I haven’t had a chance to plug it in yet, but my initial impression is that it looks and feels great. Really nice graphics (getting crisp printing and even placement can be a challenge), great color, and overall wonderful design. Looking forward to plugging it in after work!
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Thanks so much for the kind words Peter! Picking a color for a pedal is really tough. The colors you see on a computer screen always seem to look different from the real thing. You really need a swatch to make a decision. The concept artwork looked something like this but I couldn’t find a color swatch from Prismatic Powders that looked anything like it. I ended up winging it and picked a color that they didn’t have a swatch of and luckily it was really close.
It was hard to get the ribbon and icons to be high enough resolution too. The first batch of enclosures I got ended up having to be scrapped because the ribbon was too thick/dark. I almost used them for the beta run but decided the right thing to do would be to have them re-printed. Second time around turned out just right (what you have today).
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Agreed. It is built nicely and I loved opening the box.
Here was my shot from today. Really looking forward to digging in!
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Wow, this thing is gorgeous! All-in-all, it is very intuitive despite having the four pages + loop mode. I’m generally able to find the sound I’m looking for, but I do have to go back to the manual frequently to remember all of the controls on all of the pages, but I’m sure that will come with time.
The lowpass filter sounds great and is super fun to play with during a loop.
After exiting Looper mode, can you change tape effects on individual tracks, or do the effects always apply to all tracks?
Are loops saved when the power is turned off?
Compression seems to get VERY loud. I’m not sure if that is intentional. The warmth is very nice, but I’m not sure how to manage the increase in volume.
Are the Reverse/Forward in Looper mode and Pre/Post Reverb both binary or is there any difference between 7:00/11:00 & 1:00/5:00?
I got stuck the first time I went into looper mode because I tapped Touch instead of holding it. Super short loop, and I ended up having to turn off the pedal to get it to reset. Probably user error.
That’s me trying to find issues with it, but it’s absolutely a blast to play with! I’ve been fiddling settings of the same loop for the last 30 minutes and it just sounds beautiful – even with a guitar.
Ok, I’ve been playing with it for a little while now (just guitar so far).
First - really nice job, Jaak! This is a great pedal. The sound quality is fantastic, and once I got my head wrapped around the controls, it was fairly intuitive (but I definitely need the manual in front of me to remember which knobs control what on each page, haha). All-around, this pedal is awesome, and in my opinion, gets at the sound of tape loops in a way more real and fun way than a lot of other pedals in the delay/vibrato/warbly category. I’m really enjoying playing through it so far and I can’t wait to dig in deeper.
I did have a few initial thoughts/reactions though (feel free to take or leave any of them).
(in no particular order):
-In looper mode, it would be great to have a way to erase all four loops at once, rather than having to go back and clear each track one at a time when I’m done with an idea.
-The volume of the loops in Touch Mode 1 seem really loud compared to the input signal. It would be cool to be able to control this, but if there’s no easy way to add that (lots of knobs already), setting it closer to “unity” compared to the input signal would help.
-Also in Touch Mode 1, the range of Touch Param 2 (head playback direction) seems like it could be a lot smaller, which might make it more usable.
-In Touch Mode 3, it would be cool if the minimum values for both depth and chaos were smaller so it could be really subtle when subtlety is called for.
-It would be super useful if going into Preset Mode displayed the current preset. This would both help me remember which preset I was on, and make it quicker/easier to toggle to the next preset, rather than having to scroll through all of them again.
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I have also had this thought! Let me think about a good method to implement this and I’ll work to add it.
In Touch Mode 1 (Magnetic Dance), Touch Param 2 is used for loop direction AND volume. At noon the loops are at their loudest. I’m not sure which version of the manual you’re looking at but I just updated it to include this detail last night. It wasn’t in the original graphic.
Yes! I totally agree and had this thought. Even at the minimum settings it can be a little intense. I’ll also add this to my to-do’s.
Yeah I like this too. I can actually just delete one line of code to implement this! I’ll add this to the list as well.
