Alexander History Lesson VOL.3 User manual

tory Lesson
VOL.3
USER MANUAL

About AlexAnder PedAls
Alexander Pedals builds hand-crafted eects pedals in Garner, North Carolina. Each Alexander
Pedal is meticulously voiced and tweaked by our sonic scientists to achieve sounds that are
both instantly familiar yet completely unique.
Alexander Pedals are designed by Matthew Farrow and a group of trusted players, builders,
and friends. Matthew has been building guitar pedals since the late 1990s, rst with Pharaoh
Ampliers, and now with Disaster Area Designs. Matthew has designed some of the most
innovative eects units on the market, including some big names he’s not allowed to tell you
about.
Alexander Pedals was started for two reasons - to make great tones, and to do good. The
great tones part you probably have some idea about. As for doing good, Alexander Pedals
donates a portion of the prots from every pedal sold to charity, whether you buy from us
or our dealers. Matthew’s younger brother Alex passed away in 1987 of a form of cancer
called neuroblastoma. Alexander Pedals honors his memory by helping in the ght to end
childhood cancer.
alexanderpedals.com
GREAT TONES. DOING GOOD.
Contents
IntroductIon ..........................................1
GettInG Started .....................................1
SoundS and controlS ...........................2
loadInG and SavInG PreSetS .................4
taP temPo ...............................................5
taP dIvISIonS ..........................................5
ByPaSS and traIlS ...................................5
SettInG uPyour Pedal .........................6
exPreSSIon Pedal....................................7
neo FootSwItch .....................................8
mIdI conFIGuratIon..............................9
mIdI commandS ................................. 10

1
History Lesson v3 is pretty much like any other pedal. Plug in on the right side, then plug the
lower jack on the left side to your amp or next pedal. Power it up, hit the footswitch and see
what happens!
Want to hear some sounds that we like? Hold down the BYPASS footswitch to load in the
factory presets. We put four cool tones in the pedal for you to tweak.
Experiment. Turn the knobs. Push the buttons. We think you’ll nd something you like.
GettinG stArted
introduCtion
The History Lesson Vol.3 is our loving homage to the best echoes the past has to oer.
We’ve included our favourite echo and delay sounds ranging back over 60 years. We focused
on vintage tech like tape echo, analog“bucket brigade”delay, and digital time manipulation.
You’ll nd a host of familiar sounds in the History Lesson Vol.3 as well as great new tones to
help you sculpt your music.
We’ve also updated the pedal with our usual Neo Series magic, adding presets, MIDI, expres-
sion control, and extra functionality for each mode.
Plug in and turn some knobs with us on our journey through the past!
GUITAR /
INSTRUMENT
INPUT
EFFECT
OUTPUT
MULTIJACK
TAP / DIVISION
FOOTSWITCH
BYPASS
FOOTSWITCH
SELECT
BUTTON
MODE LEDS
MAIN LED
USB PORT 9V DC POWER
TAP LED BYPASS LED
Messing with the knobs will get you a long way, but there is a lot to this pedal just under the
surface. When you’re ready to dive in to the advanced features of your new pedal, read on.

2
sounds And Controls
History Lesson v3 does a lot of stu, but that doesn’t mean that it’s hard to use! Generally you
can just turn the knobs on the pedal and explore new sounds, but we put a few extra controls
on the pedal that we think you can use.
Tap the center Select button to move to the next Eect Mode. You’ll notice that the small
LEDs in the center of the pedal change to show the current Eect Mode.
If you hold the center Select button, you can access the“Alt Functions” for the pedal knobs.
Here’s a run-down on what all of the knobs do in each Eect Mode of the pedal.
HOLD DOWN TO ADJUST
ALT FUNCTIONSMAIN FUNCTIONS
MAG (upper blue) Magnetic tape style delay. The MOD knob adjusts the amount of tape
crinkle, and RATE changes how often the crinkle happens. Use TONE to simulate worn tape.
DIG (upper red) Bright and clean 24-bit digital delay. MOD and RATE control a digital
pitch modulator, and TONE pans between bright and dark voicings.
BBD (lower blue) Analog bucket-brigade delay. MOD and RATE add an adjustable
chorus modulation, and TONE changes the percussive attack of the delay.
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
HOLD DOWN TO ADJUST
ALT FUNCTIONSMAIN FUNCTIONS
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
HOLD DOWN TO ADJUST
ALT FUNCTIONSMAIN FUNCTIONS
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
MAG DIG
MAG DIG MAG DIG
MAG DIG MAG DIG
MAG DIG
tIme
mIx
FeedBacK
choruS
dePth
tone
level choruS
rate
tIme
mIx
FeedBacK
crInKle
amount
taPe
aGe
level crInKle
rate
tIme
mIx
FeedBacK
mod
dePth
tone
level mod
rate

