Muff's Modules & More

[Denis Goekdag]

Cool stuff, like the timbres, but I have to say the distortion/raspines on a lot of the sounds doesn't resonate well with me --- I take it that is just part of the deal with the PDO, or are you adding that in at a later stage like a VCA?

[eccemusic]

These kind of reviews are excellent - really useful when the UK music tech mag's only bother to review some new toy from a large manufacturer!

Thanks.

[hiacynt]

very nice review. my only complain is - that it's TOO SHORT!
since you can't really read euro-modules reviews in some 'big' magz like CM, FM & SoS and blogs like Yours are the only place to read about those things - i demand there were more of those reviews and much longer:)

[Navs]

Thank you all very much for the kind words and those who bought the EP!

Yes, I'd like to write more, but I do this in my spare time i.e. it's a labour of love and a review like this can take several days to put together. That said, I like to think I cover most bases - a longer review wouldn't necessarily be better.

Ultimately, you've got to hear any module for yourself to properly make up your mind. Without wanting to be an ad for Schneidersbuero, this is something they understand, so I'm always grateful to them for letting me try first.

On the PDO, yes it's (too?) small and, yes, it can get noisy. But the range of sounds it's capable of is pretty astonishing. My particular favorite is the bent sine (waveform 2?) which yields excellent metallic string sounds when PM'd. Some of the 'raspiness' can be minimized by reducing the modulation amount or following it with a filter.

Two tips for those who have one: use different audio rate modulators for chords/ polyphonic distortion, set the PDO as slow as it will go and hit it with audio for ZeroOscillator-style zero-bias wave-shaping. Examples of these are in the EP download.

[JohnLRice]

You rule, Navs!

[iamgoldman]

good going, fella. really digging these sega genesis sounds.

brevity is wit.

[Rudy D.]

I'm wondering if the WMD PDO could be my next soundgenerator... i already own a Hertz Donat and a Cyclebox... my question is if i should go for the PDO besides i already have some digital OSC's as mentioned above...regarding navs modular blog; navs means that the PDO is much cleaner even cleaner than a ZeroOSC...this makes me curious...could be cool for FM and Audiorate Mods with the two other digi OSC's... and if i go for it should i also go for the qaaf on top... would be nice if some wigglers could share their thoughts relating to the 3 OSC (HD,CB, PDO...) and how they like the PDO compared to the HD and CB... want to drop some cash - also would be nice if someone could tell me something about the QAAF stand alone and in collabo with the PDO.... Thanks Guys

Best Rudy

[richard]

really sounds very good Navs

if I ever figure out everything the Cyclebox does I would even think about one, It sounds like the PDO would be better for external audio rate modulation, the CB is much more about the self modulating

[Monobass]

The first thing I think about the PDO is using it as an woozy quadrature LFO... anyone got any demos of crazy phasing swarming LFO madness?

[Navs]

Thanks again, guys!

Rudi, the PDO is a good choice for FM sounds because PM is less prone to pitch artifacts than FM. I use an, analogue, A-143-9 to modulate it.

Richard, that's what I like about the PDO - it focusses on one feature. I'm not even sure why it has lin FM. PM is much more effective.

Monobass, not tried it, but your imagination is probably right! One cool feature is you can set the rate so low, FM can effectively be used to 'start' oscillation.

[Monobass]

[Rudy D.]