A post was merged into an existing topic: Re-imagining Ribbons UI / Layout
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.
I love this pedal, Jaak! I have very little experience with complex digital pedals but the learning curve didn’t seem nearly as steep as I anticipated.
A few initial impressions…
I think the LP filter knob would make more sense reversed.
Having the knob functions labeled with the first page’s info was a little confusing at first but then I got used to it. The 4 pages don’t seem very hierarchical when you’re using it, so it seems a little confusing to have the first page info printed on the enclosure. It seems to imply that page one’s functions are primary functions but the knobs each seem to have four functions that are of equal priority, rather than a primary function and three alternate functions. Maybe others see that differently.
It’s probably not possible but it’d be cool to be able to “play” the chord table chords in magnetic dance with a MIDI controller or something, rather than being limited to turning the knob. Maybe I’m overestimating the possibilities, but my initial thought would be that you could make a song out of playing the “chords.”
Also maybe not possible, but I wonder if there would be a way to have more control over what you’re looping in magnetic dance mode. “Previous second” is fun but it’d be nice to be able to control the start point (and possibly the end point.)
As in, slightly jumpier/less smooth steps?
Yeah there isn’t an easy way to do this right now. It’s on my to-do list and will hopefully be available in the next release.
Do you mean, when the reverb is turned up, the overall output seems to get quieter?
Not sure what this means 
when the reverb mix is all the way up i hear barely anything, like its basically nonexistent. i think the reverb needs more gain.
and yeah id
no as in more smoothness, higher number of steps, so you can get between certain pitches
This has become a common request. Should be in the next firmware update!
When designing the front panel, I made up with this requirement that “the knobs should display four parameters that hint at some key things Ribbons is capable of”. This may feel inviting but it prevents any sort of hierarchical / thematic layout for the parameters. I realize now that this thematic layout is pretty important for Ribbons and I’d like to address it. We’ve got some good ideas going about how to resolve this on this thread. Feel free to chime in there if you have more to add or, at the very least, vote on the polls going there.
This is possible with the current setup. I could add another notch to the chord table called “midi” or something. I’d just have to decide what to do about the 4-voice sine synth, which also responds to MIDI note-on/off data. I could ditch the 4-voice synth all-together in-exchange for this feature or just disable the synth when the “midi” option is selected from the chord table. I’ll add this to the feature request list and prioritize it if it’s something others are interested in.
Someone else mentioned something similar to this. It’s totally possible but I think I need some more encouragement to change it. I like the current implementation of MD because a single-action produces an immediate output/reaction. Sort of like an EHX freeze pedal. I could change it to a two-action process where you can hold or tap to define the start point but that would break from the other touch modes being single-action / immediate reaction.
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Sadly, the touch/bypass LEDs are just Blue / Green. I’m using a 16 channel LED driver chip inside the pedal and RGB leds. 3 led colors x 6 leds = 18 channels, which is two too many! 
I dropped the red channel on both touch footswitches because of this.
In general, I feel like they’re pretty distinct but if others report similar feelings, I could try to dial it in or try a different approach.
I did claim that “everything is controllable via CV/MIDI”. I guess I forgot about the touch footswitch! I’ll add this to my to-do’s. Do you have a model # for a sustain pedal that you like?
Totally possible and a cool idea but I think I’m going to reject this. I can’t think of another button combo to implement it.
A great idea but hard to manage with a CV/Exp input. It would be much easier to manage with a MIDI Clock. It would be a big project to add clocking/synchronization to all the DSP blocks but I could see it being pretty cool. I’ll add this to the feature request list and think about how it might work.
I’ll play around with this and see what I find. How were you using the pedal – mono in / mono out ? stereo in / stereo out? Make sure you have the mix settings set correctly for your setup.
See my response to @mount_curve below. I did try a relative/less jumpy approach once upon a time, I just remember there was something awkward about it. Can’t recall now though! I will do “jump” or “relative” but not both. There are already enough menus and not enough combo presses to allow the user to change a setting like this.
Unless something is wrong, I feel like ‘nonexistant’ might be a little exaggerated but I agree it does seem to get quieter. Can you send me an audio clip (text or IG message is cool)? Just want to make sure something isn’t wrong.
Ah! I got you. I’m starting to feel like the ‘unassigned’ looper knob would be great for choosing a scale (no scale, chromatic, fourths, fifths, octaves, octaves + fifths). Maybe that seems uneventful but Ribbons is currently maxed out at 95% with all four loops running simultaneously and additional looper features are tricky.
Yeah, I think I mentioned this above, but the compression/gain issue was resolved when I was in the correct mode.
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well i just feel like the knob could be stepless entirely like a real pitch shifter knob on a 4 track tape recorder, it doesnt rly need to be constrained to a scale (tho personally id really rather it didnt)
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I’m working on a new forum post where people can vote for features. I’ll add this there and if people are into it I’ll get rid of the quantization. 
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1st IMPRESH - THE SOUND
Had my first go with this thing and WOW. The sound is really, REALLY good, which is the whole point right !?
