Loopy Demos

About

Hey đź‘‹

my name is Silvio. I’m a web developer, musician and gear nerd from Germany. I created Loopy Demos.

Silvio playing a Fidelity Guitars Stellarosa Lite II

With this website, I produce interactive gear demos for the web. Instead of sitting through a lengthy YouTube video, you can interactively turn the knobs yourself and hear the difference in real time.

I use this little site endeavor to learn new technologies and to combine my passion for music and web development. With my skills from working professionally as a frontend engineer, I wanted to create a platform for musicians to explore gear in a new way and at the same time, have a creative musical outlet for myself.

I’m running this site as a one-man show. So if you find a bug or usability issue, or have any other feedback – tech/software or music related – shoot me a DM on Instagram.

How I Record Demos

Everything you hear on this website is an actual instrument recorded through a physical unit of the pedal you see displayed. This is not a plugin or some AI modelling.

In the interactive demos, you hear the sound that the actual pedal produces at the settings you see displayed.

I record all the sounds via simply reamping ([Radial ProRMP Reamp Box*]

This is my usual workflow:

guitar pedal reamp workflow diagram

I have a template in my DAW where I use Logic’s I/O plugin to put the pedal between the interface (UAD Volt 4*) input and an amp simulation (currently: Mixwave’s Benson Chimera Plugin*).

logic reamp plugin chain

I fiddle with the pedal until I get an inspiring sound, then write and record the main demo track. It’s usually a 16 bar loop. I try to write something that makes sense for the pedal and is not too tiring on the ears after repeated listening.

The D.I. recorded track goes out from my interface, into the reamp box, out through the pedal and back into an input on my interface.

screenshot of logic's i/o plugin for reamping

I record a few “presets” that you can flip through and a few knob “sweeps”. For a knob sweep, I keep all settings the same but for one knob or toggle. For knob sweeps, I record about 6 positions, which is usually enough to get a feel for the range of a knob. I try to listen closely how sensitive a knob is and how many samples I need to take to create a good audio representation.

I then export all audio files, with settings to make sure that all audio files are the same length, upload them to a server and this website downloads them to the browser.

Lately I’ve been recording videos of myself playing the demo track to create more engaging posts for Instagram.

I use remotion.dev so I can reuse the code for the website and overlay the demo widget in the video to showcase the settings.

My Gear

Fidelity Guitars Stellarosa Lite II

My primary workhorse is a Fidelity Guitars Stellrosa Lite II. As of now, I record 99% of my demos with this beauty.

It blends aesthetics from vintage catalog guitars together with offset guitar features – all executed with exceptional craftsmanship.

SPECS

Fidelity Guitars Stellarosa Lite II guitar on a rug
  • Obeche body in relic’d nitro finish (Burgundy Mist)
  • Roasted maple neck with wenge fretboard. Stellar fretwork. It’s a chunky C-shaped neck and the most comfortable neck I ever tried. Fits my hands like a well-worn glove
  • Lollar Firebird Pickups. I originally had these in a cheap Epiphone SG Special and loved them so much, that I sent them to Matt to put in this guitar.
  • Descendant Vibrato. Feels very good, the stiffness is adjustable and I can fix the arm so it stays in place instead of falling down
  • There is no tone control. Instead, I have a slide switch that engages a low pass filter, so I can choose between tone fully open and tone rolled off completely.
  • Another slide switch puts the pickups in series mode, giving me a louder, more compressed and slightly darker sound

The sound of this guitar is best described as a beefy telecaster. The neck pickup has great glassy and punchy sound similar to a good strat neck pickup. The bridge pickup reminds me of a good tele bridge, but with more oomph and less harshness.

The Firebirds have a slightly compressed characteristic with a slight mid scoop. They are humbuckers but have a lot of single-coil feel to them.

This guitar records super well and mixes itself, with a good variety of tones to be a great allrounder and bring out the best from every pedal I play with it.

Fender® Mustang JMJ Signature Bass

This has been my first bass and I recorded most backing tracks and bass-focused demos with it: A custom Justin Mendal-Johnsen Mustang bass*.

It was a decent bass when I got it. After a little bit of tweaking and modding, I really love it.

MODS

justin mendal johnsen fender mustang bass
  • Baguley Guitars custom aluminum pickguard. Mustangs usually have a two-piece guard + control plate. Baguley made me a solid one-piece guard that makes this bass feel like a heavy-duty tool.
  • Curtis Novak Fat Mustang Pickups. The stock Seymour Duncan pickups were great, but these are awesome. The sound is more plucky with more attack and growl. I asked Curtis to omit the pickguard and wrap the coils like you would a tele bridge PU, but with black cotton wrap. I also put heavier springs for the PU height adjustment so I can rest my thump on the PU directly instead of a cover and it doesn’t wiggle.
  • I sanded down the back of the neck and finished it with basic furniture oil. I much prefer the matte feel instead of the lacquer.
  • Fret ends needed some TLC. There was some slight fret sprout. I got a fret file and rounded off the fret ends myself. I didn’t do a masterful job but the sharp ends are gone and it plays much better now.
  • Strings: La Bella Deep Talkin’ Bass 760F-MUS Flatwounds*. I tried half-rounds and roundwounds. For this bass, I really disliked the half-rounds. They just felt like dull roundwounds. The roundwounds worked well for rock bass riffs but ultimately, I feel this bass was made for flats. The La Bellas are wonderfully thumpy and truly complete this instrument.

Greco/Hondo Jazz Bass

I found this on Kleinanzeigen (German Craigslist/FB Marketplace) for a steal. It’s an old Japanese made bass from the 70s or 80s. I found nothing on the bass to accurately date it and I’m not even sure if the official brand is Greco or Hondo because there is no decal on the headstock, nothing on the back of the pickups or neck plate.

I loved the look and the unique pickups. I had to do a few mods when I got it to make it playable again:

greco/hondo jazz bass with maxon pickups sunburst
  • Swapped out the old rusty and crackly electronics and got a custom wiring harness from James’ Home of Tone. Works like a charm and the wiring is a piece of art!
  • Shielded the cavities with copper tape and made sure all electronic grounds have continuity with the shielding
  • Had to take apart the pickups and glued some loose pieces together
  • Fret ends were a horrible sharp mess. I was able to mitigate that with a fret file.
  • Sanded down the lacquer of the back of the neck and applied furniture oil again.
  • New screws for some of the hardware because the were rusted and loose
  • Put fresh spankin’ new Ernie Ball Roundwounds* on it.

Gretsch Electromatic

This is the guitar that I’ve owned the longest. I played it a lot when I played in bands. It’s a budget line guitar but it plays extremely well. Sadly, I don’t get to play it much because it’s too loud for recording when the rest of the family is asleep.

It’s also the guitar that is the most “stock” in my collection. Just a few mods and specs if you’re curious:

gretsch electromatic amber semi hollow guitar
  • I got the bridge pickup wax-potted because it got microphonic to a point where it was unusable. It just feedbacked like crazy in a squeely, unpleasant way.
  • It’s neck-divy so I moved the pin for the strap from the upper horn to behind the neck
  • I found these rubber grommets to put between the strings behind the bridge. Usually, I welcome a little bit of string noise like on my Stellarosa. But the hollow body is so resonant that I prefer this guitar to be a bit more “dry”.

Other Gear

Web Tech

I built this site with Astro and SolidJS. I code in Visual Studio Code, my terminal is Warp. I host this site on Vercel.

*Affiliate links: If you buy something through these links, you’re supporting Loopy Demos without any extra cost for you. Thank you!