jimmarchi1's Reviews

I am head over heels for this black box.

The SE-1 is the evolution of Studio Electronics' famed MIDI Moog. At its heart the SE-1 is very much a rackmounted, Mini Moog with full MIDI implementation, but there are a few useful additions to the Moog package that make this synth way more versatile. It features a ring mod, dedicated LFOs (so you don't have to sacrifice an oscillator to LFO duty like on a real model D) and a multimode filter. The filter of course has the classic Moog 4 pole 24db/oct low pass ladder and its wet and thick as can be, but it also can be set to an oberheim 2 pole 12db/oct low pass or band pass and the oberheim filter coupled with the moog oscillators and snappy envelopes provide a really distinctive sound for pads and leads. Using the ring mod and/or frequency mod features you can get some Xpanderish sounds on the less complex end of the oberheim spectrum.

She's not terribly attractive, but she's built like a tank (weighs a ton, but its not a synth you move once its plugged into your set-up).

At $400 used this synth is a no brainer as Moog doesn't offer a comparable product in this price range. Also, this synth sounds very different from my Sub Phatty. Setting the 3rd oscillator to sub provides a much different sub bass response and the oscillators in general sound a little more hifi. In Moog mode thefilter is wet ans sloshylike the Phatty, but cleaner even hen the Phatty's drive control is off. The filters on these 2 synths also respond differently when self-oscillating (cranked resonance). All in all this was a great buy. While it covers some of the same ground as Moog's current offerings it does a lot of stuff the Moog gear doesn't and the Moog synths can get textures that the SE-1 can only approximate with external processing (and a few that it will enver do thanks to the Phatty's infinitely variable oscillator shape control versus the fixed shapes the SE-1 inherited from the original Model D).

I highly recommend everyone get an SE-1 or SE-1X. My only wish is that each oscillator had an additional sine mode. I understand there are some limited edition 1Xes that replace the triangle on osc 3 with a sine, but the synth would be a perfect 3 oscillator analog giant if all the oscillators had a sine shape as well as all the other included shapes.

But this is a lot of synth for the money and a joy to program and play. I can't dock it a point anywhere, the MIDI implementation is fabulous, the knobs are inviting and easy to turn without sacrificing precision. Patch storage is a breeze. This is one of the absolute best monosynths on the market. I wish they would make a poly version.

ugh, I wanted to like this freebie

a great, fully featured VST soundfont host when you wanna get your emu emulator on, but its INCREDIBLY unstable... crashed my project a couple of time before I got pissed and ditched it... its just not worth using it, the filters don't sound that great and the LFO and ADSRS are not programmed well, too fast for this sort of application....

underrated passive monitors

these 3 ways have really great mid detail but a much more accurate bass response than the NS10. Top can be a bit fatiguing, but that's 3 ways. They like a lot of clean power. I just hooked these guys back up recently after taking them out of storage. They belonged to my late wife originally, which is surprising given her utter contempt for sound quality or even decent music while she was alive, but hey! Its another pair of great monitors for my collection. They're not really meant to be studio monitors but I like 'em a lot.

the greatest Tele amp?

this amp was an impulse buy but is growing on me. Its really a great tele amp clean or dirty, but the 15" can add a new flavor to any guitar with the right EQ settings. Presence control is kinda worthless. Usually I don't give a shit about a mid control, but a mid would be useful on this amp over the presence.

Sounds great paired with an ac30. Or 2 ac30s as the dry amp in a wet/dry/wet type setup.

an underrated component of FL

Harmor and Harmless have been growing on me a lot to reinforce the lows on my hardware generated basslines.... these plugins sound REALLY good in the mix and have great modulation and routing capabilities as well as th ability to create really complex oscillator shapes. I think they're supposed to contend with NI's Massive, but the character is different and I prefer them for two reasons: 1) Massive is so ubiquitous that I just never want to hear it again and 2) Harmor and Harmless were included with FL producer

why even put those crappy little keys on the Odyssey?

traded my like-new Odyssey RI in for a floor sample reissue with a Korg analog sequencer.... way more useful to me than those unplayable little keys! I am giving the Odyssey module an extra star for not bothering with those dumb little keys. The module and sequencer take up pretty much the same amount of space as they keyboard version and the module sits nicely on top of my Digital piano when I want a quality keyboard attached to her for performing.

really great freebie

this VSTi sounds amazing, period. I think its geared towards leads, pads and pseudo-sequences, but the matrix-like routing is so flexible it can really do anything. Sound quality is top shelf. I have actually been using it for basses doubling my hardware synths a lot. You can really get your bass sound to evolve with each note using the FM and various other modulation options via the 2 envelope generators and LFOs. Maybe not great on its own, but over a solid moog or arp line punching up all the accent notes?

aww man

a moog that sounds like its been thru post production before you even hit record! the keyboard sucks, but its MIDI capable so who cares. This synth is one of the best sounding new analogs out there and I am so glad I bit the bullet. Good for more than basses though I haven't used it for anything but bass yet in a recording. I only dock this synth a star for the cheesy keyboard.

