100% BEST thermae video on the intranets. It took me 4 years to figure out what all you put in this video, and I also learned some from you. Thank you for putting the time into this one. I truly think you video will help people stick with a pedal that is very challenging but also very rewarding
What an absolute GEM 💎 of a video!!! The thermae is definitely a bucket list pedal (duh dum dum tss!) for me, and this was such a beautiful illumination of how to understand and control it. The midi clocked arp section cycling through chords in cycles of 5ths and 4ths was MINDBLOWINGLY exciting and beautiful ❤ Knowledge is power, so thanks so much for empowering us on our journeys of creative expression! 🙏
I've had a Thermae since it came out and have really struggled to get anything I liked out of it. Honestly this is the most useful video for understanding this pedal that I've seen yet.
Great video! It's been about 15 years since I've kept up with pedals and such. Every time I see these new bits of gear it just blows my mind. I'm an old-school pedal builder but effects technology kind of just left me in the dust. Back then, we were all still obsessed with Fuzz Faces, Tube Screamers, and Crybabies. This reminded me of the time I made a modulation circuit for my old Boss DM-2 to get that nice pitch-shift vibrato. It worked great and could give anything from subtle vibrato to sea-sick tape-flange sounds.
I absolutely love this video - I am in a period of trying to understand chaos vs complexity in my modular synth, which previously was unknown/subconscious. This video puts a twist on everything, with wonderful explanation and links. Oh, and the pedal is pretty cool too I guess :D Thank you!
Hi Clint! I'm glad your video was shuffled into my feed. I received a Theramae in my Mystery Box as well. My initial experiments were interesting--and got me a little more inside the head of the pedal designer--but did not yield results I could easily use. That changed with this video. Using Snowden's matrix was such a help! Thank you!! Putting it in step mode was the secret sauce. Next up, MIDI clock. I look forward to checking out your other videos. If they are as good as this one, I'll be spending a bit of time over here.
Great explanation. Very well done. My Chase Bliss pedals have a tendency to reel me in with potential but then overwhelm my musicality. Could you please make a similar video on interpersonal relationships? I get overwhelmed there too. Thanks. Great job!!
My question is… how do you find all the information about these underlying mechanisms? Wouldn’t these be hidden by the manufacturer for business reasons?
I tried to explain it in the video, let me attempt a different analogy: imagine each capacitor as a microscopic region on the surface of a vinyl LP. (It's a pretty tight metaphor since those are both physical locations where somebody has electrically encoded a wave signal.) The timing circuit in the BBD is controlling the speed at which that encoding is played back out of the row of capacitors. In the vinyl analogy that would be like changing how fast the record is rotating. If the record was mastered at 33RPM and you switch it to 45RPM, then the recording plays back pitched up. So the Thermae pedal is like a record player that automatically jumps between 33RPM and 45RPM and then back again, only the "record" is sitting in capacitors rather than on a vinyl disc.
Thanks I do get the principle controlling the pitch, the pitch variation is just like someone playing with the time/rate knob of a standard bbd delay, albeit more controlled…. It’s how capacitance is used in the first place within the bbd itself that blows my mind a little.
@@silvertongues2 this is the article I was cribbing from (I updated the description to include it, probably should have in the first place!): www.premierguitar.com/gear/behind-the-bucket-brigade
I don't think this kind of thing was designed for controlled sound design in the slightest, though you were able to figure it out to good effect (you certainly have more patience than me lol) - I think it's designed to be fiddled with until something cool happens. The complex system, I suppose. Guitar pedals have been moved into a very strange role like some kind of physical VST effect with limited controls (to pretty great commercial success).
Collectible VSTs that hold some resale value! Part of the reason I made this video, I think, is that I wanted to retain the option/give myself permission to use this pedal in those "complicated" or "simple" ways, because it for sure *wants* to do its own thing. (If you watch any of the Chase Bliss videos, Joel Korte sort of depicts Thermae as a very opinionated collaborator.) I think I wanted permission to accept that "this thing has a mode where you can't force it to do what you want, and that sounds one way, but you can force it to do what you want in other modes," in part just so I can learn to let go in "complex" mode and not get frustrated.
@@BachelorMachinesTV I had a guitar-player friend ask for help with his weird reverb pedal because I was a "synth person". I don't remember the brand and stuff, but it was a dual reverse reverb or something. The controls, while not totally abstract, were fairly ambiguous - and it was hard to convey the gist of what they did. Funny enough, he was already using the pedal exactly for its purpose - making awesome sounds. I guess the opposite end of the spectrum is building a reverb in Max or PureData or something - I tried and discovered that I, and probably most people, have an ideal workflow spot somewhere between that and a pedal lol, and going either direction can provide unexpected and interesting things.
You are a true Master of explanation in realms no one else can make sense of. My Gratitude and Awe
100% BEST thermae video on the intranets. It took me 4 years to figure out what all you put in this video, and I also learned some from you. Thank you for putting the time into this one. I truly think you video will help people stick with a pedal that is very challenging but also very rewarding
I really wasn't expecting something so in depth by watching what I thought was a pedal demo. Very insightful and interesting!
