Electro harmonix Enigma Qballs..any good?

[jimijimmi]

im looking for an envelope filter

ive been told about these Enigma pedals...anyone know anything about them?

i need a pedal that will boost the volume when its applied..i believe this will do it...

any help would be greatly appreciated

[jimijimmi]

take that as a no then!

hahaha

[WonderHorse]

No

[yorick]

I've got a nano bassballs if you want to try it, might be suitable.

[jimijimmi]

[quote name='yorick' post='587557' date='Sep 2 2009, 03:02 PM']I've got a nano bassballs if you want to try it, might be suitable.[/quote]

for sure-
where are you? in birmingham central?

how much would you want for it?

[SuperMaximo]

I have the Engima. Whether it boosts your volume is entirely dependent on your settings but it generally doesn't TBH. It's a very good and extremely tweakable pedal however

[YouMa]

My qtrons for sale if you want it.

[stewblack]

Rather than start a new thread ... Any opinions on this pedal?

[lee650]

Lol Zombie thread!

 

I had one for a while Stew and regrettably I didn't keep it for long. Its quite a large pedal and takes a lot of power to run. It has loads of parameters to tweak and they all interact with each other and I found it a challenge to dial in a sound a that wasnt a huge WHOMP. That's nothing on the pedal,just my lack of patience. The stop/start frequency works similar to the micro synth and can be set for reverse sounds, It also has the usual sensitivity/attack/decay etc as well as a clean blend.

 

It has a built in distortion which I didn't like, it was mega loud and very grainy sounding. You could reduce the volume with a trimpot inside,but it still massively overpowered the filter sound. Funny How the fuzz on the bassballs is great, they shouldve just used that circuit. Apparently it can get close to the old Qtron but i couldn't get that sound otherwise I would be kept it,despite the size/power requirements. It has thw LP/BP/HP modes too,but we all know that only LP or band pass with clean blend are useful on bass.

 

IF the price were right, I'd have another one, if only to try again to coax out the sounds this unit is apparently capable of.

 

Our own Quatschmacher has owned one of these for a while and he loves it,and I'm certain he'll be the one to talk too to get the best out of it 😁

Edited August 20, 2021 by lee650

[Bo0tsy]

I have an Enigma and Lee is pretty much spot on in my opinion. It is a 9v pedal but doesn't like being daisy chained in my experience. It is super flexible but a little tricky to dial in as the controls are very interactive. The expression pedal output is very useful, though not as deep sounding as a Moog LPF with expression plugged into the cutoff. The Q-Tron and Mu-Tron sounds are in there, but in all honesty I prefer the sound quality of the other filters I've mentioned for that classic dirty quack. There is a lack of controls on the fuzz circuit and as Lee says it is loud but adjustable via the internal trimpot, and it doesn't get as synthy as I'd personally like. Would have been better with more fuzz controls and preferably gated.

[lee650]

14 minutes ago, Bo0tsy said:

I have an Enigma and Lee is pretty much spot on in my opinion. It is a 9v pedal but doesn't like being daisy chained in my experience. It is super flexible but a little tricky to dial in as the controls are very interactive. The expression pedal output is very useful, though not as deep sounding as a Moog LPF with expression plugged into the cutoff. The Q-Tron and Mu-Tron sounds are in there, but in all honesty I prefer the sound quality of the other filters I've mentioned for that classic dirty quack. There is a lack of controls on the fuzz circuit and as Lee says it is loud but adjustable via the internal trimpot, and it doesn't get as synthy as I'd personally like. Would have been better with more fuzz controls and preferably gated.

Cheers Trevor

 

I'd forgotten you had one of these! What you don't know about filters isn't worth knowing 😁

[stewblack]

I thank you both. I've decided it's too pricey for me. I really don't need another filter pedal but I like buying them. 

I've gone for a Mojo Hand 443 instead.

[lee650]

12 hours ago, stewblack said:

I thank you both. I've decided it's too pricey for me. I really don't need another filter pedal but I like buying them. 

I've gone for a Mojo Hand 443 instead.

I had the Boomstick bottom Feeder (mojo hand 443,with extra bass response) nice little bubbly filter, quite subtle and limited for synth,but a nice sound.

Edited August 21, 2021 by lee650

[Quatschmacher]

On 18/08/2021 at 16:05, stewblack said:

Rather than start a new thread ... Any opinions on this pedal?

I love mine and it has seen off many other excellent filters over the past four or five years or so that I’ve had it. 
 

They come up cheaply enough used - £80ish (or even less sometimes).

Edited August 21, 2021 by Quatschmacher

[stewblack]

If I were to see one at £80 I'd be very tempted.

[Quatschmacher]

14 minutes ago, stewblack said:

If I were to see one at £80 I'd be very tempted.

I think I saw one go for £65 on here once. I think I paid about £85 for mine years ago. 

[kingforaday]

I got given a dead one of these for free… I must get round to fixing that! Cheers for the reminder guys! 

[paulbuzz]

I have one and and really like it, but for me it was greatly improved by a few simple mods:

1) Added an output level control to match up the volume between effect & bypass, which varies greatly depending on the settings
2) Added an effects loop to allow patching in a fuzz of my choice instead of the built in one
3) Added a footswitch (& indicator LED) to switch between envelope control and the expression pedal input

Edited August 21, 2021 by paulbuzz

[Quatschmacher]

3 hours ago, paulbuzz said:

I have one and and really like it, but for me it was greatly improved by a few simple mods:

1) Added an output level control to match up the volume between effect & bypass, which varies greatly depending on the settings
2) Added an effects loop to allow patching in a fuzz of my choice instead of the built in one
3) Added a footswitch (& indicator LED) to switch between envelope control and the expression pedal input

Any chance you could share pics? That sounds really interesting and all stuff I’d love to have done to mine. 
 

