New OWL Pedals coming / Help select patches!

OWL OWL Pedal
#1

We’re planning a limited re-release of the OWL Pedal, which has been out of production since some time.

The new version will be based on the OWL2 board, meaning more RAM and flash memory, and a better codec (less noise, more signal!). Otherwise it will be identical to the ‘classic’ OWL Pedal.

The original OWL Pedal had a crazy number of factory patches (36 plus four user slots) which was cool but almost impossible to navigate. The mkII will have a smaller number of patches, all of which can be replaced by the user.

Now comes the big question: what patches to put on there?

We’ll want a selection that showcases what the OWL can do, what the pedal is good at and the uniqueness of our community.

And not too many! Probably 8 is a good number to land on.

Patches can be changed on the pedal by holding down the pushbutton for 3 seconds, then turning the A knob to select a patch. No more banks - changing patch shouldn’t feel like trying to crack a safe!

So tell us about your current and past favourite patch, the one you can’t do without, the one you keep going back to, the one you bring out as your secret weapon, or the one that’s changed the way you play!

#2

The users begging for a new pedal have been heard!

And I vote for Rings Reverb! But actually, top patches from the library should probably be considered. At least those that make sense in pedal context.

Is it too late to suggest giving it The Eye Of the Lich aka 7 segment indicator?

#3

For this version, yes - sorry!

#4

Owlgaze shimmer is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Link to library:

1 Like
#5

So far I’ve got on my shortlist:

  • DroneBox - a given
  • Rings Reverb
  • Silky Verb (with updated parameter assignments)
  • Owlgaze Shimmer Reverb
  • Ping Pong Delay w Tap Tempo
  • some other delay, maybe tape delay style?
  • multiband distortion, e.g. MDA Bandista or Distorsionista
  • Stereo Phaser
  • a flanger?
  • a pitch shifter

oops that’s more than 8 slots already! Any more suggestions?

Oh and we will need a nice, resonant low pass or multiband filter, too. Maybe a delay with Moog ladder filter, that’s pretty nice.

#6

Is it the same amount of knobs/buttons as OG OWL pedal? Is there normalization between inputs (not uncommon for stereo guitar pedals) or are they completely independent?

Not sure if 2 reverbs make sense if we’re that limited in number of patches. Also, I was considering adding a compressor to Rings Reverb patch - either for ducking reverb output or just as an independent second input that has compression. Not sure which one is more useful.

Regarding multiband distortion, I had some code for crossover filterbank and antialiased non-linearities. So it could be combined into that (OWL2 should have no problems with 4 bands).

I also have a thru-zero flanger patch rewritten with new delay lines stuff. And was looking into FFT based pitchshifter a bit later.

I’m not sure how useful is a standalone filter for guitarists. I think that something like wah-wah would make more sense. If we have enough controls to allow selecting varying amount of input envelope and internal LFO for controlling it, we can combine autowah and wah-wah in a single patch.

Also, most of the above was also possible on OWL1, I think we should consider patches that weren’t possible. I’d propose a looper to waste some RAM. Maybe with several independent loops if there’s more than 1 button.