What an absolute GEM 💎 of a video!!! The thermae is definitely a bucket list pedal (duh dum dum tss!) for me, and this was such a beautiful illumination of how to understand and control it. The midi clocked arp section cycling through chords in cycles of 5ths and 4ths was MINDBLOWINGLY exciting and beautiful ❤ Knowledge is power, so thanks so much for empowering us on our journeys of creative expression! 🙏
THANK YOU! I was turned off by the perceived chaos of that second row of knobs that i traded mine. Phenomenal video I look forward to more.
I am a new thermae owner via the mystery box, and this video has explained so much. Thank you!
I've had a Thermae since it came out and have really struggled to get anything I liked out of it. Honestly this is the most useful video for understanding this pedal that I've seen yet.
Great video! It's been about 15 years since I've kept up with pedals and such. Every time I see these new bits of gear it just blows my mind. I'm an old-school pedal builder but effects technology kind of just left me in the dust. Back then, we were all still obsessed with Fuzz Faces, Tube Screamers, and Crybabies. This reminded me of the time I made a modulation circuit for my old Boss DM-2 to get that nice pitch-shift vibrato. It worked great and could give anything from subtle vibrato to sea-sick tape-flange sounds.
I absolutely love this video - I am in a period of trying to understand chaos vs complexity in my modular synth, which previously was unknown/subconscious. This video puts a twist on everything, with wonderful explanation and links. Oh, and the pedal is pretty cool too I guess :D
Thank you!
This was chock-full of great explanations... thank you!
This is the most important video on the internet
Hi Clint! I'm glad your video was shuffled into my feed. I received a Theramae in my Mystery Box as well. My initial experiments were interesting--and got me a little more inside the head of the pedal designer--but did not yield results I could easily use. That changed with this video. Using Snowden's matrix was such a help! Thank you!! Putting it in step mode was the secret sauce. Next up, MIDI clock. I look forward to checking out your other videos. If they are as good as this one, I'll be spending a bit of time over here.
So THAT'S what you sound like!
😁😁😁
Really interesting stuff mate, always loved the idea of the Chass Bliss pedals.
Great video!
Great explanation. Very well done. My Chase Bliss pedals have a tendency to reel me in with potential but then overwhelm my musicality. Could you please make a similar video on interpersonal relationships? I get overwhelmed there too. Thanks. Great job!!
My question is… how do you find all the information about these underlying mechanisms? Wouldn’t these be hidden by the manufacturer for business reasons?
Cool video…. What I can’t get my head around though is how very analogue capacitors can affect pitch?
I tried to explain it in the video, let me attempt a different analogy: imagine each capacitor as a microscopic region on the surface of a vinyl LP. (It's a pretty tight metaphor since those are both physical locations where somebody has electrically encoded a wave signal.)
The timing circuit in the BBD is controlling the speed at which that encoding is played back out of the row of capacitors. In the vinyl analogy that would be like changing how fast the record is rotating. If the record was mastered at 33RPM and you switch it to 45RPM, then the recording plays back pitched up.
So the Thermae pedal is like a record player that automatically jumps between 33RPM and 45RPM and then back again, only the "record" is sitting in capacitors rather than on a vinyl disc.
Thanks I do get the principle controlling the pitch, the pitch variation is just like someone playing with the time/rate knob of a standard bbd delay, albeit more controlled…. It’s how capacitance is used in the first place within the bbd itself that blows my mind a little.
@@silvertongues2 this is the article I was cribbing from (I updated the description to include it, probably should have in the first place!): www.premierguitar.com/gear/behind-the-bucket-brigade
The midi clock section was revelatory
I don't think this kind of thing was designed for controlled sound design in the slightest, though you were able to figure it out to good effect (you certainly have more patience than me lol) - I think it's designed to be fiddled with until something cool happens. The complex system, I suppose. Guitar pedals have been moved into a very strange role like some kind of physical VST effect with limited controls (to pretty great commercial success).
Collectible VSTs that hold some resale value!
Part of the reason I made this video, I think, is that I wanted to retain the option/give myself permission to use this pedal in those "complicated" or "simple" ways, because it for sure *wants* to do its own thing. (If you watch any of the Chase Bliss videos, Joel Korte sort of depicts Thermae as a very opinionated collaborator.)
I think I wanted permission to accept that "this thing has a mode where you can't force it to do what you want, and that sounds one way, but you can force it to do what you want in other modes," in part just so I can learn to let go in "complex" mode and not get frustrated.
@@BachelorMachinesTV I had a guitar-player friend ask for help with his weird reverb pedal because I was a "synth person". I don't remember the brand and stuff, but it was a dual reverse reverb or something. The controls, while not totally abstract, were fairly ambiguous - and it was hard to convey the gist of what they did. Funny enough, he was already using the pedal exactly for its purpose - making awesome sounds.
I guess the opposite end of the spectrum is building a reverb in Max or PureData or something - I tried and discovered that I, and probably most people, have an ideal workflow spot somewhere between that and a pedal lol, and going either direction can provide unexpected and interesting things.
Man...hopefully I don't get a Thermae in my mystery box...I'm just not smart enough.
..... It's pronounced kenuffin?!