#1

I looked around and saw mentions of OTO Machines gear in various comments, but figured it might be nice to have a general thread for tips, questions, appreciation, etc.

I’m lucky to own Biscuit, Bim, and Bam. I’m considering picking up a Boum, and would love to get more insight on how it pairs with modular and guitar. I like the idea of replacing a few dirt and compression pedals with it, given that its versatility and stereo I/O. It feels harder to justify than Bim and Bam though, in a weird way.

Any thoughts from Boum owners?

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#2

I have the trio. spent some time with the Biscuit in the past and it struck me as wonderful with percussion and less wonderful on melodic sounds, which didn’t fit what I was looking for.

I think I already extolled its virtues to you on Instagram, but I love the Boum. I think it does quite well as a dirt box and manages to live up to the playability of the other boxes while still being a useful compressor. honestly, the simplified single-knob compression setting is about as advanced as I want to get most of the time. haven’t used it with the sidechain input yet. I know some people love more precise stereo compressors like the bugbrand one, but I think Boum strikes a nice balance.

the hi-cut filter is lovely, the gate function can be really nice (especially if you have your Boum after your reverb, so it starts breaking up the fading reverb tail), and overall it lives up to the other two boxes in quality and sound.

bonus old recording of the distorition models (with some not-great gain management)

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#3

OTO fanatic here, i can highly recommend the Boum. At the moment its on Tempest duty. Sounds amazing :ok_hand:

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#4

I think I’m gonna go for it. There’s a good 4th of July deal on it at Perfect Circuit.

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#5

Slightly on topic, what are everyone’s thoughts on the Analog Heat compared to the Boum? Both have been on my radar a bit but oddly enough I don’t think I’ve read too much comparison?

#6

@karst — Did you sell your Biscuit? I’ve thought about it from time to time, especially given how much I could probably get for it. With no guarantee that I’d ever find another one in the future though, I can’t bring myself to give it up.

I love the Biscuit’s crunch, but I get frustrated with its noisiness when I’m trying to keep things subtle. I’m thinking the Boum could help me tame it a bit.

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#7

I’ve got $ burning a hole in my pocket for an effect pedal for Norns and BAM has my eye, so many wonderful demos out there but none that I’ve seen that examine its use for vocals or strings (“not electronica”).

I guess what I’m hoping is that folks will share their favorite BAM/BOUM/BIM demos for this dedicated thread so I know where to go find them :slight_smile:

And if you celebrated yesterday, I hope you had a nice day.

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#8

Super curious about this too!

#9

I don’t have any recordings of it but I use BAM with Norns and it’s a lot of fun in a small footprint

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#10

not bowed strings or vocals, but here’s some piano with a focus on the freeze function

@zzzach, never officially owned one, just had it on loan for a while. I used it so lightly compared to the other boxes. my guess is that Biscuit and Boum could do some serious work attached to your drum machine of choice.

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#11

The official video has a vocal demo (just voice into BAM), have you heard that one?

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#12

I sold Heat for Boum and it was a good choice for my needs. I wanted a true compressor which Heat doesn’t have. I also only use distortion subtly, so many of the modes on Heat were wasted on me. And of course it looks much better sitting next to my BAM and BIM :grinning:

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#13

One of my favorite things to do with Bim is use it in ‘thru’ mode for distortion – it sounds really nice with clean synth sounds to me. Not sure if Boum would have a similar result or another cheaper/simpler pedal could get there, it feels wasteful to have Bim not on delay duty! :smile:

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#14

And… got a Boum on the way :sunglasses:

I couldn’t resist — They’re under $500 (new) at Perfect Circuit through the weekend! I was going to use that money for a QPAS, but his seemed too good to pass up.

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#15

I have a Boum. It’s the final element in the chain that runs Modular - > Deluge - > Boum - >PA for live work.

Saved my bacon for my gig yesterday - I just rolled a little off the top and bottom, and added to 10 o’clock in the compression to get a sound that worked on a decent PA. Tiny bit of dirt as well.

It’s made me think about some of the other boxes as well…

#16

I have the bim/bam/boum trio and they are LOVELY. I ditched a few effect pedals for these and couldn’t be happier. The bam reverb has such a nice soft character, and the boum really livens up my whole rig. I’m still wrapping my head around bim, I wish there was a way to clock it besides MIDI but it’s not a huge issue.

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#17

Agreed on clocking Bim. The division / range control is a bit odd. I usually rely on tap tempo because I’m too lazy for midi.

What order do you run yours in? I assume Boum works wonders at the end of the chain, but I’m accustomed to dirt into delay/modulation into reverb. I guess I’ll experiment a bit, as there’s really no wrong answer in terms of effect order.

#18

I did but hope springs eternal that there are more examples - the piano post was (chef’s kiss) right on target for me. Life is Good.

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#19

i have the bam and love it so much. i was really not into the sound of a lot of modern reverb pedals; they sound like too cold and heavy. the bam does subtlety really, really well, which is something that i felt like was lacking in a lot of pedal demos i had watched. fortunately, bam can also nail those really huge, cavernous, ambient type reverbs that you need every now and again. it’s not cheap, but has completely met all of my reverb needs and i highly doubt i’ll ever need another reverb. being able to control it via midi with my digitakt has been super handy, i can just recall a preset on the very first step of a pattern and it keeps it pretty hands free. can’t recommend it highly enough!

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#20

I love BOUM and keep finding new and inspiring settings and I’m only using subtle distortion. Adds the sizzle sparingly and very organic sounding.
Anyone have any ideas for mounting the OTO boxes. I’m not keen on vecroing them to a pedal board but will take them for live sets. (I saw Stephen O’Malley (?) a couple of weeks ago with a beaten up Bim on the floor. He didn’t seem to have a solution either…)

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