#65

I had a Magneto and the sound is quite nice (if not too nice, even with the more lo-fi settings). Though I found most of its features to be too gimmicky on the long run pretty soon. It quickly gets into the always-the-same-rainmakerish-sounds territory and I rather would have used it to create tape sound and simple delays as an end of chain effect and found that it was too big for this. Also the CV control features did not meet my taste - I never would have used the individual clock outs but would have always missed individual CV inputs for the tape heads. Plus I did not like the change in signal flow they introduced wit the first bug fix update and was a bit annoyed by this (small) conceptional change after purchasing a module. So I did not keep it and am still happy with the El Cap and the analogue tape plugins Waves occasionally offer for their varying constant sale prices. Within the modular I use the ER-301 and the Tapographic Delay combined with spring reverb and EQ filtering of the feedback for nice oldschool delay sounds.

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#66

All delay lovers should check out the Instruo tanh[3] (3 channel, 4 HP, $100[!!] waveshaper/limiter/distortion). I made an alternate feedback loop outside of the Magneto and it’s magical: Magneto output thru tanh into mixer, a send to Rings, Rings out thru tanh back into Rings, whole works mixed back with the Magneto input…

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#67

@desolationjones, a sound example of that would be rad! I’ve been chewing on whether I need a tanh3 in case or not. :thinking:

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#68

I agree that the individual clock outs are not generally useful - for me, at least - and I wish there was cv control of the tape age & reverb features etc - despite these things, I really love this module. It can take a while (for me) to dial in something subtle and truly interesting, but once I find it, it’s really really great

#69

As requested: an example of Magneto working with tanh[3]
tanh[3] is Mag-neato

Demo of Instruo’s tanh[3] used with the Strymon Magneto. Bit of reverb from EHX Cathedral.
Patch:
Mangrove into LxD, thru Rings (green), and Optodist, into Magneto (shift mode).
Magneto send into tanh[3], Blinds attenuating, to return.
Magneto out thru Polaris (resonant allpass), thru tanh[3], into reverb.

7 Likes
#70

I agree that Magneto focuses too strongly on preset delays - 1/4, 1/8, 3/16, etc and the CV and clock integration is poorly thought out. That said I’m still considering buying another one (I sold mine frustrated by external clock implementation) and having it be the master clock, when I use it… that would make it more fun.
I disagree that Rainmaker has similar one trick pony issues. Rainmaker is pretty much whatever you want to make it. It doesn’t have ‘that tape sound’ but the options it offers are far more expansive, plus it has the whole comb filter which is wonderful, to add to the echoes. I kept mine.

3 Likes
#71

I’m a true delay fan (have and had about 20 stomboxes and rack units). I really like my Magneto. It sounds quite artificial as Tape Machine clone but very inspirational. Individual controls for heads, tape deck simulation (pause FX effect is very fun). Reverb is not outstanding but ok. I hope that Strymon will port their BBD delay emulation pedal in euro too with some extra features.

#72

I love mine to pieces, but agree that the CV and clock side of things feels like a missed opportunity. If the tapeheads each had independently controlled sync’d and cv’d speed and/or also ran through independent vca’s (or at least individual outs and a sum so we could do it externally), I’d label this as an essential eurorack module, rather than merely a “really great” eurorack module.

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#73

Do you think this is this something they can fix with a firmware update?

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#74

I sure hope so. I would almost rather that the Speed knob was a master mix and the four head levels acted as independent delay times.

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#75

I asked Strymon about this when I first received the unit. Here’s what they had to say in his email:

We are definitely planning on providing an update in the near future, however, I really cannot provide specifics on what it will consist of at this time. There will be some fixes and subtle changes, however, some things that have been asked for, such as individual output per tape head, are not possible with the hardware design.

I wonder if that precludes VCA or VCA-like control inside the chain as well? I’d gladly override my CV control over some of the transport controls if they can be repurposed for this. I’m no hardware engineer, but I’d say it isn’t likely.

