Monthly Archive for September, 2007

God Zilla

Maker: Devi Ever

Made In: USA

Year: Currently in Production

Fame: Some noteriety in noise and synth circles.

Mojo Factor: With the image of a giant cat with laser eyes there has to mojo right?

Price: Expensive. $195

General Sound Description:

A extremely fuzzy octave fuzz. Not much of the character of original sound will be left.

Who it’s for:

It some thing different for those of you that want a massive fuzz.


Manufacturer’s Sales Pitch:

== Controls
- Volume knob : volume
- Texture knob : blends between various fuzz textures
- |Tension| knob : more texture control when |Stomp| is engaged
- |Blister| knob : even more texture control when |Stomp| is engaged
- |Stomp| foot switch : increases fuzz intensity, engages |Blister| and |Tension| controls

== Instructions
- Devi Ever pedals are very organic in their designs, and can work
differently with different gear (sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic)!
- Visit the God Zilla public forum to take part in usage discussions!

== Power
- by adapter : 2.1mm negative tip, any mA value will do
- by battery : 9 volt (unscrew the back to access the battery snap)

== Misc. Specifications
- size : “TBD size” : approximately 4.7″ length, 3.7″ width, 1.18″ height
- bypass : true bypass

Bukowsky Filter

Maker: MGMusic

Year: Currently in Production

Fame: Kind of a secret.

Mojo Factor: Great looking boutique pedal named for an underground poety with lots of controls that the average guitarist never heard plus it is funky. That’s some mojo.

Price: Expensive. $200+

General Sound Description:

It is an envelope filter. You know a wah without the gas pedal. Makes funky sounds.

Who it’s for:

If you got the cash and want a filter pedal that sets you apart from the rest.


Listen to sound clips form MGMUSIC

Manufacturer’s Sales Pitch:

The MG BUKOSWKY Envelope Filter is designed to create a wide variety of “wahwah” sounds.

The Envelope Filter is a voltage-controlled, low-pass filter in which the upper cutoff frequency is determined by the amplitude, or “level”, of the input signal. The louder the signal, the higher the cutoff frequency. The loudness of the signal therefore controls the “brightness” of the sound.

Four knobs, two 3pdts footswitches and one toggle switch are provided on MG BUKOSWKY Envelope Filter.

Controls

Threshold: Varies the sensitivity of the filtering action; i.e. the degree of brightness obtained from a given input level. Sensitivity increases as the control is rotated clockwise.

Attack :Varies the attack time of the filter. At full clockwise position, the filter responds almost instantaneously. Counterclockwise rotation of the control gradually lengthens the attack time. Longer attack times serve to create a “wa” at the beginning of each note played.

Emphasis I and II knobs: A boost on the mid- bass (emphasis I) and on the mid treble (emphasis II) of the filtered signals.

Reverse sweep toggle switch: Phase inverter, changes the “starting point” of the filtering action. With the switch on the reverse sweep mode the filter starts on low frequencies, and the switch turned off starts on higher ones.

Filter Range Footswitch: Makes the range of the filtering action longer, giving an impression of a bigger “wah” effect.

- Handmade Case
- Alpha Pots
- True Bypass Switching
- LED Indicator
- Polyester in oil caps
- Switchcraft jacks

I am Nio or a New Audio Interface

Novation’s new mobile audio interface nio 2| 4 is going to hit stores in November. They maybe a lot of this kind of thing out now but the more choice the better. I used Novation products and had good experiences with them. This little box comes with some guitar related modeling software and some other effects coming from there Supernova II.

Combinator Backdrops or I Kind of Get Photoshop

I have been slacking. I have been meaning to get some patches together in to well organized refills. Real life has been a bitch and I haven’t. But since Reason 4 has came out I thought I should do something. So, I reasonably (no pun intended) organized some Combinator backdrops together.

The look of an gadget real or virtual I have always felt matters. How it sounds is of course the most important thing. But It can be inspirational or just more fun at the leastif it is good looking. So, I hope they are at least fun I am not sure my Photoshop skills are up to inspirational. You can find 4 sets zipped up here.

Fab Chorus


Maker: Danelectro

Type: Chorus

Years: Currently in production.

Fame: Famously Cheap.

Mojo Factor: Absolutely None!

Price: Cheap around $20.

General Sound Description:

A basic chorus.

Who it’s for:

The poor and disenfranchised that need a chorus pedal.

Manufacturer’s Sales Pitch:

Rich, vintage tone.

Info:

HC review

Ultimate Guitar Review

Pedalmania Review

Line 6 or Busy as Beavers

Line 6 is the US distributer of Propellerheads software and Reason 4 came out yesterday. Last week the announced the there new X3 versions of the super popular POD model effect boxes. Which you should be able to get your hands in the next week or so. They also just anounced the TonePort™ UX8 which is a 8 input audio interface with all the Line 6 modeling power added. And if that is not enough Line 6 teamed up with Bogner to create a new series of valve amps not surprisingly named the Spider Valve. These also should be available shortly.

Tiny 30 or Another kind of Amp Sim Plugin

I saw this over at Music Thing. There is more info on at Vox. I still like my Ruby but there are still pretty cool.

Reason 4 or The Day is Upon Us


Propellerheads Reason 4 release date is the tomorrow the 26th but it is already shipping from a some places places. I got an email from Line 6 offering to sell it to me this mourning. It is also available from online retailers. The upgrade is $129 and the whole version $399. After screwing around with the Beta I am going to upgrade. The arp, groove mixer, and sequencer upgrades are worth it to me. They had been on my Reason wish list for a while and it seems reasonable. At least it to me it seems a good value despite only one new instrument (a pretty versatile and powerful one though.) The new sequencer and groove mixer seem to a lot of new function no matter how you use Reason. I know people are fairly divided when it comes to Reason but for all is fans it seems like a pretty good thing.

Bad Monkey


Maker: Digitech

Type: Overdrive

Years: Currently in production.

Fame: Gaining a great reputation for both its sound and value.

Mojo Factor: None other than monkey in its name and being green which seems to be the magic color for overdrives.

Price: Affordable and a great value around $50.

General Sound Description:

A tube sounding overdrive very much in the tube screamer family. Has a two band eq to help sculpt your sound.

Who it’s for:

Anyone that need a nice smooth overdrive that doesn’t break the bank.

Manufacturer’s Sales Pitch:

The Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive gives your guitar amp a boost just when you need it. This rugged pedal produces the smooth natural character of an overdriven tube amp while maintaining your guitar’s distinct tone. Low and High tone controls give you the flexibility to boost or cut the bass and treble frequencies for just the right sound. Get a Bad Monkey and supercharge your amp’s tone.

Info:

HC review

Tabworld review

Recordinreview.com review

GuitarGearHeads.com review

Manual


USB 3.0 or Yet Another Standard

USB 3 spec is coming in the first half of 2008 with devices to follow about a year later. It seems a sure thing to become the dominant force with the all the big boys behind it. It promises a 10x increase over the old USB 2.0’s 480 mb/s. This would mean that it would be around 5 times faster than firewire. So, it is basically the death knell for IEEE 1394. I am not a big enough computer hardware geek to know for sure but it seem that firewire has been waning in popularity in general over the past few years. Seems like it is available on less normal consumer products even though it is still popular for audio interfaces and the like. I think audio production is one of the places it has reminded stronger but think that will probably change in the next few years.