The Squarewave Parade - Teaspoon

Silent Fly · Post by **Silent Fly** » 10 Oct 2008, 20:56

Does anybody know how this thing might work?

Recently one sold on eBay for $425

. There is one available on eBay right now.

flood · Post by **flood** » 11 Oct 2008, 05:57

sounds a lot like the lo-fi loop junky.

also see:
http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/bo ... .php?t=340
http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/pipermail/synt ... 03148.html

thios takes you to the project:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/ind ... &Itemid=26

Silent Fly · Post by **Silent Fly** » 11 Oct 2008, 10:11

flood wrote:sounds a lot like the lo-fi loop junky.

also see:
http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/bo ... .php?t=340
http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/pipermail/synt ... 03148.html

thios takes you to the project:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/ind ... &Itemid=26

Thanks for the links Flood

. They are interesting projects/ideas.

From the size of the box I wouldn't be surprised if the Teaspoon is just a lo-fi sampling chip with a variable clock. I don't think there is space for much more. Unless it is all SMD of course.

I read somewhere on the web site that if the “time” knob is set to the min the unit may not bootstrap. This might suggest that if the clock runs too slow the chip cannot start(?)

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 12 Oct 2008, 00:35

that's quite a lot of money for pretty much the equivalent of a casio sampler in stompbox form.

Silent Fly · Post by **Silent Fly** » 12 Oct 2008, 09:29

RnFR wrote:that's quite a lot of money for pretty much the equivalent of a casio sampler in stompbox form.

This is why I am interested to know what the box contains

Silent Fly · Post by **Silent Fly** » 12 Oct 2008, 13:06

This one sold for $504.99

Considering that the Roland SP-404 costs around $400 and it is far more powerfull, $504.99 for a Teaspoon doesn't look a great bargain to me.

I will never understand...

Dirk_Hendrik · Post by **Dirk_Hendrik** » 12 Oct 2008, 13:46

RnFR wrote:that's quite a lot of money for pretty much the equivalent of a casio sampler in stompbox form.

I don't think I have any device that has caused to much hours of fun (including bellyaches) as my good old Casio SK1

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 13 Oct 2008, 01:46

I paid about $250 for my Akai S5000 in excellent used condition.
Why pay $400+ for a junk toy when you can have a REAL sampler for cheap?
https://cgi.ebay.com/AKAI-S5000-120MB-R ... 286.c0.m14

ieatyouforbreakfast · Post by **ieatyouforbreakfast** » 13 Oct 2008, 04:29

can do the same thing with my casio sk1.. not very impressive at all..

Silent Fly · Post by **Silent Fly** » 13 Oct 2008, 12:11

soulsonic wrote:I paid about $250 for my Akai S5000 in excellent used condition.
Why pay $400+ for a junk toy when you can have a REAL sampler for cheap?
https://cgi.ebay.com/AKAI-S5000-120MB-R ... 286.c0.m14

Size, battery operated... I guess

To be honest, if I had the schematics and components were not too expensive, I would probably build one. I have the feeling that I would get bored quite quickly though.

jazzmaster · Post by **jazzmaster** » 13 Oct 2008, 13:38

hmmm.. i may contribute something to this, i got a little "lo-fi sampler" that i made about a year ago in a diy workshop.
it has a mic and a speaker, play/record buttons.
ugg this was a pretty bad workshop... docs and everything was poorly copied, i had put it onto shelf for later study,
and make something better out of it. and the guy who lead the workshop didnt had much info about electronics, he was
just jumping in because the real guy was sick.
the ic used is ISD1416. they provided also a mod for it, where u could pitch the loop made with a 4093.
there are many chips in the ISD family, diff. sampling rates and recording times etc. theyre not to cheap, so longer rec needs more $ but you wont get poor for it.

so this is not too far away i think, also when i remember right i was reading the datapage for the ic and there you see
some applications, the build from that workshop is not far away from that. also as the others said its pretty lofi, but u may like
exactly that, and 400$ + hmm better get a boss dd-5 or so, which also can make S+H.

if u like i could scan in the papers i got from the workshop if i find em

but be warned they provided crappy copies and poorly wirtten docs, also its in german

deathofaparty · Post by **deathofaparty** » 11 Jun 2009, 16:24

Okay, so this pedal differ's from most looping pedals in the sense that it automatically begins the loop the second you push the button and stops once you release it (rather than having a record button, then a play button). It also stops your input signal (leaving only the loop) when you have a loop going, and the loop's pitch and length can be adjusted with a knob, while it's looping.

