Alesis Metavox

Just an addendum to my previous review....I am a moron. Yes, that's right. Operator Error. This thing is a true vocoder....a pretty harsh one, but it sounds really cool....kinda like the vocoder on the Korg MS2000, but a little less intelligible. I must not have been giving it a hot enough signal, because when I unplugged my mic from my crappy onboard mixer XLR, and put to a real preamp then to the Metavox, it was Kraftwerk all the way baby. Even tracks polyphonically, which I couldn't get it to do before...so, just make sure you're giving it a hot signal on Mic. It's a really cool unit, I got mine for $50 on clearance, but some people got them for even less -- $30 and such. Great deal for such a fun and versatile little pedal.

Very easy. Turn a knob, there you go. No wet/dry though, so you'll have to set that up on your mixer. Using mic's can be tricky, make sure the signal is hot. Getting a good sound out of it takes some tweaking, but can be done. The thing is, it's not really a true Vocoder, the best it can do is Vocoder EFFECTS. Alesis shouldn't have advertised it as a true vocoder. If you hook up two different synths to it, it's not pitch specific. What it really does when you do this is apply the envelope of the modulator source to the carrier source, which gives some really good results (but it's not vocoding).
I agree with the previous user about the Sibilance knob, it's just sucky digital white noise. A wet/dry knob would've been more useful. Minus two points for the misleading vocoder label and that.

It can be noisy, especially for a digital unit. Watch your levels. The manual has some good suggestions for reducing noise levels from ModFx units. The sound quality of the effect itself, is, well, it's cool for experimention, but it's not true vocoding. It's pretty much a step down from the vocoder patch on a Zoom 1204 processor. Where this unit really shines is as an envelope pedal...plug one instrument into the carrier, like, say, a guitar, then plug an instrument into the modulator input, like, say, a drum machine or a synth with an evolving pad sound. Wala...the guitar now has the envelope characteristics of the

It's el plastico, but it seems pretty well built. They're designed to be tabletop units, not stompboxes, so as long as you don't go dropkicking them like Shaolin Soccer, you should be okay. The modlink/joystick ports feature is really cool. For the ambient/industrial type music I make, these units are brilliant. Too bad Alesis didn't see much profit from them.

Never dealt with them after a year of owning both the Bitrman and Metavox. (hope I don't have to anytime soon, either).

As mentioned, I play ambient/industrial, and sometimes experiment with power-electronics and dubby stuff. For my purposes, the ModFX line is a godsend. Digital effects with analog style interfaces, VA effects if you will. At the used and clearance prices, you can't go wrong with these, except for maybe the Smashup Compressor, which is the worst Compressor I've ever heard. If lost or stolen, I would buy another one, esp at the $20 - $50 prices I see them going for. The Metavox is cool if you don't expect a full-fledged vocoder out of it...if you do you'll be disappointed. Except a vocoder effect and a naft envelope combiner similar to the Cool Edit env combine effect, and you'll be happy.

The knobs and buttons are pretty intuitive--you select your input type and then the sort of oscillation pattern you want, and fine tune it with the knobs below. All of the knobs produce noticable and useable differences in the synth sound, except the "siblance" knob, which seems to produce only white noise. I keep it turned down.

A really neat feature is the "tempo sync" feature, which allows the unit to sync the oscialltion rate to the input signal--way cooler than trying to tap out a tempo and then play along to that.

The sounds this unit makes are pretty decent for a $50 unit, but I give it a 7 because of its difficulty in setup. The unit is not pitch-sensitive, only velocity-sensitive (meaning the origian pitch of your instrument is not preserved, but depending on the volume you play or sing at, the synth produces different responses), so it requires a bit of finagling to get pitch preserved, which I will detail below.

An interesting feature all the metavox effects have is the ability to be sidechained together via digital connections. That way, the signal says digital for as many effects units you string up. Neat.

And lastly in this category, are the inputs. Two ins and two outs, plus a footswitch jack, and to top it off, a trim knob to help set the input volume. Another nice feature.

