Yeah, this is what shipped with the unit… Thank you!
I emailed a couple questions. which I will update this thread with the answers!
Whoa… just clicked around and he is definitely dropping the knowledge. I went to the “annoyances” section, and he is saying the same things i feel…
Layout is shit. Things are labeled and positioned poorly. I’m sure i will get around better with the synth after watching this!
Thank You.
That being said… It does sound amazing… way different than the Matriarch and the Prophet 6.
It adds to my collection.
You know… right out of the box, its making sounds that I use in Pigments…
I bought the Zardonic soundpack for Pigments, and it has the same buzzsaw synth sounds in analog form… so its worth it to figure all this out.
2 Likes
I’d like to see a comparison with this synth and the Moog Minataur, Novation Bass Station 2 and Erica Synths bass synth. KMFDM uses the Novation Bass Station live and they sound great.
Moog Minitaur sounds totally different. It will be hard to make a comparison video.
1 Like
I had one briefly but returned it. Too noisy (audible hiss whenever triggering an envelope) and i couldn’t tame the resonance to any useful level. I really like the sounds i heard in reviews. Probably my own shortcomings, other than the noise.
2 Likes
I can see that being an issue if you cannot tolerate that…
I don’t mind it, as it lends some character to the sound that i don’t mind, and helps it stand out from the rest of my other synths…
I said it before… this has an immediacy to its overdriven distortion that I would have to max out and process on my other synths…
It really doesn’t do “clean” sounding, and if I didn’t have alternatives, i can see this overpowering a track… But its great for what it specifically does…
I have a feeling this is going to be a modern classic once it falls off… I mean its already on sale, so you know it need to move some units…
i actually blame PWM a bit, because its not clear how they want you to use it, and there are some confusing media out there regarding the message.
But again… brilliant at what it does, if you are looking for it… which i totally am!
2 Likes
I totally get it. After posting that i felt bad because i really like the idea behind the synth, it’s just not for me. I hope it goes on to do really well.
2 Likes
Me too, but its a bit esoteric in design… if its unclear what the layout is, it should have loads of resources to hold your hand if you need… which I kinda do.
And its sound is meant to be grating, which will turn off alot of people…
I have a feeling that it is a learning synth to get the company up and running, and that when they pump out the next things, it will build on this… because its really good, but kinda steep in terms of accessibility and learning curve.
I compare this to a Linnstrument or the Linn Drum Machine… just in endeavor, not actually gear comparison… highly regarded, great sound… stellar pedigree, just not easy to use off the bat.
Same reason why some don’t like modular in general… just too much work to use…
I really do love it though… i am willing to go through all this.
I even bought her a special choma cable… usb c to usb c… in green.
Just to match.
I am busy with two beats i have to make… one is for the Hip Hop challange, and the other is to finish this Debbie Gibson happy hardcore track…
Then I’m going to get Malevolent going with some DFAMS and really get a track going.
I love it. Don’t really understand how to use it well and think it’s labeled poorly, but I love the size and the sounds! It’s a cool little synth! Great price too.
So I got some replies from Paul via email… he wonderfully explained a bunch of things.
That being said. I asked about tuning, and he directed me to an instagram video on how to patch the clock out to the aux, hold down arp and vibrato when you power on, and middle c will play that tone, and you can tune both oscillators one at a time to get concert pitch as he puts it.
But the weird part was that in the video, he called it an “Easter Egg”.
He seems nice and I like having fun, but some things need to be straight forward.
Tuning and knob per function especially.
I’m all on board, but some may be turned off by this, and I really want them to be successful.
1 Like
I tried it in person, and just could not get along with it. The layout and the way the knobs feel were both just weird. The sound was OK but it’s definitely not something that I would use in my music.
1 Like
I am seriously considering one of these. Some of the demos are pretty incredible…
2 Likes
I finally got one of these. Initial impressions are very solid. I get a lot of MS-20 vibes off this synth not surprisingly. Playing it reminds me a lot of playing my MS-20 mini, which I sadly don’t have anymore since it broke. I had a Monotron way back when they first came out and fell in love with that filter and I always loved the driven sound that came out of it at max resonance. I bought the Mini when it came out and it was one of my favorite synths, but I was always disappointed that the max resonance on it was about the equivalent of about 75% of the Monotron. So I was never able to get to the magic resonance place with it. But this synth definitely has it (and beyond). But as mentioned earlier in the thread this thread, it has a high noise floor. I’m pretty sure it’s the VCA so if you run it through another VCA it probably would be fine. I ran the VCF out into my interface and the noise was pretty much gone. I like tape hiss and noise so it’s not really a problem for me.
