Wednesday, December 12, 2007

TM Modules vs. the Korg ER-1



After some requests on the forum, I've just done up three new Metasonix demos.

These were done in response to requests for demos of the Metasonix units in a 'tame' or 'subtle' fashion.

One of our members has a very digital sounding drum machine, and he's looking for something to 'warm it up a bit', and was wondering how applicable Metasonix may be for this. A good question, as most demos and marketing initiatives for Metasonix definately seem to focus on heavy-handed use and destructive power.

So, I took on the challenge to take three modules that I thought could work in a somewhat "clean" fashion, and try to run them as transparently as I could while feeding them a drum pattern from my ER-1.

So, some demos of the TM-5 preamp, the TM-1 waveshaper, and the TM-7 'scrotum smasher'.

The TM-5 and TM-1 demos start with four bars of 'clean' ER-1, with the Metasonix unit bypassed. I've tried to set it to come on at the same volume level as the clean signal.

Next, as the demo progresses, I slowly add more and more nastiness, working the unit from 'as clean as possible' through the various permutations, ending with noisy and aggressive by the end. The goal is really to try to demo the entire range of the modules.

Here's the TM-5 Preamp

Here's the TM-1 Waveshaper

Now for the TM-7, there's actually two samples, as there's no bypass option on this unit (only Zuul!). Additionally, as I made this demo a bit later, it's not exactly the same drumloop. So, to be fair, here's a quick MP3 of the ER-1 dry, direct into my soundcard. This is the same drumloop that will be fed to the TM-7 in the next sample...

Here's the dry drumloop

Same drumloop, getting it's nutsac pummeled by the TM-7

Thanks for checking these out. I hope more people realize that Metasonix can be used for a lot more than destroying stuff. Although, as you can hear in these samples, the temptation to destroy is always there, and hard to ignore...

2 comments:

synthetic said...

I never really wanted any Metasonix until discovering your blog and forum. Now, I must have....

Anonymous said...

The TM-5 has a pleasing distortion. I liked that one.

The nut-smasher sure fucks the sound up. I think the brown note was hit a couple times in that mp3!