#76

So many cool things about magneto as it is – but it does scream for an mk2 version too.

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#77

Agreed. The sound is all there, I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. The mentality of the thing is a little too “effects unit”, i.e. pump your signal through here toward the end of your chain, and it could be more well integrated into the eurorack ecosystem imo. The best thing about the different tapeheads for me has been automatic harmonized voices and orchestrations from any sound source. Problem is I always have to either deal with those in sum afterwards or set up a time-consuming, cumbersome patch for routing dry and stereo groups to a vca mixer for some semblance of control over them. Would love it if they’d make this easier next time around!

3 Likes
#78

i’m loving using a footswitch to toggle rec gate. this way i set up my aux sends to magneto but keep it silent, and when i want some dubby action i just switch on (hands free) and build some nice feedback wall from there :smiley:

4 Likes
#79

a couple, very long, tracks featuring almost only magneto.
the first is a very simple one, almost no cv, just wiggling. sound source is a drum loop played and filtered on the er-301:

the second is a complex thing, basically modulating the hell out of the magneto via cv and turning it into a musique concrète worksation, something similar to the morphagene\phonogene concept:

here’s another one. this is a dirty job, an er-301 VS magneto clash! check sc desription for patch notes :slight_smile: had tons of fun with this and it features a very balanced blend of analog and digital sound!

3 Likes
#80

Happy New Year everyone! Over the holiday I had the pleasure of plugging my OP-Z into my friends Fairfield Circutry Shallow Water. Oh man. That thing is amazing. I have me been waiting to try it for a while and it did not disappoint. I wish it was stereo though and I wish it was in Eurorack format because I personally would rather get into Eurorack and build a small skiff than have a bunch of loose guitar pedals, especially since the OP-Z will soon have a CV module available. Will getting a Magneto truly quench my thirst for Shallow Water? I understand that the Magneto doesn’t have a Low Pass Gate (so that type of sound will need to be achieved through other modules) but can I at least use the Magneto to get that wow and flutter, crunchy tape, delicious sound without any delay or lag from source to output? Or is the sound degradation only applied to the repeats with no option to apply it live? I really don’t want to buy two Shallow Waters or two Instant LoFi Junkies because I feel like there should be a better solution out there. Thanks for the help in advance!

#81

Magneto is amazing but I wouldn’t compare it all to Shallow Water. If you’ve ever used an El Capistan it’s pretty much like that in module form with more features. You can run it fully wet for a saturated, degraded tape sound.

That said Shallow Water is probably my favorite pedal effect and I haven’t found anything else quite like it. The LPG and random modulation plus the way the controls interact make it pretty unique.

2 Likes
#82

You can get realtime tape degradation effect with Magneto:

Dry: 0
Wet: 100%
Speed: 100%
Feedback: lowest setting (1 repeat)
Heads 1-3: 0
Head 4: 100%
Adjust tape effects (Age, Crinkle, W&F, etc) to taste

8 Likes
#83

@srogers91 That is what I am afraid of. I wish they would build a Eurorack version, especially if they could make it stereo. I understand that Fairfield is a very small and busy company though.

@scttcmpbll Do you know of any examples of someone using these settings (ideally with a polyphonic sound source)?

Thanks everyone!

#84

The manual for Shallow Water is extremely clear about how it works. You could definitely accomplish what it’s doing in modular, thought it won’t be more space or cost efficent than the pedal. I’ve not used one myself, but I’d wager you could do almost all of it in stereo with Rainmaker. 2x ILFJ into any delay and then an LPG would do it. Obviously you’d need to massage an envelope folower and random source to your liking. You could also do the initial processing in mono and then worry about spacializing it afterwards. Something like the Azimuth II could probably go a long way. Or again, run an ILFJ into Rainmaker and let Rainmaker do the spacializing. Just depends on your goals.

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