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)

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.

slightly new direction for new finishes?

cape may, nj photoshoot = good times.

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...

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.

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.

patience patience

2/3 of the silkscreen designs are done. they look so good. so so so good...
website is done except for new pedal pics/demos.
new manuals are done.
enclosures apparently arrived today.
circuit boards are populated and ready to put in enclosures.

last but not least...
enclosure screenprinting.
stickers.
putting everything together.

lots of very patient customers and a few accommodating shops that are being just as patient as i am... thanks for that. seriously. i think this little (ha!) overhaul will all be worth it!

no, but YES

i've been very up and down lately. since i'm waiting for these enclosures and such i'm not building any pedals and for the moment have zero income... every day i'm crunching numbers, etc. but it's a little stressful. it will be great when the enclosures DO finally arrive, but until then i can't help but think the worst and get a little more anxious with each passing day. i haven't really been sleeping very well, either, so the lack of rest is starting to wear on me as well...

thankfully, there has been at least ONE truly positive thing happening per day!
yesterday i got a really nice email from someone who had bought a team awesome used and found it too loud; also, someone had adjusted the internal trimpots "for guitar". bummer, because out of the few unusable/crummy settings on those internal pots, the previous owner had found one of them... i re-adjusted them so the pedal was balls to the wall and it's safe to say that homey was pretty psyched to get it back all fixed up. (i'm not the biggest fan of builders having a ton of quotes and such on their page, but i needed the cheering up so i just figured i'd repost it - my favorite part is the interjection about the color!)

"Finally got home from Tucson last nite. Just plugged in the TAFM. Holy Shit brother, this thing kills! not the prettiest to look at..haha gold is weird!!...but WOW what a killer! Need to figure out how the knobs work together exactly but Sweet Mother of Mercy!!!"

rad.

so today after finally falling asleep at 6am i got a paltry 4 hours of sleep. tired as shit, i decided to go into the shop anyways and it was a good thing i did... besides listening to m83 all day, i got the expression pedal input happening on the fuck overdrive. YES
that was pretty much the best thing that could have happened! (aside from getting those enclosures... *grumble grumble* )

also, here's a sneak peek at the team awesome layout. the jacks are on the long side, behind the row of 4 knobs.

NEW YEAR! more gear...

so with the new year looming, i figured i'd let everyone know what's going on here in smallsound/bigsound land!
i just got back from a nice family vacation - relaxing and enjoyable - exactly what i needed before life insanity gets started again...

*new circuit boards for everything! i'm changing my enclosure layouts to have all ss/bs pedals compatible with one basic layout - though there will be slight differences in the number of knobs, switches, etc. this necessitated a change in PCB layouts. i'll be populating and building each new PCB up this weekend to ensure that they're working well and have no mistakes.
**the tafm board is exactly the same as before, aside from some very slight differences that won't be noticed by anyone. the main difference in this version (as with the last version) is that i'm using different tapered pots for a better volume range - still super loud, but with more low volume sweep (unity closer to noon, depending on the input volume).

*new pedal(s)!
**the fuck overdrive is done and will even (hopefully!) have an expression pedal in option. need to test that...
**year4545 is revised and bigger and badder.
**i just ordered boards for the PWM fuzz, so don't worry - that project isn't dead!

*lots of stuff in the works! (more-or-less in the order of completion)
**the mountain range overdrive - still tweaking a tiny bit, but shouldn't be very different than the one i made blurzy.
**another unnamed overdrive which will be very different than the fuck or mountain range.
**the utility looper/boost/blend thing.
**warped record vibrato.
**something secret!
**bitcrusher.

*new website!
**after 2 years of thinking about it and procrastinating, it's finally getting there... maybe another week if i really buckle down and get the time in. honestly, i feel really lucky to be where i am without having a website, so thanks to everyone who has supported smallsound/bigsound in any way.

*hopefully some new dealers!
**just crossing my fingers that the new pedals and website brings a flood (ha!) of retailers my way.

*more small batches/custom stuff!
**i'm going to try my hardest to get out a small batch of 3-10 pedals each month or two. they'll primarily be available directly through me, but it will be nice to offer those batches through fuzzhugger, etc. when the time is right. these things will probably either be really simple or really complex, dual pedals or even ideas people shoot my way. the first will be the PWM which should be ready soon.

*new graphics!
**i'm going to see about getting some 2 color silkscreens done locally here in philadelphia.

moving along!

sooooo let's see...

some new-ish ideas that i'm making headway on:
*PWM fuzz is moving along - slowly but surely. i decided to go ahead and get PCBs fabricated for this, rather than make them on perfboard. they'll be way nicer looking!

*i'm working on another 2 overdrives, in addition to the fuck overdrive (which will be coming out in january) funny, because i was never really the biggest fan of overdrives (kind of why i named the first "fuck overdrive") and now i'm interested in making 3 different ones... ha! not sure if they'll all surface, but they're fun to work on.

*i'd like to get started on a cool blend/loop pedal with dual boosts and some other neat features - almost like a swiss army knife of a pedal! the basic block diagram is all laid out, i just need to hit the breadboard.

*warped record/MBV/boards of canada pedal is also slowly but surely under way!

i need another breadboard or two...

here's a pic of the next batch of TAFMs on their way to fuzzhugger.com. they should have them in stock some time next week...

this week

lots and lots happening this week...
ideas ideas and things to do

*there will be a new version of the year4545 coming in the next few weeks - similar controls but with some neat additions and in a larger footprint for a little bit more cash money... the transistors necessary in the pedal are type and even brand specific and within that narrow window do not always work well together - all this means that it's pretty time-consuming for me to churn out these pedals, so i need to take care of myself!

*there will be a super rad unnamed overdrive (tentatively named the fuck overdrive) coming in the next few weeks as well! it sounds like a nice full-range dynamic overdrive with the ability to go into fuzz territory and a unique function which basically makes the pedal sound like your amp is breaking... in a good way. and that control will have a momentary switch, too!

*i'm trying really hard to get the next batches of pedals screenprinted, so hopefully there will be some nice new artwork available as well as a batch of super special hand-drawn/painted finishes.

*i'm building a very short run (5) of PWM fuzzes with pseudo-random modulation of the pulsewidth. it's based on a nice little circuit snippet by a wonderful gent named tim escobedo - he's got a lot of great circuits on the web. i'm doing my own thing with it, so it will be significantly different in the end. these are going to be 4-knobbers, with a possible CV in jack (not 100% yet) and will be $150. 4 are already spoken for, but you never know! also, if i get more requests, i'll do a 2nd run... see thread for more info:
http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=178&t=13351

*continuing work on the vibrato/MBV/boards of canada-izer, but it's slow right now. too many other things to think about and this one circuit is going to take a bit more time.

i'll be more active here from now on. i promise.