PAiA FatMan

It's a kit, so you have to solder it together. The manual is an idiot proof first course. I followed the directions and it worked right away. It took a week of evenings, I had to buy new soldering tips and reading glasses. I've never done any project like this.

There are no presets. Deal with it.

Most romplers have a "Fat Saw" patch. I use that one a lot, but all the romplers were thin and weak. This thing does "Fat Saw" like nothing else, and that's pretty much it. Man does this deliver. Sometimes I run it through my Seymour Duncan twin tube classic guitar box.

So far so good. But I soldered it myself, so who knows. You can customize your own case, there's a few web sites that have some radical packages. I probably wouldn't gig without a backup.

Very personal company. The guy replies to all my emails.

I'm thinking of buying a second one, for sequenced/arpeggiated stuff.

It does one thing very very well.

Hard to say if it's easy to use; it's both hard and easy. To really get the most out of the fatman, you really need to tweak the sounds, and more importantly you really need to THINK about the sound you are trying to make. Picturing the waveform in your mind is half the fun.

Basically, the Fatman has everything it needs. I could be more, but I think it's fabulously priced and I'm sure it would need to cost more to do more. I don't use the CV outs, but I'm sure that's a big deal to some users. I do think it could use another waveshape - triangle only is a bit limited, and I'm sure someone could figure out a clever way to filter one OSC from a triangle to a sine, but you are able to do that with the VCF so what do I know.

I do LOVE the crap out of this thing. I use it as the pedal tone generator in my Hammond chop, so I'm looking more for simple tones and traditional bass sounds. Since I use a midi pedalboard, I suppose I have a billion choices in sound modules, but the fatman does a few things that I couldn't find anywhere else. I was using an Alesis nanobass, but the Fatman allows you fininite control of release times which is something not built-in to my pedalboard. That feature alone, and the fact that it's on a knob, was worth the lousy $140. While it doesn't have a transpose feature, the Fatman will shift one or both OSC over more than an octave, and my pedalboard can't transpose, so that's another killer feature for me. I suppose most keyboard controllers wouldn't need that, but I do.

Soundwise, this thing does pretty much everything I want in a bass specific module. Fat, warm and controllable, well behaved but not sterile. I do use some of the more synthy sounds with port and envelopes and so forth, and I find that I'm gearing my playing to take advantage of what the Fatman can do. Pretty cool. I have used it a couple of times with a velocity sensitive keyboard, and that made using the Fatman more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

I do think that novice synth players would get in front of the Fatman and quickly get bored because they can't take the time to really tweak everything in. As I say, it takes a good working knowledge of the box to get a wide variety of sounds out of it. If you are used to just scrolling thru patches, you will probably think "hey, everything sounds the same on this thing". But I assure you, there are a wealth of sounds inside there - you gotta know where to dig.

It's a tank, if you build it correctly. Most of the components are better than they really need to be. The PC board itself is 10 times the quality you'll find in anything you can buy from Korg, Yam, Roland, etc. Don't let the price fool you - there's very little chintz going on in there. In fact, I don't know how Paia can sell it for what they do.

Absolutly fabulous. I think everyone agrees that Scott Lee and Paia in general are top notch in terms of service. Someone should get a medal.

Can't be beat for the money, can't be beat for twice the money. Although it's a bit aged, there a lot of great mods on the web. I did the Lee Diode Mod and that was a real winner. I'd love to build a wall of Fatmans, but next I'll build the 9700 and get horny over that. Overall, the Fatman is a 10.

You build it yourself. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. The instructions also include some troubleshooting info so if you get it all put together and it doesn't work, there's still some hope before you have to call them.

I assembled mine and only found a few minor problems that were entirely my fault. I corrected them quickly and it worked great. Took me about 40 hrs to assemble, but I'm kind slow and went very carefully (first kit).

Ease of use if great after it's assembled. Everything is controlled by knobs, no patch storage.

I received all of the parts, I did not have to ask for any more or go shopping for something they left out.

1-note polyphony. Lot's of mods available (google for paia fatman and you'll find 'em).

MIDI features work. I had mine at the begining of a MIDI chain, but none of the other modules worked. I just moved the fatman to the end and evertyhing is OK. It seemed like a MIDI-thru problem, don't know if other fatmen have the same problem or not, but since I was able to work around it I'm not really concerned (I don't want to ding PAIA on this, just mention it).

Sounds good. I'm just starting out so don't know that much...

Has always worked so far. Since it's a kit the quality naturally depends on your skills.

I'm happy with it. It was a fun kit. I'd get another one if lost or stolen. I've ordered PAIA's 9700 kit.

