Geiger Counter

I use the Geiger Counter mainly with synths. I feed a steady signal through it and manipulate it further with reverb and delay. The results are wonderful. Very special, but wonderful. On the other hand, I have as yet to get any "normal" fuzz or overdrive out of it. Not that I care much. The bypass sound quality is perfect, absolutely no noise.

The thing is really heavy built, with a thick metal casing and reliable knobs. Wouldn't hesitate to take it anywhere.

This effects pedal really has a loot hidden under the hood. At a glance, it's just a bit crusher that turns any signal into digital noise. It has 252 wave tables and four knobs to vary the way it does this ¿¿¿ or so you might think when you try it out. The secret is in knob used to switch between wave tables. If you push it, you navigate between a number of combinations for the bit rate and the sample rate. This means you have a lot more ways to change the sound than just the 252 wave tables. This is of course mentioned in the manual, but if you have to bother with a manual, an effects pedal cannot be considered easy to use.

The day I got the Geiger Counter, I immediately opened it to locate the little dip switch inside that determines how the CV input works. I noticed the circuit board is covered with black goo. Curious, I emailed the company about it late at night. The day after, I got a reply from William Mathewson himself. Turns out the goo is there to prevent people from taking the device apart and studying it to closely... This has to be the quickest email reply I've got ever from a manufacturer.

I make lofi synthesizer noise, and the Geiger Counter is perfect for what I do. My other effects include an EHX reverb, an EHX delay/loop machine and a Sherman Filterbank. I have been making electronic music for seven years. I would definitely try to get another Geiger Counter if this one was lost, it's very unique. I didn't really compare it to other products, simply because there aren't really any.

I've so far only used it with my thinline telecaster into a little practice amp.  Not ready to introduce it to my live rig yet, but I'm sure the results will be stunning once I grow the pair necessary to unleash it on an audience. I knew I could make a real sonic mess with this thing (and I can), but the real surprise here was how easily I could dial in several basic (but really fun and interesting) overdrive and fuzz tones...low-fi clean tones, low-sample-rate ring modulation...I'm just begininning to scratch the surface, truthfully.  It's a tweaker's dream - if I have one complaint it might be that there are simply too many options (for me).  The sounds are fat, thin, pretty, nasty, even flat-out horrible if that's what you're after - again, it's all subjective.  There are 252 waveforms you can send your tone through (after the super-clean to "holy-hell, where's the cat?" preamp and musical - and defeatable for a scalp-peeling gain boost - tone control).  As if that weren't enough (and it probably was), you can adjust your signal's Sample Rate from 280HZ up to - I think 58kHz - it's higher than CD quality I know that for sure.  You can also adjust your Bit Rate from 8 bits all the way down to 1 bit.  There's also a mode switch (accessed by pushing the Wave Table selector knob) that'll place the Bit Depth funtion before or after the Wave Table algorithm, put the Sample Rate control in Fine mode for smaller adjustments, assign the CV input, etc.  I'm sucking at explaining this, I know - check out the Geiger Counter's manual over at www.wmdevices.com for a much more thorough and clear explanation.  The point I'm trying and failing to make is that if you're looking for something that you can just plug into and twist a few knobs and get something cool...well, wait, cuz that works, too.  I haven't even plugged anything into the CV input yet, I'm afraid my head will explode - I've seen some awesome expamples on YouTube involving the LFO output of a LightFoot Labs GoatKeeper into the CV input.  That may have to be my next investment...

Too soon to tell, but seems pretty rugged

Hmmm...on one hand, there's a staggering amount of potential/options in this box...on the other a quick read though the concise yet well-written/easy-to-grasp manual and you'll be able to dial in SOME sort of "good" sound out of it.  That said, the terms "good", "useable", etc are extrememely subjective, particularly in a pedal that's raison d'etre is "digital destruction".  I hesitated to be the first to write a review of this beast because I feel that I'm SO far from grasping what this thing can REALLY do...but after playing with it for a week I'm very excited to find out, and that in itself is a big plus in any piece of gear, isn't it?

I play all styles of music, and frankly could use this on a blues gig or an aggro-industrial thing.  It's that flexible.  As stated before, the sheer amount of possibilities makes it seem daunting at first - but it feels like a piece of gear that will grow with you and your inclinations, from cool fuzz tone to total bitcrushed dying-amp mayhem.  It will certainly appeal to the knob-twiddler/noisemaker in you, if that's your thing (it certainly is mine) but can also be subtle as well.  I've been playing for about 30 years, and have tons of gear from low-fi Silvertone amps to Z Vex, TC and Diezel gear - I could live without this piece if it were stolen or lost, but I don't think I'd want to...:-) TWO GRIPES:  no way to quickly get through the 252 possible waveform options (a knob that detected velocity ala Line 6 or my home theatre receiver would have helped) OR the aforementioned modes (accessible by pushing the Wave Table knob) of which there are 16 possible permutations (to be fair, I can't imagine any way around this - though I couldn't have possibly imagined producing a sweet little box like this either).  The tones I've been able to wrangle with the most perfunctory of exploration have inspired dozens of riffs and prolonged ear-to-ear grinning.