Message 3/23
Date: 04-Jan-03 @ 01:18 PM -
RE: Dave Smith Evolver
Uh yes, found the noise knob. Fun. :-) Did lots more playing last night and had even more fun. I found myself laughing out loud quite often with the noises created. Don't know how much usable noise, but cool/fun noise anyways. After I learn some more about the thing, I'll post some on my website as MP3's so y'all can hear my fun.
Having a little trouble tricking some real gut wrenching low-end out of it. It has a really nice even, round sound, but I'm not getting that intesting rattling rumble that I was looking for. I checked my signal path and I'm going direct into my mixer, and all the eq and low shelving is off. The good news, though, is that for all the nastiness of it, it is equally beautiful at times. The analog filter is very nice, and the option of routing the highpass before AND after the lowpass makes for some unique routing options. The lowpass (2pole and 4 pole) is real analog, and is surrounded by DSP which does the delays, the distorsion, the highpass and other options.
I'm still not thrilled with the LED - I think a little more there would have been helpful (it's only a 3 character LED), so I'm gonna need to keep the mod destinations and mod sources tables nearby forever. Which is somewhat unfortunate.
It's VERY easy to save patches, which is handy, and navigating around the program editor is easier than on any other synth I have. Not sure I'd want to be trying to program on the fly in a live setting, as the whole thing is little bigger than a VHS cassette tape. The buttons are small, and the knobs are small. The knobs feel pretty secure, though. They are indented all the way around, so it is VERY easy to go from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. You won't accidentally go from 1 to 4. 1 click redisplays the current setting, so you can see what value you have without changing it. It is also full rotary and clicks ALL THE WAY AROUND. Quite brilliant if you ask me.
I'll be able to spend more time programming over the next couple of days, and I'll post more about the sound later. Still trying to implement all of the options, and I have only gone through the presets once.