SXSW: Austin Synth Expo + Stompbox Exhibit

Walking into the third floor of the Chuggin’ Monkey in Austin, TX this past weekend was a rough equivalent to stepping through the pearly gates. I think I actually heard a choir strike a chord when I saw the arrays of guitar pedals, all set up to be played and toyed with to our hearts’ content. Attendees were encouraged to bring their own guitars, but PRS Guitars sponsored the event by kindly providing several guitars and basses for those of us without our instruments.

In addition to the massive selection of stompboxes, there was a separate area in the back for the synth heads. Novation, Arturia, Pioneer DJ and others presented their top of the line instruments in the synth area.

There was a lot to play with, so let’s get to the meat of it.

Guitar Pedals Galore

Ibanez – In With The Nu

When I noticed an Ibanez display, my mind immediately went to the Vemuram – the new Tube Screamer unveiled earlier this year at NAMM. I have been dying to try one, as the demos I’ve heard are amazing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available. Instead, Ibanez sent the NTS Nu Tube Screamer – 2018’s innovation on the classic overdrive pedal.
“The tube circuit inside it is the Korg “Nu-Tube” technology,” said Ibanez sales rep Emery Fry. “Instead of an IC chip [creating the distortion], like it’s been for forty years, it’s got tube components on the circuit board.”

The gas-less tube technology in the pedal makes a major difference in the quality of overdrive it provides. I A/B tested the drives on the NTS and the TS808 40th anniversary re-release at the same settings right there on the Ibanez display. To my ears, the winner was clear. The NTS has a more lush overdrive to it. I could tell them apart instantly.

A spectacular little extra on the NTS is a tiny black “Mix” knob, which controls the amount of clean signal sent out with the overdrive – a parameter that was fixed on previous iterations of the Tube Screamer.

Keeley – Battle of the Fuzz

Before I headed up to Austin, my Capistrano bandmate, Aaron Cooper, specifically asked me to be on the lookout for the “Fuzz Bender” pedal by Keeley. I personally love Keeley pedals – I have their compressor on my pedalboard, and it is always switched on. But when I switched on the Fuzz Bender, I wasn’t blown away. I did like the inclusion of a bias knob, which changes the texture of the distortion, but my thought was simply, that’s pretty cool. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of fuzz, but I found a more interesting type of fuzz in Keeley’s “Dark Side” – a fuzz pedal with a modulation section. I immediately got a more likable sound from the Dark Side, and the rotary, phase and tape delay components made it sweeter for me.

Strymon – The Big Ones

I noticed Strymon’s display from across the room, thanks to the unmistakable visage of the Big Sky. I had seen Big Sky on countless rigs over the years. It actually pops up pretty often in electronic studios – I had to play with it!

I was immediately in love. The breadth of reverb types available – natural and unnatural – along with the parameters available for adjustment makes the Big Sky the ultimate reverb effect in my opinion. And Strymon’s build is heavy and solid – complete with knobs that are a pleasure to turn – smooth with just the right amount of resistance. I’ll definitely be in the market for one of these guys soon.

Right next to Big Sky was it’s brother, TimeLine. I had never seen one of these before, but I was immediately taken by the quality of the sounds I heard. Each of the 12 delay types are incredibly detailed and tweakable. It blows my poor little DD-7 out of the water. Playing TimeLine makes me rethink my urge to purchase a Big Sky. Both are pricey pedals, as well they deserve to be, so one must choose – the vast expanse of the Big Sky? Or the infinite mirrors of the TimeLine?

Superlative Synthesizers

Arturia – Freak Out!

Arturia’s presence immediately excited me because I knew I would come across the soon-to-be-released Micro Freak – that weird looking miniature synth unveiled at NAMM this year. It has made quite a lot of noise since then, so I skipped right over the Minibrute 2 and the Matrix Brute to get to it.

The first thing anyone notices here is the keyboard. Flat, touch sensitive tiles covered in gold cyber-filigree fill out the lower section of the synth. The keys do not move, but the are velocity sensitive and feature aftertouch. I was a bit disappointed to discover they didn’t seem to be touch sliders as I thought. Maybe it’s asking for too much from a mini synth that retails for about $300, but to me, those fancy looking tiles scream “Modulate me!”

Aside from the esoteric-looking keyboard, the Micro Freak felt much like a cross between a Minilogue and a Mininova in use. The sounds were very clean – digital to be sure. The knobs felt good beneath my fingers, and it was fairly easy to navigate – very much unlike the Matrix Brute, which for all it’s power, takes users awhile to orient themselves (or find an init patch). On the Microfreak I had dialed in several solid sounds in a relatively short period of time. This is a solid little synth from Arturia, and I wouldn’t mind picking one up in the future, though I may want one of those Strymons first.

Sensel – A Real “All-In-One” Controller?

One of the neatest innovations I saw at the expo was a little product from Sensel – a device they call Morph.

Morph is a blank slate. Literally, it’s a metallic tablet with nothing on it. The magic of the Morph is in the overlays – rubber surfaces that magnetically stick to the tablet and tell the tablet what it is for the time being.

“We’re living in an age of controllerism,” said Alberto Chapa, the representative from Sensel. “Let’s take controllerism to the next step.” The next step ostensibly being a chameleon-like device such as the Morph. It’s a logical leap. Morph is small and portable, and with the overlays, it can be whatever you need it to be – a computer keyboard, a piano keyboard, a 4×4 pad grid, an array of sliders… And the really neat bit, it can be programmed to control different devices with different overlays. So you can switch from finger drumming on channel one’s drum rack to playing a pad synth on channel 2 by simply swapping overlays.

With so many overlays, and new ones to come, the Morph is a truly innovative piece of gear that would be convenient for any producer – provided they don’t mind that every control is a thin piece of rubber. I personally like knobs, but hey – nothing’s perfect, right?

Pioneer DJ / Dave Smith Instruments: The DAW-in-a-Box

Toriaz has been out for a little while now. I took notice when it was released, but didn’t think too much of it.

That is, until I saw the unit in front of me in action.

The 16-button step sequencer made me feel right at home, since I love my TR-8. But the real power in this thing is it’s tweakability. One thing that really blew me away was it’s ability to affect individual steps of individual instruments, right down to offsetting where against the grid the hit lands. It’s begging for broken beats and alternative grooves.

Mute modes, recording modes, step sequencer modes and mixer modes make Toriaz a prime device for live performance as well as production. Far from just a clip launcher or sample player, it stands up with the bigger MPC units and Elektron’s Octatrack. It’s a terrific unit to be paired with another drum machine or synth. Did I mention it can control other devices via MIDI? Because it can – making it real candidate for the brain of any live electronic performance ecosystem.

Too Much Power in a Single Room

Overall, the synth expo was a terrific place to experience the cutting edge of synthesis, controllerism, and stompbox technology. There was more – offerings from companies like Red Panda, Eventide, Novation (my beloved Bass Station 2 was on display) and many, many others – but to go over all of it would take days.

Of course, I couldn’t leave an event like this empty handed. There was just way too much neat stuff. I walked away with an Ibanez Nu Tube Screamer -the sound of that pedal is just delicious. Later that night, on the stage at Jack’s Bar in San Antonio, I pulled my TS9 off my pedal board and plugged in my shiny new NTS.

And man, did it kill at that show.