Can someone rundown the Bass Micro Synth?

[BoatRich]

What are the differences between small/big box? Do I need to look for a vintage one? Has anyone tried it with a drone synth/other weird noise sources? I'm really interested in these but not sure on the specifics.

[tabcantab]

I have a new (XO) one and absolutely love it. I'm not super familiar with the vintage model, but I think the square wave gets a bit fuzzier and the sub octave glitches out more on those, which could be good or bad depending on your use. Bypass is good on mine, terrible tone suck on the old ones. Newer model also runs off a 9v OneSpot instead of needing 24v.

I usually just use it on bass, but I've run organ through it and it's definitely got weirdo drone potential.

[chrisdermo]

I also have the newer one, but the non bass version (the bassist i play with has synth pedals too so I need mine to be able to track the higher notes on a guitar).
I've put Bugbrand Boardweevil2012 and Casper Electronics Dronelab through mine. It's not the craziest thing ever for drone but will definitely beef up your sound, I've found the auto-filter sweeps don't really freak out on sound sources with a constant level like droning synths etc. But if you have play with your dynamics or put a tremolo or something before it it can go a bit nuts if required.
I love mine! Can't imagine ever being without it.

[rustywire]

I had an original. They do need to be true bypassed, def.
FME takes the uninitiated user about 20min to dial in and when you do it's very 1trick ponyish.
If you like analog synth bass it can get you there, with some different variations on that theme.
But now there are so many options available with better tracking & equally good sound.
3+ years ago I sold mine and got the Ibanez SB7 instead for about 10% the price. Still have/use to this day.

BMS is probably the most overpriced mass produced pedal on the market IMO

[echorec]

I've owned 3 Micro Synthesizers (1 for bass & 2 for guitar). All of them were big box 90s versions. Everyone told me I just had to have the bass version for synths, and I've seen several people on forums advocate the bass version for guitar as well. I found the bass version quite limiting, because unless you were playing the lower octaves, it was tricky to hit the trigger properly. It was like cutting all my string synths in half. It could be done, but it took more finessing to use the third octave and above.

I currently use a guitar MS with a Grendel Drone Commander and an Elka Rhapsody. In the past I've also used the MS with drum machines and various tabletop oscillator boxes. If you combine the MS with modulation and oddball fx, you can find some really unexpected sounds. With a tremolo, you can get some wild, gated patterns and rhythms.

Of course people have dumped on the newer SMD version since its inception, and I would personally prefer to get a used, larger version for price and ease of repairs. I find a lot of the vintage-vs-reissue complaints to be empty hype though. When you've got Howard Davis saying the modern stereo Polyphase is better than the vintage one, and you've got Small Bear saying the modern MN3005s are as good as vintage Panasonics, their comments mean a lot more to me than wannabe experts on TGP.

The biggest plus for the MS is that nothing else sounds quite like it (dirty, fuzzy synth-like textures, but can also be quite focused). I had been toying with getting a Dwarfcraft Gears, but when I found another bb MS with the original crate and factory power supply for a good price, I jumped on it. The downside is that nearly everything you do with it will sound fairly similar. It's not like having 3-4 units in one. That was part of why I parted with mine in the past. It's a fun box, but you can get bored with it, if you're not using it in combination with other stuff. The MS can really enhance pedal chains for drones/soundscapes/experimental/cinematic applications, but it will always sound like a MS.

[BoatRich]

I'm totally cool with a one trick pony, I really want it for big analog synth textures in ambient parts and as an extra heavy texture in doomier parts. I'd be pairing it with a Bitquest, CT5, Generation Loss, RM-1n, Box of Metal, RV-6, and an Ibanez ES-2

[chrisdermo]

The biggest plus for the MS is that nothing else sounds quite like it (dirty, fuzzy synth-like textures, but can also be quite focused). I had been toying with getting a Dwarfcraft Gears, but when I found another bb MS with the original crate and factory power supply for a good price, I jumped on it. The downside is that nearly everything you do with it will sound fairly similar. It's not like having 3-4 units in one. That was part of why I parted with mine in the past. It's a fun box, but you can get bored with it, if you're not using it in combination with other stuff. The MS can really enhance pedal chains for drones/soundscapes/experimental/cinematic applications, but it will always sound like a MS.

Totally this^^ for me out of all the synth pedals I've tried (Digitech bass synth wah, Boss SYB5, Snazzy Mini Ark, Zoom MS50G) the Microsynth probably sounds the most boring of the bunch on it's own, but 100% plays the best with other pedals.... paired with a bunch of other bits and bobs (fuzzes, modulation, pitch shifting, reverb, delay, etc!) it becomes quite stunning, where those other pedals would become just too much of a mess to be very usable. This pedal is very good at standard synthesizer textures, but needs other pedals to lift it into 'WTF WAS THAT!' territory.

[Invisible Man]

It's really just a squared octave thing with filter sweeps. I had the big box, and it's cool, but--between power, size, bypass, and price, there are better options out there. I ditched it for a Bit Commander and LPF. Could also consider any pitch shifter, meatbox, or filter with fuzz for a similar effect.

[BoatRich]

It's really just a squared octave thing with filter sweeps. I had the big box, and it's cool, but--between power, size, bypass, and price, there are better options out there. I ditched it for a Bit Commander and LPF. Could also consider any pitch shifter, meatbox, or filter with fuzz for a similar effect.

I've heavily considered both. I sell both EHX and EQD at work so I can totally a/b them. I'm really big on the idea of one box doing big synthy sweeps at the front of my chain though. Realistically I could use the filters on the Bitquest with a bit commander and get it but I feel like I'd rather use other options on that pedal.

[chrisdermo]

The thing I think that sold me on the pedal when I got one and played with it, is that if you were to reach the same effect with other pedals, you would have to split your clean input into 4, run each clean/fuzz/octave down/octave up (or two if you used a pog), recombine them, run that into an auto filter lpf, and then a slow gear. Except the slow gear wouldn't work properly with the filter sweep going from low to high before it.
I like that the octave down glitches independently of the fuzz and the octave up, and that the volume swell works somewhat independently of the filter sweep.

[fever606]

When you've got Howard Davis saying the modern stereo Polyphase is better than the vintage one

You're just trying to bring down my "just bought a vintage PolyPhase" high...

[echorec]

When you've got Howard Davis saying the modern stereo Polyphase is better than the vintage one

You're just trying to bring down my "just bought a vintage PolyPhase" high...

Ha! Enjoy it! I've played the original a bit, since a local friend has his own. It's really apples to oranges though. They're completely different pedals.

[BoatRich]

Got a killer deal on a new one at work sooooo...
Settings thread? Looking for really deep sweeps and general space noise

[tabcantab]

I found it useful to start out playing with some of the settings in the manual, just to get a sense for the range of sounds available. Also, if you're having issues with sustain and abrupt cutoffs, you may need to adjust the internal trimpot to account for the level of whatever you're plugging in.