NPD: Chase Bliss Brothers dual overdrive with MIDI

TheBigDipper

I bought it on a whim rather than because I needed another overdrive. But, when (early 2023) I was looking for overdrives that could be controlled by MIDI, this was on the list of things to try - but hard to find, and I went with the Kernom Ridge that is still on my board. This popped up a couple of weeks ago, I'd sold some stuff, had some cash but didn't have a shopping list, so thought "Why not?".

First impressions are very positive. I've only tried it into the front of my Carr Mercury, but there are some very musical sounds in it and, so far, it's been hard to dial in bad ones. Next, it's try with my "go direct" pedalboard into a Tonex. 

The options for using different voices on each side and different ways to stack them (or run in parallel) are going to be fun to experiment with. 

Anyone else got one? Thoughts as an owner? 

The way CB has decided to implement MIDI physical connectivity is a bit of a pain, though. It's specific to just them, and adds a level of complexity for me. They use a TRS socket in a specific way that either requires a special cable or connection to their own MIDI Splitter box.  But, as you can select two different presets on the unit itself, plus "no preset and the controls work where they are" as the third option, there's a bit of flexibility without even going there. 

Wazmeister

I agree with your phrase about 'very musical sounds'. 

I've owned the Brothers a few times, and I'm always amazed at how many 'good' sounds there are in there. Looks as cool as too...

I'm thinking of getting a Morningstar again to midi all mine...

stylesforfree

It's one of my favourites, there's so many tonal possibilities with it. I just wish it had 2 tone knobs, one for bass and one for upper mids.

TheBigDipper

I still think the Brothers is great, but realised it's not the right pedal for me personally. I couldn't afford to keep it, so I sold it a few days ago. 

I wasn't actually looking to replace my Ridge, just curious about the Brothers because one popped up and it was an easy purchase of something I'd always intended to try.

By itself, it makes lovely sounds that inspire me. That hasn't changed. But I play in a band, we have "our" sound, and I found that some of those tones just vanished in the band mix. They can be quite wooly and undefined - which sounds great in isolation - but get lost in everything else. Some of the sounds I was loving at home could not be heard in the mix without a lot of EQ adjustment before/after the Brothers (the tone control on the pedal isn't specific enough). So, recording it would be fine, but playing a gig would be harder for me unless I turned some existing things on their head to make them work. TLDR, too hard to integrate into something that already works for me. 

I think stylesforfree is probably right about it needing extra tone control options. 

Tweaking existing presets isn't as easy as it is on the Ridge. If you recall a preset on the Brothers and want to tweak it slightly, it's not as obvious. You can't tell where a control was set in the preset you've loaded. The Ridge uses the footswitch lights to help. If you touch a control on the Ridge, then the left light comes on if you need to turn the control left to get to the place it was at in the preset or to the right if you need to turn right. You know when the control is in the same place. I find that reassuring and the Brothers doesn't do it. Yes, I know I can just listen, but... :-) 

MIDI connectivity is annoyingly (to me) different. In part, because CB uses the input socket for other things as part of its own ecosystem. The connection is a 1/4in TRS jack socket. I put together a 5-pin DIN to TRS cable with the correct wiring for CB pedals, and it worked with my existing MIDI splitter, but even a right-angled TRS plug takes a lot of pedalboard real estate...  

I never even tried to get to grips with all the dipswitch options for expression pedals, etc., but they looked very comprehensive. 

Wardy66

@TheBigDipper ;The answer of course is a Condor with the Brothers!!

Brio

TheBigDipper said:

The way CB has decided to implement MIDI physical connectivity is a bit of a pain, though. It's specific to just them, and adds a level of complexity for me. They use a TRS socket in a specific way that either requires a special cable or connection to their own MIDI Splitter box.  But, as you can select two different presets on the unit itself, plus "no preset and the controls work where they are" as the third option, there's a bit of flexibility without even going there. 

I have the CB midibox with my pedals but I tend to just use the Faves pedal as a controller, that gives me 7 presets which is enough for me.