If you could only choose one filter pedal

[Bo0tsy]

1 hour ago, Quatschmacher said:

It’s a great sounding filter, the envelope control wasn’t as sensitive as I would’ve liked and there’s no down sweep.

Thanks Q, I must admit I've got the Moog less for the envelope by itself and more for the LPF,  expression outputs and the synthy sweeps it can do, which provides me with lots of new possibilities. I also like that slow synthy envelope effect that Thundercat gets out of the Moog on the "Them Changes" track, which I'm struggling to get out of other Mutronesque filters.

I'm really getting into synth bass at the moment. My Bananana Matryoshka finally turned up yesterday (took 2 days to get all the way from Osaka to the UK and then nearly 3 weeks at UK customs...grrr!) and I'm loving that with the MXR BEF, so I want to hook the Bananana up with the Moog and an expression pedal. 

The Matryoska on its own is excellent btw, very intuitive controls, super tweakable on the fly, two separate synth volumes, resonance and sensitivity controls with a great tracking octaver built-in, and a synthy gated sounding fuzz. Tracking is solid although you  have to play pretty clean and mute your strings as with any bass synth. Really very impressed that so much tech can be crammed into such a tiny pedal. Much more intuitive to tweak than my Octavius Squeezer, which I tend to stick to preset patches I've built or borrowed.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Bo0tsy
Spell check

[Quatschmacher]

53 minutes ago, Bo0tsy said:

Thanks Q, I must admit I've got the Moog less for the envelope by itself and more for the LPF,  expression outputs and the synthy sweeps it can do, which provides me with lots of new possibilities. I also like that slow synthy envelope effect that Thundercat gets out of the Moog on the "Them Changes" track, which I'm struggling to get out of other Mutronesque filters.

I'm really getting into synth bass at the moment. My Bananana Matryoshka finally turned up yesterday (took 2 days to get all the way from Osaka to the UK and then nearly 3 weeks at UK customs...grrr!) and I'm loving that with the MXR BEF, so I want to hook the Bananana up with the Moog and an expression pedal. 

The Matryoska on its own is excellent btw, very intuitive controls, super tweakable on the fly, two separate synth volumes, resonance and sensitivity controls with a great tracking octaver built-in, and a synthy gated sounding fuzz. Tracking is solid although you  have to play pretty clean and mute your strings as with any bass synth. Really very impressed that so much tech can be crammed into such a tiny pedal. Much more intuitive to tweak than my Octavius Squeezer, which I tend to stick to preset patches I've built or borrowed.

Yes, the control over the parameters via expression pedals and the possibilities for connecting to other gear is great on the Moog stuff. I’m sure I’ll probably regret taking them back soon enough and buy them again! I’d really like to try it with the control processor unit to see what else it can do. With that it is possible to alter the shape of the envelope via the attenuator. The filter paired with the phaser was a great sound.

Congratulations on the Matryoshka, it sounds cool. If you fancy posting some clips that’d be appreciated.

I’m looking at getting a Moog synth as I’m really into these sounds now. 

[GisserD]

lets revive this dying thread!!!

i purchased a bananana matryoshka 2nd hand here a month or so ago. First time i tried it it sounded good, but not great.... my impressions were it was noisy, glitchy and temperamental..... so i put it on the shelf and haven't touched it since....

until yesterday when i decided to make a list of the pedals i should sell to make room/cash for other unnecessary equipment. i actually put the bananana in the pile to be sold. After work i decided to plug it in to give it one last go before i put it up for sale (i diddnt expect it to hang around).....

....... ohhhh myyyy goooooood god, this thing sounds amazing!!!!

it turns out the first time i tried it i must have been driving the input too hot as it was pinning the filter against the roof every time i touched the strings. but with the volume rolled back on my sandberg it really opened the pedal up.The filter became responsive, the noise and glitches dissapeared and i was in synth nirvana. Some of the subs that this tiny pedal can put out are simply astonishing. its reactive to the strength of the string attack like no filter ive ever used. (and ive tried a fair few!!!)

my favorite setting is the gated fuzz (orange) setting with the ctrl wide open. no dry and out 1+2 fully open. oct fully up and resonance at 2 ish.

this pedal is a seriously powerful piece of gear and i encourage anybody into synth pedals to try one. needless to say... now mine isn't going anywhere!

