Integration-Analog and Digital

Integration-Analog and Digital

When Jake asked me to write an article about gear, the first thing I asked him was what the hell do you want me to write about? He said “anything you think would be interesting”, anyone who knows me knows that I am a complete gear nut - and I love nothing more than geeking out about gear. So I sat in front of my computer for hours scanning my brainwaves for a topic that was fitting for zine such as this. One thing that I feel is rarely discussed and rarely implemented very well is the integration of new school digital gear with old school analog technology. There are a thousand tangents I could go on but for the intent of this article I wish explain how to make your sampler play nice with your fuzz / distortion / overdrive pedals. I am a huge fan of samplers I have owned many and they all have the same two problems;

1. They permanently effect the gain structure of your signal, especially if you also use them as a signal router as well.
2. The active nature of the output has a very strange impedance, and tends to do very unnatural things to your signal when using pedals that require a certain amount of interaction with the source signals impedance and dynamics.

These two factors cause certain heartbreaking problems such as a weak / thin output, normally fat fuzzes fart out, ripping fuzzes fizzle, and anything that self oscillates tends to just sit there dead and lifeless. Two of the most powerful performance samplers are also two of the worst culprits of this, the DigiTech JamMan and Boss RC series. I was so excited the day my JamMan arrived to vanquish my beloved Boss SP202 from the brutality of my live abuse. I loaded a bunch of samples onto the SmartMedia card slapped it on my rig and went forth to destroy, or so I thought. My Zvex Fuzzfactory sounded awful and just would not squelch. Needless to say I was fucking disappointed, lucky for me I had helped a friend with a similar problem with his RC-20xl a few months earlier. The cure for this digital dilemma is to inject some good old fashioned analog resistance into your signal, a pot is all you need. Now you could build a passive volume box, use a volume pedal or a passive mixer such as the DOD AC240. I added the later and BOOM, my signal was rejuvenated. My Fuzzfactory squelched like the monster it is, and my other fuzzes didn’t sound like they where broken in a bad way.

If you have space constraints but still wish to fuzz the fuck out of your digital samples - fear not. Look for fuzzes that are manufactured / marketed / work for bass players with active basses, as the buffered output of an active bass can cause similar gain problems. Some of these fuzzes are as follows; MI Audio GI Fuzz, Prescription Depth Charge, Subdecay Flying Tomato, Boss ODB-3, and the MXR Blowtorch (mostly any gain pedal with a bias control will work).

Now all this being said you can come into resistance problems with a myriad of pieces of gear, cables, synths, other pedals (mooger foogers for example), even power supplies. The key to getting your gear to get along is experimentation and a little electronic knowledge, just remember that analog resistance is your fuzz pedals best friend.

By Alex Pearson - D/A A/D