Roland Dimension D In-a-Box

[PmCimini]

This pedal is a clone of the famous Roland Dimension D chorus. The Dimension D was a rackmount chorus released in the late 70's, part of Roland's Studio series (The Roland Rack), and since then, it achieved huge fame, defining many music styles of the 80's.

If you never heard about the Dimension D, it is a really SUBTLE chorus, something very different than what you would find when playing through other "liquid" choruses, for example. Considered by many the best analogue chorus ever, this effect gives your equipment a wide profound sound. It has stereo inputs and outputs, and it is a must-have in your stereo setup. It may even sound reverb-ish to some, but this is the gear that defined the lush kind of chorus.

The Dimension D is one of the most valuable studio-gems. Using legendary Roland pristine audio technology, you can see this thing get prices over $900 easily (and you won't see many around). But now, you can have it for a fraction of that price, and the best of all, now you can put it in your pedalboard (sorry rack aficionados, but I won't manufacture rackmount versions).

Over the past months, I designed the Dimension D In-a-Box pedal, incorporating all of the original Dimension D's features inside a stompbox. This analogue pedal has an amazing fidelity towards the original circuit, but it also has improved features, such as the better components, better design, and the intelligent true-stereo-bypass, while leaving the audio circuitry unchanged. This is the kind of pedal that you will not want to turn off. It may not seem so shocking when turned on for the first time, but after a couple hours playing, turn it off and you will realize the amazing enrichment that this pedal brings to your sound.

It has stereo inputs and outputs (four 1/4” jacks total), and five switches in the front panel. The first four control the Dimension D's original presets, and the last switch control the “stereo mode”. The “stereo mode” lets you run both audio paths off one single mono input (as in most guitar rigs). The intelligent true-stereo-bypass allows any combination of true stereo-to-stereo and mono-to-stereo true bypass.

There are many circuits that get close to the Dimension D sound, but none actually manage to achieve it. Roland also released a smaller version of the Dimension D, called Boss DC-2 Dimension C. It can (sometimes) be found for at least $250, but id does not have any of the amazing analogue filtering and biasing that its big brother has. There is also an UAD digital plug-in that emulates the Dimension D, but it is not analogue, and the prices for a DSP system may go well over $1000.

But for $215, you can have the real deal. You get the Dimension D In-a-Box pedal, the 18VAC wallwart, and free Priority Mail shipping to continental US. Overseas buyers should contact me in order to set the price.

Production will start after the first 30 buyers effect their payments, so I won't lose any money if no one buys the pedal. ONLY THROUGH PAYPAL. Safer for me and safer for you.

Hopefully I'll get 30 buyers within next week, so I can start production and mailing them before new year's eve. Great Christmas gift, isn't it?


First prototype being debugged and second prototype ready to go (no decals yet)

7 pedals were already sold!!! 43 left, production starts when 30 are sold.

E-mail me at 'minixeffects [at] gmail [dot] com' if you want to order.

Check more original Dimension D gutshots here
Another eBay auction if you want to check the original rack here

[mosc]

Editors note: this project is not approved (or disapproved) by electro-music.com. If prospective customers want to shell out money for vaporware it's solely their responsibility. I'm not saying there will be problems with this project, but in the past we have seen such pre-orders go unfulfilled for a very long time. We want to be clear to our members that electro-music.com editors have no direct experience with this offering.

Also, it is the practice here at electro-music.com that clones should have the approval of the original designer; in this case Roland.

[Kent]

Does this also hold true for things that have lapsed into the realm of Public Domain?

[mosc]

I'd say it does. For example, Topp is making a clone of an old Buchla circuit and he uses the electro-music.com forum to help sell and support the boards. He called Buchla and got his permission. It seems only right.

[del-uks]

Sounds good...

Has the production started yet?

Can we listen to your prototype?