3
sounds And Controls (Continued)
FLT (lower violet) 12-bit rack-style digital delay. TONE controls a resonant lter, and
MOD adds a pitch detune for thickening or wild modulation eects.
LOFI (lower red) Dirty, low-delity tape delay. MOD and RATE adjust the wow and utter
of the tape, while TONE sets the amount of transistor drive applied to the delay signal.
4HD (upper violet) Four-head multi-tap delay. TONE controls the brightness of the echo
signal, and MOD selects one of eight head patterns.
HOLD DOWN TO ADJUST
ALT FUNCTIONSMAIN FUNCTIONS
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
HOLD DOWN TO ADJUST
ALT FUNCTIONSMAIN FUNCTIONS
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
HOLD DOWN TO ADJUST
ALT FUNCTIONSMAIN FUNCTIONS
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
MAG DIG MAG DIG
MAG DIG MAG DIG
MAG DIG MAG DIG
tIme
mIx
FeedBacK
detune
+ / - 50
centS
FIlter
level
tIme
mIx
FeedBacK
head
Pattern
tone
level
tIme
mIx
FeedBacK
mod
dePth
drIve
level mod
rate

4
loAdinG And sAvinG Presets
Have you ever spent a lot of time tweaking your gear to get the sounds you really love, only to
nd that your pedal knobs moved between your practice space and the gig? Or maybe you
need a lot of sounds but don’t have a ton of room on your board for multiple pedals?
Presets to the rescue!
History Lesson v3 and all of our other Neo Series pedals have built-in preset capability. That
means you can save and recall four sounds from a single pedal with no extra hardware or
funny business. If you do have a MIDI controller, the preset capability expands to 16!
1
2
3
4
To load a preset, simply hold down the BYPASS
footswitch for 1 second.
The upper LED will blink one, two, three, or
four times to indicate the current preset and
you’re all set!
ALL of the pedal settings are recalled as part
of the preset - knob positions, expression
settings, and eect modes.
HOLD
To save the current preset, press and hold the
center Select button, then hold the BYPASS
footswitch down.
The upper LED will blink to indicate the preset that
was saved.
1
2
HOLD
HOLD
1
2
3
4
If you’re using a MIDI controller to access presets
on your Neo Series pedal, just send a program
change (PC) message to load a preset.
You can access an additional 12 presets using MIDI
for a total of 16.
To save presets 5-16, load in the preset by sending
a MIDI program change then edit its settings.
Once satised, save as normal. The current
settings will save in the current preset.
SAVE
LOAD

5
tAP divisions
History Lesson v3 can lock the tempo to your tapped intervals, or
it can “sub-divide” them to faster delay times while still remaining
in tempo.
Hold down the left footswitch to cycle between the tap division
options:
Quarter note: blue LED
Dotted eighth note: green LED
Eighth note: red LED
The subdivision value is saved in the pedal presets.
tAP temPo
History Lesson v3 supports setting delay time using Tap Tempo, to
allow you to match the delay time to the beat of your music.
Tap the left footswitch two or more times to set the tempo of the
delay.
The pedal will set its delay time based on the most recently used
control, so turning the knob will override the tapped tempo and
vice-versa.
If you save a preset after tapping or using the knob, the preset will
retain the current tempo of the pedal no matter which method
you use to set it.
QUARTER
DOT 8th
8th
HOLD TO SELECT
TAP DIVISION
TAP 2x OR MORE
byPAss And trAils
Histoy Lesson v3 uses a buered bypass system with optional
“trails.” When you press the bypass footswitch, the pedal will set
the dry signal volume to unity, and leave the delay volume alone.
This allows the delay signal to fade out naturally and not be cut o
when the pedal is bypassed.
The pedal also features our exclusive AutoTrails feature, which will
automatically reduce the delay volume after a set interval. This
prevents the delay noise from messing with your nice clean signal
when the pedal is bypassed.
To set the AutoTrails length, check out Setting Up Your Pedal on
the next page.