 

edit.

added a quick sample of the pedal

1st part - dubstep style riff

2nd part - demo of how controllable the filter sweep... into more riffing

 

bananana sample.mp3

 

Edited March 21, 2018 by GisserD

[CameronJ]

Bloody hell, that sounds like legit standalone synth keybass!

[Bo0tsy]

Nice demo. It's an awesome little synth pedal. Very tweakable. Mine isn't going anywhere either 

[Quatschmacher]

4 hours ago, GisserD said:

lets revive this dying thread!!!

i purchased a bananana matryoshka 2nd hand here a month or so ago. First time i tried it it sounded good, but not great.... my impressions were it was noisy, glitchy and temperamental..... so i put it on the shelf and haven't touched it since....

until yesterday when i decided to make a list of the pedals i should sell to make room/cash for other unnecessary equipment. i actually put the bananana in the pile to be sold. After work i decided to plug it in to give it one last go before i put it up for sale (i diddnt expect it to hang around).....

....... ohhhh myyyy goooooood god, this thing sounds amazing!!!!

it turns out the first time i tried it i must have been driving the input too hot as it was pinning the filter against the roof every time i touched the strings. but with the volume rolled back on my sandberg it really opened the pedal up.The filter became responsive, the noise and glitches dissapeared and i was in synth nirvana. Some of the subs that this tiny pedal can put out are simply astonishing. its reactive to the strength of the string attack like no filter ive ever used. (and ive tried a fair few!!!)

my favorite setting is the gated fuzz (orange) setting with the ctrl wide open. no dry and out 1+2 fully open. oct fully up and resonance at 2 ish.

this pedal is a seriously powerful piece of gear and i encourage anybody into synth pedals to try one. needless to say... now mine isn't going anywhere!

 

edit.

added a quick sample of the pedal

1st part - dubstep style riff

2nd part - demo of how controllable the filter sweep... into more riffing

 

bananana sample.mp3

 

Sounds pretty cool. How is it at tracking faster lines? I've found passive basses work much better on effects than active ones.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[radiophonic]

That sounds good. Not a million miles from what I can get out of the Malekko Scrutator, with an expression pedal controlling its filter - although that pedal is inevitably more wheezy and aggressive sounding due to the source being Bit Crushed rather than a gated Fuzz, which I think sounds harmonically richer. I generally run either an octave down or a harmoniser into mine to thicken it up a bit. The filter itself is fairly basic but can be switched from bandpass to lowpass and it has a separate Q control. Best of all, it has a built in preamp that really helps with tracking and balancing. They market it as a bitcrusher but its the filter options that make it for me. I've got my eye on a Xerograph now...

Edited March 22, 2018 by radiophonic

[paul_5]

I’ve been playing about with a Chunk Systems Agent 00Funk recently and I really like it; nice and chewy and really versatile too.

[Al Krow]

Duplicate - deleted

Edited March 22, 2018 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

19 hours ago, GisserD said:

i purchased a bananana matryoshka 2nd hand here a month or so ago. After work i decided to plug it in to give it one last go before i put it up for sale (i didn't expect it to hang around).....

....... ohhhh myyyy goooooood god, this thing sounds amazing!!!!

it turns out the first time i tried it i must have been driving the input too hot as it was pinning the filter against the roof every time i touched the strings. but with the volume rolled back on my sandberg it really opened the pedal up.The filter became responsive, the noise and glitches dissapeared and i was in synth nirvana. Some of the subs that this tiny pedal can put out are simply astonishing. its reactive to the strength of the string attack like no filter ive ever used. (and ive tried a fair few!!!) 

Good Post, thanks! Particularly helpful to hear that recording. 

