About

 About the blog

In this blog, I'll be rambling about mostly two things: music and software development. This is my fourth attempt at blogging so far, but this time, I think I can write more than 4 articles in two years.

The main kind of post I'm writing to this blog are "average Joe" gear reviews.

About the author

My name is J.P. and I live on the south shore of Montréal. I am a software developer currently working in the healthcare IT industry. I have a few tattoos. Former pet parent, I love most animals. I've been playing guitar for a long time, and bass since 2018 (talent may or may not have been acquired for both instruments). I am fascinated by sound and what one can do to modify it. I own, according to some, too many effect pedals. Electronics enthusiast, I also make my own effect pedals, either from pre-designed PCBs or from scratch if the circuit is simple enough.

Attributions

Popular posts from this blog

JP's Gear Review v2.0 - Ep. 3 - Little Bear G3: A tube-based overdrive for 65$! Is it any good?

Image
  Shortly after my latest purchases (that I still have to review), I fell into a Google Search rabbit hole of pedals that use a vacuum tube. The Blackbird, the AMT SS-20, the Ashdown Engineering Original Valve Pre-DI, and the Behringer VT999 were commonly discussed and I considered getting one of these, but quickly changed my mind. The first 3 are outrageously expensive (760$ for the Original Valve Pre-DI...) and the Behringer is difficult to find. The used ones go for roughly the same price as a new one, and it's not really worth it. However, another model showed up in the form of an eBay listing: Nobsound Little Bear G3 . It looks completely unassuming and very different than your typical pedal. It sells for about 65$CAD on eBay and has generally positive reviews. For the price, why not? I ordered it on the 23rd of August, and received it in my mailbox this afternoon. Unboxing Unboxing was uneventful. It was well packaged it lots of foam, and the tube was already installed. A 12V...
Read more

STM32 Development: Configuring Arduino IDE/Visual Studio to build and deploy to STM32-based boards

Image
As a follow-up to my previous post, where I talked about using Visual Studio for Arduino development, this post will be providing an abridge guide to set it up correctly with Visual Micro's Arduino IDE for Visual Studio extension. There will also be a configuration guide to enable STM32 build and deployment. Prerequisites steps You NEED to have Arduino IDE (from arduino.cc) installed on your computer for full compatibility. The Windows Store App version is not supported by Visual Micro. Visual studio configuration Download Visual Studio Community Edition from Microsoft's website. https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ Download Visual Micro's Arduino IDE for Visual Studio extension from either Visual Micro's website or Visual Studio Marketplace https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualMicro.ArduinoIDEforVisualStudio https://www.visualmicro.com/page/Arduino-Visual-Studio-Downloads.aspx Launch the installer and follow the prompts. When asked which c...
Read more

New circuits from GuitarPCB and debugging the GuitarPCB Big Muff Pi Opamp board

Image
New stuff (and some bugs)! I ordered a few PCBs from GuitarPCB.com. It's becoming one of my favorite place to order PCB from. Instructions are clear and the PCBs are top quality. Barry (the owner) is always helping on the forums and so far I've had nothing but success. The new stuff Here's what I ordered in the last few weeks: two different Big Muff Pi circuits ( Big Muff Pi Muff'N  built to the Skreddy Pedals Mayonnaise Muff specs, and the Big Muff Pi Opamp ) many One Knob Fuzz (they are so fun and easy to built and incorporate in anything that needs a fuzz) 4-Track Fuzz (which sounds like the distortion on old recording equipment when audio levels are maxed) Industrial Fuzz (based on ZVex Fuzz Factory) Sriracha Fuzz Ratt Deluxe a few Emerald Ring octave-up daughter board Plexi-Plus (similar to the Marvel circuit) Bass Driver (SVT preamp-style) Bass OD Add-Verb reverb Mini Me  MN3207-based with CD4047N clock driver chorus a few Buff N' Blend their 3PDT Vari-B...
Read more