it's been a minute!

seems like forever since i last posted something up here... let's see what's been happening since then.

*installation progress - i should have some nice pics of the sculptural elements by the end of the weekend as they were cast in aluminum last week and gabrielle is working on them this weekend. i decided to change around some ideas for the sound element - originally i was going to use 8 separate recorded loops that were to use ISD2560 voice recorder chips, but they're pricey and the cost per loop will be rather high... instead, i'm going to buy 8 old school ipod shuffles! much simpler/less work and i can focus more on making the VCA/opto element function better - initial results were positive using an LDR to control the voltage, which in turn controls a channel on an SSM2164 quad VCA chip, which is a nice and compact way to get all 8 VCAs in 2 chips. i need to further work out some smoothing of the control voltage so the on/off triggering is not as abrupt.

*POLY-GRACE.

more info coming on tuesday.

*the backyard garden is in full swing! tons of tomatoes and peppers coming in with beautiful cornucopia of herbs including italian basil, thai basil, lemon balm, marjoram, mint, oregano, thyme, sage, tarragon and rosemary! YESSSSSSSSS

*goddamn i need to get this custom gallery up on the site - seems like the majority of orders coming in have been for custom work anyways so it would make sense for people to be able to peep stuff out without having to go to the forum. just thinking out loud here.

*trying to get the best friend out and solidify a final design for the mountain range, some other random stuff - delay, dredging up old circuits, etc. i've got more shit on my plate than is probably good for me, but i guess what it comes down to is that i'm just a fucking workaholic... better to have the work than not, though. no complaints here.

blah blah more ideas and art installation ideas

*the first run of 15 sparkle motion treble boosters is officially sold out! the response has been overwhelmingly positive so far, so i'll be moving to production of these relatively soon (expect to see them at dealers at a slightly higher price) - just need to iron out some design details, etc.

*some possible drastic changes on the mountain range. working out the details...

*something very secret and very special which will be available at the end of august/beginning of september... ;-)

*making progress on the installation - still just kicking around ideas, but at the moment i think it will roughly be an array of 8 separate voice recorder circuits, each controlled via a light resistor and VCA. the idea here is that the 8 recorders will play back different loops, each of which contributes to a larger composition. the LDRs will be placed on the different sculptural elements of the mobile and when viewers get closer to the work the amount of light will change on the LDRs, which in turn will change the voltage on 8 separate VCAs, creating a swelling type of effect. i still need to suss out a decay feature so that the sample will continue playing when you walk away from a particular element, but i don't think that should prove too difficult. aaaaand i still need to compose the piece...

the block diagram is pretty simple:
(LDR -> voltage attenuator/booster circuit -> LED/LDR voltage control) -> VCA
voice/sound recorder circuit -> VCA -> speaker (x8)

sparkle motion and more life updates

the sparkle motion list is now open!
see this post about ordering info.
some really cool happenings over here lately!

*the other day there was a block party on my street and i happened to be wearing one of my smallsound/bigsound shirts. as i was talking to a friend, some guy was sort of staring at my chest for a minute and i looked at him inquisitively. he asks, "is that a smallsound/bigsound shirt?" i was kind of blown away that anyone would even know what that was... he proceeded to tell me about the team awesome! his friend gave him a few years ago - how sweet it is, how it's been the only pedal on his board since. when i told him that i built it, he was so psyched he went home and got it! anyways, a nice guy who plays in a heavy philadelphia-based band, suncrusher. check them out!

*my girlfriend and i were accepted for a public art installation at the university of the arts in philadelphia! it's going to be pretty ambitious - a mobile made of cast aluminum shapes housing small speakers/circuits which will play back snippets of music/sound/etc based on the movement of the viewer. i'll be using brian eno's "music for airports" and, to some degree steve reich's "music for 18 musicians", as sonic inspiration...

tshirts! and sparkle motion update.

finally here and looking AWESOME.
terrible iphone pics since i left my camera at home. whoops. i rocked the stache just for that photo, though... i wanted to include a little bit more win.

sparkle motion is going strong! list time is almost here.
PCBs are all built, design is happening this weekend, building will happen next week.
FUCK YEAH

more new finish hotness

i just finished up a nice batch of beautifully finished fuck overdrives and team awesomes. some were my own design and others were inspired by requests.

a minimalist, mark rothko inspired design.

a simple lo-fi stamped version. scratched surface with rubbed in stamp ink for some staining...

my bloody valentine theme

a simple, minimalist frank stella work

bottom of the sea

sparkle motion schematic and updates

here is the schematic for the sparkle motion - a modified rangemaster - with which i will be doing a short of of 15 in the next 2 weeks.

