REAL-TIME EFFECTS

Audacity might provide a suitable tool for post-processing recordings, but you wouldn’t choose to use it on stage. For a start some effects involve lots of number crunching so they won’t work in real time, and second you might not want to have a laptop at your feet on stage. In the early days, effects were produced using small pedals containing analogue electronics and, while analogue pedals are still available today and are preferred by some performers, many pedals now contain a digital alternative.

Having got to grips with the physics of effects using GNU Radio Companion, if you’re a performer you might feel inspired to make your own pedals and there’s never been a better time. Indeed, single board computers such as Raspberry Pis and Arduinos offer suitable platforms, and there are options to reduce the amount of hardware you need to design and add yourself.

Take www.electrosmash.com/pedal-pi it’s an open source project that enables you to create an effects pedal from a

Raspberry Pi Zero, although we should point out that it only has a 12-bit ADC so it’s considered an educational tool rather than something for producing polished performances. Most importantly, it’s C programmable so you can create your own effects or, to quote its developers, “get inspiration from the ready-to-use effects from the forum, like Distortion, Fuzz, Delay, Echo, Octaver, Reverb, Tremolo and Looper”. It’s available as just a PCB or as a full kit of parts including everything except the Raspberry Pi Zero.