NPD: Alexander Syntax Error

[mbenigni]

Yes, I am the guy who makes fun of Chase Bliss pedals whose output signal bears no identifiable relation with the input signal. And yes this is very much in the same vein... maybe worse LOL. But for some reason I've been low-level obsessed with this pedal since a friend of mine bought it last year, so I finally bought it from him the other day. (Full disclosure: he had finally had it with this pedal the other day. )

I don't know what it is about Alexander stuff. The paint jobs are cool. The sizes and shapes of the enclosures are just slightly "off" in a way that lends an inexplicable toy-like charisma. Like they radiate an irrationality field that makes you want to "collect all four". Even though at least three of them will have no actual musical application whatsoever.

So I'm messing around with this thing and loving it and hating it in equal measure. I go from "Eureka!" to "WTAF?" and back again every 3 minutes. The manual makes expression pedal morphing sound so elegant, but in actual practice it's borked beyond recognition. The pedal can make some gorgeous sounds - everything from rich analog delays to whammy pedal on meth madness, but the sweetspots on the encoders are ridiculously small - like fractions of a degree - and good luck intentionally getting back to that thing you loved 5 minutes ago.

I don't know. I'm not quite at buyer's remorse yet. It's one of those things that almost earns its keep just sitting around being quirky and fun. Like a gumball machine or something. And I see videos of people actually using them and explaining themselves as if there's something... causal happening. So maybe I'm still on a learning curve. Who knows.

 

[Devin]

Nice

I've had an Alexander Space Race for years; big fan of that pedal

 

[mbenigni]

Nice

I've had an Alexander Space Race for years; big fan of that pedal

I've come so close to buying a Space Force so many times...

Their website makes me feel like a little kid drooling over video games I can't afford. Again, totally irrational.

Products — Alexander

www.alexanderpedals.com

 

[Whizzinby]

Everyone needs a WTF IS THAT pedal.

 

[mbenigni]

Took some doing, but I got this happening:

Alexander has one generic TouchOSC template for all their Neo pedals. Once I (finally) got that working, I started optimizing specifically for the Syntax Error. Dealing with this ancient app was a challenge. You’re supposed to be able to transfer templates from PC to iPad over WiFi. But none of that works ~15 years (!) after the fact... and I blew up our router trying to make it happen. I finally had to cut bait and go with cables and iTunes, and iTunes is always a shitshow in its own right. I was astonished when it finally worked lol.

My initial plan was to add a third set of rotary controls to set the values at both heel down and toe down simultaneously, to clear up the ambiguities in trying to set up the expression pedal. That didn't work out: there's nothing in their MIDI model to receive specifically heel down or toe down settings. One CC# programs each of the knobs for wherever the expression pedal happens to be. But even as is, being able to see exactly what all the controls are doing as you sweep the pedal is a big help. I changed some of the labels and ranges to be Syntax Error-specific and that's about it.

The next question: how many actually usable sounds are in here now that I can actually intentionally set them up? It's an improvement, but I really only like two modes, and one of them ("Stretch") feels broken. The "Tweak" knob, which is supposed to set sample buffer length, seems like it's completely randomized every time you load a preset. So a 3 second delay might turn into a 300ms delay or whatever. Still trying to wrap my head around that. No one could say I haven't given the pedal a fair shot LOL.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Took some doing, but I got this happening:

View attachment 24504

Alexander has one generic TouchOSC template for all their Neo pedals. Once I (finally) got that working, I started optimizing specifically for the Syntax Error Dealing with this ancient app was a challenge. You’re supposed to be able to transfer templates from PC to iPad over WiFi. But none of that works 15 years (!) later, and I blew up our router trying to make it happen. I finally had to cut bait and go with cables and iTunes, and iTunes is always a shitshow in its own right. I was astonished when it finally worked lol.

My initial plan was to add a third set of rotary controls to set the values at both heel down and toe down simultaneously, to clear up the ambiguities in trying to set up the expression pedal. That didn't work out: there's nothing in their MIDI model to receive specifically heel down or toe down settings. One CC# programs each of the knobs for wherever the expression pedal happens to be. But even as is, being able to see exactly what all the controls are doing as you sweep the pedal is a big help. I changed some of the labels and ranges to be Syntax Error-specific and that's about it.

The next question: how many actually usable sounds are in here now that I can actually intentionally set them up? It's an improvement, but I really only like two modes, and one of them ("Stretch") feels broken. The "Tweak" knob, which is supposed to set sample buffer length, seems like it's completely randomized every time you load a preset. So a 3 second delay might turn into a 300ms delay or whatever. Still trying to wrap my head around that. No one could say I haven't given the pedal a fair shot LOL.

This is peak MBenigni right here

 

[mbenigni]

This is peak MBenigni right here

I can't think of a single instance where I'd actually need to use this pedal.

 

[Whizzinby]

I can't think of a single instance where I'd actually need to use this pedal.

This hits home for about half the pedals I’ve ever bought.