I design pedals for Visual Sound LLC.

I have for some years now, but sometimes I still get asked about it. I met ob !eil, the owner of Visual Sound on the internet before there was a world wide web to speak of. a"k in # $%%&, was it' # ob was working on a number of effe"ts with the "ommon thread of providing visual feedba"k to a guitarist so they "ould tell what they were doing on a loud stage. (e was "hasing ways to make better tools for the working musi"ian, a way to let them have some more ways to get their musi" out to the audien"e without having to mess with learning and "oping with te"hnology) in effe"t, preserving the intuitive and artisti" nature of musi" "reation more naturally. ut he was having a te"hni"al problem. ob is a "reative guy who understands what musi"ians need, and at the time had taught himself a lot of ele"troni"s te"hnology, enough to get pedal designs going. *he problem he was hitting is a "ommon, but subtle one. (e had ground noise issues. *he visual display on the unit was "ausing noise in the audio. ob des"ribed the problem on # um' # alt.guitar.effe"ts.something+or+other, the usenet newsgroups being the only net forums that e,isted at the time. I read his des"ription, then wrote him ba"k des"ribing the "ir"uit he was using and some possible solutions to the problems. *hat got his attention be"ause he had not told me what "ir"uits he was using, -ust the issues with noise in the output. It was kind of a parlor+magi" tri"k to play on him) I had done some designs with some of the ICs he was using and was also familiar enough with the ICs on the general market. .ust the des"ription of the problem was enough to nail the IC, and that was enough to pi"k out the problem and the solutions. ut the solutions did work for him, and that made us both happy with the pro"ess. It played right into some of my personal predile"tions. I have been a nut about guitar ele"troni"s and effe"ts sin"e before anyone would let me handle a soldering iron. a"k in the dim rea"hes of time in my teens, I built "ompressors, distortions, and eventually an entire guitar amp for myself. /nd in the long 0ark /ges of the late 12s and 32s when 0I4 ele"troni"s pra"ti"ally vanished, I was still s"ouring the literature for guitar effe"t appli"ations and "ir"uits. *he fanati"ism held me in good stead, I guess. I got an 55 degree, and a "areer. ut it wasn6t designing effe"ts, and so I did that in my "opious spare time. y the time I ran into ob, I was already primed. /t the time, Visual Sound was only ob. (e was woefully unprepared from a te"hni"al standpoint, but "ompletely fearless about diving in and learning ele"troni"s. (e6s never stopped that, and by now he6s better with analog ele"troni"s than many real 556s I know. I was meanwhile working for / 7a-or Computer Company, and was too tied up into the pro"ess to have it make sense to leave my day -ob. ob and I flirted with the idea of my "oming to work for Visual Sound some day, enough to let me know he was serious. /nd I "ould soothe some of my musi"al ele"troni"s beast by offering help as ob needed it. It worked for me, and it worked for ob. /t the time, the late %2s and early 8222s, 9S/ industry had adopted a new dress "ode: don6t wear gray. 5veryone who had more than ;+$2 years of e,perien"e was regarded by the bean+"ounter shadow 7afia as a liability waiting to happen. <ver that stret"h of time, workers be"ame more and more surplus no matter how well they did. I personally found it "urious to get awards and re"ognition for -obs well done, then in a "ouple of months be told how poorly I was doing and how I needed to

improve. 4ou get the pi"ture, and I6m sure many of you are all too familiar with it. So for some years, I was hanging on til I "ould afford to get out of what I didn6t want to be doing, writing up what be"ame =eofe,, and "ollaborating with ob on things I really, really wanted to do. *hose years provided me some "han"e to interview ob and Visual Sound. I had some insight into the workings of the musi" industry. !hat made ob stand out to me is that he was absolutely honest. *hat wasn6t universal, if you understand my understatement. /nd his aim was genuinely to provide musi"ians good tools to ply their "raft. 5ven now, the Visual Sound slogan on the banners >eal tone for real people is absolutely straightforward, no sly grins or winks involved. In effe"t, I got to interview for the -ob for several years. *hat6s a bit odd in today6s world, but it worked well for me. I6m still impressed that Visual Sound values reliability. I6ve worked in pla"es where the push is -ust to get the produ"t out the door. I spend a lot of my time on ?uality "ontrol and looking for ways to make our produ"ts even more reliable than they were before. Visual Sound has marketed the same base set of produ"ts for many years. !hat doesn6t show on the advertising is that the insides have been updated many times to make them last longer, perform better, be more immune to the sometimes+harsh "onditions on a working musi"ian6s stage setup. @or a working musi"ian, the worst possible sound when you step up on stage to play is # silen"e. Visual Sound, as a "ompany, "ares more about real reliability and tone than glitAy, all+"apital letter pronoun"ements with lots of e,"lamation points. I "all it ?uality the hard way + making things work reliably by a"tually making them rugged and reliable. Bovel "on"ept, I know, but it appeals to me. Visual Sound6s a good pla"e to work. !e6re not getting ri"h, but we6re feeding the families, and doing what we Cthere are eight of us there nowD like to do. I like to think that I6m still interviewing for the -ob and that Visual Sound is still interviewing with me. /t this point, I6d still hire them again. 3+D