6
settinG uPyour PedAl
Your Neo Series pedal has a few user settings
stored in memory. These settings include the
function of the MultiJack on the left side of the
pedal, LED brightness, and others.
To enter setup, power on the pedal and then
hold down the center Select button. Release
the button when you see the center LED turn
violet.
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
MAG DIG
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
MAG DIG
HOLD TO ENTER SETUP
RELEASE WHEN LED TURNS VIOLET
TAP TO SELECT MULTIJACK FUNCTION
UPPER PROGRAM LED WILL SHOW
BLUE = EXPRESSION PEDAL
VIOLET = FOOT SWITCH
RED = MIDI
TURN TO SET
FOOTSWITCH
FUNCTION
HOLD TO SAVE AND EXIT
HOLD
TAP
Tap the center Select button to assign the
MultiJack function. The upper small LED will
change to show this function.
Blue: Expression Pedal Input
Violet: Footswitch Input
Red: MIDI Input
Turn the upper left knob to set the function
of the external footswitch, if congured. The
upper large LED will change to show this
function.
Green: Trigger Ramp
Cyan: Advance One Preset
Blue: Tap tempo
Turn the upper right knob to set the Trails
Timer. Higher settings = longer timer.
Turn the lower right knob to set the brightness
of the main and lower LEDs.
The lower left knob sets the ramp speed
Red: Slow
Violet: Medium
Blue: Fast
Hold the center Select button to save and exit
setup.
If you have changed the function of the
MultiJack, we recommend you power the Neo
Series pedal o and back on in order to ensure
the jack is congured properly.
LED
BRIGHT
RAMP SPEED
(HOLD ALT.)
(TONE)
(LEVEL) (RATE)
FEEDBACK
9VUSB
MODMIX
TIME 4HD
FLT
BBD LOFI
TAP DIV
MAG DIG
TRAILS
TIMER
GREEN = RAMP
CYAN = PRESET
BLUE = TAP
HOLD

7
exPression PedAl
History Lesson v3 supports most types of expression pedals for performance control.
We recommend the Roland EV-5 and Moog EP-3, but just about any expression pedal that
uses a TRS cable should work. The supported expression wiring is SLEEVE = 0V, RING = 3.3V,
TIP = 0-3.3V.
Before connecting your expression pedal, make sure that you have set up the MultiJack to
read expression! The instructions are covered in the Setting Up Your Pedal section on page
6.
SET HEEL DOWN
POSITIONS
SET TOE DOWN
POSITIONS
Connect your expression pedal to the MultiJack with a TRS cable. Engage the pedal and
sweep the pedal - you should see the upper LED change colors and the sound should change.
Set the expression pedal to its
HEEL DOWN position.
Turn the pedal knobs to set the
sound you want for the HEEL
DOWN position.
Next, set the expression pedal to
its TOE DOWN position.
Move the knobs to the desired
settings for TOE DOWN.
That’s it!
All of the knobs on the pedal can be controlled with the expression pedal except the mode
selection.
Once you have set the sounds you like, don’t forget to save your preset! Changes you make to
a preset are lost if you power o the pedal or load another preset without saving!

