electro harmonix micro synthesizer

by Daniel Sassoon

There are 2 camps in this world for guitar gear junkies. It all boils down to complexity. There are some who love it – they will sneer at an amp or effect unless it’s got more knobs than a bukkake festival – and those who loathe it, staying true to the K.I.S.S. philosophy (keep it simple, stupid).

For those in the latter category, stop reading this now. The Micro Synth is not for you. I’ll review the MXR Phase 90 next week, come back then.

Ok. The rest of you lot. The Micro Synth is generally regarded with slight awe and reverence amongst this camp. After all, it has more sliders than TCS 5’s weekend afternoon re-runs (ok here’s where I stop with the metaphors). And as rumour has it, it’s so easy to sound absolutely pants with this thing. On the other hand, this visually-enticing box has graced the pedalboards of such luminaries as King Crimson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ash and Electrico (ahem), who have used it to sublime and sometimes breathtaking effect.

However, if you think all you have to do is set it up just like the graphic equalizers on the mini hi-fi in your room, hit all the strings at random and be enveloped in a heavenly blitz of otherworldly sound, have another thought coming sonny. This thing is not a random noise or tone generator. It will not help you get strange weird sounds that geeks will spend hours dissecting and marveling about on message boards. It is not, I repeat not, Kevin Shields in a box. It demands analysis, experimentation, patience and quite probably a fair bit of alcohol to find a sound properly usable out of it.

Basically what this thingamajig does is create swells, sweeps, square waves, fuzz, gnarls, mini explosions, annoying sounds and the like. It’s a decent substitute for getting similar sounds as an e-bow, backwards guitar and a Moog. The catch though, is you’re never gonna be able to use all of these at one go because there are just too many variables on it. Sure, put little colour coded sticker-flags all over it, but then it gets complicated and you end up having more stickers on it than an emo kid’s cheap guitar (whoops, I did it again). And if you find something cool, take down the settings immediately. The box comes with blank sheets; photocopy them and use them to good effect.

So, what do the sliders do? Think of them as controlling 3 categorised sets of variables:

THRESHOLD

Trigger (sets the threshold sensitivity of picking strength required to fire off)

VOICE MIX

Sub Octave (one octave down)

Guitar (reminds you that you have to have one in order to use this. Well actually it sets the level of your unprocessed guitar signal)

Octave (one octave up)

Square Wave (fuzz – good sweet guitar fuzz!)

FILTER SWEEP

Attack Delay (controls the swell, basically cutting the initial attack to simulate a type of reverse-sounding effect)

Resonance (the depth and body of the tone)

Start Frequency

Stop Frequency (the Start and Stop faders are used to select 2 frequency points, and sweeps between them)

Rate (the rate of the sweep)

All these are interactive, and can be blended into a virtually endless array of colours. Especially with regard from one category to another. A slight notch up one slider can drastically affect the tone, and even volume levels of the unit. An entirely unusable tone can suddenly be rendered otherwise with a minute shift of a slider or two, and vice versa.

There’s also a level screw accessible from the back, which is used to adjust the overall volume of the effect to cater for the output gain of your guitar. This is the weakest link of the unit, as it is virtually impossible to balance your levels. The Micro Synth will always be louder than your guitar, make no mistake. If you’re kicking this in over soft passages, you might want to use a volume pedal after your signal chain to prevent audiences from keeling over when your intended delicate angel-voiced swell suddenly roars into a eardrum-pummeling tsunami (controlling volume before the input is a risky one – it may make little if any difference, depending on the gain-sensitivity in the effect’s settings).

Other gripes include the fact that older units may not have true bypass, although apparently the latest units come with a true bypass switch. Its construction is also tin-can worthy - don’t drop it! The plastic faders are built like matchsticks and it’s easy for a fader knob to snap off. The adaptor is meant for 120v, but the Electro-Harmonix folks will sell you a 240v one if you’re willing to pay about $50 including shipping. So forget that and get a Visual Sound 1 Spot instead from Mr Misse, your friendly neighbourhood pedal dealer.

So, is the Micro Synth for you? It depends. It probably will be appreciated by the more experimental guitarist. On the other hand, if you shred like Enron executives before an audit (OK THAT WAS THE LAST ONE I SWEAR), this thing will serve at best as a really large paperweight. It is also NOT meant to be an analog synth substitute – don’t sack your Juno or Moog player just yet. And if you’re thinking of banging out chords with this, think again. It only tracks single notes, everything else just comes out a muted, percussive mess (which then again might have its purposes…). Basically, this is a tool to help you craft sounds – with a smack of overdrive before input, notes soar and sustain with aplomb; with modulation or delay effects placed after, raygun-like blathers are further warped and skewed for your twisted pleasure. While not exactly being a one-trick pony, this does have a limited usage though – most guitarists won’t likely be leaving this running all the time, save for the intention to sorely vex your audience.

As they say, there’s a right time and place for everything. If it happens to be the time to get an effect that will lend a unique voice to your arsenal, an ace up your sleeve, to be used sparingly and as required, that will challenge your approach to technique, and provide you with literally hours of experimentation with its settings as well as in conjunction with other effects – then the Micro Synth might just be the ticket for you