I ran a Prophet X through it, which has a sterile digital character and this thing made it sound warm & lush.
1st IMPRESH - THE TOUCH MODES
MAGENETIC DANCE is simply amazing. The best freeze function I’ve ever used. Better than the Particle, in my opinion. Very useful!
TAPE STOP made my wife’s jaw drop. Don’t know how much I’ll actually use it, but it works well. Still wrapping my head around how it winds back up!
BROKEN MACHINE was interesting. Mostly got lots of very (very!) high pitched squeaks and squawks, but it looks like it’s capable of more than that, so I probably just need to get better with it.
1st IMPRESH - THE LOOPER
The Looper is super, dooper neat. I’m not a big looper guy, but the fact that it’s asynchronous AND has speed functions had me creating all kinds of actually useable nonesuch.
As has been mentioned … if the touch modes could effect the loops OR if the touch modes could be resampled into the looper, this thing would be sent into the stratosphere, but I understand you got limitations.
1st IMPRESH - THE FILTERS
Is it just me or does having a LP … AND an HP seem unnecessary? I personally found myself coming up with really cool sounds and wanting to add resonance to the LP to really craft them. Not sure if adding resonance is even an option or whether other people found the HP helpful? I never seemed to use it.
1st IMPRESH - CONCLUSION
For a beta version, this thing performed incredibly well. No lockups. Handfuls of sounds I’ve never gotten out of any other single piece of gear. Super dig it. Kudos to you Mr. Jensen!
This is directly how I have started to use it in my productions. Build a loop layer, then go back to mess with the amount of compression, tape effects, and filters. Adding on the tape stop would be a great way to add some additional texture.
Busy week here and just getting some time with Ribbons. Mainly just chiming in to say this is a really fun unit, and I think your inclusions throughout are excellent. I’ve played a ton of lo-fi modulators like this (Gen Loss, Bygones, Golden Era, etc. etc.) and this one packs the most into it for sure. Will offer some more constructive feedback as I encounter it, but lots of good suggestions has already been covered.
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I ran into an issue for the first time yesterday. I was trying to build up a pad sound using magnetic dance. But the pedal had a loop playing at 0% volume, so I couldn’t hear the magnetic dance effect. I thought maybe I had the wrong touch mode selected, so I cycled through them all by pressing the push and touch buttons simultaneously and tried to turn them on. Each time i selected the touch switch, the LED would be illuminated making me think there was something wrong with the touch modes or their parameters. Finally after a couple minutes, I decided to go and check if there were any loops running. Found one on the blue page, cleared it and went back out to try the touch modes and now everything worked.
Request: if loops are playing (and prevent a touch mode from being used), flash the touch LED red three times to let me know it can’t be used right now. That way I could get a signifier that there is a need to go clear the looper.
Maybe I am the only one who has run across this.
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This has happened to me once or twice before… It won’t be updated for the v0.3 firmware arriving this week but in v0.4 I’d like to force the touch mode to be a Tape Stop effect on the loops if the looper is running. This would be indicated by a very fast blinking blue LED when the touch footswitch is pressed (I wish I could make it RED but the footswitch LEDs are only blue and green). I think this should help make this less confusing.
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Looking forward to v0.3!
I’ve been playing quite a bit lately and have noticed a couple things:
It doesn’t look like you have any fixes in v0.3 for when a knob starts to control a parameter related to its current setting and the current knob position. I think this has been referred to as “catchup” in other feedback. I’ve noticed this to be especially drastic with the Tape Noise parameter, when the knob is set fully (or mostly) CW and I’m trying to set the Tape Noise at a relatively low level. I really think that it would be best if the knob doesn’t affect the parameter until the knob is turned within 10% or so of the current setting. I know this has been mentioned before (specifically related to the filters, I think), but I feel Tape Noise makes a strong case for fine-tuning the catch up.
Also, I’ve been noticing a high-pitched hum coming from Ribbons (I can filter it out with the LPF) when it is at the end of a chain of pedals. Without Ribbons, I don’t hear the hum. With Ribbons at the beginning of the chain or used alone, I don’t hear the hum. I am using a 9V adapter with a daisy chain, so that could be part of the problem, but I don’t have a separate adapter to test with at the moment.
I’ve been trying to find time to do it but I’ve been swamped working with my PCB and enclosure manufacturers. In addition some of the v0.3 updates have been trickier/more nuanced than I expected. I’m going to work on this for v0.4, which will probably be the final firmware release before Ribbons’ launch (hopefully late-July so it can be tested before Ribbons’ mid-August release). If you check the Development Blog you can see the last of the updates I have planned for Ribbons in the 2nd post.
I don’t recommend using Ribbons with a daisy chain. The noise is likely a result of “heterodyning” or a ground loop and the result can vary from PSU to PSU. The noise will be amplified by other pedals and it creates the whine or hum you’re hearing. I’ve talked with a couple people from other pedal companies about this issue and they all agreed that the best thing I can do is recommend that you power Ribbons with a separate PSU or an isolated power supply brick.