Folktek Mescaline

[Antlerface]

Got an email back from Folktek. They're sending me a new unit. What's another week of waiting after 6 months? One of my friends said his (working and not fucked) piece is amazing. Super stoked to actually use it next week. My other new shit will have to tide me over I suppose.

[MrNovember]

Finally plugged my Motion and Mental in. I'm not 100% in love with them yet, but it definitely feels like there's something missing. Hopefully, I get the replacement Channel soon and I'll revisit them all properly.

[oscillateur]

Does anyone know if someone has plans to build simple but solid 3-tiered 9U*44HP closed back cases for the Mescaline ?
It wouldn't need rails or a power supply (though a simple eurorack one could be used if desired) so the cost should ideally not be as high as for a classic euro case...
Something that looks similar to the bamboo cases Folktek uses for their resonant garden/etc. would be great, for example.

[Jwar]

Usually I live vicariously through other people's gear and feel 'excitement' or even "happy" for them. This thread is the first time I have felt 'disappointment' through others. Like, it's emotionally effecting me and I didn't even 1. Express interest and 2. Order this thing. Sorry guys :sad:This is like some SENSE 8 shit.

I think what happened is this.

Folktek was delayed by their manufacturers who did obviously some shoddy work. They felt pressured to ship these out due to long wait times and just got them out as fast as possible assuming they would arrive ok. Which obviously is not happening. Now, I bet you anything they had those surface mount components soldered for them, most folks seem to go that route anymore. So, if they were having issues already with their manufacturers, now it's even worse because they are getting a ton of returns. So far it's been about half the people getting them or more. Which has got to hurt their bottom line pretty damn bad when you factor in shipping costs. I'd wager Folktek will not make much off this endeavor, which sucks for them because it was a really good idea. The implementation of said idea however would need to be re-evaluated if they were to ever do this again. I bet they don't.

So, I actually feel for them even though I've got a broken system. I cannot imagine this happen after putting so much time into development. You ought to be able to trust the people you work with, but who knows. Maybe they went with company B instead of A to cut some costs and are now paying the price. Sucks. Especially for those of you overseas.

If they solder joints are bad, no amount of packaging will make any different either. Sounds to me like they got an entire bad batch of boards.

I'm still having fun with my Mescaline because most of it is functional. In fact there's only a few sections that are not (effects and part of the keys). It sucks that some of you have totally busted one.

[baremountain]

Yeah I feel bad for all y'all but I definitely also feel bad for Folktek. This is a serious nightmare on their end, and it's frankly not entirely their fault. It seems like they were made assurances that weren't met, and placed too much trust in those assurances without proper testing or precaution, and then launched because of the pressure to release. Huge backfire, not a good idea, but at least they're working with everyone on their own dime.

Anyways enough of the dramababble, here is some in depth user reporting.
Got my new correctly sized bolts in & now my unit sits totally flush with the frame and the breadboard is mounted on Mental. Now that it's all together properly, I give their design implementation and aesthetic a solid 10. The only functionality missing in the frame is transportability, but I was just super careful with mine when I transported it to/from a gig last night, and wrapped it up in a shirt for the car ride.
In terms of actually playing the instrument, this is one of the most fun setups I've ever messed with. Once it 'clicks' you can instantly dive deep & stay there for hours. I've had 6 or 7 patching sessions with it, and I've had at least 4 of those result in subjectively incredible performance experiences (one of which was live for an audience last night). Like, the kinda shit where you're performing and you actually get excited by the evolution of what you're hearing, and you get to take a trip with it both as the performer and as an audience. The name also makes so much sense based off of those deep sessions. Once you've got a patch set up, you can make a few small changes here and there that will radically shift the mood (especially with Mental), but still be related to what came before. The patchable potentiometers alone provide a ton of flexibility in what Mental is doing. Being in it feels like this iterative experiement, where you're following this set of circumstances you've created in all different directions, viewing it from different angles, and understanding it in different ways. With some creative mixing I was able to perform a cohesive 25 minute arc last night that never felt repetitive or boring.

