Barber Direct Drive

The pedals were selling like pancakes but not all of them got listed at the same time. I would have gotten a Dirty Bomb instead have I known! Oh well, I guess I’ll try to enjoy this magnificent pedal

In case you missed it, here’s the list of pedals that went on sale:

Cyber Monday Sale at Barber Electronics

Anybody else got a good deal today?

I hope you enjoy this song and may it also serve as a reminder for you …

Click here if you can’t see the player

for Bank Down, send:
CC# 80, value 0 //A Switch DOWN
CC# 82, value 0 //B Switch DOWN
CC# 80, value 127 //A Switch UP
CC# 82, value 127 //B Switch UP

for Bank UP, send:
CC# 82, value 0 //B Switch DOWN
CC# 81, value 0 //Tap Switch DOWN
CC# 82, value 127 //B Switch UP
CC# 81, value 127 //Tap Switch UP

So instead, I tried the settings for turning A/B on and off with 2 CCs. This works great! Again, this is not in the manual (yet) …

for switch A, send:
CC# 80, value 0 //A Switch DOWN
CC# 80, value 127 //A Switch UP

for switch B, send:
CC# 82, value 0 //A Switch DOWN
CC# 82, value 127 //A Switch UP

I spent most of the time testing out the looper functionality. It works great and seamless! And finally, the settings are in the manual but was only included after the first revision. Hey Strymon, why are you hiding these settings from your users! DOH!!!

Anyway, I got lost in playing with the looper and here’s a couple that I managed to record. Not live looping, just recorded directly from the unit by pressing “Play” after all the overdubs. I’m still getting used to cutting in and out so there’s a bit of glitch in the loop.

These are played thru a standard Tele straight into Timeline then directly to Tascam DR2D.

and

There you go!

A chord of three tones, especially one built on a given root tone plus a major or minor third and a perfect fifth

That means that we can stack 1-3-5 of the scale in any inversion to give us a major triad.

I want to share a nice major triad inversion in the form of a 1-5-3. This particular triad works very well especially if you are the lone guitarist in a band as it sounds full due to the 1-5 but also sounds melodic due to the addition of the 3 at the top.

It’s a bit tricky at first because the string between the 5 and the 3 has to be muted as you will see on the examples below (chords: G, C and F)

Have fun practicing this and make sure to try it on other keys as well. Once you master it, start using it tastefully on your next jam session

• Very close, although not the same, to the sound of MLN1/2, especially the first 2 repeats. However, the difference is how the repeats degrade. As per Diamond, the filter bandwidth has been increased so that it does not go into oscillation especially for lots of feedback
• The repeats does not, in any way, interfere with the dry signal. In fact, I notice that it naturally ducks (keep the repeated signal at a lower level) when the dry signal is still active.
• Smaller footprint compared to it’s predecessors, both MLN1/2 are huge! Although this came with a cost of not having any expression pedal input for neither Feedback nor Mix
• Standard 9v center-negative power requirement. One of the few gripes I have about the MLN1 (and 2) is the power it requires to operate it. Not only you need 18V, it is also using a positive-center, instead of the commonly-used negative-center power supply. I guess this is a necessary evil for making them work the way they should. So having it changed to the regular power makes it all the better in my books
• The tap-tempo has dual-function. Either you can set it to “DBL” where it cuts the delay time in half to make it faster or to turn Modulation ON/OFF. I currently have mine set to Modulation ON/OFF. But I can see myself setting this to the DBL for some nice slap-back delay settings. Nice feature!

The BAD (of course, IMHO)

• Internal DIP switches for spillover/kill-dry. I don’t have an amp with a parallel effects loop so kill-dry dip-switch is not a big deal to me. But why, oh why, do I have to open up the pedal to change the settings for spillover! Not only that, to change the setting, I have to flip 4 different DIP switches (2: DOWN, 3-5: UP). With Diamond’s track record of making great pedals, I would have thought that they can make this easier.
• The first 124 units did not ship with the Modulation ON/OFF functionality. Mine has to be sent to Diamond to flash the code. Although I didn’t have to do anything since I found out before the unit (mine is SN#0070) was shipped. It would still be a bummer for those people who have already purchased/received theirs and wanted the Modulation ON/OFF feature.
• Somewhat pricey … unfortunately, this is true. There are a lot of other options right now, it just depends on what you are willing to sacrifice. Would you pick tone/sound for functionality?

and The UGLY

• Changing the tempo, no matter what the setting is, will mute whatever is currently repeating while filling up the buffer for the new tempo. Well, at least, the dry signal is left untouched. I am hoping that they will offer an update to the firmware so that this will be alleviated. What a glaring design flaw on an otherwise fantastic delay!

Diamond Memory Lane Jr

Now to the verdict … definitely a keeper especially if you have owned & loved either an ML1 or ML2. It is not meant to replace either, but more so, to be a companion (READ: spend more cash). Fortunately for me, it sounds good and can definitely replace my ML1 on my board … wait, it actually did

***** UPDATE *****
Unfortunately the issue with changing tap-tempo is a hardware constraint … see picture below

MLJr limitation

********************

BTW, if you know some tricks to reduce finger fret noise while recording an acoustic piece, please let me know!

Enjoy!

Diamond MLN1 with the dotted-8th mod

And of course, I have to try if it works … and it does! Here’s a clip where I used it on a couple of tracks:

Nice! ice! ce! e! !

*** and the board

Pedalboard as of March 2011

Pedalboard as of Feb 2011

Now where’s my metronome, it’s practice time!

*** Update: Lunar Module added the day after original post, hence, photo has been updated

Bought:
Xotic EP-Booster
Catalinbread DLS
Road Rage Mini A/B
Strymon Brigadier (with Fav)
Diamond Compressor
Malekko Phaser
Strymon El Capistan
Barber Unlimited
NOC3 Earth Tone

Sold:
Analogman Bi-Chorus
Catalinbread DLS
Diamond Compressor
Ernie Ball VP Jr.

What I had kept from before:
Hermida Zendrive
Barber 1/2 Gainer
Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic [ready to sell]
Empress Tremolo
Diamond Memory Lane

My goal is to sell more this coming year to recoup some money. And maybe really focus more on playing the instrument and getting better in the process … hopefully

For now, here’s something I’ve recorded today using some of these gears

Happy New Year!