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I’m working on two things to help people with getting started and remembering all the page parameters:
- A single page quick start manual (should be ready tonight or tomorrow)
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Die cut transparency overlays (like the ones Meris offers)Not doing die cut transparencies. Considering doing a re-design of the front panel. See this thread here for more info on this topic
Tape effects are global
Loops are cleared when powered off.
Hm! Ribbons does add about 20dB of makeup gain as you turn the compression up. You need this makeup gain to compensate for the attenuation from the compression. I thought I dialed in a nice balance between compression and makeup gain that didn’t cause too much of a boost. I’ll play with this some more over the weekend and see if I notice anything strange and report back.
Binary. No difference.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “stuck”. Could you share some additional info?
What I think may have happened is this:
A momentary press of the Touch footswitch will latch recording. A next press of the Touch footswitch will unlatch it. That way you can do endless overdubs on a loop without having to hold the footswitch.
The quick start manual makes navigation much easier! Thank you!
I think the makeup gain is maybe a little too much past 2:00, but that could just be my amp/acoustics/ignorance. @jaakjensen OOH, I think this may have been because I was in stereo (default) mode instead of mono but using mono in/out? @theluncheon can you confirm that this was your setup as well?
For the reverb, could you just have a Pre Reverb mix knob and a Post Reverb mix knob? Could you run both simultaneously instead of just one or the other? If not, maybe turning it could change another characteristic of the reverb in addition to pre/post.
It would be cool if the Reverse/Forward knob had additionally functionality instead of the current binary functionality, but I don’t know what that would look like. Manually nudging the sample forward/back? I feel like it is most intuitive for the knob to control speed AND direction, but then it would only work for increasing speed, not slowing it down, and I love slowing it down.
By stuck, I mean that I didn’t know how to loop yet, so I didn’t know how to delete the very short loop that I created. If I go into looping mode and tap Touch, it just seems to grab a small loop and repeat it. I don’t think that’s what you mean by Latching, but I’m not sure how to Latch.
Also, for Touch modes 1 & 3, I feel like both could just be tap once for ON, tap once for OFF. I don’t understand the need to hold down Touch the entire time, and maybe HOLD could add an additional element or allow for the user to overdub without stopping the mode. I would like to tap to turn on Magnetic Dance/Broken Machine and then tweak the other settings. @jaakjensen I’m an idiot and this IS how it works, but sometimes when I tap touch, it doesn’t seem to register as a tap ON, but a tap ON/OFF. Does that make sense? I do find the sampling method for Mode 1 a little weird. Is the sample supposed to take the 1 sec prior to the tap? Would it be possible to take the 1 second after the tap? Mode 2 is GREAT how it is.
I bet it’s really fun to have two Ribbons going at the same time 
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Jaak I just want to say first and foremost that this pedal sounds fucking fantastic and most of my gripes are purely matters of taste though I do have some functional feature requests.
Here were some of my first impressions:
Can we get an “erase all loops” combo perhaps to make it easy to jump back to using a touch mode?
I really really like the behavior of your reverb alg when in full feedback in the VCV implementation, however it doesn’t quite get there on this pedal. Any chance of getting the feedback bumped up to full at knob max?
All of the tape controls sound incredible when used in combination with each other. I agree that a slower flutter option would be nice but my main ask would be a more extreme upper noise bound. I understand that I’m probably not in the majority on that one. Everything sounds great, I just want moar!
Also pretty surprised at the amount of headroom on this thing…I was whacking it with full feedback on my T resonator and getting no clipping on the way in which is pretty wild.
Idk if this was intended behavior but in the tape stop/start touch mode it won’t change the time setting when the knob is moved if it’s in the middle of a transition, it waits until the slow down/start has completed and then the next press updates the new values.
While I find the 20* wakeup on knob direction to mostly work fine, a “catch up” mode where the value won’t be updated until the position it’s in is reached or even a “relative” mode would be very welcome for smooth performance operation. I’m mostly tweaking this live and try to avoid jarring jumps when I don’t intend on them.
