Metasonix drummachine or Assblaster KV 100

[balma]

D-1000

God I need one so, so, so much.

I think Metasonix is one of the coolest small synth labels ever.

Such precious piece of distortion madness must be MINE

I'm just wondering if somebody here has experience with these synths.....??? any?

I didn't felt so enthusiastic and obsessed with getting a specific type of synth since a long time ago.

Hope to getting one before december....

[Mission Difficult]

From what I understand the KV-100 is more of an effects unit than anything else. So I guess it depends on whether you want a drum machine or a tube effects box. The D-1000 is nice and all, but I think the KV-100 is a little more useful. Granted, I don't own either of them, so it's just what I've seen from the demos. I do have a TX-1 SE, great little box. Pretty much my first choice whenever I'm doing some kind of distortion.

[balma]

Tnx. Yes, one unit is a drum machine that I suposse have certain primitive sequencer and the other one is a dirt effects unit.

I'm truly concern on getting NOISE boxes for creating some modern minimal. If I get a metasonix, it will be at the service of some experimental minimal that I want to develop.

These machines are very very chaotic and nasty. I dunno, but this kind of sound is almost impossible to achieve on digital instruments (if you have a tip to do that it will be welcome)

Trent Reznor has get several models from Metasonix. the demos, as many other underground devices, are horrible. One of these nasty bad language guys will be incorporated to my live setup

[skweeegor]

You'll probably be able to get more info at the metasonix forum over at Muff Wiggler:

http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

[Mission Difficult]

Trent Reznor has get several models from Metasonix. the demos, as many other underground devices, are horrible. One of these nasty bad language guys will be incorporated to my live setup

If you do get one, you might want to be careful using it live. These units don't like to be knocked around at all.

[shaft9000]

I'm just wondering if somebody here has experience with these synths.....??? any?

some. nothing major like the Wretch, just a few modules.

the waveshaper & VCO Eurorack modules I had for just a while. Metasonix uses odd scaling for vco tracking, not V/oct, and I could only get one module more to fit in my case at the time, so I swapped them for a Cwejman module and then later gott the R54 'Supermodule' bandpass+vco+waveshaper to fit the single case.

sound quality is HUGE and delicious. Hard to tame at first -they don't behave like much else- but not as unruly as say, a Sherman. The futureretro777 filter also is harsher and 'harder' sounding ime.
R-54 can get screaming, but there's also many subtle, imho much more appealing harmonics on tap that transistors can't quite 'do'...this is the real beauty of these modules. not the outrageousness - it's the way you can coax sweet harmonics out of 'em.
Oh yeah, and there's the masculine 'thump' I've ONLY heard from Metasonix filters being swept by exponential EG over 1-4ms. Brutal.

Build quality is high (great jacks especially), but functionally, the modules could be a bit better designed. for example, the r-54 has 3 CV inputs a la ARP2600, but no specific CV in for waveshape/resonance or keytracking... or anything but pitch.

But that's a rather minor concern, as you buy Metasonix for the sound and vibe - nothing else in synth-world sounds like them because they're not analog or digital filters.

[skweeegor]

IIRC, the Metasonix VCO's are Hz/Volt

[trevordutton]

Hey,
I've used three of the Metasonix pedals (the VCO, waveshaper/ring mod, and one of the filters) and love them. The Metasonix characteristic sound is indeed as squelchy, nasty, chaotic, unique, and rich as their website would have you believe. There's no false hype there! But it's also quite unpredictable, so perhaps better suited to the studio than live performance . . . the same knob settings during two different sessions will deliver different results for example.
Of the two units you're considering Balma, I personally think the Assblaster effects processor would be more versatile. For drums you could run any drum sounds you wanted through it and still maintain control over the sequence programming, effect wetness, etc. Plus you could run ANYTHING else through it. The Metasonix drum machine looks like it's sequencer is very limited, and there's no way to blend in other timbres with the Metasonix tones.
Cheers!

[kuroichi]

Remember that the d1000 drums are ringing filters and as such can be used that way. You can run sounds through them while they are trigger by the sequencer or feedback it's sounds. Plus it can overdrive etc of course.

