@MichaelW I think your demos are excellent.
This discussion is about two different types of demos: 1) the pedal in a use-case scenario (i.e., your typical demos) and 2) the pedal in-itself (i.e., a very clinical approach that details the functions of the pedal without other variables).
Both are certainly useful. When demoing a dirt effect, type 1 will be more interesting and give a better idea of how it could fit into a real use case. Of course, there's no way to capture
every playing style or genre, so these are necessarily limited. Type 2 demos for dirt are very sterile and removed from how the pedal is used, but it does give the listener information about how the sound is changed without the interference of other variables.
Modulation effects are tricky. The low tide has a delay line that mixes with the dry signal to render the effect. Adding delay and reverb on top of that may confound the low tide's impact on the sound. So if someone were interested in how the low tide affected the dry sound, they may not get a clear picture. However, those effects are usually in the signal chain for a pedal like this. So it does give a flavor of how it sounds with everything put together.
Would making a sterile demo be fun for you? I think that you can, as you mentioned, turn off other effects for a bit, then get back to your typical approach as a compromise. I think that would give some valuable context without taking away from your approach too much. There are other demos out there that give the type 2 representation of the circuit, and I don't think you have any sort of responsibility of providing that even if there weren't.