Manual is simple and easy. I assembled mine in about 15 hours, but I would have to say I have spent over 100 hours past that doing mods on the damn thing! (I have done at least six mods to mine and am currently working on a custom 3U rackface because I ran out of room with all of the extra knobs and switches from the normal 2U size)

I don't think a patch editor is availble for this, as the knobs do not send MIDI...time to get out the old analog paper "cool setting" form...

The synth is very straightforward. No FX...but if you want some that bad, build some Paia EPfM pedal kits and hardwire them into the rack!!

If you want a really hooked up bass synth, either mod the hell out of this one or buy a Future Retro 777 for four times the price. One of the better values in a bass synth if you want to spend $600-777 (and their site has mods too!)

The filter is a bit shy, you will get decent sweeps if you go over the whole range, but don't expect something you can do sub-bass with-- like a true vintage analog synth, its cutoff is 12dB, not 24dB.

It is hard to say this is lacking in features, because features are not the point of its existance-- instead of presets and effects you get pure basic hands-on control. In it's vanilla unmodded state it is a bit shy on an extreme variety sounds, but the few it does well it does incredibly.

Note: You do have to purchase the rackface or desktop case separately. For some this is a pain, but for us DiYers it saves us $$ as we are likely making our own cases anyway.

If your controller does velocity and aftertouch, the FM will recieve it. I use a Roland PC-200, which works great. If you need a USB on your controller, the PC-300 might be better for you.

As far as the sounds, this is FAT and SATURATED ANALOG. This is not smooth and it is not meant to be. This is pure raw analog. Bubbly and burly...burbly. Put an envelope filter after it for moog-like auto-filter sweeps and 303-like resonance squelch. I use a Q-Tron+, freakin' beautiful. My pal in Keyboard Controllers says the MoogerFooger Lowpass is way better though.

This might be a comment on my DiY skills, but mine is on its 3rd breakdown. Still most have no problems, so I would either consider this a freak happening or an Act of God telling me quit DiY electronics.

Scott Lee, tech support at Paia is the best I have come across. He will talk to you via phone, advise you on mods, etc. A real asset to the company. I don't know what they pay him, but it probably isn't what he is worth.

BTW, if you need to get your FM repaired (and I know this from experience...) repair is currently $30 an hour, and usually it is done within that time, though to get to it may take a month or so. Considering how expensive electronics repir can be, this is VERY reasonable.

I freakin' love this little thing. For what it does, I think it is the best value on the market. I am strongly considering getting at least one more, maybe two. I rub my hands together and fantasize about a bassline six oscillators thick via three MIDI-chained FMs.

If you want a great sounding synth that does a moog-quality bass for relatively cheap and LOVE burning your fingers with a soldering iron, this is your project.

Very straight forward synth module. It comes in a kit form and it took me about 14 hours to assemble. Everything is controlled via front panel control pots (Try that with a modern digital synth). The sound can be completly changed as fast as you can change patches on a modern synth. I'm looking at getting rid of all my 256+ patch digital synths at this point. How many sounds do you really need anyway? The manual is very straight forward. It even briefly touches on how VC analog synthesis works.

This synth is a monophonic lead/bass synth module so there is no keyboard. It uses CV/Gate but has a built in MIDI-CV converter so integrates right into any MIDI setup. There are no patches, memory, effects (after all, effects are added to digital synths to make up for their lack of rich sound), or expansion capabilities. The only limitation is that there is no LFO in the original kit. There are many modifications available for the unit, though, and one such mod is an LFO. The only thing I don't like is power adaptor is hardwired to the PCB. This can be changed and once I've added the LFO mod to the unit, I'm going to install a power supply jack on mine. The MIDI is velocity sensative and has pitch bend. It can be set to accept MIDI data on any of the 16 MIDI channels No sequencer

The FatMan doesn't do other instruments (If you want a piano or violin, get a REAL piano or violin.) It does classic monophonic analog sounds. The basses and pads are so thick that polyphony is not needed. The leads cut through anything digital. I play rock/hard rock and it is perfect for that type of music. No onboard effects are needed on this unit. If you want something stero sounding then an external doubling delay or chorus would do.

The unit is very reliable; I've had no typical analog synth tuning problems. The glide however does effect the pitch and the oscillators pitch must be adjusted when using the glide. I never use the glide so this is of no concern to me. I don't gig as this point in life but the FatMan can go anywhere.

Outstanding. I was in contact with several people at PAiA before the purchase to make sure this was the unit for me (my first true analog synth). I've been in contact with them numerous times since the purchase and assembly, to discuss modifications.