Like I said, the sound is nice, but the setup is tricky if you want to preserve the original pitch. You either have to use stereo inputs and set the synth to "right in=synth" which severly limits your input options, or use some sort of ABY or line selector pedal (I'm using my boss dd5 in bypass mode and sending one line directly to channel 1 of my guitar amp, and the other one through the metavox to channel 2). That way I can use the volume knobs of each channel to blend my synth and dry signals.

If you're not terribly concerned about preserving pitch, like if you just want a weird vocal part or drum or turntable-synced synth effects, I suppose you could run this thing direct without a problem.

Lastly, the "noise" feature is just that: noisy crap. I can't imagine why you would want to use it.

It's got a metal bottom with plastic sides and top. The buttons feel a bit cheap, but the knobs feel a bit more reliable. It does have a bypass button, though you would not want to use this as a floor unit, at least not without an external footswitch. Keep this unit on your desktop or rack, or somewhere on your pedalboard where it won't get stepped on, and it should last.

This is an update to a previous posting, after I've gotten the hang of some of the features and set it up to preserve pitch. I think that is the unit's biggest drawback. If I were to redesign this unit, I would remove the "siblance" knob and replace it with a "wet/dry" mix knob.

Hey, for $50, you can't get a better synth, imho. I'd like to get an Electro-Harmonix micro synth, but until I put together $300, this will more than suffice for my modest synth needs. I give it an 8, because for $50, I can't complain too much.

I'm not sure if it's easy to use yet. I'm new to the synth world, so my ear isn't trained to identify what a good square synth is supposed to sound like. Anyway, it has an input button to select between saw, rectified saw, square, noise, and another setting that lets the right input be used as a synth, and the left as a dry signal, useful, and I'll get to that below. It then has a tap tempo button, a reset button, and a modulation side like the input side that will switch between triangle, sample/hold, triggered, uncertainty, pattern, and tempo sync oscillators.

Knobs include "Phreeq," which sets the incoming modulation frequency, "siblance," which regardless of what the manual says, just produces white noise, rate and depth, which are pretty self-explanatory.

The unit's controls are topped off by a bypass switch, which really has to be operated by hand (or the footswitch input) and a trim input dial, which is quite useful if you are running different instruments and mics through this processor.

I give the unit a 5, for two reasons. First, I couldn't just plug it in and get a good sound straight out of the box, and second, it idoesn't process pitch at all, it is only velocity sensetive.

In order to make this unit pitch sensitive, you either have to use the built-in right-in=synth switch, which limits the different synth options, or use some sort of splitter or ABY box to two different amps. I use the latter, a boss DD5 with the stereo outs (I just run the DD5 in standby mode). Mostly I am running a guitar or bass through the unit.

Long story short, it can get some really cool sounds out of it, though I am still learning how synths work in general. The big thing I want out of a synth is for it to handle chords and string bends. Since I'm using a jerry-rigged wet/dry system on it, and since it isn't pitch-sensitive, it technically does handle chords, though not in the way I'd expect.

Lastly, the "nose" selection just sounds like crap. I don't care if it is consistent crap, it still sounds awful. I think that's about the only selection I would skip.

It is definetly a desktop unit; you wouldn't want to use it as a floor pedal unless you used the external footswitch jack. I'd gig without a backup on this one's reliability and the fact that I don't use much synth in my playing anyway. Take care of it, don't use the built-in switch as a footswitch, and you'll be fine.

i've been playing a while, and I play mostly with our church praise team, which does pretty standard rock stuff. The metavox was an impulse buy, $50 from musician's friend. In retrospect, I think I would have been happier with one of their other frequency analyzer/ring modulator units, but I don't feel ripped off. Plus, at $50, I can pretty easily pick up another one without breaking the bank.

If it were lost or stolen, I think I would save up money for an Electro-Harmonix micro-synth; but if you're like me and don't want to drop $300 on a pedal you're not even sure you'll use, check out the new Alesis stuff; you get what you pay for, but this one's a good deal.

Lastly, if anyone has any hints on how to get good synth sounds out of this or any other setup, let me know.