First, we’d like to thank all 1940 of you that took the time to responded to our 2023 customer survey. We sincerely appreciate it and are looking forward to the exciting years ahead.
As promised, we’ve spent some time digging through your responses and have chosen a selection of them to answer.
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Will you be releasing new bass pedals in 2024?
All going well, there should be at least one new pedal for bass players to get excited about next year. The prototype sounds good and has already appeared on its first record!
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Where is the fuzz?
The fuzz is sitting on our to-do list and a heavily modified rat’s nest of wires is sitting in a cardboard box on our prototype shelf. We have some great ideas, but ideas and finished products are entirely different things. We want to offer something genuinely unique, which means lots of time for experimentation and refinement.
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Would it be feasible to refresh classics in a smaller form factor?
If we were to do that, we would want to make more improvements than just a smaller enclosure. Our products are all rather complicated, so cramming them into a smaller box would be quite a big job. That being the case, we wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to make improvements while we’re at it!
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I’d love more tutorial videos!
So would we! Going into 2024, we’re hoping to focus some effort on creating content that helps owners of our products to get more from them. There are two people (Jacob and John) who work on all our marketing materials, amongst other duties, so time is always the issue. But we’re making it a priority for every future product launch.
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How do you make pedals sound like amps?
We don’t skimp on components. Modelling amp behaviours in analogue takes a lot of clever engineering, and even more parts!
Through a serious amount of complicated circuitry and engineering effort. We refer to our ‘Amp-in-a-Box’ pedals as ‘Analogue Amp Recreation’ pedals, and we do this for a reason. When we make an Analogue Amp Recreation, we literally make the whole amp, just in a pedal-sized box. We recreate the entire circuit topology in miniature using analogue components, including the preamp, power supply, rectifier (complete with sag characteristics) and even a tiny push-pull power amp and reactive load for authentic overdrive and feel.
Classic valve amps sound and feel the way they do because of how all the parts interact with each other, and that’s what we aim to recreate with our pedals. Plus, it allows you to use our pedals as a convincing amp replacement in a direct rig or with an external power-amp.
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Can I use the tremolo of the DELUXE61 on its own?
Following on from the previous answer, the DELUXE 61 is a recreation of the Fender Brown Deluxe and its bias tremolo is very much part of the amp as a whole. Because the tremolo effect is created by modulating the bias of the amp’s output valves (and the DELUXE61’s tiny push-pull stage), you are able to “push through” the tremolo effect by picking harder and overdriving the output stage.
This means that the tremolo circuit and the amp circuit have an unbreakable bond. You can have an amp without bias trem, but you can’t have bias trem without an amp. There is a similar situation occurring in the MAGMA57, where the vibrato effect is also tied to the amp circuitry.
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Is making pedal-inspired products a permanent shift?Are we going to continue to make Halcyon and other pedal-inspired products? Yes. We have plans for future Origin Effects takes on classic pedal sounds and circuits. We’ve certainly had plenty of requests for more.
Are we going to make products closer to what we’ve been historically known for (Amp pedals, studio-inspired offerings)? Also yes! We have plenty of ideas and products in the works that have little to no connection to the world of Tube Screamers & Klons. We still love amps and we’re still massive studio nerds.
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Do you sell B-Stock pedals?
Yes! It’s only a recent development and stock is always very limited. Truth be told, we don’t get many B-Stock units. As we manufacture in the UK, B-Stock sales are limited to those purchasing within the UK.
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Will you make a preamp for keys? (Fender Rhodes)
Specifically for keys? We don’t have anything planned. That said, there is no reason why you can’t use our guitar pedals on the instrument. Last year, we made two quick videos using the MAGMA57 & DELUXE61 on a Rhodes, Nord & Pianet-T. Paired with something for cabinet simulation, we thought the results were rather fun!
MAGMA57 & Keys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdmDGBGnWoI
DELUXE61 & Keys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xm9EdSDYTY
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What do the internal trimmers do?
To start, we advise you don’t touch them. The internal trimmers in our pedals are used as part of our factory test procedure, where every pedal is hand tested & calibrated for unit-to-unit consistency and to ensure they meet our specification. What the trimmers actually do varies product to product. In no product do they do anything the user would wish to have control over.
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Will you make a preamp that can be used with IRs?
We already do! Simply put any of our Analogue Amp Recreation pedals into P/AMP mode and connect to your cabinet simulator or IR loader.
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Do you have any plans to release a budget line? (Like JHS or Walrus Audio)
At the moment, we don’t. JHS & Walrus have done a fantastic job of designing simple yet effective implementations of some very useful sounds, at a price that is hard to argue with. It’s truly a fantastic time to be a guitarist on a budget. With our manufacturing costs, and the design approach we tend favour, offering anything down near that sub-$99 price point would be tricky. The things that define Origin Effects products – like fastidious engineering and top-quality parts – are hard to preserve at a lower price. It’s hard to see what we could add to that area of the market, considering how many great options are already out there.
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Why are your products so expensive?
Jordan performing final listen tests on units before boxing. This is the final test before sending pedals off to their new owners! Ever pedal we make goes through at least 2 factory tests, one pre-build, one post-build.
