difference was that basically the unit was a long tray, with several PCI-looking sockets in it.  The effects themeselves looked like old Atari video game catridges, and you could slide them into the tray in whatever order suited your fancy.  I always thought it was a pretty cool idea, but I've never seen any others.  Anybody have any idea what this unit/effects system was?

OK,
Greg

[vortex]

Korg PME-40X!
A fantastic pedal setup. The FX are very high quality. Several of the "modules" have unique features and designs.
The Octave V module offers varying amounts of volume and distortion on the higher octave, low octave, two octaves down and the odd one and a half octaves down!
The Wave Shaper fuzz has a unique sound too, has an odd chip in it, though I can't remember which.
The compressor is very clean and smooth.
Those are just a few good points of the unit!

[Mark Hammer]

I have a Waveshaper module, and there is actually no wild and wonderful chips in it, other than SIP versions of op-amps and LM13700s (which is probably the weird one you remember).

The PME40X system could be easily mimicked at home.  There were essentially 4 lines in and out of the box: V+, gnd, in, out.  The master module/floorboard handled the power supply and switching (none of the modules had their own switching).  Being able to eschew all the "housework" functions and leave them to the master unit allowed Korg to shovel tons of circuitry into tiny little boxes.  My little Waveshaper unit looks about the size of a standard fuzz, a bit bigger than a 1590B but not as big as a 1590BB, and it has easily 16 or more "stages" (op-amps and OTAs) in there and two boards.  Amazing what you can do when you don't have to figure out where to put the jacks, battery, and switch.

If you wanted to make something like that yourself using male/female DIN plugs, you could.  Chassis-mount 5-pin DIN jacks are inexpensive enough (same jacks used for MIDI connectors) and fit pretty much flush against the front of a 1590B-type box.  No reason why one couldn't make a master board and a bunch of little pedals whose order could be juggled around by plugging and unplugging them uinto the master module.  The master unit then has the liberty to use switching technology like relays slaved to momentary switches without having to be concerned about current demands.  The other nice thing is that there is a whole lot more surface area to mount controls and switches on when you don't have to worry about whether your Paul Stanley model platform shoes will be able to step on the stompswitch without disturbing or damaging your tiny toggles.  Heck, you may even be able to stuff as much in there as Zachary Vex can!  :wink: