Idiotbox Landphil

[SumOne]

Just got this - sounds like a slap around the face while being punched in the gut! (Will try and get around to recording some samples). 

 

 

 

Anyone else here used one? The top row acts as expected but I'm a bit confused about the lower row (no manual and not much online info), a copy of a response from idiotbox on Talkbass said they are similar to the 'sonic maximiser'. 

 

Searching what a sonic maximizer does I found: "First, it adjusts the phase relationships between the frequencies through adding progressively longer delay times to lower frequencies, creating a kind of mirror curve to neutralize the effect of loudspeaker phase distortion. Second, the Sonic Maximizer augments higher and lower frequencies as loudspeakers tend to be less efficient in their extreme treble and bass ranges.

 

The end result is a dynamic, program-driven restoration which reveals more of the natural texture and detail in the sound without causing fatigue that is often associated with exciter effects, psychoacoustic processors or excessive use of equalizers."

 

.... so they are basically tone enhancers, I get how that's working with the Bass and Treble, not sure what it's doing with the secondary gain and volume though. 

 

Anyway, doesn't really matter as it sounds good mucking about with different settings. Rawkus! 

 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Interesting! I'd love to hear it.

[SumOne]

Hearing what's out there on youtube for the older massive sized version I would have avoided  it - sounds too much like a harsh earache of thrashy high pitch grating noises. But you can get a massive amount of Bass out of it, or it can be run with just light distortion, or can go as far as being no distortion and and using it for Bass/Treble/Volume boost or using for the 'sonic maximizer' controls, it can add a nice fat sort of non-distorted tone that I actually use for dubby stuff. Somewhere in-between with bass enhanced and some low-end distortion I can get it to do a sort of bladerunner 2049 foghorn bass type of noise 

 

I suppose the trouble with demos and recording clips is how much setup and playing style affects things (which is why I didn't pay much attention to the old demo video). Not many would use a pedal like this with nothing else in the chain going directly to record (which I assume is how that original clip was recorded) there's always likely to at least be an amp/cab involved to the end result, and probably other pedals like compressor/eq/preamp etc. and they all tend to soften harsher sounding distortions.

 

Edit: a response someone on Talkbass got from Idotbox:

 

"The top 4 controls are just like my Blower Box. Low/high cut/boost, distortion, volume into the 2nd part of the circuit. The bottom set are more like enhanced lows/highs, the bottom distortion control changes the frequencies that receive the most distortion.........The bottom volume is the master volume." 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by SumOne

[bobbass4k]

Interesting, the site says it's fundamentally a blower box, which itself is fundamentally a rat clone. 

 

Yeah the sonic maximizer is basically a 3-band filter, each band gets split and processed differently then blended back together. The extra gain control could be the gain of the preamp stage in the sonic maximizer part (which would normally be fixed) and maybe the volume is some sort of blend? 

 

Interesting idea, surprised they haven't pushed it more considering the current popularity of aggressively eq'd distortions (after so many years of the metal zone being a punchline...)

 

[SumOne]

A quick recording (so no critiques of the playing please!) of some of the tones you can get from it - from heavy Dubbyness through to light distortion through to noise. This is it played on it's own direct so I don't think it gives the best impression of what it sounds like in normal use with compressor/EQ/Preamp/Cab and playing along with a band but shows that it can do a variety of tones.