the transistor is any NPN germanium you have available; i check what i have on hand for gain and used ones around 100 hfe. i don't check for leakage, i just pop it in and use my ears... i can hear if it's overly noisy or not.

the 33k/50k pot *should* allow for a bias range of around 3.5v-6.5v, though it will vary slightly depending on your transistor. personally, i like the rangemaster biased a little lower than usual, but this setup allows for a pretty wide sweep with lots of tonal variations.

the EQ control is a dual-gang potentiometer and allows for a wide range of sounds - from trebly boost to full-range boost to heavy driven boost. when the treble switch is (on) it disables the first section (eq, A) of the eq control and will allow for a "standard" rangemaster sound. in this mode the control will still work at adding some slight heft to the signal, though.

lots of possibilities here!

for those interested in one of the 15, the PCBs are on their way to me and should be here by monday or tuesday. it'll take me at least all week to get them finished, what with other orders and such, so i'll have a newsletter(!) sent out then as well as the requisite postings on the forum, etc.

2 quick edits:
*if you need a higher or lower travel on the pot, change the 33k to either a 22k or 47k. if you want less range, use a smaller value (25k) pot, though you'll probably need to tweak the emitter (33k) resistor to get the sweep you want.
*the input/volume pots are both audio/log taper while the EQ and bias are linear.

MotherTone: Interview with Brian From smallsound/bigsound!...

MotherTone: Interview with Brian From Small Sound / Big Sound!...: "Smallsound/Bigsound effects is a hyper rad custom/small batch pedal company based out of Philadelphia, PA. They make killer fuzz/OD/gli..."

also, from their archives: a nice review of the team awesome! fuzzmachine.

smallsound/bigsound sparkle motion treble booster

treble boost named sparkle motion.

neat experience

so i've been trying to get my pedals into a guitar store which is right around the corner from where i live - dipinto's guitars in philadelphia. i went in once and they didn't seem too interested, i assumed because they are a small shop and don't get a ton of foot traffic... anyways, i guess evan from the dangerous ponies dropped the smallsound/bigsound name to the right guy in the store and they wanted to check out my goods. kewl!

so i dropped by a few days ago with some stuff. homey played guitar while i sat on the floor and twisted knobs; explaining the controls on each pedal. people came in the store and since it's a small place they seemed to be pretty interested in both the dude sitting on the floor and the sounds they were hearing. one guy started asking me about a particular sound he had heard us messing with and wanted to try it out - it was a team awesome! he was a bassist and had been interested in a particular grind-y sound. i did the same walkthrough of the controls, etc. while he played and he wanted to buy it then and there - turns out he was on tour and playing philly that night. after walking across the street to get a coffee together, i find out that the producer my band just worked with (the amazing john agnello) had just recorded their band a few weeks prior... wow! small world!

we made the deal and he used the pedal that night. my girlfriend and i went to the show and we ended up hanging out for a while drinking with the band - all really cool people who were fine conversationalists. they're called mean creek and you should check them out!

slightly new direction for new finishes?

cape may, nj photoshoot = good times.

tshirt design

maybe?
other colors will probably be available and i'll whip up some other designs in the next week...

secret design is almost ready too!

what's happening this month with only 2 weeks left

another batch of drilled enclosures arrived at the beginning of the week and they're at the screenprinters. all of the artwork will be slightly revised to make it a bit more consistent for the next runs, as well as printing a small run of tuxedo tafms.

i'm working really hard at the breadboard this week to finish 2 designs - the mountain range and another special secret named the best friend, both of which will probably start as smaller runs, though will most likely be production models... i hope!

i'm going to finish up some custom artwork pedals, have a repair to get to, need to revise each PCB to fix some small mistakes/layout mishaps and then layout the other 2 newer circuits. busy busy!

contributions from some great ilovefuzz members... thanks guys!
*some comparison soundclips of the fuck overdrive against a durham electronics crazy horse and a paul cochrane timmy by lintybits.
*a really nice video demo/jam with the fuck overdrive by carlsagan.

