Expr/Wah delay ambient effects

Dali

Well-known member
I'm often wondering why many pedals aren't in the form of expression pedals so you can vary parameter with your foot.

Things like that: https://reverb.com/item/13118122-ernie-ball-ambient-delay

Having those effects in this form makes it quite different. Ok it can be seen as "niche" products or just too experimental if you're into blues or metal but I would enjoy the difference from "normal" pedals... Even if it means enclosure goes around 25$ instead of 7$.
 
The two current wah PCBs were the first step towards making this happen.

Had to get the physical dimensions down, so expect to see something like this in the very near future.
 
so expect to see something like this in the very near future.

And people wonder why I'm talking about how great your company is!

Terrific news.

At one point after my last purchase of 6 new PCBs, I was wondering if there was an end to building pedals. How many fuzz a human needs anyway? Then you tease us about expression-driven new effects... You may have me as a long term customer... ;)
 
I'm often wondering why many pedals aren't in the form of expression pedals so you can vary parameter with your foot.
I have another question. Why so may pedals don't have "expression in" jack for some key pots so that it'd easy to connect your expression pedal if you need this? Basically, it's just replacement of the potentiometer.
 
One reason I can think of (not saying it can't or shouldn't happen more though):

Analog pedals use all sorts of pot values. And, there are many expression pedals of different pot values. Digital effects with expression pedals hooked up to digital inputs tend to not care about the pot value, since they are using the pot as a voltage divider to create the control voltage. So a 100k or 10k doesn't matter, since they will both create a voltage divider. Analog pedals are almost always more picky about the pot value (except maybe the volume control in some cases).

That could be why you don't see a lot of pedals with expression jacks built in... it would only work right with the specific pot value exp pedal. If the expression pedal is built into the pedal, like this thread is talking about, it would be fine, or if the manufacturer made a separate exp pedal specifically designed to work with the pedal.
 
Analog pedals use all sorts of pot values. And, there are many expression pedals of different pot values.

That's true. And we're in DIY world, aren't we? So, it'd better to have the ability to connect an expression pedal to this or that pot (if it makes sense from the controlling perspective). If someone is having an appropriate expression pedal, she/he could use it.

So, in my opinion, it is better to have an option to connect some expression pedal even though not every expression pedal will fit. For example, I don't understand LFO effects without expression jack, such effects are just throwing out 50% of their potential.

This is nice resource to determine your expression pedal pot value: http://expressionpedals.com/list-of-expression-pedals
 
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