Eurorack Metasonix? Opinions?

Seems like Metasonix is looking at developing some native Eurorack modules. Now that is cool! Just yesterday I finally got my euro power and racking system all setup. I was keeping away from Euro, but the availability of $35 Schroff racks on eBay pushed me over the edge. I'll be buying some of these modules for sure.

Anyway, if you look at the link above, you'll see that Eric is seeking opinions on how well (or poorly..) received yellow Euro modules would be. Most of us at the forum like the yellow, but I personally have a feeling that this trend wouldn't hold over the entire group of buyers out there. What do you think? Please reply in the forum thread if you can.... If you don't want to become a forum member, go ahead and post in the comments section of this blog post.


Exciting stuff!

Metasonix S-1000 Review in SOS!

Sound on Sound recently reviewed the Metasonix S-1000 Wretch Machine, and contrary to my expectations, they really seemed to like it! Nice in-depth review and obvious that the author has become a believer. Nice surprise compared to the barrage of negative opinion that often congregates around the brand.

Take a look at the review here

New Synth Pics

Pulled the camera out tonight and took some new pics, been a while and the system has grown a lot since then. Check out this forum thread if you want to see more pics.

Eric Says.... Fuck You! (Are you surprised?)

Well, this is certain to be fun. Eric Barbour, of Metasonix infamy, has launched a 'personal' blog.

Anyone who knows anything about Eric knows that he is certainly a hell of a character, so this should be some very entertaining stuff indeed.

Check it out here - Eric Says Fuck You

New Metasonix Product Unveiled!

Well, I've been sitting on this information for a little over a week now, and it's been HARD! Haha, seriously. Lucky me, Eric Barbour once again gave me permission to break the news of his new product, on the eve of the NAMM show. He said "tuesday morning", but really wasn't clear on what time ;) Since it's now technically tuesday morning (yeah, even in California, I waited....), and since there's already been a bit of info starting to float around, I'm not sitting on this any longer!

Anyway, without further ado, yes you speculating bastards, yes indeed...

IT'S THE GUITAR AMP!!

Some people prayed, some wept, some swore he would never do it. Here it is you crazy freaks. It's pretty hard to believe, I'll give it that. Look at that thing!

I do wish I had an image of Dave's art on the other side. And I can't tell you at the moment what it's called, but my money's on "Fucking Fucker".

It's the psychotic Metasonix amp. It's like a nuclear bomb just went off. I can't wait to learn more about this, and to see what guitar players think. This is insane.

Little is known at the moment - just the pics, that Dave's art will be on the other side, and that's it. Obviously we are looking at a 2 channel amp. There's loads and loads of crazy tubes inside. I do believe I spot at least one or two BN6 tubes, but I would have put money down on that anyway. There's a bunch of beefy transformers AND a switching power supply (as pointed out on Matrixsynth). There's a great jab at Bill O'Reilly. There's absolutely no room for anything else in there, but there are some very interesting controls, like 'reverb', 'phase' and 'ream your ass'. This thing is going to be a LOAD of fun for anyone who gets to play with it. Bring earplugs, really big ones.

Another question that's nagging at me - is Eric going to get in trouble at NAMM for the name of the product and the artwork? It would be absolutely fantastic publicity if he did.

I'm really, really looking forward to more info about this.

Guitar players, come on, unless you really want to keep rewarding an industry that feeds you reissue after reissue after reissue of the exact same crap year after year, go buy something like this. Reward the guys who are pushing for something different.

Thanks Eric! We love your stuff so much man, please keep it up & best of luck at NAMM!

Head on over to Metasonix's webpage where there is sure to be more information, and most likely a VERY amusing press release, any time now.

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PS. Some of you long-term Muff Wigglers out there may remember my big 'scoop' last year with the TM-7 announcement...) I'm extremely grateful to Eric, not only for all the incredible and unique products, but also for trusting me with advance information and letting me break this news. It's really exciting for me.

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...

Welcoming the Wretch

Not mine (unfortunately), but Tiny333 uploaded this pic to my forum after the arrival of his Wretch Machine, and I thought it was such a cool pic, it was nice that he gave me permission to post it on the blog.

Cool stuff! Have fun with your tube synth Tiny!

Please note that I'm not suggesting in any way that the adorable girl in the photo is a Wretch. We are giving our welcome to the machine, not the girl. Just figured I should point that out ;)

Metasonix M-1000 Mixer

oooooh yeah baby

in some ways i'm very surprised....in others, not at all.

Really looking forward to more about this!

Thanks Mike Weeks

Edit: I got sneaky and found a few more pics on Mike's website. Seems like this was a custom build for Mike (too bad, I actually really could use one of this in a big way....), and it used BN6 tubes to add (what I assume will be a LOT of) drive to the signal. Incredible. Eric, what would it take for me to get my hands on one of these?

Is this the Metasonix blog??

Well, lots of Metasonix content lately... what can I say? You are either a believer or not, and I'm sure you can guess where I sit.

Partially paranoia that it will be discontinued now that TM-7 is a standard item, partially trying to get in 'before the price increase' (i've not yet had to pay MSRP for any of my 7 yellow boxen......), partially thanks to the tax man... I've just ordered a TM-5 preamp from Big City Music.

I feel a little dirty not patronizing my good (great!) friends at Analogue Haven. However they are out of stock on TM-5's, and they have already upped their prices. I don't think it's fair to ask them to bring one in at the new pricing, and sell it to me at the old figure.

Also to say - Roger at Big City Music seems to be a really nice guy! Had a good chat with him on the phone.

Anyway, this puts my Metasonix setup in a pretty awe-inspiring state (even for me who gets to enjoy these goodies almost every night....). I've now got all of these nasty yellow units, except for the new TM-7 Scrotum Smasher (which I figure I can take my time with, it'll be available for a while, letting me sit and hope to find one of the limited edition stereo ones, after the early adopters and bandwagon boys get tired of theirs and need some cash!)

Also missing the TM-4 Stereo Preamp. This one may be a bit tricky - it wasn't produced for long before Metasonix discontinued it in response to a huge lack in interest. Sad, as I can only imagine how sweet it would be when Eric turns his tube know-how into producing a pristine tube amplifier. Still hoping to find one on EvilBay some lucky day....

One step closer to enacting my 'awesome, secret plan' for what to do when I have all 8 of these things. It's gonna be big, it's gonna need constuction, it's gonna need custom DIY circuitry... that's all I can say right now, but you guys are going to bust a nut when the time comes. Think late 2007.

(special note for Muff Wiggler blog enthusiasts [yes all three of you!] - you may notice that i've FINALLY started using tags on my posts. This is the first one, kinda historical moment, no? I wonder if they're any good for anything.....)

edit: Damn, i just cannot type today. Good thing I'm not in writing mode for work. I've had to edit this stupid post more times than I can friggin' count, and I'm not doing it again, so if you find typos, just deal with it, m'kay?