"comparison of the Fuck, Crazy Horse and Timmy. Gain is 1/2 way on each 1st time then 3/4 (fuzz dialed out on the CH) rest of the knobs are noon (Timmy bass/treble CCW)"
1 - CH-FUCK-Timmy by Lintybits

"Fuck and Crazy Horse, gain 3/4 of the way up then gain on full (fuzz still out on CH)"
2- FUCK-CH by Lintybits

"Fuck at 3/4 gain Hit by a Timmy at 1/2 gain"
4-FUck-timmy by Lintybits

it's been awhile!

i've been so busy with my band, cymbals eat guitars, that i haven't had a chance to add much here.
we're recording (currently mixing!) our new record at headgear studios in brooklyn, NY with awesome producer john agnello.

lots of smallsound/bigsound all over the record, too!

anyways, i recorded a bunch of new fuck overdrive demos, mostly showing the gain range on some different guitars. they're all on the youtube channel, but i figured i'd post the one longer clip here.



i got my stickers in 2 weeks ago and have sent tons out to people all over the world. they're free for all(!), so if anyone's reading this and interested in grabbing some send an email over to brian@smallsoundbigsound.com with your mailing address and i'll get them out to you - it doesn't matter where you are!

by next week i'll be back in the swing of things so i'll be finalizing the mountain range circuit, getting some new circuit boards printed and getting a nice fresh batch of silkscreened enclosures - maybe some slightly different designs/colors? who knows!

talk soon
big hugs

all in a day's work.

time to get started! the boards are double-sided, through-plated, silk-screened fabricated boards that i spend countless hours laying out - it's a long process, but i really do enjoy it - it's a unique and fun puzzle every time!

this is for a batch of team awesome! fuzzmachines. originally i was going to do 8, but my wrist was a little sore from the other boards i did that day and i pared it down to 3.




resistors in first.
parts go in according to their height - shortest to tallest - that way things stay nice and snug against the board when it gets flipped over to clip the leads off.









here are the 3 boards with the resistors plugged in, ready to be soldered.












lots of leads. good for jumpers, etc. so i keep a little pile around at all times.












step 1 done! next.













IC socket for the voltage inverter for the PNP germanium fuzz, reverse polarity diode, temperature stabilizing ge diodes and a few small value capacitors.










more capacitors.













the good stuff.

nice russian germanium transistors. pretty consistent, low leakage, reasonable gain and low numbers of rejects.

fun and spage-age looking, too!







got the russians soldered in as well as their silicon friends.












electrolytic capacitors and bias trimpot installed and IC socketed. all of the components are done; now it's time for the potentiometers, switches and wiring. never a dull moment!










pots ready. the fuzz pot is a different type of pot and is a little bit shorter than the others... there are worse things in life, so i'm ok with it.











mids switch, boost switch and wires for the clean blend pot are in place. not much left to do except drill additional holes in the enclosure, put all the external hardware in, wire it up and test it.

more later...

shit's getting serious now.

oh yeah, i might start working on a delay too. by might, i mean i am...

happy!

i'll let the pictures do the talking.

mountain range/screenprinted pedals almost done...

still continually anxious about not being able to get many pedals out due to the silkscreen wait, but thankfully i got some pcb design work in for fuzzrocious and fuzzhugger pedals - both very nice companies/people to deal with who are making neat stuff! new stickers are on their way and i should be in the pedal zone with the new enclosures by the weekend - meaning it's 12-hour days for me next week. got to make up for lost time!

i finished the mountain range circuit design and have the pcb all laid out already - now it's just a matter of finalizing the graphics and controls... i'm going to keep it simple so i can keep the price down, but so far the controls are:
pregain, gain, tone, volume and a clipping switch.

both gain controls are different, yet yield similar tones when used independently. together, they bring the overdrive into slightly saturated fuzz territory - not too wild, but really nice.
the tone control is, at the moment, a simple high-cut control that still needs a little attention... i may change this completely to a one-knob bass/treble control? need to think about it a bit more...
there's a nice amount of boost and the pedal so far plays really well with others. i'm in love with how subtle it can be, yet how it warms the signal up.

i'm going to give it a run on some other gear in rehearsal today and see how it fares at louder volumes and with more speakers.
though i can't post it at the moment from my iphone, there's a pic of the prototype over at facebook.

fuck overdrive giveaway!

yep. that's right... just giving one away over at fuzzhugger.com
a custom lime green/gold lightning bolt design.

http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=167&t=15019

the ups and downs

i significantly updated the website, most importantly with mockups of what the finished screen designs will look like. super excited about that!

still abysmally slow with the printers and having some issues, but hopefully we can work our way through them...

in the interim, i fixed my korg ms2000's power issue, am working on my fender pa100 head and will continue/finalize the prototyping of the mountain range overdrive so i can get started with other designs.

website is up! and other stuff...

ok so the smallsound/bigsound website is finally up! it's still massively in progress and at the moment i'm missing the most critical elements, such as pictures, videos, etc. but all of that will be added/uploaded in the next 2 weeks as the enclosure screenprinting finishes up. it was built in wordpress, so it looks like i'll be double blogging. sweet! (not)

also, it's my birthday! i'm 28 years old.