I love the arp and really like it when arp control knob allow you to really tweak through the tempo like this. Lately I’ve had synths where the tempo controls were a rotary knob that requires many spins to go from 40-240. This reminds me of the Bass Station 2, although the sluggish envelopes of the BS2 made fast arps less enjoyable. The envelopes on this are plenty snappy and I’ve found myself tweaking away at arps more than I expected. I actually like the weird placement of the envelopes because it puts ENV1 decay near the arp tempo. Adjusting arp tempo and decay simultaneously is quite fun and can be done one handed if needed with this layout.
Pitch controls are a bit imprecise seeming and there’s no octave switches. It doesn’t bother me much since I’m fairly experimental and often like to tune things to just what sounds nice and then all the other gear to that. I haven’t tried the A440 tuning ‘easter egg’ procedure yet. The pitch knobs are less annoying than something like the Neutron which was laid out in a way that I was constantly knocking it out of tune tweaking the cutoff filter.
It’s neat how the LED lights reflect what the envelope is doing and where the cutoff is at. Just a nice little touch! Joystick is more useful than I anticipated. I haven’t tried the synth in a mix but I’m going to guess it’ll fit in a mix easily as it doesn’t sound huge/fat like a Moog. Although I have shite monitors right now so it could just be that. But again it gives me MS-20 feel there as I was always able to mix that in easily and to be honest I never got my Sub Phatty to sit right.
Malevolent gives fairly unexpected results, which as a musician always excites me and is welcome, but to others it will frustrate. So it is definitely not for everyone and might even be safe to say this is niche synth. But already I’m having “whoa that’s awesome! How did that happen” moments and off I go in a new direction. If you are a person who adapts to the synth, rather than expecting the synth to meet your needs, I would imagine it would be quite enjoyable.
5 Likes
I’m on the fence between this and the Bass Station II but not in a rush. I’ll wait til next year to decide if I go with either one or maybe a full size MS20 and ARP 2600.
The envelopes on the BS2 always bummed me out. I like a little snap and they just weren’t there. The filters never excited me either. But it’s a great synth, kind of a workhorse mono, especially with that paraphonic update they did few years ago. It’s the only synth I bought it twice (but also sold it twice).
1 Like
Good to know. Well having a Virus gets the job done on bass and pads and I like the envelopes and filters a lot on the virus so a mono bass synth for me would be pure GAS and a luxury.
1 Like
I haven’t owned a Malevolent but my impression is that it and the BSII are pretty much at the opposite ends of the spectrum as far as analog monos go. The BSII sounds very good, almost ready-made to drop straight into a track without issues, but I always struggled with its ‘well-behaved’ nature. It has all the tools to go super gnarly but even feedbacking out the headphone jack and back in, ring-modding, fast envelope looping etc. it still somehow managed to sound polite, peppy and upbeat in that Roland-y kind of way to me and that wasn’t quite what I wanted. It felt sort of constrained somehow.
From the other synths you listed it seems like you’re after some real juicy analog flavour so I feel like the others might serve you better. AFX mode is amazing fun though!
1 Like
Well, I should mention that the Malevolent is still a glitchy mess. I used midi to sync the arp with an external clock. Sometimes it would tempo drift, or maybe the pwm would just sound that way. No biggie. Sounds amazing.
But the real problem was how it would randomly just play a note with no input or hold. Usually when the sp404 would cycle its ext input button, which it does when you toggle the pattern record menu.
It would just be playing, and I would have to power cycle the PWM just to make it stop. I had to do it a lot.
But this is a new company and this is its first synth. So I guess being an early adopter comes with these types of issues.
There isn’t even a manual written yet. Paul has answered my email questions so much already that I need to accept the way everything is and just hope it gets firmware revised.
I’m interested in seeing what comes out of this company. I’m all on board. I love this synth.
2 Likes