I'm looking at getting one or two more of these. I've got a couple of Yamaha CS1x synths that I'd like to replace with more PAiA synths. They just don't compare to the rich tone of analog.

very easy to use, pretty easy to put together. I had never really soldered before and had to go learn, I practiced about five times and then started building it, it was really simple. If you've ever put together a model car or airplane its kind of like that, dont be intimidated.

It is monophonic, there is no keyboard attached to it so you will have to rely on some sort of midi or cv controller... I think there are eighteen knobs, i only just finished it so i havent gotten a lot out of it yet but the sounds so far are promising. Theres no memory on it so you cant save any of the sounds you make and the knob movements dont get transmitted over midi. If you look around on the internet you can find a lot of modifications for this synth.

Pretty neat sounds, easy to make them sound how you want. The lower end sounds are the best, this will probably work better for bass and stuff than anything else, i think it only has a square wave so the sounds aren't incredible smooth, a little rough, but i like it a lot. I havent had a lot experience with other analog synths so i cant really compare the sounds to another keyboard, but these sounds could definately be used for a lot of different kinds of music.

I haven't had it for very long, so im not sure, its worked everytime so far.

very good costomer support. I had to call them right when i finished because it wasn't working, I got through to the company immediatly and talked to the tech support guy after that, I was never left on hold. He helped me and got it working over the phone in no time. I think his name was Steve, thank you.

if i lost it, id buy another one, building it was kind of time consuming though, i think thats just because im a begginer. I mainly bought it because i wanted a synth but didnt want to pay a lot of money, if your like i was and are interested in analog synthesizers but dont want to drop a lot of money, buy this. Its fun to build it and your pretty proud when its done and working. Plus, you get a neat synth out of it.

The Paia FatMan is controlled via 18 knobs and 3 switches. No LCD displays, no hidden modes; the FatMan is pure analog WYSIWYG. Perfect if you ask me since you never need to save any settings; just leave the synth as it was when you last shut it off while experimenting.

The manual is not thick, but sufficient. Much better than the manual for many digital synths. Perhaps it's because digital synths are a bit more complex(?) The FatMan is simple but beautiful!

The Paia FatMan is a monophonic bass synth and it doesn't pretend to be anything other than that. But what it's designed to do, it does well! The sound from the double oscillators together with the filters can be manipulated in such a way that it will sound like anything from a whisper in the willows to a cat that hasn't eaten for two weeks.

The FatMan does not have any factory-made expansion capabilities, but it's a popular project among the Do-It-Yourself synthesizer community and there are a lot of modifications for the FatMan available on the WWW.

The MIDI implementation on the FatMan is basic. It recognises on/off, modulation and velocity. That's it. But for me, that's quite sufficent. A dip-switch allows you to set which MIDI channel/channels the FatMan should respond to. Using it in my rack together with other machines have never been a problem.

If you're in to electronica, the FatMan is for you. If you prefer "playing the piano" you're better off with something less analog. The FatMan sounds somewhat like the TB-303. You can do anything from quirky bass sounds to thick bass carpets.

The reliability of the FatMan is high as far as I'm concerned. I have run my FatMan for a couple of weeks now and it has not gone out of tune. I would not hesitate to bring it to a live gig.

PAiA is a VERY personal company since not that many people are involved in their business. Just through my basic correspondance with them I learned the first name of the people responsible for my order. Their response time is short.

The setup that i bought included the chip, a desktop case and the shipment to Europe (Sweden). The price didn't scare me eventhough the shipment costs where quite expensive. I guess it's better if you order from the US.

I will admitt - I would not cry my heart out if my FatMan was stolen from me, but it's not because I don't love this synth, because I do, but it's because it's so cheap that I would always buy and build a new one.

Summary: If you are a DIY kind of person trying to figure out which project should be your first, try the FatMan. It's a simple but cool monophonic bass synth that is worth every hour with the soldering iron!

It's actually pretty easy to make. I don't know anything about electronics and it took me about 20 hours and worked first time. Having an extra pair of hands helps with some jobs, like wiring the circuit board to the controls. Once it's working it's all very intuitive - the 18 knobs and 2 switches are explained in the manual, but for someone who knows a little about subractive synthesis it's very straightforward.

The Fatman is controlled by a MIDI keyboard or sequencer, and understands pitch bend and velocity as well as pitch, note on/note off etc. You can link it up to other synths via the control voltage jacks, though I've never tested this. In general though, the Fatman is more about pure sound quality than gimmicky features.

