EH Microsynth Alternatives

[StephenGiles]

and, o course, at the end of everything on that modular system, you'll need a noise gate (like in the microsynth)

cause the noise will be HUGE

What noise gate?

[magikker]

I do think the microsynth is gated. Your notes cut off pretty sharply after they fall under a certain threshold. Although I almost feel like it is a gated input vs. a noise gate at the end of the circuit. I've not seen the circuit, I just know how it seems to respond to my playing.

This is something that may or may not be needed in a modular version. I've never needed a noise gate on my board, I don't know why I'll have to add one now. I look at this as a group of pedals wired between a splitter and blender pair of pedals. If each peice isn't too noisey. I don't think It would be very noisey overall.

[theblackman]

"but simpler in construction"

Look here, I built a microsynth in 1980, on veroboard, no layout, after 3 years' electronic tinkering, and it worked very well. I had a minimum of help (10 minutes) from an EH designer. How can your generation give up so easily before you even start? The core section of the Microsynth - the sweep generator and the filter is unique to EH and is not duplicated by other manufacturers. You have to think big when building this beast, try to cram it up and you can't troubleshoot! You can't have everything in a 1590. I've said before what is needed to enhance the sweep generator in order to make it really special.

Ah see, reading through John Hollis' site I hear some of the EH designs are pretty complex for what they are trying to achieve, being a programmer it's against my religion to not pursue the elegant solution... ;-) i think modules into some kind of mixer would be the go? Jeez I may need to build a power supply first methinks..

[theblackman]

I do think the microsynth is gated.

yeah i think that the gating sound it probably resistance in the feedback loop of the fuzz, there is a similar thing on the skyripper fuzz. an easy one to replicate  that i think..

so i'm thinking of having a master mixer box with a few jacks to patch in modules, then it's a matter of patching in fuzz, octave, and swell effects right? does the microsynth have a filter?? I'm thinking crash sync, slacktave (looks like a nice simple design slacker!) and slow gear..

Oh there is a noise generator in there as well isn't there? I remember a guy I was jamming with got this great sound that was basically noise generated by the pedal and when he played the guitar there was very synthy octave sound 'peeping' out beneath the cloud of noise (if you can understand that)...

[magikker]

Noise maker? Hmm... I'll have to look at mine again... I haven't used it in a long long time. My bias trimmer on the bottom of the pedal is really finicky... I think I need to open it up and replace it because it is way too finicky to use live.

[GREEN FUZ]

I remember recording with a Microsynth years ago and being able to coax an almost flute-like sound out of it. I`d be very interested in making one or if anyone has a suggestion for a more elegant solution. This has been posted before but I don`t suppose there`s any harm in doing it again.

http://www.geocities.com/race_driver205/msynth.zip

Thanks of course to racedriver205. If anyone has built it and can confirm it works that would be a bonus.

[slacker]

I can get some of the microsynth's sounds using my Slacktave (apologies for the shameless plug) into an MXR envelope filter.

Ok! Ok! I`ll make the bloody thing as long as you promise to stop mentioning it .

Fair play I'll shut up about it now and let it slip quietly back into obscurity

does the microsynth have a filter??

Yeah there's a filter, that's where all the sweepy sounds come from. It's a bit like an autowah pedal except that instead of the filter being controlled by an envelope follower you set the start and stop frequencies and set the speed it takes to sweep from one to the other. Then when input signal goes over a certain level the filter starts to sweep, this level is also controllable. There's a bit more to it than that and Stephen Giles or Mark Hammer can probably give a much more detailed description
Not sure why people keep mentioning swell type effects, my microsynth doesn't seem to do that effect. 
Basically to get close to the sounds of a microsynth you need to be able to mix the clean signal with
Octave up
Octave down
Distortion - don't know what this sounds like as it's broken on mine 

and then feed that mix into some sort of filter.

[magikker]

Mine has an attack delay on it... at least I am almost sure that it does. I think that's what people are thinking is a swell... I think a slow gear would cover that effect just fine.

[StephenGiles]

Ah, in the circuit dated 12/12/78, there is a squelch - a fairly awful type of noise gate! I don't know how it sounds as I made a Mk 1 version, long since ripped apart.

[slacker]

Mine has an attack delay on it... at least I am almost sure that it does. I think that's what people are thinking is a swell...

You could be right, I thought that the attack delay was did something to the filter, I didn't realise it was a separate effect. Actually it doesn't seem to do much on mine, perhaps that's broke as well.

[igor12]

In my opinion the filter section and sweep generator is where the mojo is. How this is accomplished I don't understand yet. Any links to explain the theory there?

"The core section of the Microsynth - the sweep generator and the filter is unique to EH and is not duplicated by other manufacturers."