8
neo FootswitCh
History Lesson v3 also supports our Neo Footswitch for preset Select or warp functions.
To use the Neo Footswitch, you’ll need to congure the pedal to use its MultiJack for
footswitch input. Consult the instructions on page 6, Setting Up Your Pedal.
Connect the Neo Footswitch to your History Lesson v3 using the provided TRS cable.
If you have congured the pedal correctly, you should see the LED on the Neo Footswitch
light up and change as you tap the footswitch.
SERIES
1
2
3
4
LOAD
LOAD
1 2 3 4
SERIES
NORMAL RAMP
NORMAL RAMP
PRESET:
Tap the Neo Footswitch to advance
one preset. The presets will load in
sequence, 1, 2, 3, 4.
The LED on the Neo Footswitch
will change to indicate the current
preset:
RED = 1, GREEN = 2, BLUE = 3,
YELLOW = 4.
Hold the Neo Footswitch to go back
one preset.
RAMP:
Tap the Neo Footswitch to trigger
the RAMP eect.
The LED on the Neo Footswitch
will change to indicate the current
RAMP state.
You can also re the ramp for
a moment, by holding the Neo
Footswitch down. The ramp will
fade back down when you release
the Neo Footswitch.
You can also use any momentary normally-open (NO) footswitch in place of the Neo
Footswitch, but you won’t get the super-cool LED stu.
TAP TEMPO (not shown):
Tap the Neo Footswitch to set the
delay tempo, LFO or sequencer
rate, or trigger the bounce / step
function.
The Neo Footswitch will work the
same as the built-in tap switch in
this conguration.

9
midi ConFiGurAtion
All Neo Series pedals support full control using MIDI. In order to use your History Lesson v3
with a MIDI controller, you’ll need to follow these instructions to congure its MultiJack and set
up the MIDI channel.
First, you’ll need a way to connect your MIDI controller to the MultiJack.
If you’re using a Disaster Area Designs controller, you should be able to use one of its MultiJacks
to send MIDI. We recommend the qCONNECT controller, since it’s made to interface with
multiple 1/4” MIDI devices. Consult your MIDI controller’s manual for details on how to
congure its output.
If you are using another type of MIDI controller, you’ll need an interface box or adapter cable.
We support the following interfaces and cables:
Alexander Neo Link Alexander Neo MIDI Cable
Disaster Area Designs MIDI Box Empress MIDI Box (1 or 2)
Disaster Area Designs MIDI Box 4 Chase Bliss Audio MIDI Box
Disaster Area Designs MIDI Box One Disaster Area Designs MJ-QQ and 5P-TRS PRO
Next, connect your Neo Series pedal to your MIDI controller or interface box using a standard
1/4” cable or adapter cable. Make sure that your controller is powered on.
Power on the Neo Series pedal while holding its center Select button.
Release the button when the main LED turns violet.
Tap the center Select button until the upper small LED is red, then hold
Select to save.
C 05
Power the Neo Series pedal o and back on, again holding the center Select button until the
upper LED turns violet.
Send a program change message from your controller on the MIDI channel you would like to
use. When you see the upper small LED ash, hold the Select button to save and exit.
Your Neo Series pedal is now congured!
C 03

10
midi CommAnds
All of the functions of your Neo Series pedal may be controlled with MIDI messages.
The following commands are accepted by History Lesson v3:
MIDI Program Change: Load Presets 0-15
0-3 are the Red bank, also accessible by holding the Bypass / Preset footswitch
4-7 are the Green bank
8-11 are the Blue bank
12-15 are the White bank
MIDI Continuous Controller 97: Ramp
Send any value to trigger the ramp
MIDI Continuous Controller 100: Expression Pedal
Value 0 = Heel down, Value 127 = Toe down
MIDI Continuous Controller 102: Bypass
Value 0-63 = Bypass, Value 64-127 = Engage
MIDI Continuous Controller 50-57: Pedal Knobs
Value 0 = CCW, Value 127 = CW
CC 50 = Mod CC 54 = Mod Rate
CC 51 = Time CC 55 = Tone
CC 52 = Repeat
CC 53 = Mix CC 57 = Level
MIDI Continuous Controller 59: Mode Select
0: MAG 3: LOFI
1: BBD 4: 4HD
2: DIG 5: FLT
MIDI Beat Clock: History Lesson v3 will sync to MIDI Beat Clock over USB or MultiJack.
sPeCiFiCAtions
Input Impedance: 1M ohm
Output Impedance: 560 ohm
Power Supply: 9V DC, 80mA or greater, center negative
Bypass: Buered analog bypass
Dry Signal Analog
DSP: 24-bit + 32-bit controller
Sampling Frequency: 32kHz wet, analog dry
We recommend the use of an isolated power supply with your Neo Series pedal.