Is the loop post-envelope detector?

 

One other mod I’d seen was that the distortion trimpot was given a surface knob so it could be dialled in to taste. 

[paulbuzz]

1 hour ago, Quatschmacher said:

Any chance you could share pics? That sounds really interesting and all stuff I’d love to have done to mine. 
 

Is the loop post-envelope detector?

 

One other mod I’d seen was that the distortion trimpot was given a surface knob so it could be dialled in to taste. 

Hm, I think most of the interesting stuff is probably slightly hidden under the main board, and I think getting the board in and out was the most challenging part of the process, so wouldn't be too keen to repeat it unnecessarily.

Electronically it was all pretty simple (just as well, as I'm no electronics expert). It just involved identifying and hacking into various points where signal was coming in or out of the pedal anyway:
 - the output volume control is at the very end of the circuit, so accessed at the bypass footswitch
 - the effect loop was added at the footswitch for the built-in distortion - it's in the 'non-distortion' signal path, and yes, it's (usefully) post-envelope detector
 - the footswitch for the expression-pedal input was hacked in at the expression input socket  

This all works extremely well despite my mediocre electronic skills and technique, so definitely wouldn't be hard for anyone competent to duplicate.
 

Edited August 21, 2021 by paulbuzz

[Quatschmacher]

1 hour ago, paulbuzz said:

Hm, I think most of the interesting stuff is probably slightly hidden under the main board, and I think getting the board in and out was the most challenging part of the process, so wouldn't be too keen to repeat it unnecessarily.

Electronically it was all pretty simple (just as well, as I'm no electronics expert). It just involved identifying and hacking into various points where signal was coming in or out of the pedal anyway:
 - the output volume control is at the very end of the circuit, so accessed at the bypass footswitch
 - the effect loop was added at the footswitch for the built-in distortion - it's in the 'non-distortion' signal path, and yes, it's (usefully) post-envelope detector
 - the footswitch for the expression-pedal input was hacked in at the expression input socket  

This all works extremely well despite my mediocre electronic skills and technique, so definitely wouldn't be hard for anyone competent to duplicate.
 

Thanks. Looks great. What’s the extra jack socket on the top to the left of the power inlet when looking at the back side?

[paulbuzz]

4 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Thanks. Looks great. What’s the extra jack socket on the top to the left of the power inlet when looking at the back side?

Ah, that's just an extra effect output jack, wired in parallel with the original one, purely for convenience in placing/cabling the pedal on a board.

Hope the pics/notes I made above are sufficiently helpful - I don't want to derail the thread with a long and detailed description of my efforts (Is it even possible to derail an eleven year old thread...? 😁 )  but I can post more detail if you want.

[kingforaday]

On 21/08/2021 at 22:45, paulbuzz said:

Hm, I think most of the interesting stuff is probably slightly hidden under the main board, and I think getting the board in and out was the most challenging part of the process, so wouldn't be too keen to repeat it unnecessarily.

Electronically it was all pretty simple (just as well, as I'm no electronics expert). It just involved identifying and hacking into various points where signal was coming in or out of the pedal anyway:
 - the output volume control is at the very end of the circuit, so accessed at the bypass footswitch
 - the effect loop was added at the footswitch for the built-in distortion - it's in the 'non-distortion' signal path, and yes, it's (usefully) post-envelope detector
 - the footswitch for the expression-pedal input was hacked in at the expression input socket  

This all works extremely well despite my mediocre electronic skills and technique, so definitely wouldn't be hard for anyone competent to duplicate.
 

You’re not wrong… good to hear it wasn’t just me that struggled to get the board out… man it’s really wedged in there! 

[Quatschmacher]

On 22/08/2021 at 00:54, paulbuzz said:

Ah, that's just an extra effect output jack, wired in parallel with the original one, purely for convenience in placing/cabling the pedal on a board.

Hope the pics/notes I made above are sufficiently helpful - I don't want to derail the thread with a long and detailed description of my efforts (Is it even possible to derail an eleven year old thread...? 😁 )  but I can post more detail if you want.

Thanks. Would it have been possible to put an extra knob on top to control the onboard distortion level?

[paulbuzz]

18 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Thanks. Would it have been possible to put an extra knob on top to control the onboard distortion level?

Yes, I think so; it's fairly spacious under the main board as far as I can remember. There was certainly no problem finding space for my output level pot below the 'Mode' control. I would think there's almost certainly space for another pot in the equivalent position on the right hand side (ie below the 'Start' control). There's probably even space for a couple more below the 'Blend' and 'Stop' controls... 😁

Desoldering the internal trim pot for the distortion level control would just be mildly fiddly, I expect.
As far as I can remember, I did have a bit of trouble desoldering the expression input jack, but managed ok in the end. As you can see, once it was rewired I replaced it upside down, to keep the new connections away from the board.

As you can also see, I managed to acquire a matching EHX knob to go on my new output level control, though I can't remember where from now - it was definitely somewhere slightly obscure - a shop in Finland possibly...?!