#1

have you guys seen/tried Red Panda new pedal?
Seems cool, bit pricey, it reminds me something between EHX Freeze and Clouds

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#2

I just plugged a tensor in my pedal chain and must say that this is really very fun and inspiring! Its kind of interesting how the concept is VERY close to MI Clouds but is easier to understand, more approachable and has a reverse. Basically its a very wild improv tool that can also do a pristine sounding/tracking pitch shifter. Holding the buffer for very short times gets you a stuttering glitchy mess. I have an el Capistan before the tensor to get messy/ambient/blurred textures. The only thing that wasnt instantly clear on this pedal was the hold, as this is not a looper. This means when you engage hold and surpass buffer lenght of 4.8 sec. It will loop at exactly 4.8sec. So what i did is plugging a looper after the tensor. Of course my session ended in endless kneeling, tweaking these knobs, getting back up to play and stomp pedals-a new school guitar dilemma. Go go gadget arms! :joy:
Iā€™m impressed with the quality (its no lofi machine) and the ease of use. Anyone into Fripp or King Crimson wilI love the Tensor. I will use this on guitar or mic sounds and not so much in Euroland i guess. I havent tried out an Expression Pedal nor CV in and apparently its fully Midi CC mappable-so less kneeling :smiley:
Another Pedal thats very close in concept is the Count to 5 from Montreal labs. And i can understand now why Ɖmilie is slating her Clouds as too complicated. Clouds has another angle with the control of grains which is great. But when i heard the reverse on the Tensor i knew what Clouds was missing. I never liked the reverb on Clouds, but its the essential tool to blur out. The trick i learned with Tensor; to plug reverb before the buffer, will be tried out very soon with Clouds.

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#3

Thanks for the review crazeebo. Iā€™ve been waiting for my Tensor to be cleared off customs; Iā€™m using a small retailer in EU and he seemed to order directly. I couldā€™ve had that pedal a long time ago if I had gotten it from Thomann but I try to support smaller retailers.

In any case, Iā€™ve owned a Clouds even before it was made available (beta tested for Emilie back in the day) and even though I see the common ground between Tensor and Clouds I have them conceptualized as very different things. Granted, thereā€™s a buffer in Clouds as well, but the instant granularity and the availability of grains makes a difference in my head. I have Tensor down as a digital representation of a tape. It does look more welcoming and it doesnā€™t seem to require much modulation, which is weird if you think about it as one of the issues Emilie had with Clouds is that users didnā€™t bother to randomize Pitch & Position as much as they ought to, creating smears instead of granular plains.

My plan is to use Tensor with a monophonic modular voice that I use as an instrument. Funnily enough this 3U case sports a Knot module (re: micro Clouds) so I donā€™t know if Iā€™m walking straight to redundancy. My heart is set in getting Tensor there, right next to a LoFi Junkie for extra ā€œtapenessā€.

Iā€™ve jokingly said to Hainbach-the-tape-master that between Tensor, LoFi Junkie and Deco, I have all the tape I need! :smile:

I also want to be able to loop stuff after the Tensor but since Iā€™m very hands-on and Iā€™m not using guitar I settled for a Zoom R8 instead. Thereā€™s also another granular thingie (a Gotharman FXDeformer) in the chain but I havenā€™t made up my mind yet on the actually chain.

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#4

For me, the fun started when i had 50% live signal-50% tensorā€¦the reverse live is bad ass fully wet or half/half. Unless iā€˜m holding the buffer i dont see a point to tapestop and go reverse in my music :smiley:
Really fun is to input dirty ambient reverb/delaytails that alternate direction :facepunch:t2:

Ah yeah and the random knob is very interesting as it randomises differently to the other knob settings and lenght of the hold. Nice what a basic sample and hold can do in this basic surrounding.

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#5

Thatā€™s how I think of mine tooā€¦ magic, physics-defying tape. :smiley:

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#6

ā€šAnd it cannot see into the future unless its on holdā€˜-explanation by red panda as to why time compression does not work in real time :laughing:

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#7

After a bit of throwing anything (voices, ambient sounds,synth melodies) into it, iā€˜d say the tensor is a very musical tool! Its something clouds never was-clouds to me is slow and ambient and has different qualities. Tensor is like clowning around with tape, QUICK in real time :facepunch:t2:ā€¦anyway, tell me how your sessions go @ParanormalPatroler i think youā€˜ll like it

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#8

Often I feel like the Tensor is collaborating with whatever I play live into it ā€“ especially in the ā€œnextā€ hold mode, or with random pitch shifting.

It also sounds great in a feedback loop with a reverb, EQ, and a compressor/limiter (or envelope follower + VCA) to keep the level consistent. I like having it shift pitch downwards continuously while rolling off the lower end, or shifting upwards while rolling off the higher end.

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#9

Looking for a bit of guidance?

Iā€™m trying unsuccessfully to connect my Tensor to Touchosc on my iPhone. I have an Apple Lightning to USB adapter and a standard usb A to mini B cable.

Is there anything in Touchosc I need to do?

Thanks