Object Worship Dan Pechacek, Andy Othling

Today we're joined by singer and multi-instrumentalist Courtney Swain, to talk about her first pedal: the Chase Bliss Blooper. We start with some voicemails about musical flubs because silly old Andy goofed the prompt in Discord, then move into the beginnings of Courtney's pedal journey and how it opened up her creative practice. We talk about processing voice through pedals, the magic of parallel blending, the different ways Courtney and Andy use Blooper and other Chase Bliss pedals, how the aesthetic of a pedal designer can inform the aesthetic of a performer, and how creativity isn't a well to dry up but a self-sustaining ecosystem. It's a big one, get into it!

It's hogs all the way down this week as we're joined by Alex Paul, guitarist in Girih and design and manufacturing brain behind Robot Graves Industries. You might think we talk about aluminum guitar necks, but we get too busy asking the hogline about their favorite Electro Harmonix pedals, then dive deep on Alex's favorite: the HOG Harmonic Octave Generator V1. We talk about the utility of six footswitches vs a suite of MIDI functionality, and the je ne sais quoi of sound quality across pedal versions. We also talk a lot about what it means to perform music, and the way technology can both help and hinder the interaction between artist and audience.

Today we, well, forgive us but: express ourselves. We're joined by Damian Kastbauer of Pedal Brainz to talk all things expression. His journey starts with a gutted Dunlop Crybaby adapted to control the trimpot on an Ibanez DM1100 delay, and leads to his own unique expression control products. We get some calls from the hogs about their favorite pedals to express, and try to give some technical info on both expression and CV while exploring the creative realms that open up when you don't take sound so linearly. Andy and Damian find a commonality in their approach to musical gear setups while Dan periodically reminds the listener that Old Blood just came out with the Expression Ramper X3.

This one is a bag of chips and also all that, as we're joined by Andon Whitehorn of Lantern Manufacturing. Andon tells us about the Mitsubishi M65850 delay chip, a largely overlooked relative of the infamous PT2399, and how it served as a gateway to designing pedal circuits around esoteric chips. We circle back to some familiar ideas, touching on old technology vs new and the way inspiration can come from limitation, and dive deep on how Andon makes things difficult on himself by prizing process as much as product. We do also yes talk about potato chips.

Today we're joined by Joel Korte of Chase Bliss! Joel's an inspiring figure in the gear industry, both for his engineering and his being-a-great-human. We get to know his story through the lens of the ZVEX Lo-Fi Loop Junky, a unique design using the ChipCorder voice recording chip to create short, compressed, warbling loops. We learn how Joel found himself at ZVEX, how he went from being a fan of the pedal to reinterpreting its sound as the Instant Lo-Fi Junky, and how he eventually went on to create Chase Bliss. This episode is about perseverance, engineering, and some goofs along the way - get in!

That's right folks, it's time for a different type of actuator. Today we're joined by Alex Beachum, creative director of Outer Wilds. We talk about his favorite controller, the Dualshock 4, as part of a wider conversation about how we interact with games. We get some insight into the development of Outer Wilds, talk about its emotional impact, and get into some other games that influenced Alex. Plus, Andy gets to talk about Fortnite, we all try to remember what the deal with that Seaman game for Dreamcast was, and Clint shares with us a traumatic memory via hogline. Tarry no further let's listen!