Now here's the acid test for me: are you going to be able to use the Bananana live on any of your tracks (if so which ones?) with your band or will it be mainly for fun at home? 

Edited March 22, 2018 by Al Krow

[Bo0tsy]

Quick review of the Mu-Tron Micro-Tron III (which I also posted over on TB). If anyone is looking for a Mu-Tron III in a small form 9v pedal the Micro-Tron absolutely nails it:

It's good, in fact it’s really good. It uses the same type of opto-isolators (I think) to control the Micro-Tron III filter as per the Mu-Tron III and Tru-Tron 3x, which gives it that classic Mu-Tron 70’s dirty funk quack in LP, Low range, Up Sweep that other filters just don’t seem to have.

The Down-sweep sounds lovely and chewy

High range sound super squelchy but still retains bottom end.

It’s perfect for finger style funk, & pairs really well with a bit of dirt or octave pedal before it.

Small form factor (though a slightly bigger enclosure than an MXR M82 BEF for comparison), standard 9v DC power supply requirements.

Very easy to dial-in, no issues triggering on passive or active basses, no bottom end loss or volume loss in LP/Tru-Tron jumper settings.

No pop when engaging the footswitch which some other users have experienced (I’ve only tried via an isolated power supply though)

An internal ‘jumper’ enables you to switch between Tru-Tron or Mu-Tron modes - there is a difference between the two sounds: Tru-Tron jumper is slightly cleaner/ Mu-Tron jumper is very similar to the original

Probably the best & most flexible small form pure funk Envelope Filter around today.

IMO the smaller form and 9v power means the Micro-Tron doesn’t have quite the same amount of headroom (or ‘oomph’) that the Tru Tron 3x has - understandably, the gain isn’t as loud, and the pre-amp on the Tru-Tron in comparison is incredibly powerful. The Tru-Tron is what I’d call the flagship all ‘bells and whistles’ ‘all singing, all dancing’ version of the Mu-Tron. The Micro-Tron is not that pedal (and to be clear nor would I expect it to be based on squeezing that much funk into such a small enclosure!).

A couple of minor things. The internal jumper would have been great to have been set up as a switch on the outside (I guess this is a size or build cost restriction)

There’s a slight volume drop in Mu-Tron III jumper mode LP pass/ High setting only, which can be gotten around by maxing the level and upping the Peak and Gain a bit more.

Having a second foot-switch for the direction of the sweep is theoretically a good idea but you have to adjust the gain from around 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock which kind of defeats the intended purpose of changing the sweep direction on the fly.

Lastly, the Input/Output jacks are very close together. Not so good if you use pancake cables.

These are minor gripes though. Most important is how it sounds and overall it definitely captures the vintage Mu-Tron mojo in a small form board friendly pedal, (which is what I believe Mu-FX/Mu-Tron set out to achieve).

[CameronJ]

Great review!

[Quatschmacher]

7 hours ago, Bo0tsy said:

Having a second foot-switch for the direction of the sweep is theoretically a good idea but you have to adjust the gain from around 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock which kind of defeats the intended purpose of changing the sweep direction on the fly.

Yes, I did wonder why they choose to do this as one generally has to make adjustments to cutoff frequency and sensitivity when switching between up and down sweeps. It would’ve been much better if Mike had chosen to make this second footswitch a toggle for the expression pedal instead, in my opinion. I’d still like to try one of these out someday.   

[Bo0tsy]

7 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

Yes, I did wonder why they choose to do this as one generally has to make adjustments to cutoff frequency and sensitivity when switching between up and down sweeps. It would’ve been much better if Mike had chosen to make this second footswitch a toggle for the expression pedal instead, in my opinion. I’d still like to try one of these out someday.   

I reckon it can be done though as you can change sweep direction using the single Up/Down Drive switch on the Mu-Tron III and Tru-Tron without having to make adjustments. The v.1 Emma DiscumBOBulator also works similarly.

[WaveyDavey]

Did somebody say “Envelope Filter”?!