2020 revision: loved this intensely for a while (still in love when I wrote the review) and I just kinda drifted away from it. I'm so into the ARP feature set or vintage polies.... I let it go as the value climbed following its discontinuation. I will probably regret this later and buy another.

Nice little reissue.

what a great synth, not as deep as moog, more complex than almost any roland analonger but the Jupiter 6 and 8.... very cutting lead sounds. I think the Korg folks did a band up job recreating this classic subtractive. Its so easy to put my kraftwerk or gary numann hat on with this synth and you can just play the riffs from cars all day on this thing. I dock her one point because of the mini keyboard. Its a pretty decent example of mini keys, but it just sucks a dick for my long, spidery fingers. Fortunately the MIDI implementation is well done, a much needed update over originals, so I can play it or sequence it as a module commanded from my PC or my giant Yamaha digital piano that was the best keyboard going short of a Yamaha acoustic baby grand...

I got mine on the cheap used, don't pay full price if you can help it, these come up for sale sometimes now, keep your eyes peeled.

Traded in for a module version with the analog sequencer unit from the MS-20 module... I just never used the tiny little keys and the sequencer is really fun for simulating burbling ARP 2600 sequences.

another great

I just got this silver box of squawk for about $300 off of ebay and impressed with its timbre compared to my Bassbot, particularly thru distortion pedals... it just sounds less 'new'? for want of a better word. Tthe midi sync is great, though the Bassbot schools the x0x on the pattern fluidity even via midi... dunno, the slide on the Bassbot is just right to my ear. Anyway, very cool gadget, not sure if I need two 303s, but for now I am keeping both as well as the volca bass. I have been using them a lot and all 3 have unique sounds in them or can be used to sound reasonably similar for interweaking acid twitterings...

best soid state spring ever

like a roland chorus echo's spring reverb section on crack... lush, not too boingy but not too realistic either, dead quiet and functional at instrument or line level with gobs of adjustable parameters to get the EXACT sound you need (and if its not quite right try hitting it into a gate)... I just dug this old girl outta my attic by chance looking for soe jeff buckley tour picks for some assholes on this site who want to buy them off me... once I found the Tapco I used it on some electronic music to liven up a few synths I re-amped thru my 60s Traynor PA (all tube, only 1 channel modded for guitar use, the others are synth heaven, guys) by patching this old girl in the line level FX loop, wow!

very affordable. I think I paid $25 for this unit....

cheap and useful

Essentially a less tweakable ms2000 if you really wanna dive into this analog modeller... somewhere between a ROMpler and a 90s modeler with a nice vocoder and a toy keyboard.... the tiny form factor and price tag caused me to break down and buy one on ebay.... I like it but have yet to use it in a recording because the sounds is pretty generic.

better than average

you can use this for background analog style twittering when you don't have a real synthesizer and you wanna sound generic....

it really sits in a mix in the background and is a good choice when you want your real synths out front but want more layering.

I grew up with this bad boy

my dad and uncle were always fucking with this guy in the 80s. They used it heavily in their proto chill-out record, "Stress Break" around '85 when I was in grade school. I was excited to discover recently my uncle had it in his basement. So I traded him some guitar stuff for it and have it in my arsenal now.... this is pure Depeche mode and just a great, singular sound in rhythm machines that always loses something when individual hits are sampled.

just wow

I've borrowed a legit 303, 101 and 202 from mystudio/synth mentor back when iw as still at art school, so with that frame of reference? just wow on this one... modern convenience (midi input for sequqences or just the clock as you manually swap patterns, tweak knobs and fuck with external effects and your channel strip) with all the sound I remember from the 90s and early part of the new millennium... I am using this HELL out of this gadget already! It was so cheap used I had to....

slap guitar stomps in front and its a flashback to the best years of my life! sounds great direct or into a guitar amp with a condenser out front. I can't get enough of this gadget! This is best enjoyed as a live performance tool and in my tracks I am working it live and just doing a little editing cleanup during mix-down, at least in my opinion that's where it shines. One caveat is I have had some clock drift doing LONG tracks with sparse patterns. Easily fixed with some careful editing to pull the recorded track back in time. Its funny, when I am performing with it I am hearing it in time, but the recording will have a slow drift.... not sure if tis MIDI clock or my interface.... so I give her 5 stars.

all the knobs are fun to tweak to acidize a dance piece, I just wish I had more arms, but I am getting good at doing drastic moves with index finger and thumb while doing some slight tweaks to adjacent controls with my other fingers so I am tweaking up to 4 knobs at once! awwwwww fun, my guitar-control tweaking skills are paying off in techno at last!

