Black Box Theory

The Corvus Audio webpage has been up for some time.  In that time I never thought to run a blog where I can give out informationals to dispel a lot of myths that go around in the music world as well as give advice, tips and tricks that I learned first hand the hard way.  Over on the Andy Sneap, Ultimate Metal sub forum, it would seem too arrogant for me to post an informational about a topic that may have been discussed before to have a thread that was informational but overall trivial and left a discussion of electronic gurus from all levels of experience to fight out how they understood electronics.

I don't care to write books to make a profit, I always wanted to give the information that I had for free, mostly because my knowledge in the music world came to me at no cost and I have learned additional things a long the way.  The best thing I realized I could do was to make a blog on my very website, hosted by Blogger of course, to allow me to give our such free information.

The first topic is a rather psychological one, one of the belief that visual representations can change perception of aural stimuli.  When I first started building stompboxes this was never something I had in mind, but as time went on I developed this love for the Black Box.  What I mean is, when I first started making stompboxes, I wanted to make them different colors, different graphics and sized to the electronic components.  After hand painting my first two boxes white, I realized that it took too much time without proper equipment, in my case I wanted to power coat, but the company that I got the boxes from offered every enclosure in a textured flat black.  When I first put everything together, I absolutely loved the look.  The problem was that because black was used by a pedal, I couldn't use it again for something I was more proud of, something I felt black really deserved.

Then it hit me, use the same enclosure with the same power coat from the factory for all the pedals.

I realized that this was something different.  To date, no other company has made stompboxes in only one color, let alone black and to make them the same size, with the same simplistic graphic means that the only way to tell one pedal from the other is by the the small labeling noting what the pedal is.  The layouts for all pedals being the same, means they all look the same, a very simple plain, but still aesthetically pleasing appearance.  The user won't be enticed to like or dislike the sound based on its appearance, certain colors effecting the way they perceive the sound.  Down to the overly simplistic programmer or electrical engineering font, the only sense of attitude is from the Corvus Audio font.

The enclosures still have a vibe about them, something that does look good to see, but they have an emotionally neutral vibe, and as far as I am concerned, that is the way I like it.

As always, check out Corvus Audio for new products and be sure to like us on Facebook.