!
CSIDMAN
INTRODUCTION
Emoclew ot eht NAMDISC!
The first thing to keep in mind about the CSIDMAN is that it completely embraces and
makes no apologies for the fact that it is digital (though it does have a 100% analog
dry path). Digital is the CSIDMAN’s aesthetic: as a delay pedal, it strives to reproduce
echoes as true to the input as possible without filtering. When you utilize its scratched
disc, stuttery, and glitchy behaviors, it is pseudo-random, yet gives you a certain
amount of “control” over the randomness. We've taken the idea of your old skipping
portable CD player and incorporated it into a digital delay pedal that not only does
normal delay sounds (at CD quality ;) but can also skip, stutter, and glitch just like your
beloved old CD player!
Plug your instrument into the CSIDMAN and directly into your amplifier.
To begin, set your LATCH knob full counter-clockwise. For now ignore the CUTS knob,
and use your TIME, MIX, FEED knobs to dial in traditional delay sounds.
Now that you have dialed up a conventional digital delay sound let's make it glitch by
turning up the LATCH a bit. Keep playing a staccato chord to hear how every repeat
cycle randomly glitches. Turning CUTS counter-clockwise makes the slices bigger,
turning it clockwise makes the slices smaller.
Spend some time here and really pay attention to what the FEED, CUTS and LATCH
knobs are controlling as they are all codependent. The higher the FEED setting, the
more the LATCH control will be affected, etc. As you are skip-p-ping through these
settings you can fully appreciate what the CSIDMAN is intending, as the behavior is
completely random and outside your control. There are a variety of other sounds
available, utilizing different ratios of FEED, CUTS and LATCH. Keeping in mind any
adjustments you make to the FEED, CUTS or LATCH controls may still yield
responses that manifest in a random way.
For a more details on each control, keep reading!
QUICK START
TIME: Controls the echo delay line’s delay
time up to 725mS.
MIX: Gives you control over the wet/dry
balance from 100% wet to 100% dry.
FEED: Controls the amount of feedback.
CUTS: (used in conjunction with the LATCH
knob) Controls the sample rate, the relative
speed that the CSIDMAN skips.
LATCH: Controls the relative time in a cycle
that the CSIDMAN is in a latching skipping
state. When full counterclockwise, it doesn’t
skip, allowing you to use the pedal as a
traditional digital delay. When full clockwise,
the unit is stuck repeating whatever is in the
memory address. At noon, this knob is a
50/50 balance (though random) between a
skip-playback state and non-skip sample
state.
CONTROLS IN DETAIL
POWERING UP THE CSIDMAN
You can power your CSIDMAN with any quality power supply designed for use with
effects pedals. The output should be a negative tip DC from 9 to 18 volts. The CSIDMAN
does not run on batteries. If you want more volume, headroom, and percussive attack,
try running an 18 volt power supply. A 9 volt power supply will have a slightly softer
sound that saturates more easily.
I was first introduced to glitch/stutter effects through that ridiculous Jonny Greenwood video a
number of years ago. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjV9dud_NY0] For years in the back of my
head I puzzled over an application for such musical cacophony. I mean it is an over the top freakout
for peak climactic moments in a performance where the music seems that it cannot rave-up any
further.
Cool, that’s a one trick pony, right? Well, not at all. It came together when I realized the potential for
this sort of effect to dice up familiar gentle sounds, in an uncomfortable yet beautiful way. I was
reminded of an effect my friend and guitarist Paul Rigby (Neko Case, Garth Hudson) asked me for,
something that sounded and intermittent like broken cable. Having spent time listening to Paul play.
The economy, restraint and subtlety that he plays with fits almost within the subconscious of music in
such a way that when he’s not playing everything sounds naked and vacant. There’s something here
for these applications...
OK, glitch. I wondered if there was a cultural context for this sort of effect, something in history that
would do this unintentionally… Something from the human experience, like the echo effect humans
have experienced for eons when shouting in a canyon… Yup! One of the most frustrating
experiences you may remember if you are old enough to have had one of those portable CD players
that do not have pre-read buffers!!
I see technology as the optimistic push through the limitations of existing paradigms: limitations in
materials, processes, functionality, cost, and foresight. With each spearhead of technology, the
limitations of incumbents are resolved. All too often, a slew of new issues are introduced that the
marketplace is willing to overlook, at least for a short period of time. It isn’t too long before the
marketplace demands better, and is willing to abandon the past and pay for the next-generation
solution. Within a period of 125 years we’ve seen the evolution of recorded media go from wax
cylinder phonograph, to tape, to digital.
Somewhere along the way, creatives exploit and embrace the way that limitations of technologies
impose themselves. Imposing their ways much like a collaborator would, a creative will often find
themselves in a love/hate relationship that they can’t imagine living without. What is the reason that
musicians still use tape-based echo devices in an age where digital is nearly technically “perfect”?
Wow and flutter, limited fidelity, and distortion are the hallmarks of tape technology that were
engineered out over time, but musicians still often prefer tape because it adds “character” to their
sound. So I got to thinking, “What are the artifacts of other antiquated technologies that have merit in
a musical context? If David Byrne can find a way to use Powerpoint in an artistic way, why can’t we
create a pedal that intentionally embraces technological limitations that musicians haven’t widely
utilized?”
The CD Discman! There was a magical period of my youth where I could take select parts of my CD
collection with me while I drove around Japan. It was particularly profound because my soundtracks
were carefully curated selections. All it required: a portable CD player, a stockpile of AA batteries,
and a ⅛” to cassette rig. The problem was that my portable CD player didn’t have read-forward
buffering; if I hit a bump, so did the seamless experience of my soundtrack. At the time, it was very
frustrating to be interrupted right when the music was about to rock, but in hindsight, that frustration
was of the sort that I would never experience again. I began to explore the possibilities of putting this
frustration in a pedal. I put some Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto on and wrote the software for what
would become the CSIDMAN.
-Nicholas Harris
DESIGNER NOTES
Loading...