Foot Switchable iPhone Controller

This was a continuation of an idea from a very old post. I created a foot-switchable iPod controller for myself that incorporated a DI for easy sample playing on stage. A lot of people really liked it. One such person was Justin who plays in the band Ulthar and Veil. He asked me to cobble a simple version together for him, so I did.

I call it an “iPhone controller” now because who the fuck uses an iPod these days. Do they even make them anymore? I have mine, but… well whatever, the function of the circuit accomplishes the same goal: one stomp makes it play/pause, two stomps makes it go forward, three stomps makes it go back. For fuller details on how to build one, check out the details of the old post. To see the guts of this simpler version, read on.

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Impaled’s first national tour was with Nile in the year 2000. Nile controlled a bunch of oogey-boogey Egyptial style samples from a PC tower on stage. I was sure they played Tetris between songs to relax. On another tour with Origin, we thought they’d upped the D.I.Y. by burning a CD with samples on it to play through a Sony Discman, the height of technology. Then came the iPod: relatively cheap, small, and it worked pretty good. For Impaled, Jason hooked up a series of samples and would walk back to his amp to push the “forward” button. I did the same thing a few years later while touring with GWAR. I thought, “There must be a better way.” And there is. But I had to invent it.

Well, I didn’t actually invent shit. I did put together a bunch of other already invented shit in what I think is a pretty novel way. The iSewage uNot incorporates an iPod, a DI box, a stereo-summing circuit, and a momentary foot switch. A musician can control an iPod with his foot for use as a sampler while playing music. Apple plugged in all the technology you need to make it happen, but they forgot to include the instructions.

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