What do you mean by “trails” on the buffered bypass mode? I assumed reverb trail off or something but I guess I’m not hearing a difference beyond one actually physically switching the relay.
Can’t wait to try out some CV pedal-age.
Overall
I think you have a real fuckin winner here dude. Strymon ain’t got shit on these vibes.
Jaak! This thing is incredible. I’ve been playing around for a few hours yesterday and today and have some initial ideas. Overall, I’m loving it! To avoid duplicating other feedback above, I’ll try to keep comments to items I haven’t seen mentioned yet. All comments meant in the spirit of love and curiosity, this is an amazing piece of creative gear!
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The blue, light blue and green LEDs when switching between Touch Modes are quite similar to my eye, especially the light blue LED. For visual contrast, is it possible to switch it to something quite different, like a yellow, red, purple or white? I could see the light blue-green contrast getting lost in a live setting, bright room, etc.
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A possible build for the Magnetic Dance function — would there be a way to mute the input/tape effect audio so that the only thing coming out of Ribbons is the Magnetic Dance audio? So you’d be playing the MD alone, in effect, without hearing either the dry source audio OR the Tape Effect Mix-ed audio going into it.
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Would it be possible to map a simple external footswitch (ex. sustain pedal) to activate/replace the Touch switch on the pedal itself? I’m currently using Ribbons up on an electric piano so I can tweak settings comfortably and would love to also have a sustain pedal going rather than holding down Touch by hand. I know Touch is controllable by MIDI CC, I’m just a newbie in that department and don’t have a MIDI expression pedal!
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Would a “random setting” key combo ever be possible? All/most values randomized upon pressing (maybe not Mix)? In trying to explore the full range of interactions between everything, it’s been slower going to page, turnturnturnturn, page, turnturnturnturn, etc. A one-shot might be a nice way to introduce a new flavor.
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Last, would a quantized/gate mode ever be possible? As in, input +5V CV gates/pulses that govern some settings’ behaviors? I could see clocked wow/flutter/dropout rates, gated tape noise or reverb — actually scratch that, these may be already possible! I will take it over to the modular next and play around with +5V CVs. But perhaps something like, Tape Stop mode + incoming pulses could lead to Params 1 and 2 controlling quantized rate divisions for tape stop/start (from whole note to 1/16 or something) so you could reliably time your MBV slowdown effects? I dunno!
I will +1 @randycrouton on the compression note — so far I’ve found it a little overpowering above 12:00 maybe?
And +1 @mount_curve on the knob response behavior when switching to a new page. Both “catch up” and “relative” mode would be awesome here. Jumps in settings are especially noticeable when tweaking the LPF & HPF, Tape Noise and Compression — when it catches up, even like a 0 to 20 value change, it feels like a big jolt. I think most other settings get masked in the natural warbliness and imprecision of things, but those stood out for sure.
I will post some demo selects over in a separate thread!
Hey there! Mine just came in through the door! I quickly did a guitar test and sounds absolutely lovely, but will try with my main instruments over the week, look forward to hearing all the sounds y’all will make with it!
I know from having folks beta test a pedal of mine before that all of this feedback can be overwhelming - so definitely don’t feel like you have to give us all what we’re asking for
That said, I’ve been playing with it some more and I have one more request and one preference.
The preference is that I always expect the Low Pass Filter knob to work the reverse of how it does (I’m used to low pass knobs being turned counterclockwise to turn down the frequency). I can definitely get used to it as it is…I just wonder if others are like me.
The request is that it would be great if the audio in the loop(s) could be effected by the Touch modes. That may not be possible, but it would be really cool to be able to use tape stop or broken machine with a set of loops that are already going.
From the manual, it sounds like there simply isn’t enough processing power to handle the looping + touch modes at the same time. I guess we’ll have to buy two each.
I think I would agree with you on the low pass filter knob.
