Wish VFE Standout Mid booster Pedal

[sluice]

The VFE Standout Mid booster is a boutique pedal that just sounds marvelous.

What makes it different from other boost pedal. It features a Low Pass Filer, High Pass filter, blend knob (to blend dry and wet signal) as well as a lot of boost on tap!

It is by far my desert island boost pedal.



PS: perhaps there is a way to emulate this pedal in the Axe currently? If so I would leave to know how!

PPS: I would love to help the FAS team, by sending my pedal, if they ever work on implementing it!

 

[chris]

try the Filter block set to Peaking type. you have the Low and High cut already there, boost whatever mid range frequency you want. or the PEQ block as well. you can put it in a parallel row if you want to blend it.

 

[Tiger1016]

try the Filter block set to Peaking type. you have the Low and High cut already there, boost whatever mid range frequency you want. or the PEQ block as well. you can put it in a parallel row if you want to blend it.

Thanks for this tip. I found this post after seeing some comments about the Standout working great with the amps that I have.

Do you happen to have an idea that frequency and Q would get close to the Standout? Not looking to recreate it perfectly but more as a starting point to start tweaking from.

 

[Matthes]

I own a VFE Standout, indeed an awesome pedal (my favorite boost beside the Precision Drive).
The pedal does not use a peaking type EQ, only high and low pass EQ (so only the mids are left and can "stand out").
That can be easily simulated using the PEQ block and a parallel path for the VFE's blend control.
I can check the exact values and ranges of parameters tomorrow.

 

[Tiger1016]

I own a VFE Standout, indeed an awesome pedal (my favorite boost beside the Precision Drive).
The pedal does not use a peaking type EQ, only high and low pass EQ (so only the mids are left and can "stand out").
That can be easily simulated using the PEQ block and a parallel path for the VFE's blend control.
I can check the exact values and ranges of parameters tomorrow.

Ahh good to know. If it is just high and low cuts, that was going to be the easy part to go after by ear. For me at least. Others who find this thread might want to know the specifics.

Were you thinking of running some pink noise through the pedal and looking at the RTA block as you adjusted parameters? I was thinking of doing that with the handful of pedals that I recently accumulated.

BTW have you found any tricks to neutralizing the kind of honkyness/upper mid spike that the Precision Drive is kind of known for? I have only tried the Axe model of it, but have preferred the Airis Parallel Tube Screamer, KSR Eros, Airis Savage Drive, and Airis Nebula over the PD in that order, even after trying out the deep editing parameters in the Axe to try to dial it in to be closer to my thing. I think it was just a bad pairing with the amps I had tried it out which which already have a bunch of upper mids (Mark IIC+ then Wizard Modern Classic), but it might pair better with the Wizard MTL that I just picked up since it has more of a low mid focus.

 

[Matthes]

Were you thinking of running some pink noise through the pedal and looking at the RTA block as you adjusted parameters? I was thinking of doing that with the handful of pedals that I recently accumulated.

Exactly, I'll attach some measurement graphs.

BTW have you found any tricks to neutralizing the kind of honkyness/upper mid spike that the Precision Drive is kind of known for?

I think that really depends on the specific application:
But I have to say that I only own the FM 3 and the Precision Drive is not available in the FM 3 yet.
I use the PD pedal for boosting my amps (amp gain set to a crunchy tone) into Metal territory.
For this the mid spike is very helpful (like a Boss SD-1 or TS-808). But that is not only about adding mids:
Boosting the mids before the distortion stage (the pre-amp) makes the mids distort more that the bass and treble - personally I like hat (in a Metal context). If you want less of the mid spike you can set the Attack and Bright control to low settings.
But for more bass and low mids the PD might not be the best suited pedal (even though you probaly can tweak the FAS version towards that direction).

 

[Matthes]

First of all, I checked my Precision Drive pedal again:
Forget what I said about the effect of the attack on the (upper) mid spike.
Only the bright control can reduce the upper mids when set very low (of course that will affect the trebel even more).
So if you do not want that kind of mid boost you should use a different pedal.

Now the VFE Standout - it is really easy to replicate that with the FAS PEQ block:
1. A high-pass filter ("blocking" type for 1st EQ band) with a frequency range from approx. 90 Hz to 2000 Hz with 6dB/oct or 12dB/oct.
2. A low-pass filter ("blocking" type for last EQ band) with a frequency range from approx. 14000 Hz down to 2000 Hz with 6dB/oct or 12dB/oct.
3. Level boost up to 30 (!) dB.
4. To simulate the "Blend" control, you can mix the EQ'd signal with the dry signal using the FAS Mixer block.

That's basically it.

But I promised to add some graphs as well so here we go (as frequency analyser I used the Voxengo Gliss EQ).

First of all, I think this pedal is hand build and there are tollerances of the potentiometers and the other parts.
So it is important to note that the exact settings of the controls may somewhat vary from pedal to pedal.

Here 3 examples of what can be done by using only the HPF, LPF and level control:


Now a look to the range of the pedal's controls.
Here the pedal's "level" range, with pedal bypass (red), level at just below 2 (white), level at 5 (blue) and level at 10 (red):


Next the HPF control range for the 12dB/oct setting . There is little effect from 0 (green) to 2 (white):


The same for the 6 dB/oct setting:

 

[Matthes]

The same for the LPF control, first the 12 dB/oct setting:


And the 6 dB/oct setting:


Next some examples how to replicate the VEF Standout's settings with the FAS PEQ.
The filter slopes of the analog pedal are a littel less steep than in the FAS blocking filters, but I think it is close enough.
And there is a type in the legend of all graphs: "FSA" should be "FAS", sorry for that.

Here in green the VFE with the HPF control at 2, 5 and 8 at 12 dB/oct, level at 5.
And in blue the FAS PEQ 12 dB/oct blocking filter at 90 Hz, 320 Hz and 2000 Hz, level at 12 dB.


The same for the HPF 6 dB/oct setting:


And the LPF control, in green the VFE at 2, 5 and 8 at 12 dB/oct, level at 5.
And in blue the FAS PEQ 12 dB/oct blocking filter at 600 Hz, 2500 Hz and 5000 Hz, level at 12 dB.


Same for the LPF 6 dB/oct setting:


And finally an example of how to replicate the "blend" control.
The FAS Mixer block can be used to mix the EQ'd signal with the dry signal:


That's all I think. Now I play guitar, have a great weekend!