[CameronJ]

Porn for @Quatschmacher!

[Quatschmacher]

17 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

Porn for @Quatschmacher!

A couple on there that I still need to try (Meatball and Xerograph). I’d almost forgotten how big the Rendez Vous is. I much prefer this livery than the plain blue on the one I rented.

The Great Divide 2 is cool too.

@WaveyDavey, if you’re anywhere near Sheffield, is there any chance I might be able to try the Xerograph?

Edited April 3, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[CameronJ]

That picture really gives a sense of the magnitude of those Source Audio Soundblox Pro pedals too. Absolute behemoths!

[WaveyDavey]

2 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

A couple on there that I still need to try (Meatball and Xerograph). I’d almost forgotten how big the Rendez Vous is. I much prefer this livery than the plain blue on the one I rented.

The Great Divide 2 is cool too.

@WaveyDavey, if you’re anywhere near Sheffield, is there any chance I might be able to try the Xerograph?

Well, if I were  on your side of the pond, I’d certainly be willing to let you take some of girls for a spin.  For better or worse, however (mostly worse given the current administration - but let’s not go there), I’m in New York City.  I totally agree with you on the Rendez-Vous’ updated graphics, and for the the record, i (literally) just received the Xerograph via post an hour or two ago, so I have yet to take that one out for a spin myself! 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by WaveyDavey

[CameronJ]

@WaveyDavey you are a temptress 

[WaveyDavey]

The EBS, Source Audio and MXR pedals are all up for sale on Reverb, together with a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff (moderator - if there is any issue with me stating this here, please advise).  The Xerograph and Great Divide still require further evaluation.  

[Quatschmacher]

21 minutes ago, WaveyDavey said:

Well, if I were  on your side of the pond, I’d certainly be willing to let you take some of girls for a spin.  For better or worse, however (mostly worse given the current administration - but let’s not go there), I’m in New York City.  I totally agree with you on the Rendez-Vous’ updated graphics, and for the the record, i (literally) just received the Xerograph via post an hour or two ago, so I have yet to take that one out for a spin myself! 

 

 

Ah, I see. I don’t need that much of an excuse to come to NYC as it’s somewhere I’d really like to visit. 😀

Here are a couple of nice Rendez Vous settings I found (played with a passive P bass):

 

[Quatschmacher]

Protostar arriving tomorrow! I’ll let you all know how I get on. I’ve been waiting five months for this to be in stock. 

[Quatschmacher]

On 04/04/2018 at 13:14, Quatschmacher said:

Protostar arriving tomorrow! I’ll let you all know how I get on. I’ve been waiting five months for this to be in stock. 

The Protostar is a bust. The LFO has no gate and so is audible in the background. Also with the resonance over halfway and the cutoff high there’s an intrusive amount of hiss. Furthermore, the knobs are small but really sensitive so it’s really tricky to dial in and would be difficult to replicate similar settings between sessions.

That being said, it does sound pretty damn cool. There’s a lot of scope for sound shaping. Ultimately though it’s a bit disappointing and it’s going back tomorrow and I’ll be £329 better off!

[Quatschmacher]

Finally picked up the EHX Bass Micro Synth. This thing is great. It’s really quick to dial in a synth bass sound. There’s a decent amount of resonance available but doesn’t get those popping pre-self-resonance sounds.

What it excels at is down sweeps. Unlike envelope-controlled filters, which when set to down sweep sweep down and back up as the volume of your input signal dies out, this sweeps down and stays down. This is because it has a user-set sweep which is the same each time, it is simply triggered at the input signal threshold set by the user. This yields very authentic sounds and one doesn’t have to cut notes short to avoid the filter sweeping up again.

Another cool trick is to have the dry signal turned up and the other voices off and run one’s preferred choice of fuzz/octaver into the BMS so one gets the use of its filter and envelope generator without being tied to its own flavour. It means one can run a gated fuzz into it which sounds even better. 

As a bonus, the octave down voice tracks and sustains all the way to low F no problem.