BUY THIS!

WARNING, the knobs are super stiff from the factory and after a month are just breaking in for me. I have read new 303s were stiff too (the knobs were meant to be set and forget, after all), but you will find yourself struggling to make flowing acid sweeps at first, don't be discouraged. Let your toddler twiddle the knobs for a few hours and the stiffness gets manageable... when you want to be subtle the stiff potentiometers are actually quite helpful as its hard to get carried away.

rare silver finish

I just picked this up... its in a rare silver 'pewter' lacquer that matches my LP platinum, has a fat neck like my standard... haven't spent a lot of time with her yet, but I am pleased to have another silver Gibson. I am sure a 70s t-top at the bridge will have her making 'jim' sounds. I will get to her when I have a sec....

UPDATE: good guitar, needs pickup surgery... not playing her much yet, but I am sure I will

Cheap box, cheap pots, great circuit.

I missed my vintage superfuzzz... okay, when I had a ton of vintage fuzzes before they became collector's items I used to own an original, early 70s univox superfuzz with pink and blue cosmetics and in a fit of frustration with how finicky she could be with different guitars and amps I sold her for a huge profit (also, the footswitch was sketchy as hell and she had to be run on a looper for reliable switching, but as her value rose I was afraid to replace ANYTHING inside her with new, functional parts even if they were drop-in replacements).. see my review of the univox.

I knew that the boss fz2 hyperfuzz was a modified univox and discovered that even though boss discontinued the hyperfuzz, the vile Uri Behringer copied the fz2 as his superfuzz. I got mine for 25 bucks shipped on ebay.

As expected the box is crap. The knobs are tiny and hard to access. The pots are chintzy and stiff. Features are gain, treble/bass (the big selling point for this superfuzz or the hyperfuzz as the vintage superfuzz has no tone controls and can be picky with amps and guitars as a result), volume and a mode switch that does flat mids and scooped mids like the univox and a clean transistor boost in mode 3 like the fz2. Forwhatever that's worth, boosts are a dime a dozen, why bother unless 3 way switches are cheaper in bulk than 2 ways!

The sound quality is surprisingly great. It could go toe to toe with my vintage pink/blue univox with treble and bass controls flat at 5. Same exploding attack seguing into compressed octave favoring highs but with some skronky 1 octave down as well, same ring moddy quality with the guitar's tone controls rolled back... super hendrixy and not over the top like a Foxx Tone Machine and its descendants like the Dano Fish 'n Chips. Better low octave tracking than my vintage unit too. Scooped mode sounds good for bass and is tameable for guitar with the bass and treb controls. Drop the bass and treb controls in scooped mids mode and you will get a stronger octave effect with your guitar's controls wide open without the silly, over the top scoop sound, flat sounds are achievable for great solos that cut a dense band mix. I am shocked! This thing delivers way more than I expected at a higher price point.

Pleasantly shocked here. Now the real skinny...

Cons:

1) not true bypass, the bypass sounds okay, probably jfet buffered like better Boss pedals (not sure what bypass circuit the fz2 hyperfuzz got). But it eats some top because it has the Univox nominal impedance of 500kohms versus a non-jumpered tube amp which is a reactive 1megohm. Then again we never whine about the impedance drag from a jumpered plexi at a nominal 500k, so is it a big deal? But that's a variable impedance based on the tube's voltage/current draw, so it sounds better than a fixed 500k to most ears. Its a small thing and easily remedied. See, I am running my Behringer Superfuzz in a true bypass loop anyway.

2) shoddy case and pots

3) doesn't look as cool as the 2 tone Univox superfuzzes

4) purchasing it gives $10-15 bucks to the vile Uri Behringer, who is a creep and a thief. If he were an Aerican or subject of QE2 I would even call hima traitor... Oh well.

pros:

1) sounds right, will do live at leeds, beasties, pumpkins, mudhoney etc ... will also cop hendrix tones with a strat, wah and marshally amp

2) has additional boost mode (though why bother)

3) did I mention you can get one for $25 versus over 50 bucks to build your own univox clone stock or with a big muff style tone control, 100 bucks for a FZ2, or$ 300 to $1k for a working univox, jax, Ibanez (shin-ei icensed this great circuit a lot of places)? Not to mention the assfucking the couple boutique builders who copy this simple circuit will give you for their copy.... hint, bring your own lube.

