More Mutron Musings (Musitronics VS Haz Labs)

[ped]

For the uninitiated, the original Mutron III pedal, launched in 1972, has been seen by many as the ultimate envelope filter for a range of instruments, not least the Bass guitar.

 

It's design, robust build and new sound meant that it became widely used on seminal recordings by artists such as Stevie Wonder and Bootsy Collins.

 

Wikipedia does a better job of explaining why this legendary pedal has such a following. I bought one a few years ago, serviced by Soundgas in Sheffield. I made sure I could return it if I wanted to, as I expected to find, as with many other 'super hyped' pedals that I've had over the years, that the reputation has entered the mythical realm that the pedal itself can't back up. 

 

I'm happy to say that I was wrong, and the filter is the most greasy, wobbly and liquid of them all. It looks and feels fantastic and although expensive, it's probably not going to nosedive in value.

 

It's partly due to this religious following by sometimes perhaps overzealous owners that the version which was released by Has Labs in the 90s (unsure of exact date) has been widely regarded as inferior and often downright hated by those who felt that the filter not only didn't compare audibly with the Musitronics version, but also because of the way it came about  - Haz jumped in and copied the Musitronics design because they didn't protect their IP properly, and there was bad blood between the two companies over this. I read somewhere that the designer (Mike Beigel) has recently chilled out about it a bit but I het the feeling that just a mention of the name will send him into a destructive spiral of rage.

 

I wanted to see if this reputation is deserved, and putting corporate fallout and in fighting to one side, judge them based on their sound alone. Although there are lots of threads around where people are asking for comparisons, actual A/B tests are thin on the ground. Most testimonials are based on hazy memories and preconceptions; people are even piling on negativity about the Haz despite not having tried one, or a Musitronics either. 

 

To my mind, the downsides of the Musitronics design is the bypass, which is a little bit lossy, and the fact that the gain is coupled to the output volume, so for example a lower output bass either needs boosting before it enters the Mutron or you turn up the gain which will result in a volume increase. This is the case when bypassed as well, which can give some interesting effects, but if you want to bypass the pedal in a loop it isn't convenient to jump above unity gain. It's not actually a problem with my instruments particularly, but I see how it could be for some.

 

The Haz has several 'improvements' - or evil changes to the original holy design depending on your POV. I think either Haz or someone else claimed that the circuit was 'exactly the same' as the Musitronics, which it absolutely isn't - being digital instead of analogue for one. But is that a bad thing? Actually some of the differences give some improvements, on paper. First you have a good bypass. Secondly you have a depth control in place of the gain, and a battery level indicator which can also function as a peak indicator. 

 

I'm really happy with digital or analogue gear. The hub of my whole setup is digital so everything gets converted to 1 and 0 anyway. If it sounds good, it sounds good.

 

The Haz has some really useful DIP switches inside which give lots of options over the range of the filter, the peak of the sweep and so on (see attached manual). 

 

I'm getting used to the Haz and I haven't started fiddling with the switches yet, but this morning I gave it a quick blast in my favourite setting (high range, sweep up) and I have to say I was mightily impressed. Whilst I own most of the other filters that come out to emulate the Mutron (AF9, Qtron+ etc) this game me that sound right away, with plenty of range either side of the dial to further explore.

 

I'll do more comparisons over the next few weeks, maybe a video - and add my thoughts here. 

 

Cheers

ped

 

 

[lidl e]

Have you ever messed with a line6 FM4?

 

I mentioned this in your other mutron thread.

 

 

 

Great mutron emulator

[ped]

5 hours ago, lidl e said:

Have you ever messed with a line6 FM4?

 

I mentioned this in your other mutron thread.

 

 

 

Great mutron emulator

Hi mate yeah I used one ages ago and liked it enough that I used a Pod XT Pro for many years after. I always liked the filters in that but at the time I didn’t have much to compare it to. Ignorance is bliss probably because now I’ve got about eight and they’re all good at different things!!

[ped]

Hm this is really cool. One feature I particularly like, as someone who usually uses batteries in pedals. Because there’s a true bypass, you can leave the pedal plugged in but stop battery drain by using the off switch. Really neat / that means I can leave it in my chain but not worry about unplugging. You can’t do that with the original because the gain control works with the effect off - switching the pedal off kills 99% of the signal passing through.