Looking for a "fade out" pedal. Any suggestions?

I'm looking for a hardware effect that i can put at the end of my effects chain to allow me to fade out the signal to the amp/PA over a length i choose, say 10-15 seconds or so, and am having no luck.

I run a looper pedal (a boss RC-3) in a solo 1 mic and 1 guitar setup, and quite often i like to build up a lot of loops on the outro of a song, jam and harmonise over stuff etc to create a fairly thick sound. Problem is, there isn't any option but to "stop dead" on the looper pedal by using a footswitch or a tuner cutoff, or the built in double-tap to stop (which is a bit annoying). This design oversight often leads to very abrupt endings to heavily layered songs.

Short of using an expression pedal, which doesn't really give me the control i need over a long fade, or using my hands to manipulate volume controls on the looperwhich isn't ideal in a live setup, there isn't any way i can fade out what i've looped over a preset time.

Does anyone know of any reasonably priced bit of pedal hardware that will allow me to do this? Seems like it's something that should be easy enough to find but it isn't at all.

Cheers.

what about a volume pedal? You can control the volume with your foot, just leave it open all the time and then when you need it you can use it to fade out. The only other option would be a MIDI set up where one of the midi controls is assigned to volume with something like main stage which is not cheap.

Drop up to Xmusic and have a chat with the Guitar guys, they have a good selection of pedals and might have something that will do what you want.

niallerrity

niallerrity wrote: »

what about a volume pedal? You can control the volume with your foot

That's the setup i use at the moment, it works but is not perfect, it isn't really friendly for long fades of 10-15 seconds +. I'm just hunting for something that is "set and forget", that i can just click once and it fades everything automatically for me.

niallerrity wrote: »

Drop up to Xmusic and have a chat with the Guitar guys, they have a good selection of pedals and might have something that will do what you want.

That's the plan if the interweb doesn't yield anything. I'm pretty much looking to get a stomp box or nothing though, midi is just overkill for my setup. If i can't get it in a pedal then i'll just stick with the volume pedal setup im using at the moment.

MilanPan!c

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archive/index.php/t-853122.html

lots of talk about this exact thing online... looks like someone could make a killing with a fad-in/fade-out pedal. C'mon nerds!

Adyx

I'd say it would be possible to knock something together using an Arduino. Don't look at me though. :pac:

studiorat

An Arduino would not be able to do this, apart from using it as an on/off switch which is a bit overkill. Actually I suppose you could use it but it would still be overkill.

OP, I take it you don't to go down the laptop route?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCCZ7u5VHOY

MilanPan!c

http://www.megabeataudio.com/en/products/darthfader

rcaz

€199 seems a little steep?

Yeah, MIDI automation with something like Mainstage would be expensive, but you could get a super cheap audio interface (this?) and some free software like Pure Data and use that.

studiorat

Just tried it as an experiment, took about 15 minutes to make a fade in and out with a tap tempo to get the length using the [line~] object in Pd.

rcaz

studiorat wrote: »

Just tried it as an experiment, took about 15 minutes to make a fade in and out with a tap tempo to get the length using the [line~] object in Pd.

Tap tempo, nice one. I was thinking along the lines of specifying the length of the fade according to the music.

MilanPan!c

MilanPan!c wrote: »

http://www.megabeataudio.com/en/products/darthfader

Thank you so much. This is EXACTLY what i was looking for. I couldn't have asked for more functionality than it has in their video. The price point is very high at €199, but i suppose it's pretty much a custom built box, and there's nothing like it out there at the moment.

Will be keeping an eye on their site till they're ready to ship. It will be painful to pay 200 euros for this, the looper I'm using it to fade out cost me less than that, but it's got everything i need. Why the hell aren't Boss or some of the mainstream effects manufacturers making something like this at a cheaper price???

rcaz

Deleted User wrote: »

The price point is very high at €199

Pure Data is completely free and can do a zillion other things too... :cool:

MilanPan!c

Deleted User wrote: »

Thank you so much. This is EXACTLY what i was looking for. I couldn't have asked for more functionality than it has in their video. The price point is very high at €199, but i suppose it's pretty much a custom built box, and there's nothing like it out there at the moment.