4) much smaller than original shin-ei and Canadian units, reasonably smaller than boutique copies, slightly smaller than Boss FZ2

5) boss 9V negative tip battery jack

6) sturdy enough for set and forget use in an effects looper...

7) has THE sound (I had a real univox guys, its close as hell and the tone controls finish the job making it fine tunable) plus a lower noise floor than the original Univox fuzz. Without ABing it I am still wowed. Plenty close for stage work and way more versatile thanks to the baxandall tonestack.... maybe less gainy due to the extra gain eaten by the tonestack, but maybe that's accounted for by a hotter Q1, its the 2nd transistor that stands a better of chance of shaping the sound anyway! And like I said, the vintage Panasonics are nothing special.

8) way cheaper than a Watson or black cat clone, don't believe the hype, there is nothing special in a univox superfuzz, and assuming you use good germanium resistors for the full wave rectification/clipping (they do). The vintage panasonic transistors get a lot of attention, but given that the wave is clippedoff by diodes for the octaving effect the transistors don't play a big role in the circuit unless the gain is at 1 or less. For all I know Behringer used the right Panasonics, they are still readily available and cost nothing.

9) better signal to noise ratio than a vintage, 2 knob unit (not sure about Boss version)

If you don't intend to stomp on it and you wanna do 70s Who, certain Smashing Pumpkins, some Mudhoney, Beasty Boys sabotage bass in addition to a fakey Hendrix octave. Really great sound, low noise floor, just wow.

can't beat it with a stick, but you can with a Ross

I recently bumped into my block logo, 90s dynacomp while cleaning up my gear closet. I was looking for my SD1 and BF2 (not sure if I sold them) and found this gem instead. I was really into this pedal at a couple periods of my playing career. Great lead boost into a slightly dirty amp, the extra sustain allows you to play with a little less gain when using a strat and the midrange presence lift really helps cut a mic. Great into a clean fender for chiken pickin' Dare I add this to my board again? Maybe with analog chorus? How 80s of me!

But yeah, if you want classic guitar compression that's not studio grade and just does its thing? this is a great place to start. It colors your tone, but that's the point. Great in a dense band mix. They say the script logo is better but I could never hear a substantial difference. A grey Ross definitely sounds better without adding a bunch of features like booooo-teek versions. Set and forget squash that used to be one of the few pedals I couldn't do without in the recording studio. I am really inspired to plug this in again after replying to a compressor thread in the guitar forum! Everyone should have this or a boss compressor around. They are cheap enough.

a CE-2 by any other name would warble so sweet

Pros

1) MN3007 bucket bridgade chip like the CE-2 with an EXTREMELY similar circuit, pretty much a dead copy of thevenerable blue Boss of the 80s. Sounds great right down to the slight presence boost in the mids. Not the Sparkliest chorus, but like the CE-2 it has a thick, warm sound that I prefer to some later analog chorus pedals I have owned that were more tweakable but chillier (though sparklier).

2) No Delay Time control. For years I thought I preferred 3 knob+ chorus pedals until borrowing a vintage small clone for awhile and realizing one knob and switch was plenty for my purposes. If you are going to have a D-Time control you may as well have a BBD analog flanger like the Ibanez FL9 for full versatility from heavy chorus to medium flange. But its hard to set the 3 relevant knobs up to sound JUST like a small clone, CE1 or 2.... from now on its simple chorus and flange if I need more (writing this review is making me regret selling my original FL9 earlier this year when I needed some extra pocket money for luxury items for me and the little boy).

3) made in USA, virtually indestructible apart from DOD's sketch 80s/90s switch... mine is an early one and has really nice pots and jacks to boot!

4) really good signal-to-noise for an analog device of this type

5) cheap on the used market, way cheaper than a CE-2

cons:

1) weird power jack, but you can get an adapter or mod it if you have a good drill press (the case is heavy as heck, don't use a hand drill)

2) shitty tac switch.... its not so much that the tac switch itself is worse than Ibanez's, its not. Its that DOD's actual plastic pedal assembly isn't mounted as well as the 9 series. There's foam onder it responsible tor the action of the epdal against the tip of the tac switch that wears out. While the guts and housings of old DOD pedals were built to last a lifetime, the foot switcha ssembly was only made to last 5 to 10 years. What was DOD thinking?