Technically I'll say my biggest problem is the Voltage (volume) discrepancy between playing the Channel by hand or triggering it via pin header. I forgot when I was setting levels last night and clipped a little because I set the Channel levels to triggered key activation, rather than to my touch. It also makes it so that your trigger pattern is pretty drowned out when you are actually playing the keys. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'd prefer the option rather than that being the default (or only) way. Other than that, Mental is a circuit bender's dream. It loves being fed back (audio out from Mental to R in on Channel; R out on channel to patchable insert on Mental) and Mental will fuzz/octave/modulate the shit outta your signal in an awesome time based way.
The FX on Channel are great. I've really been messing with #3 (pitched) as it's great at creating a lush dronescape with a 1-3-5-7 or 1-3-5-6 kind of sequence being triggered. Also, tune your Channel boards and you won't regret it. I have mine tuned, chromatically from keys 1-8 (root through fifth) then 9 and 10 are a sixth and a major seventh, but I've thought about changing it to strictly modal as well.
I've got a few more clips on my instagram if anyone is interested. Maybe I'll soon be bothered to mix some of the sessions I've recorded down if anyone would like to hear??

[Ugly Nora]

Wouldn't wrapping it in a shirt be I'll advised what with the potential for static in your shirt damaging the electronics?

[Jwar]

Wouldn't wrapping it in a shirt be I'll advised what with the potential for static in your shirt damaging the electronics?

You are correct. There's anti static packaging specifically to protect against this. I know because I wrap pedals in it sometimes. Great packaging. I would NEVER put any exposed components in a box that's going to be jostled packed with a t-shirt. IMO you're just asking for trouble. It's the perfect storm. Especially with the fluctuations in weather we've been having.


I'd love to hear your clips man!

[baremountain]

Wouldn't wrapping it in a shirt be I'll advised what with the potential for static in your shirt damaging the electronics?

If it's moving around a lot I'd think so, but I just put a shirt on top of it to avoid any cosmetic damage. I'm not like taping a shirt to the back of the boards or anything. Good to keep in mind though. A shirt is definitely better than the far-greater static inducing carpet-like material that covers the trunk of my car though

[Jwar]

Got my new panel in today!!! Also got new screws!! YES!

So, my question for you lovely folks is, how do you use yours?? I'm mostly just making drones at this point and fucking with the gates. Though, I noticed that sometimes the gate doesn't work well or the triggers don't in some spots. Is there a trick to that as well?

I would love for someone (anyone) to post a picture for me to kind of emulate and then work from there. I think it would teach me a lot. The manual is kind of like reading a foreign language to me. Honestly Baremountain my friend, you've taught me more than that damn manual and the videos combined. LOL

Let's see those pics!

Oh and what kind of 1/8th cables you all using?? I got some and they are stupid long, so they are annoying. LOL. However they work!

[Ruiner]

Someone is selling their Mescaline on Reverb for $920 and right now a big discount down to $824!!!!

[UglyCasanova]

If that sells, my faith in humanity is lost. They have like 20 left for sale at folktek.com

[Jwar]

I had to kind of force the screws into one panel on my modules. LOL. I tried to use a dremel (because I couldn't find my fucking drill) to drill the holes a bit more. Instead I scratched the shit out of the frame. Sigh. There goes my resale value. That being said, I really fucking dig this thing. Especially not that the FX and keys section is working!

[ProCarsteNation]

Still waitiiiiing....

Meanwhile:
you guys have seen this, yeah
https://www.facebook.com/groups/168232477082191/

[Ruiner]

Still waitiiiiing....

Meanwhile:
you guys have seen this, yeah
https://www.facebook.com/groups/168232477082191/

Yes, i'm a mod so i'll make sure none of you are accepted.

[worra]

Well now I'm definitely not joining