I have talked about this filter before in the older reviews I did of this modular. But I found something else that I really like about the SSM a-105 filter. It self resonates very well, and can do a great kick drum that sounds different than a lot of the run of the mill kicks I hear out there.. Not only can this filter give me that glassy 80s poly synth kind of sound ala monopoly and polysix. It can also give me a wicked kick drum. I used a moog freq box saw as the audio source. Lfo on square triggering the gate in on the a-140 doepfer envelope. A-140 env into the SSM a-105 filter cv. If you have a sub woofer, all the better, this thing spits out a ton of bass when the filter self resonates and you close it down. Click Here to Listen to the Kick Drum from the SSM a-105.
Now, an updated review of the Livewire Frequensteiner. This thing kicks major booty! I mean, it can rip, and sound really mean. The best multimode filter in the eurorack format easily. I figured i would show it off a little more. It gets so crunchy and alive and mean. Rips some skin off.. Like a rusty razor. The doepfer A-140 envs are so tight and snappy, i love them in H or M mode to make this acid stuff. The future retro is an awesome CV and Gate Sequencer. I like it for that more than anything else. I pissed off my lizzard with the camera, he wasn’t happy, but it made great video. LOL… any how enjoy this clip! LONG LIVE ANALOG! LONG LIVE LSD(ACID).
Moog Freqbox: Okay, let me start first with the moog. When I first got it, it didn’t scale worth a damn, I had to open it up and calibrate it, even then i only could get about 2 and a half octaves of stable tuning. The plan b was better, but would lose its calibration all together after a few hours. Not the case here, the moog holds it’s calibration. 2 and half octaves is awful. But what makes me forgive it? This thing is huge, big bass, big sound. even if it gets sour, I still love it, its so fat. The plan b and mfb only wish it could sound as fat as this oscillator does. This is not stable enough or musical enough to really hold the fort. To me this is the perfect add on to something more stable to fatten up bass lines and kicks. I have not used it as an FX processor, but man this thing can crazy modulate other stuff great, and a nice big frequency knob to boot, something most of these modular modules do not have.. I like the moog a lot, but i sure wish it tracked a little better. A great addition to a stable modular system.
Okay now onto the Harvestman Polivoks filter. Wow. The resonance on this thing is great, it can rip your face off. I love it for aggressive acid sounds, a new flavor. Its not moog, its not roland, and its not korg. It’s something new, even though it’s old. I’ve never even heard a filter that sounds like this before. The sound still stays big, even with a lot of resonance. This is what the original minimoog did well too, but its smooth, this is mean, and rough, and aggressive, much different. The bandpass is ok, but i prefer the bandpass in the livewire frequenseiner. This is the perfect addition to my ssm and livewire filters. I highly recomend this!
I am set on filters. This gives me evil acid. SSM gives me the girthy glass 80s chip sound. And the frequensteiner gives me a great band and high pass, bland if you don’t saturate the inputs, but if you push the filter with a big sound and drive it hard, nothing beats that high pass. On the oscilator front, if and when the livewire AFG comes out, i will probably pick one of those up and an analog systems r95. This will get me by for now. Its big, and the demo I made shows that off.. Hope you enjoyed this video and review. Peace out.. A fellow gear whore.. hexfix93
Updated, high res hifi divx version of the sh2 futile demo..
Ok, i made a video of the sh-2 using the riffs from futile to show off the sh2., i love this synth! I don’t need a moog, when you have a sh-2, you will never need one. Rolands are the heart and soul of VAC. I HEART ROLAND! well, old roland..
The good: Click Here to listen to the mfb osc-01 in action, first sound is osc sync bass through the ssm filter, 2nd sound is pwm sync detuned lead through the frequensteiner high pass. This thing sounds great for a dco, I can get good bass and pwm and sync sounds out of it really easy. It’s pretty stable, I had to calibrate the tracking for intonation. Once I did, I was able to get 4 good octaves out of it, and it was stable. Better than any osc in this doepfer rack stuff I have tried so far (only plan b). It’s a great deal, 3 oscillators for about 220 US dollars. I got it used for 170. I would compare this to an alpha juno oscillator on steroids. Since the junos don’t do sync sounds it gets hard to compare there. The saw is ok, but it’s the pwm that really shines on this. When using all 3 oscillators, it always sounds like a polysynth in unison. This oscillator shines when played down low or in the mids.
The bad: The output volume is bad on the combined output, and a little bit better on the individual outs, but this thing is not nearly as loud as my plan b oscillators. But they get the job done. It is not quite as fat as the plan b, especially the SAWS. The saw is strange on it. If i have set on 16, osc 1 and 2 the signal gets really weak on the c0 octave when controlling it from my kenton pro solo via midi, but only in saw mode. Osc 3 does not have that problem at all. It sounds strange up high, and I think I can hear some aliasing, not sure, but something strange when I play way up on the keyboard. So I think this osc is sub par on high leads.
Final Word: If you want to add some alpha juno oscillators into your modular rack, this is the ticket. It doesnt do as many wave forms as the alpha juno, but the sound is similar. This does OSC SYNC, and its great. It does all those buzzy techno sounds similar to the alpha juno. It sounds very 80s roland, dco that is. And I am a huge fan of the junos. This is a great buy for me.
In my modular, the plan B model 15 oscillators failed me, is not stable enough for my tastes. I simply got tired of having to calibrate the keyboard scaling every time I turned the unit on. Oh well. I am very glad to say that Shawn of Analog Haven and I worked out a deal to work this out. I still want a plan b model 09 though. Plan b is good, I think I just got a couple of sour modules.
What am I replacing the model 15s with? MFB OSC-01 triple DCO oscillators that sound more like a juno 106 and sh-101 but super stable and scale almost perfectly. DCOs are great, but do lack a little warmth and lower frequencies. Not to worry, I will add a Moog Freq Box that will work just like any oscilator in my rig, controlled with cv. This is an oscillator from the minimoog voyager. This will fatten up my dcos nicely.. The voyager oscillators track great so i should have no problem. THIS DEMO of the Harvestman Polivoks Filter is mindblowing. I love my bitcrusher from Harvestman. In fact that is what kept me from selling off the modular. That polivoks sounds simply amazing. WOW. A while back I used to layer my juno 106 and micromoog together and would get huge sounds. Now I will have that with better filters. I cannot wait to get all this.. I will post reviews of it once I have it for a week.
February 27th, 2008 by Hexfix93
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