[balma]

Thanks a lot for all the details!

in fact I'm planning to get one for october-november, budget is $900/

I felt in love with those crazy machines since I heard them from the first time. there are a lot of mainstream things that I could get with $900, but I'll take a risk

And I suppose they are not stable aren't they? I don't care too much about that if I get the multieffects processor.

I'm plenty of sequencers, so experimentation with audio outputs-inputs will be distortion heaven...


f**k I need this: now my imagination is flying

[Joey]

I just got an assblaster recently and have not gotten along well with it.

I'm actually selling mine if you'd like to buy it

There are a lot of things that bother me about it:

1. if you turn the filter on, it kills your gain by a lot

2. if you want to use the main output, and just use the pulser or vco, you can't unless the filter is on

3. if you use the individual outs for the pulser/vco, they self oscillate at all times unless you turn the filter on, and then its only at certain points in their knob range.

4. there is always a constant high frequency buzzing unless you put a plug into the ringmod jack (not that big of a deal)

5. the vco does not track pitch - coming from my ms20 or kenton, it doesn't matter, it won't track pitch accurately - its hz/v btw

I've found that lowering the input gain and playing with the noise gate actually gets more expressive effects than cranking the input gain alot

it gives you a real nice tube distortion if you just use it without any of its effects

I honestly havent found much use for it in my music, i've been trying to find ways to shoehorn it in but to no avail

I made a thread about this on muffwiggler and they all jumped on me for it, its kind of funny, and someone else made another thread asking about nin's metasonix usage (or rather making fun of me)

you can read both here:

original thread: http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewto ... &start=all
follow up about nin: http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewto ... 020#259020


but thats neither here nor there

anyway,

its definitely a cool machine, but not what i was expecting at all

I don't really like the bandpass filter - compared to something like a sherman filterbank, its nowhere near as useful. the resonance is either incredibly subtle or super piercing and unusable (unless you want to use that)

you can get some cool autowah stuff out of it (But I never use that in my music) with the envelope follower and the filter cv in

each unit may differ in its response

I should also mention I talked to the wretch who did those demos on the metasonix site, and he said he used a TM6 to boost the gain going in, and that it was a prototype assblaster with different components

they arent representative of the sound

hope this helps

[implant]

have you ever seen this little guy?

http://www.wmdevices.com/geiger.php
$300 brand spankin' new! this should f**k your audio up pretty good.
imo with the gear you have the D-1000 would add zilch to your sound infact you could make similar basic sounds
with any number of your synths and be able to sequence em with ease. the d-1000 is useless and over priced for what it does and what it does not do(which is a lot). fine company with awesome distortion units but that drum machine could use more features.

[balma]

Well I'm certainly impressed with the good responses here

Can the VCO be linked with an external source? Well after reading it does not track pitch I suppose its implementation will be more recomendable for being ringed with drum sounds...

I'm doing some experimental minimal I'm just looking for obtaining weird, distorted, rancid noises. Need, for example a repetitive hit each 2 measures with a disctintive distorted sound, to be manipulated along standard dance sounds. I'm trying to build a sound flow that cannot be repodruced easily with mainstream sounds.
I need something angry, dark, that feeling that this noise is not inside but out of the speakers, flying somewhere... I'm not interested on send through it, complex harmonies, but just small noises.

now, these instruments are experimetal all of them. Not the common synths or effects units, standards.

I wasn't aware of their inestability. I thought I could program X effect for the line input, and it will remain always as I programmed it...

is good to have certain amount of highly predictable synths, like those ones I have, and a dark side, where noises are born from the combination of several unusual sources.

So, last year I bought a Fizmo here on VSE. Well, not what I expected, but that's good too. I have been using it a LOT, and I'm starting to hate it on secret.... . f**k Fizmo, hard to implement it on any setup. But it's making me learn new things! that's the deal.

So Joey, I'll still searching if this could be a good investment or a failure. There are 4 months in the road to find about it, I'll let you know if I finally decide to take it.

and the geiger counter box, thanx for the recommendation, I have curiosity about it.

[Joey]

the geiger counter is totally different from the waveshaper in the metasonix gear

as described to me by a metasonix user:


the geiger is like hard hitting metal
metasonix is like vomiting out of your a*s

i'd say that description is pretty on the money

[novielo]

hey balma, you can ear the wmd at about 0:30 in the back ground. it will give a very narow idea of what it can do.