Because a lot goes into them. We mean this in both a physical and conceptual sense. Pretty much all of what we do centres around recreating the fine details of classic sounds, and complicated processes like our Adaptive Circuitry, and cramming it into pedal enclosures. Firstly, this always requires a lengthy research and testing process to arrive at a circuit that does what we want at the standard we require. Secondly, the circuit that results from this process is always a complex one, using a large number of components. For example: the Halcyon Green Overdrive has 258 electronic components compared to the 80-odd components in a Tube Screamer, and this is what’s required to implement the extra features in our pedal. Some might call it over-the-top but you can’t say we’re not committed to the job! Thirdly, we want our products to last a long time and withstand touring, as well as being lovely things to own. This means we build them out of the best parts available, with a sturdy custom enclosure, all put together by hand in our facility in the UK. Finally, all this clever circuitry requires an in-depth test procedure to make sure all our nerdy features work properly, and we test every pedal before it leaves the warehouse.
We know we’re more expensive than most, but this is what it costs to do things the way we do. Origin pedals are the result of Origin’s processes and choice of parts, which is why we’re not quite sure how a budget line would work.
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Will you re-issue the original large-format Cali76 models?
We don’t have any plans to reissue these pedals in their original form. At this point, if we were to revisit the idea in the future, it’d be nice to make a version that can be more permanent.
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How do you make an analogue cab sim?
In simple terms, an analogue cab sim is a fixed EQ curve representing the frequency response of a cab/mic setup. Because you’re making it in analogue, the accuracy (and quality) of this analogue filter is a result of your design decisions (choosing the shape of the EQ) and your willingness to add circuit complexity (more detail requires more components).
An analogue cab sim on its own can sound fine but it might not be all that exciting. We’ve found the part that makes it feel ‘alive’ is the circuitry proceeding it. By recreating the whole amp in our pedals, we get that reactance you get from an amp interacting with a speaker. Our pedals also can also output the right frequency range to help a good cab sim produce a really convincing sound.
And yes, before anyone asks, analogue cab sims can also be made for guitar too. Guitar cab sims usually require a tad more complexity and accuracy to sound convincing. The other issue with guitar cab sims is that the guitar community seems much more convinced that IRs are the only way. Busting this myth makes an analogue guitar cab sim even more appealing!
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Could you make a reverb & delay pedal?
We would love to make an analogue delay and we plan to. Like all our products, the design process for one will be long and there is certainly lots of testing to be done along the way. Don’t expect it tomorrow, but there is one in our future.As for reverb, our expertise is currently in the analogue domain and analogue reverb presents some issues. Namely, without a TARDIS, fitting an analogue room, hall or plate in a pedal might prove a tad tricky. Our engineers are good, but they aren’t that good.
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How do you come up with/decide what products to make?
Being a small team, nearly all of whom pursue music outside of office hours, there is always a lot of gear-talk taking place and a lot of ideas floating around.Sometimes that is as simple as, “I think THIS is a really cool amp. Wouldn’t it be great to own a small one instead of the expensive, hard to maintain vintage one?”. Sometimes it’s a more complex idea: “The Tube Screamers/Klons are cool. What if you could have a useful mid-forward drive, that also sounds good when you start to play softer and more dynamically?”. This concept, after extensive engineering effort, birthed our Adaptive Circuitry.
There is always an “Origin Effects Factor” we’re trying to find when approaching new designs and spec’ing future products. From there, it’ll either be deposited into our master roadmap/product ideas spreadsheet or Simon will turn up with a baffling prototype that’d get you stopped by airport security.
This is where Mr John Dines as Product Manager comes in. His job is to shape a product spec that is representative of what we want the final pedal to look like. Narrowing down potential feature lists, figuring out what does and doesn’t sound good about a prototype and performing some market research to understand what is out there.
All our products exist because at least one person is excited about designing the pedal and shaping the sounds it will make. If the sound of something doesn’t excite those working on it, the idea will likely be canned.
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What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found designing a product?
Asbestos. (Professionally and safely removed upon discovery).
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The wonderful Woodworm Studios, where we record a lot of our videos.
Do you have plans for more studio effects? Why do you make studio gear?
Do we have plans for more studio-inspired pedals? Yes.
Why? Well, there are a few answers to that. Firstly, is that it’s how our story started. The Cali76 has become a staple of the pedal world (for which we are very thankful) and, over time, people have come to expect that sort of approach from us.
Second is that those of us who work here are BIG pro-audio nerds. Our staff consists of ex-Solid State Logic and Focusrite employees; ex-Studio, live-sound & broadcast staff, who’ve worked at some of the biggest recording studios and broadcast facilities in the UK and US; people who write and record their own projects and freelance on other people’s recordings and, finally, those of us who perform either for our own pleasure, or as paid session musicians.
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Would you ever make artist themed pedals? E.g Hendrix, Gilmour
It’s unlikely we’d ever make an artist-in-a-box style pedal, at least not any time soon. That said, sounds heard on classic records are already something we’re thinking about when finding inspiration for products. When chasing amp sounds, there is generally a collection of album references we have in mind.
Whilst none of our pedals are explicitly “some famous guy in a box”, combining our pedals with others can quickly get you nailing famous tones. Lord knows how many artists used a Marshall or Fender amp, combined with a KLON or TS-style pedal.This is also why we’re not very interested in combining, say, a RevivalDRIVE Compact and Halcyon in the same enclosure. The other reason is that the majority of the cost is in the electronics, so it wouldn’t end up any cheaper.
Is making pedal-inspired products a permanent shift?