I am looking for some idea of how to recreate THAT. I have no interest in a lofi loop junkie (I have a line 6 delay that does standard loops quite nice), I'm more looking for something that has a stuttery, looped effect similar to what the Teaspoon does (without having to pay an UNGODLY amount of money on ebay: he now only sells on eBay, as if his prices weren't high enough! I genuinely love a lot of what this guy does, but can never afford any of it...).

Does anyone have any ideas for how to mod a design to create this type of effect or something?

thanks!

kriista · Post by **kriista** » 12 Jun 2009, 23:58

If all you want is stuttering buy a boss DD-6.

In hold mode it KILLS the teaspoon, particularly since you can 'capture' different sized loops/grains really quickly, depending on how long your foot is depressed.
You can't change the pitch of it, but for me that's not the exciting part.

Just look up DD-6 Stutter on youtube.

Or fast forward this to 1:56:

He does all that stuff live.

deathofaparty · Post by **deathofaparty** » 15 Jun 2009, 22:59

kriista wrote:If all you want is stuttering buy a boss DD-6.

In hold mode it KILLS the teaspoon, particularly since you can 'capture' different sized loops/grains really quickly, depending on how long your foot is depressed.
You can't change the pitch of it, but for me that's not the exciting part.

Yeah, that's kinda what I'm looking for. Know of any layouts I could use to get a similar effect?

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 16 Jun 2009, 07:28

deathofaparty wrote:
kriista wrote:If all you want is stuttering buy a boss DD-6.

In hold mode it KILLS the teaspoon, particularly since you can 'capture' different sized loops/grains really quickly, depending on how long your foot is depressed.
You can't change the pitch of it, but for me that's not the exciting part.
Yeah, that's kinda what I'm looking for. Know of any layouts I could use to get a similar effect?

You'd probably be better off just buying a DD-6.

deathofaparty · Post by **deathofaparty** » 17 Jun 2009, 19:59

soulsonic wrote: You'd probably be better off just buying a DD-6.

Yeah, you're probably right, but that's not much fun, is it?

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 18 Jun 2009, 08:00

deathofaparty wrote:
soulsonic wrote: You'd probably be better off just buying a DD-6.
Yeah, you're probably right, but that's not much fun, is it?

Hey, at least you'd have the fun of learning how to pull off the hold/repeat tricks as slick as the guy from Melt Banana. I don't expect you can just plug it in and be able to get sounds that cool instantly... definitely something that takes practice to be able to pull off smoothly.
I'm going to pick one up too sometime... for the same reason!

deathofaparty · Post by **deathofaparty** » 22 Jun 2009, 20:12

Have you seen what he is getting for these?
Apparently he only sells the Teaspoon via auctions now, and not even through eBay anymore (I'm guessing he get's the full cut of the profits this way). Here's the link

http://la-ac.com/msbd/viewforum.php?f=17

They're going for massive amounts of money. For some reason it really, really bugs me that he does it this way. I guess it's because I'm definitely never going to be able to afford one!

Silent Fly · Post by **Silent Fly** » 22 Jun 2009, 21:55

The winning offer so far is $350 (BTW it is a used unit). A Korg KP3 costs around $400. With the greatest respect for the teaspoon there is absolutely no comparison in terms of functionality, interface, connectivity and sound quality.

People can do what they like with their money but to me, $350 for a teaspoon make no sense.

deathofaparty · Post by **deathofaparty** » 22 Jun 2009, 23:21

Silent Fly wrote:The winning offer so far is $350 (BTW it is a used unit). ...
People can do what they like with their money but to me, $350 for a teaspoon make no sense.

Check out the ones that ended already: #11 went for $675, #10 for $635, #9 for $630

WTF.