Playing basics
SHIFT and the mode switch
Section titled “SHIFT and the mode switch”SHIFT means holding the CHOMPI key. The CHOMPI key lights white while it acts as SHIFT. The mode switch picks the page: down is the play page, which most of this manual is about; up is the settings page, for what you set once rather than play. If the keys don’t play, flip it down.
Holding CHOMPI while you use another key or knob is SHIFT; tapping it alone confirms a scene save, copy or delete.
Some controls do more than one thing, each on a page of its own, picked with a press: VOLUME’s pages 1-3 (below), and on knobs 1-4 an effect’s page 2, the second set of its parameters. Picking a page blinks its number in white on the LEDs: once for page 1, twice for page 2, and so on. These pages are not the play page and the settings page, which the mode switch picks.
VOLUME knob
Section titled “VOLUME knob”| Control | Function | LED |
|---|---|---|
| Turn (page 1, default) | Output gain, headphone + master (default 75%) | VU meter of the master, scaled by gain: dim when silent, then green, yellow, pink at the loudest |
| Press, then turn (page 2) | Input gain of the input you hear, AUX or the mic: each has its own, saved (default 75%) | the input’s meter: dim when silent, then green, yellow, red where the loop would clip; while you turn, the gain: blue (0%) to red (100%) |
| Press twice, then turn (page 3) | Headphone feed: left towards the input alone, right back to the master out (default: the master out) | white (master) to green (input) |
| Press on page 3 | Back to page 1 | blinks once |
| SHIFT + turn | Input/loop mix: input only to loop only | green (input) to purple (loop) |
| SHIFT + press | Resets the input/loop mix: the loop only while there is one, otherwise the input only |
Turning moves the gains 2% per detent, the input/loop mix (SHIFT + turn) 4% and the headphone feed 1%. Whether a press is SHIFT + press is decided when it goes down, so letting go of CHOMPI first doesn’t also change the page.
- The input gain is the one setting here that’s saved: AUX and the mic each keep their own on the card (2 s after the last turn), and switching the input picks its gain. The output gain, the input/loop mix and the headphone feed start from their defaults at every power-on.
- The input/loop mix moves by itself: it starts on the input only, jumps to the loop only when a recording finishes, so the loop isn’t heard twice, and back to the input only when the loop is erased. SHIFT + press puts it back there whenever you’ve turned it. The punch-in FX come after this mix, so they act on the input as well as the loop.
- The input’s meter (page 2) shows what the looper records, after the input gain. It’s red where the loop’s limiter takes the level down (just under full scale, see Looper), held a moment so a short peak is seen; turn the gain down until it only flashes red on the loudest hits. For a second after a turn it shows the gain instead, blue to red.
- Headphone feed (page 3): the master out always carries the full signal. Turned left, the headphones carry the input alone instead (AUX or the mic, after input gain and VOLUME): no loop, no effects, no compressor. It’s where you hear the mic while it isn’t monitored (see Input: AUX or the mic). Use it when the master goes to a PA, mixer or recorder and you listen on the headphones; with headphones alone, leave it at the master. It’s back on the master at every power-on.
LED colours
Section titled “LED colours”Every effect has its own colour, on its key and its knobs (see Keys and knobs). Throughout FRIZZ, 3 quick red blinks mean refused or not stored, and 3 white ones done. Besides the effects’ own colours, red lit or blinking slowly means something else: LOOP recording or waiting to erase, the compressor’s key while the safety limiter works, the input gain near 100% (VOLUME’s page 2), on the settings page the clock factor on double, and VOLUME in the low-battery countdown.
Waiting for something blinks slowly: LOOP while a recording finishes its bar, a picked scene slot, the CHOMPI key ready to confirm. On the knobs, white is a parameter’s neutral point. The LED brightness sets how bright all of them are.