Will be keeping an eye on their site till they're ready to ship. It will be painful to pay 200 euros for this, the looper I'm using it to fade out cost me less than that, but it's got everything i need. Why the hell aren't Boss or some of the mainstream effects manufacturers making something like this at a cheaper price???

For the record, I emailed them and got back to me asking about feature requests, etc. I think for 200 you'd get a custom pedal for life. Not bad considering some clean boosts cost twice as much.

I'm bumping this thread because that darth fader pedal is now available, and is at a fairly decent introductory discount on their website till the end of february.

€169 including free worldwide shipping is a reasonable price for a hand built custom pedal that's quite unique and looks like it's built to last. I think i'm gonna get a new toy when payday comes around :-)

Here's the finished product. They've added a true bypass light and 9v battery power. It will also run on a boss pedals power supply, which is a nice touch.

http://youtu.be/fAvzVTN137s

krd

I once had a WahWah pedal - there was a switch on it that turned it into a volume control. So you could rock out and slowly fade away.

TroutMask

You need a buffer box with a vca capable of accepting a control input. Analogue synthesis modules as found at schneidersladen would do it. Like patch the phase-flipped OP of a ramp generator set to a very low frequency to the control IP of a VCA. That would give you a gradual fade of the audio.
I'm sure some bespoke solution using these technologies could be fabricated by a guitar systems tech.

if6was9

The boss RC 20 has a face out function on it. I've only ever seen one guy using it on it and asked him about it after his show. He showed me how to set it up but alas I can't remember. It seemed very easy though!

Any users of this pedal interested in using fade out like the OP should be able to find out how using the manual.

if6was9

if6was9 wrote: »

The boss RC 20 has a face out function on it.

Unfortunately those boss double pedals only fade out pre-recorded loops played back from memory, not live loops you've created on the fly. I need a pedal that I can use for loops I've created live from scratch. Besides, a separate unit gives me more options re placement in a effects line.

I've ordered the darth fader pedal, I'm hoping to get delivery next week. Will post back a review once I've played around with it for a bit.

I'm bumping this thread to give a bit of feedback on the MegaBeat Audio "Darth Fader" pedal. It arrived yesterday and it's great, exactly what i needed, and lovely and simple to use.

You just set the fade mode from the 3 options in, out, or "in out" (this last one alternates between in and out each time you press the pedal), set the duration in seconds from 1-40, and set the depth of the fade, which is how many decibels of the volume you want to fade down or up by, up to a full 60db maximum. If you turn the knob up all the way it fades all the way, half way and it fades half way, etc.

It's also got 3 preset slots and very good large sized LED indicators which are easy to read at a glance.

It has true bypass, and works on 9V battery or any standard connection centre negative PSU with the right power rating. I'm using it with my Boss pedals PSA-240 power supply and daisy chain cable and it's working great.

The build quality is very good. The external switches and connectors all look like good quality, tough, and hard-wearing components. The first thing i did when i got it was to crack it open and take a look while removing the included battery. It's hand made, and hand made WELL with good wiring and connections, and a fairly rugged looking PCB. I was particularly impressed by the warranty offered. It has two years all parts and labour and free shipping included, which shows they have a lot of confidence in the quality of their pedals, and they seem to offer a very personal level of customer service. They even threw in a free daisy chain cable because the order was delayed by a few days while they waited for some parts to come in, which was a very nice touch.

It cost me €169 including shipping. That was an introductory price, down from it's usual €199 price point. It's a little expensive, but it's basically a hand built non mass-produced pedal which should last me a lifetime, and looks like it comes with really good quality customer service to boot, so i can't really complain, as it looks like it offers very good value for the money.

Overall, this is a great pedal if you're looking to be able to fade loops or effects in or out, or modify volume levels in a signal chain on-the-fly to get different levels of crunch or distortion in your sound for example. There's nothing else like it available over the counter anywhere that i could find, and I'd have no hesitation in recommending it if you need a pedal that does what it does. I've only had it 24 hours, but i can already tell it's going to be an indispensable part of my guitar setup from now on.