RE: rds7.6

["Will Brake" <wbrake@comcast.net>]

Well, who pissed in your cornflakes? LOL

>From my observations, there are many on this list who are capable, with
the knowledge to adjust and tweak with excellent results.

Unfortunately, based on some of the problems brought up here, and some
of the answers, I would suggest that the great majority of people
shouldn't get inside their gear without first having an idea of what
they are doing.

Perhaps I was a little hasty in using black and white to paint with. I
should have used shades of grey. Sorry. I might suggest you be careful
about suggesting tweaks without including a disclaimer as to the
results. I personally prefer my digital delay without distortion...

Maybe next time I won't try to help or maybe I'll write some convoluted
reply that misses the point completely.

Respect
 
Will Brake
Soul Fruit Electronics

BTW-my white lab coat is actually blue...

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Nelson [mailto:psychle62@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 4:44 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: RE: rds7.6

Well, if you want to be sarcastic about it, we could
reword the caveat to "Don't adjust trimpots on digital
devices if you have no idea what you're doing, or what
your intention is in doing so."

I'm not advising people without electronic knowledge
to open their boxes "and start turning ALL the
adjustments" willy-nilly, to put their tongues on
large capacitors or to run with pointy screwdrivers.
I'm talking about a specific adjustment that many,
many people have done to make their Digitech delays
more usable in their own situations. Think about it:
if it weren't meant to be adjustable, wouldn't it be a
fixed resistor instead of a variable one? We're all
aware that you have to open the device to access the
trimpots; I'm not saying they should be used in the
same way as panel controls. (Although there was a guy
on the Benders list who recently replaced the trims on
his PDS-4000 with regular, user-grabbable pots/knobs,
and he was pretty happy with the results...)

Yes, I agree with you that people shouldn't randomly
change internal trimpot settings, and I don't think
that's limited to digital equipment: for example,
twiddling the tube bias controls on a nice old
Marshall just to see what happens would be bad. But to
make absolutist statements like 'Don't ever adjust
trimpots' or 'All presets suck' (which is actually
sorta contradictory in the sense that they're both
intentional manufacturers' settings) reminds me of the
days when recording engineers wore white lab coats and
saw to it that the needle never, ever entered the red.
Or when amp manufacturers saw 'distortion' as an evil
to be exorcised through better, cleaner engineering.

And yes, abusing musical equipment can make things
break/smell funny/catch on fire and doesn't
necessarily sound good. But remember, just as music
evolves, the equipment used and more importantly the
WAY the equipment is used evolves too. If something
can be made more useful through modification, why not?
Those mods, especially if espoused by a famous person,
show up in some form or another the next generation of
gear. Eddie Van Halen plugged his amp into a variac;
we all know that's not good for tubes and
transformers. But look how influential (for better or
worse) that was on the next generation of amp circuits
designed to more safely replicate the sound through
hotter preamp stages...

So please don't imply that ALL owners of musical
electronics are ignorant simply because SOME are.
Sure, there'll be some impetuous ones who'll mess the
thing up and bring it in for repair, but you're either
not doing business with those of us who quite ably do
our own tech, or when you do hear of it, your response
is similar to the black and white one you gave.

-t-
  
--- Will Brake <wbrake@comcast.net> wrote:
> Go ahead, tweak away. Open all your boxes and start
> turning all the
> adjustments. I make more money that way, people
> getting into their gear,
> thinking they will get something "more" out of a box
> by tweezing it. 
> 
> I'll admit, sometimes in rare instances this is the
> case, but with
> everyone complaining about the cost of this or the
> sound quality of
> that, you're best to keep your hands out!!
> 
> Respect
>  
> Will Brake
> Soul Fruit Electronics
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Nelson [mailto:psychle62@yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 3:43 PM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: RE: rds7.6
> 
> It's a pretty well-known adjustment. You're trading
> off fidelity for delay time, which in many cases is
> perfectly appropriate in this day and age of lo-fi
> and
> granularity.
> 
> Perhaps your caveat should read "Don't adjust
> trimpots
> on digital devices IF you want to keep
> manufacturer's
> spec."

> --- Will Brake <wbrake@comcast.net> wrote:
> > Don't adjust trim pots on digital devices. 
> 
> >
>
http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/timemachine/timemachine.html


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