The sounds are maybe a bit limited for pure electronic music, but the sweet sweet sound quality makes it perfect for acid jazz, thrash funk, R&B etc. The filter sounds great, glide is cool and two oscillators allow some fairly complex textures. Of course in an ideal world it'd have pulse waves, an LFO, ring mod, polyphony etc. but then if you want these for anywhere near this price then you'll have to turn to stealing... or go digital if you're desparate ;)

I guess this depends on how well you build it, but I've had no trouble with mine. Tuning is maybe a teensy bit unstable.

never needed to find out

If you want to get into analog synthesis and don't mind burning yourself on a soldering iron a couple of times, then this is the machine for you. Tons of character and a sweet sound that won't sound out of place next to your Warwick Thumb bass and K Zildian cymbals, plus really really good value for money. If it got lost, I might consider saving my cash and looking for an old Odyssey or Minimoog, but only because the Fatman got me hooked on analog in the first place. The otaku route to analog heaven :)

Since you have to build it...it is not as easy. Actually using it when it is built is easy. I built it with a friend who knew electronics better than I did and we had a good time.

Monophonic. Note on and off, velocity and pitch bend. Bare neccessities when it comes to analog sound tweaking. Glide can do spooky Moog Kluas Shultz/Snoop dog stuff. The res and freq are fun enough with some creativity (i.e. how you sequence, or process etc.). Extremely straightforward. The MIDI/VC Gate is a nice addition if you want to sequence an old CV unit like a SH101 or Moog Rogue on the same MIDI channel. I've done that and this is a great feature.

Very dry sounding so it takes some user ingenuity. It doesn't seem to have satiated my appetite for analogue sounds because: Mono, many units have wider filters, etc. But it can make some solid techno arppegios, can do low bass and like I said, some Moogy leads. I have never figured out what the "punch" switch does...doesn't seem to do anything as far as I can tell.

Because you have to build it yourself...
The chasis that you can order with it seems pretty mediocre to me and I have stuck note and release time problems so...
The blue panel with knobs looks cool in your rack though.

The order came relitively fast and PAiA is a pretty cool company to produce products like this that are fun to build and use. I haven't called them about anything yet and I don't want to.

Fun...good deal if you or your friends want to build a neat synth instead of trying to rebuild a Datson from a couple of parts cars in the yard. Good, straightforward deal.

I'm using the FatMop 1.9. I also ordered the front panel along with the rest of the kit. Literally all of the controls are on the front panel, including the MIDI, CV, and output jacks. It is a simple analog synthesizer that happens to respond to note on and off messages, their velocities, and pitch bend messages. What could be easier to use?
The operation part of the manual is not always written for the electronically uninitiated. Thankfully, you will only be needing it when you tune the FatMan, and this part of the manual is reasonable.

The FatMan is a monophonic analog synthesizer. It is controlled by 18 knobs and two switches (not counting the power switch), as well as by MIDI through a small MIDI to CV system built into the unit. The MIDI subsystem understands note on, note off, note velocity, and pitch bend messages. The front panel knobs and MIDI subsystem are not associated in any way, which brings the cost of the unit incredibly low.
Two saw VCOs are mixed and feed a low-pass resonant A(S)R VCF followed by the ADSR VCA. The sustain part of the VCF envelope can be eliminated with a switch. The VCA may be given additional attack punch with a switch.
One feature not to be ignored is that you have complete access to the innards of the thing. A large number of mods have been published, some quite easy to perform. The FatMan is a very popular choice among DIY types, and is also used as a "normaled section" in some modular rigs.

I find the number of sounds I can make with it quite limited, especially since I use MIDI to control everything.
There is no LFO, ring modulator, hard sync, or anything interesting like that. Pure bread and water here. Good bread and clean water, but bread and water nonetheless.
Why buy one? With a simple mod, it makes truly crushing bass.

You will rely on it as much as you have confidence in your own ability to put one together.
Also, there is no case: the PCB hangs off the back of the front panel with two L braces. This scares me more than a little.

PAiA is very good about fixing your FatMan after you fail to assemble it properly. Their repair rates are cheap and their warranties fair. I was a little worried that I'd spend four days putting it together, fail, and have to trash it. I did fail, but PAiA fixed it for me for US$19.01. They also sent me a very exact list of what I did wrong, which was heartening.

If I had the money (which, come to think of it, I do) I'd buy a BassStation instead. If you have time and a soldering iron, but can't justify spending upwards of US$600 just to experiment with analog bass, the FatMan may be your ticket. If you have a strong DIY ethic, or were thinking of designing and building your own analog synth, the FatMan is perfect.
There was a page "Zen and the Art of Kit Hacking" that was very helpful to me when I was assembling my FatMan, but I can't find it now.