Recording - July 2018 - 40

PEDALS
IN THE MIX

Another important note is that unlike a common pedalboard
setup where pedals are connected in series with ultra-short
patch cables or even solid "crank" connectors, you're wiring
each pedal to its own slots on a patchbay. That will require
longer individual cables for each pedal, with a clear path
to your patchbay and extra length for when the drawer is
opened and closed.
For my setup I placed all of the pedals with rear-mounted
I/O in the back row, including the Moogerfoogers. For these,
I was able to repurpose some older 3' and 6' 1/4" TS snakes I
had laying around from the days when my keyboard rig was
bigger. For the front row of pedals on the right shelf, I had to
purchase eight 3' cables with right angle ends, as well as two
right-angle 1/4" TRS to dual TS Y-cables to use with the pair of
smaller Strymon pedals, each of which offers stereo input on
a single TRS jack.
Note that while guitar pedals are typically mono, time-based
pedals like reverb and echo often have stereo outputs, and
some even have stereo inputs. Your patchbay should reflect
which ones you want to use this way. Some, like my Moogerfoogers, offer even more options: expression pedal controls,
sync inputs, aux loops, and more. In my case, the only extra
cable I added was a clock input for my MuRF pedal.

When I first plugged in and powered up the Moogs, they
didn't work. Lesson learned: the power connections of all
pedals are not created equal. The polarity of the MoogerFoogers is reversed from most other pedals on the market.
Luckily this was quickly and inexpensively fixed with two Truetone
CYR polarity converters.

Putting it all together
With each pedal attached in place, I first ran all of the power
cables from each pedal back to the Zuma. To secure the power
cables in place, I used plastic zip ties, run through the vent
holes in the shelf and secured with a large flat washer
underneath. Next I ran all of the audio cables in a similar
fashion. See Figures 3 and 4.

Juice
For power I could have strung ten 9-volt adaptors to a
power strip, but since they are all wall warts, that would
have been impractical. Instead I chose the popular option
of a multi-pedal power supply. Many companies make such
devices; as I started this process, Strymon sent me the Zuma
pedal power supply ($249), as well as one of the smaller
Ojai pedal power supplies ($149) for review.
Both are finished in brushed blue aluminum. The Zuma is
the larger of the two at 6.8" x 1.8" x 3.3". Its power supply
is internal and it only needs a standard 3-prong IEC cable. All
of its nine outputs feature a stable 500 mA at 9V each, and
outputs 8 and 9 can be switched to handle 12 and 18 Volt
pedals as well (375mA @12V, 250mA @18V).
The Ojai is literally a third of the size of the Zuma; it offers
five 500mA outputs and no frills other than strong clean power, using an external line-lump PSU. Strymon offers other models as well in different sizes and capabilities, and the whole
system is modular-the Ojai boxes can be daisychained from
a Zuma or another Ojai.
With the Zuma, I was able to power 9 of the 10 pedals
from one unit with impeccably clean sound and zero worries
over insufficient power or ground loops. For the last pedal
(one of the Moogs) I did use a single wall wart PSU.
40

RECORDING July 2018

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