3) awful plastic battery door that falls off and gets lost, but this is true of the Ibanez 9 series too and people keep buying those! Who the heck battery powers anything but fuzz these days anyway?

4) stereo implementation is not as developed as the CE-3 (just dry/effect) and it utilizes a TRS jack that requires and insert cable TRS to dual TS to bi-amp. I have those but mine are short for studio use. BOO... then again even Keeley does stereo this way.... its just boss who had the decency to give you individual jacks. Well, not true, the 3 nob FX65 (I think) by DOD was the same stereo chorus more or less with 2 dedicated stereo outs and a delay time control, but I wanted a straight CE-2 knockoff, so there. The CE-2 isn't stereo at all anyway.

4) not true bypass! I am not sure if the bypass mode is buffered, but either way its a tone suck. Really eats some treble and dynamics. I think the input has a low impedance for guitar like the CE-2 and that's a drag on your treble and dynamics. Solution? MIDI controlled true bypass looper. I needed a small bypass looper anyway for a fuzz and this guy can be in the other loop of the dual looping gadget I bought.

Worth the 50 to 100 bucks it runs on Ebay if you want simplicity and CE-2 warmth and presence versus an open-sparkling sound or more versatility like MXR's current production blue analog chorus.

Recommended for people with a MIDI based setup with some true bypass looping capability who want one of the 2 definitive chorus sounds (small clone and CE-2) but don't want to spend a lot. When engafged this pedal sounds REALLY good and it cuts the mix better than some more open analog chorus pedals. Expect to pay about $50. I prefer the earlier version, left and center in the pic I uploaded, the build quality is a smidge better.

Great for fly dates, a let down for much else.

Everything on the TC Nova system sounds good, particularly the analog OD and Distortion, but the pitch effects, modulation effects other than trem and all the analog voiced delays sound a little plasticy compared with say the standalone toneprint pedals. Not sure why. Also, when you want compression its digital so the analog, uncolored pass through of your dry signal is shot to shit if you want to do traditional compression with 100% wet for a clean country pickin' patch with some tasteful verb or slapback... I dunno. I wanted to like this gadget more and it’s really not bad at all and VERY comprehensive for such a compact gadget, but even the drive and distortion is a letdown in that the circuits are dumbed down a bit from the standalone Nova Drive (which I also own, more on that anon dear fiends). While the Nova Drive is a TS/SD1 type OD and Proco Rat type Distortion with digital encoders for pots an, preset saving, midi in and thru but all analog and true bypass and you would think they ported that 1 to 1 into the fancy Nova system they DID NOT. The standalone dirt pedal has a Voodoo Lab sparkle drive type of clean blend knob on the OD side and independent bass and treble controls for the Rat style Distortion, both of which boutique mods to these classic circuits are ultra handy in my boat to really get the effects mated with your amp. I think because the Nova System offers EQ at the end of its signal chain they decided to simplify things in the drive circuit, but the system has digital EQ and setting it to 100% wet for a patch means compromising your analog signal (just like using the compressor). Furthermore the stereo implementation of this unit sucks. It’s basically just right and left wet signal out of phase like on a CE-3 chorus unless you use a cheesy ping pong delay or panning trem. Yes I can successfully drive 2 amps with this unit, but I wouldn't call it stereo. You can't assign any of the mono effects like detune to be 100% wet on one side and 100% dry on the other for instance, which makes double tracking effects impossible to execute without resorting to more pedals and processors. Long 'n short, this is NOT an all in 1 box for very application. It is an ideal Fly Date effects solution when you are using generic rented backline. If I have to build a pedalboard anyway I am going to get an independent midi controller, lay down my nova drive, Flashback X4 and something for detune into one side of my rig and have done with it. Good try TC. It’s sad that TC saw fit to discontinue the innovative Nova Drive but keep the mediocre Nova System on shelves. They could ditch the delay too since the Flashback series beat the crap out of the Nova Delays (which seem to be exactly the same as the early G series delays, nothing special other than ducking and 2290 modes). I got my Nova system really cheap and it’s worth it for $200USD or less in good condition. Otherwise I say pass on this one. TC should revamp tis little guy because it’s ALMOST the perfect compact MIDI effects solution but for a few details. Sadly those details matter a lot to me. I am probably going to liquidate this in favor of the discreet MIDI components I previously mentioned. Hopefully I will catch a good market week and make a small profit. I was promised jetpacks and got a hot air balloon, YMMV though.