Variants & family runs

“Rat, kind of on the edge of breakup, toggle left I think” is not a measurement label you can compare anything against six weeks later. Once a pedal has more than one interesting setting, PedalScope treats the setting as data:

• A control layout describes the pedal’s panel once: each switch with its positions, each knob with its range.

• A variant is one complete setting of that panel. Every measurement is tagged with one, and gets a canonical label like Rat [LED/LED · 220pF · Ruetz 30%] — generated, consistent, and used in titles, legends, and exports. You can add a nickname (“the spitty one”), but the canonical label never disappears.

• A family run measures a whole set of switch positions in one guided sitting.

Define the panel (once, under a minute)

Right-click a pedal in the sidebar → Edit Controls…. Add each control:

• Switches (discrete): name plus its positions, comma-separated — CLIPPING DIODES: Si/Si, LED/LED, Ge/Ge, OPEN.

• Knobs (continuous): a range with optional named detents — DRIVE: min, noon, max. Knob positions are recorded as approximate percentages; attach a photo when the exact position matters.

Templates cover the common cases (3-knob, and the project’s house pedals) so most panels are two clicks and some renaming.

Tag settings as you measure

The measure flow and live-mode snapshot bar both show a variant picker mirroring the panel: one segmented control per switch, a slider per knob. It defaults to the last-used state, so “same as before but LED/LED” is one click. The canonical label previews underneath and becomes the record’s title.

Free-text notes still exist — for the things a panel can’t say (battery sagging, sticky bypass switch) — but knob positions belong in the picker, where comparisons can use them.

Family runs: the whole switch, one sitting

Measuring all seven positions of a clipping-diode switch by hand means six chances to forget where you were. A family run does the bookkeeping:

1. In the measure step, tick the switch(es) to sweep under “Family run”. Everything else stays fixed at the picker’s setting.

2. The app builds the grid (7 positions → 7 cells) and walks it: “Set CLIPPING DIODES to Ge/Ge, then press Continue” → it measures → files the record under that exact cell → next prompt.

3. Each cell is one physical action and one press of Return.

What each cell measures follows the acquisition mode: in Full Fingerprint mode (the default) every cell acquires the complete suite — one Fingerprint per position, with the total time estimate shown on the start button before you commit — while Single measurement mode measures just the chosen kind per cell, the quick way to sweep one chart across a switch.

Abort any time — a partial family stays valid, shows as partial in coverage, and offers a Resume button in the measure flow that walks only the remaining cells (with the run’s original parameters, even if the form has changed since).

Sweeps in the sidebar

A family run lives in the library as a Sweep node under its pedal — “Sweep: CLIPPING DIODES — Aug 1” — with the cells as children labeled by swept position only (“Si/Si”, “LED/LED”): the header already states the date, and for single-kind sweeps the kind, so the children repeat neither. Full-Fingerprint sweeps nest a complete Fingerprint per position; a partial sweep wears an n-of-M badge.

Selecting the node opens the sweep overview: the plan grid with each cell’s completion (click a measured cell to open it), a Resume button for partial sweeps, and Open pivot comparison — every measured position of the swept switch overlaid on one chart, everything else held, one click from the sweep.

The coverage matrix

Right-click the pedal → Coverage… for the bird’s-eye view: a grid of variant cells showing which have measurements, of which kinds, at which drive levels — plus every measured variant with its alias, and each family run’s progress. It turns “did I ever measure Ge/Si at low drive?” from an act of memory into a glance.

The matrix’s Pivot section offers the same overlay as the sweep overview’s pivot button, for positions measured outside any single sweep — pick one switch and every measured position overlays on one chart, everything else held. See the Compare page.

Why bother

The payoff is comparison you can trust: every record knows exactly what the pedal was set to, labels stay consistent across weeks and exports, and the Compare view can line up “all seven diode positions, same drive” automatically because the data already knows what varied.