critter & guitari SEPTAVOX (huge pocket piano bro, yessss)

[rainlet]

Was drooling over this literally yesterday. Maybe if I get this new job I'm lining up for~

[Glenouille]

I have received mine this week.

I had both the Pocket Piano GR and MIDI one and was just about to sell the MIDI one to pull the trigger on the Melody Mill + IIO and put them both in a dedicated wooden box like you can see on some of their videos when I spotted the Septavox.

Like you I thought this is the one! I had to cough up another $125 in VAT and custom fees to bring it into the country so expense wise it's steep for a little instrument. I mean OK it has this quirky and unique take on everything, but Korg and Arturia offer small beasts that can do an awful lot (more). Anyway again probably like you, for some unknown reasons, Critter & Guitari stuff appeals to me more.

New modes are really cool. The Arpeggiator(s) syncable to all the peds' LFOs or MIDI clock are not new but they are what I loved about the MIDI PP; now there is also a Slicer mode: a cross between a SL-20 and a Goatkeeper. Evidently it does not offer as many options as these 2 peds but it is pretty neat. Push the slicer/trem speed to the last fourth of the course of the pot and you have a very cool and nice sounding ring mod.

I guess this is the main point for me: there is no options/features where you think "OK this is different, but truth is when am I going to really use that..." The tones suit me a lot better than the Pocket Piano ones which can quickly be ring modish or a little tammed, when the Septavox offers more usable tones and nice aggressive ones (Square wave, Sawtooth, Dirty Square). Add RRR+Megalith behind and people will struggle to think the toy with bright yellow pots is the culprit.
You can add a part that really seems to come from a synth more than a Lo-fi/chiptune device. I'm not dissing the PP here, I like it a lot and you can still do a lot of what it does with the Septavox but it can also sound more refined and blends in better.
Portamento and other nice things can be done straight out the box, without playing with the pots (though I loved playing like that with the PP), I mean you can still do all kinds of dive bombing and crazy transpositions/key changes with the pots but it is overall much less DIYish to do a lot of stuff. You can now also try to make some music instead of only droning and fiddling pots until the cows come home! Also I often ended putting a substantial amount of effects after the PP, as much as I enjoy doing this a lot, it 's not needed as much here. Time effects yes, but it offers a good bit of pitch modulation already. Now of course it would not be a good ILF spiel without adding peds after the Septavox, I'm working this WE so haven't had much time to try combos but Computer mode + Raptio or Judder is fun pairing for instance!

Bottom line: it is expensive but it offers more, the extras are features I have a need for so it works for me I guess - If you have been using a PP for a while, you will be a little lost with the extended keyboard at first, but the rest is all there and you will enjoy the new more usable feature set. The size is odd though, the ratio features/size/price still makes the PP MIDI the best concept - more pedalboard friendly.

One thing to note, the on-board speaker cannot always handle the lows too good. They end up being much weaker than the highs. Pretty normal in the end considering the power and size of the thing. This problem is not really noticeable once plugged. Oh and I like the jack on the side so much more than on top - silly but practical and for some reasons I also remember better the LED combos (to find again the tones you liked) on the black background!

[Chankgeez]

Is that a huge piano in your pocket?

[Glenouille]

[D.o.S.]

Suit and Sandals ftw.

[MEC]

Suit and Sandals ftw.

Looks like the camera operator didn't feel a need for proper footwear either.

[sonidero]

Socken und Sandalen Core...

They also made a new amp for everything...



They were part of Jack Off Whites Record Store Day thing...

[ThurberMingus]

Those amps are $250? I really like and lust for Critter and Guitarist stuff, but some of their prices are pretty

[Glenouille]

yes that too but that amp is built into the septavox

I wish! but the Septavox's onboard amp only delivers 3W with an onboard speaker size of 3'' when the Terz delivers 7W with a 1 inch bigger speaker size (4''). Also there is no distortion circuit in the Septavox and the dual fuzz circuit is a cool feature of the Terz with 1 pot to control the level of the silicon side, 1 pot to control the level of the germanium side and the last pot for the main volume. There is also a low/high gain switch.
With this in mind it would have been interesting to have an output of some kind to use the fuzz circuits with other stuff than the 7W amp!

[sonidero]

1 pot to control the level of the silicon side, 1 pot to control the level of the germanium side

If everything could be so yin and yang...

[goroth]

I don't really care about the septavox but dat Dragonforce!!!

[fishtankdork]

I have a midi pp that I cherish. This septavox looks fucking amazing. Is it diff modes than the pp? Because the pp has 8, and this only has 7? Also can I midi this pp into this?! God it looks tasty

[Inconuucl]

I think so, I remember reading something about Jack White himself having designed them. I might be off completely though.

[Glenouille]

I have a midi pp that I cherish. This septavox looks fucking amazing. Is it diff modes than the pp? Because the pp has 8, and this only has 7? Also can I midi this pp into this?! God it looks tasty

I don't think any of them have 8 modes.

Pocket Piano standard has 6 modes and presets are accessible via the Auxiliary Button (depending on chosen mode, you can chose between 4 waveforms (sine, square, triangle or sawtooth) or octave shifts) and no MIDI IN/OUT
Pocket Piano GR (green version) had the same features as the PP standard + 1 additional mode (Mono Glider) and no MIDI IN/OUT
Pocket Piano Midi (older Version) is like the PP standard (so 6 modes) and has MIDI IN/OUT

In July 2014, Critter And Guitari changed things and from there on all Pocket Pianos have 7 modes (same as old GR version) and have a HOLD function - something they implemented in the Melody Mill at the end of 2013 (like an EHX Freeze: freeze a note/chord and play over it). If you have an older version and the serial number begins with a 'D' you can actually update the firmware and add the 7th mode and the HOLD function.

Septavox has 7 modes (3 are identical to the Pocket Piano's: vibrato, two-octave arpeggiator, octave cascade and 4 are new: slide, swell, slicer and pipe glide) and 7 tones (dirty sine, sine, electric organ, square wave, sawtooth, dirty square, computer) - I find the new modes really cool and more useful than some of the PP's.
Each of the 7 tones is accessible regardless of the mode you are in so it offers a lot more flexibility than the PP MIDI from that perspective.
The MIDI functionalities are identical to the PP MIDI - you can hook them up, sync them, sync them to a midi clock signal, use the Septavox's extended keyboard as a midi controller to control another unit or plug another MIDI controller into it to use the Septavox as a sound module. Same as Pocket Piano MIDI!

[fishtankdork]

I have the newer version, not sure why I thought it had 8, I play it every day haha, it def has 7 your right. Another wired question for you, if you midi the pp into the septa can you still use all 7 modes from the pp on the septa and the 6 septa modes or dose it just turn the septa into a midi controller for the pp at tht point? Id love to be able to hook it up via midi to the septa and have access to everything the pp and septa can do. Is this doable? How dose the midi functions work on these things? I just run my pp midi currently quarter inch jack out to the amp, would I be able to midi the pp to the septa than go from the septa into my rig And still have access to everything the septa and pp can do at once?