Members sommy Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Has anyone tried one of these out yet? There is very, very little information out there available on the unit. I'm tempted. It is a whole $100 cheaper than the original, but you lose so much -- I don't mind not having CV input so much, but you have way less wavetables to work with and you lose the ability to control sample rate and bit depth on the fly, apparently. I believe there's a store around here in Berkley that carries WMD stuff -- I'm likely going to go check it out at some point this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sommy Posted January 24, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Bump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members b_nehpets Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 i just got me a big box one... no idea how they compare... doubt this place will be a whole lot of help for another month or so, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oinkbanana Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 what'd be the point of a bit crusher if you can't decide how many bits your're crushing? or how low of a sample rate you're going to? just save up the extra 100$ for a big box geiger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pothole Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Ditto. Get the big box as the sample and bit rate control is where the magic happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V-man Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Take the one thing the original can use (presets), then leave behind EVERYTHING else that makes the pedal worthwhile. That's the civy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brianeharmonjr Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Saw one at NAMM at the Metasonix booth, but nowhere to try one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nomenclature Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 everything is speculation right now, there is NO real info on it anywhere, and certainly no demos to show how closely related it is to the full size... for all we know there could be trimpots or the controls aren't what we think they are (the tone know supposedly does more than just tone)... I have the original but I'm still curious to see what this and the arcane preamp is, WMD just has to get it together and update the website with some useful info and clips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members b_nehpets Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 while we wait on something more than speculation... got any cool settings for the big box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tape Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 I'd gladly sacricice the tone and gain knobs for samplerate and sample resolution/frequency. Way more useful. If you already have a wavetable and a basic micro (which I'm assuming the civilian issue has) then the "hardware" for bit depth and samplerate are already in there. Just not "wired" to any pots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fightthepower Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 I'm sticking with the original, but I can see this ones appeal-- the Geiger is quite a powerful distortion pedal that can do all flavors dirt, so for 'regular' guitar applications, I think this is a great pedal and the compromise of size&presets vs bitcrushing a good one that makes sense-- I could see many people never using the that side of the pedal in real world applications, hence 'civilian issue'. Its basically a distortion multieffect; you could fill up those presets with pretty legit gated fuzz's ala devi/zvex, prunes&custardish tones, mild overdrive to heavy distortion, etc, with just the gain/wavetables/tone. If you're doing any other signal processing with it, or looking for a bitcrusher, the original Geiger Counter is an excellent choice and an abyss to explore. You can really make something out of nothing with the pedal, I love it with percussion and synths especially, though I have other analog pedals that do many of the geigers tones with bass that I use, otherwise it would get more bass use as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V-man Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 I'd gladly sacricice the tone and gain knobs for samplerate and sample resolution/frequency. Way more useful.If you already have a wavetable and a basic micro (which I'm assuming the civilian issue has) then the "hardware" for bit depth and samplerate are already in there. Just not "wired" to any pots. Fair enough, but even with the knob swap, or if they somehow crammed Tone/Gain & Sample Rate/Bit Depth on board, what it still lacks is the CV input. No ability to use an expression pedal... no ability to run through a LFO. Thus, at least 50% of the magic of the pedal is lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members penelope twee Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 ... for all we know there could be trimpots or the controls aren't what we think they are (the tone know supposedly does more than just tone)... Is it possible that the function knob could be used to change the bitrate in conjunction with the tone knob or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V-man Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Is it possible that the function knob could be used to change the bitrate in conjunction with the tone knob or something? Not likely. The original function knob keys through the wave tables with a twist (clockwise or counterclock). Tapping on it keys in the order for sample and depth. That leaves the tap feature open since that VITAL feature is stripped off the civy. BUT the civy allegedly has presets, and this is the only place you can access them unless they are tied to the stomp switch. That would be absurd, because you would have to stomp the switch 16 times through all the presets to bypass. So in all likelikood, IF the civy has presets like I have read, they would have to be available through pressing the function knob. It's the only place you could put the feature on THAT setup that would make any sense. I will also add the further potential fail of that setup would be that if you are on preset 1 and stomp your foot down twice to preset 3, ANY twist of the foot can cause the knob to twist to a different wave table, making the civy even less well considered. The way to have made that pedal worthwhile would be: 1. Switch Tone/Gain for Sample Bitrate/Bit Depth knobs (if you had to resort to either/or for that enclosure) 2. Add the CV input 3. Have a seperate stomp switch for presets, and relegate the function button to work EXACTLY as original recipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tape Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 BTW, my previous comment sounded a bit negative. It's not wha tI meant at all. I think that it's fantastic that this builder makes such an original pedal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BHz_econo Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 BTW, my previous comment sounded a bit negative. It's not wha tI meant at all.I think that it's fantastic that this builder makes such an original pedal! what ever happened to your bit crusher? Did it ever get a name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tape Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 what ever happened to your bit crusher? Did it ever get a name? I dont understand the question. Um, I'm still using it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gae86 Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 what is supposed to do a bit crusher? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BHz_econo Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 I dont understand the question. Um, I'm still using it? At one point you were talking about naming it. Also weren't you going to make some to sell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tape Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 what is supposed to do a bit crusher? Bit crushing on it's own is digital headroom reduction. If an analog signal wave can have an "infinate" number of amplitude variations, then an 8-bit crusher will only have 256. The smooth slope of a soundwave will turn itno a staircase with 256 steps. Usually there's a reduction knob on a bitcrusher, reducing it from 8bit to 7bit, from 7bit to 6bit, to 5bit, to 4bit, and so on. 7bit will be a staircase of the same "height" as the other but only 128 steps. 6bit only 64, 5bit only 32, etc. itm akes for a very "steppy" soundwave. Fuzzlike, digital, abrassive. Often enough bitcrushers have a samplerate knob as well which reduce the resolution (stepping) but on the horizontal axis rather than the vertical. Makes things nintendo-y. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tape Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 At one point you were talking about naming it. Also weren't you going to make some to sell? I'm so not close to that point. As it stands now, I'm still trying to get through the Hollow Earth list. I havent made one (that works) in a couple months because of priorities, bad batches of PCBs, lack of time and lack of motivation. Over the holidays, I came really close to telling everyone on the HE list "sorry, but I can't make these anymore, they're just too frusterating". I'm not building right now because I have to think abotu how I can do this, if at all. So yeah, the bitcrusher in my avatar is so so SO not on my mind right now. I might make a small handful ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Has anyone tried one of these out yet? There is very, very little information out there available on the unit. I'm tempted. It is a whole $100 cheaper than the original, but you lose so much -- I don't mind not having CV input so much, but you have way less wavetables to work with and you lose the ability to control sample rate and bit depth on the fly, apparently. I believe there's a store around here in Berkley that carries WMD stuff -- I'm likely going to go check it out at some point this week. Controlling sample rate and bit crushing on a Bit Crusher/Down Sampler pedal seems pretty integral to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Tape........ ^ ............ Keep making stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sommy Posted January 26, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 I went over to Berkley Music Company today, tried out both pedals -- had to buy the original. It's scary how touch-sensitive some of the wavetables are. Highly, highly, highly recommended, and totally better than the "Civilian Issue." I can't even begin to describe how awesome this thing is on sub basses, especially with reduced bitrates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sommy Posted January 26, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 The upper harmonic content of the pedal has a very FM synth quality to it, too. It's really awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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