My hunch is that mixing pre and post together using two knobs would result in some weird phasing issues. Ribbons has a reverb/resonator sibling in the works that has more controls and focuses more processing power on the reverb. 
It would be possible to merge speed and direction onto the same knob (noon would be ‘stopped’, fully clockwise 2x forward, fully counterclockwise 2x backward). But then we’d have two unassigned knobs for the looper. Currently, the looper is just about maxing out CPU when all four loops run simultaneously, so feature requests relating to it are sort of tricky – I am open to requests for the one unassigned knob but it will need to be something with pretty minimal overhead (e.g. changing the quantization scales or something of that nature).
So there are two types of presses:
- Momentary – just a quick tap of the footswitch, less than 0.25 seconds. A momentary press latches the Touch effect in tape mode (or latches your recording in looper mode). A second tap unlatches it.
- Sustained – Holding down the footswitch for more than 0.25 seconds. Sustained presses activate while pressed and stop when released.
What I think you’re pointing out is that the 0.25 second threshold is too short, so it basically prevents you from latching. I can collect some more data on this and fine tune it.
Yes, so in Touch Mode 1 (MD) Ribbons is constantly recording to a 1 second loop. When you press the touch footswitch it starts to play back the loop using 4 read heads. It’s up this way so you can do things like freeze / drone notes and chords with a single action (sort of like EHX’s Freeze pedal).
Definitely. This is on my list of to-do’s.
You know all my secrets! This is possible but the short answer is that it probably won’t be a feature of Ribbons. There is a reverb/resonator sibling pedal in the works that does way more with the reverb (including infinite verb).
Like the static/clicks and pops to be more extreme? Or another parameter?
I wrote the Tape Stop code quite awhile ago and it was implemented in a way that doesn’t allow attack and release times to be changed mid-stop or start. I have some new tricks up my sleeves and plan to re-write it so that it can do exactly what you’re mentioning here! This is a bigger lift but it will get done eventually.
Originally I set things up so the parameters could be modified in a “relative” way but there was something about it that I really didn’t like (fml - I can’t remember what it was and am not finding any notes on it). I’ll add this to my backlog of things to revisit.
With buffered bypass, Ribbons will continue to play reverb trails and magnetic dance when the effect is bypassed but new incoming audio will be dry / not affected.
I guess that makes sense for reverb? I feel like I’ve seen both in action, but maybe not. I do think it would be cool if the bottom knob added something other than Pre/Post.
Ehh… I feel like this would be weird with the middle position unless it is notched. But maybe another parameter or effect?
Ah! Yeah, maybe closer to .5 second? I was (per a demo video) wearing socks, so I’m guessing the press time could have been slightly on the longer side.
For me, if I’m wanting to sample a 1 second loop, I might want to be able to nail down the start time of said loop instead of just trying to line that up with the beginning of a loop that started 1 second before I hit a button. It was kind of weird with guitar, but I get it for grabbing a sustained note from a synth.
Yep, you’re right that it’s non traditional. For me the idea is: as tape degrades it loses more high frequency response, so as you turn up the knob clockwise you lose treble and get more of an aged sound. I think this could be set up differently but only if it weren’t called “tape age.”
@randycrouton mentioned this too. Short answer is that there’s not enough processing power left to run them simultaneously. One thing that could be done (in theory) – if loops are running and you jump back into tape mode, the Touch footswitch becomes a tape stop effect for all four loops (but not incoming audio). This would be less CPU intensive.
That’s exactly what I would want! I think it would be totally fine (and great) if the touch modes effected incoming audio in regular mode, and only effected the looped audio in looper mode. I can imagine many situations where I would record in audio to “load up” the loops, and then mostly manipulate playback.
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having a lot of fun in loop mode, would love more gradation/steps to the pitch knob, also maybe a way to clear all loops ? or is that just switching back to tape mode
also is it just me or is the reverb incredibly quiet? also seems locut at like 150hz. I just cant rly hear it.