#105

Just wondering if / how folk are using the pitch quantise mode on Magneto?

#106

This is a thirsty ask, but does anyone in NYC have one I can come noodle on for 20 or 30 minutes to see if I get along with it? just wanna tweak it a bit, A/B with my El Cap, and try out the V/oct sampler functionality.

I can’t find any dealers here where I could demo it, and my finances won’t allow me to just purchase outright - I’d probably have to sell my beloved El Cap first. I feel pretty confident that it would be a major step up for my purposes, but I wanna be 100% sure first!

#107

A fun patch is to clock tap and clk in with different unrelated clocks (but of course, have those clocks related to something else that’s going on, such as the seq clock). Delightful drifting in and out of sync stuff. Clip of a little patch using that here >

2 Likes
#108

I don’t have a Magneto but I have an el Capistan that sometimes exhibits the same behavior. Weird that they didn’t iron that glitch out for Magneto.

#109

arg, i have a volante and it also does this! (in SOS mode.) it’s a horrible bug

#110

I thought when in SOS mode the tape is traditionally always running so it’s supposed to behave that way and tapping before and after playing is just to “splice” the tape.

#111

You’re supposed to be able to set the loop length and have a separate function to engage the “record head.” The “tape is always running” but this bug basically allows a loop to record and playback while idle in SOS, when no loop length is set and record is inactive.

I usually just stay out of SOS mode until I’m about to use it, which is an inconvenient work around for the sake of performance. Also sucks that Strymon seems to not care about fixing it since this same algorithm / problem is in so many of their products.

#112

yes, exactly.
@Struggle, no, here’s from the manual:

1 Press and hold TAP to enter SOS mode.
2 Press TAP (splice) once to start recording.
(TAP LED will flash AMBER)
3 Press splice again to close loop and start
playback. (TAP LED solid AMBER)
4 Press splice again to stop loop playback and
delete loop

IOW, there are 3 states: idle (led off,), “splicing” (led blinking), and “playing” (led solid.) pressing the tap switch transitions from one state to the next. going from “playing” to “idle” clears the tape and is supposed to be silent.

(just like a normal loop pedal, except that (as you say) when a loop is set, it continually records new material and decays the old material. (unless you engage “infinite” mode.))

this “bug” means that the thing spontaneously sets loops. it’s really bad. at first i thought it was maybe a hardware problem like a noisy switch. but now i don’t think so: a) it always goes directly from “idle” to “playing” (skipping a state), b) the loops are always pretty long (they definitely don’t match the physical timing of a bouncy switch), c) it happens often and consistently (within seconds or minutes of entering SOS mode.)

is almost like the tape is continually running in idle mode (but “empty”) and accidentally jumps into “play” mode at the end of the loop.

so if there is something analogous going on with their other pedals then i will definitely report this as a bug and maybe there’s a chance it can get fixed. i also have to pop in and out SOS mode a lot more than i’d like, to avoid this bug (/feature).

in general i like the sound of the pedal but the performance UI leaves a lot to be desired.

1 Like
#113

You should write to Strymon and ask. I feel like they wanted it to act like real SOS tape so it’s always running. It should loop anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes depending on where the speed knob is set. If it’s set for longer time and the tape age, w&f, crinkle is set high it can sound really weird when it reaches the beginning of the recording.

I wasn’t surprised by it because the El Cap does the same and the Volante that I have now does the same. Also my old RE301 Chorus Echo.

#114

i did submit a support ticket to strymon.

look, it’s definitely not behaving as intended (or at minimum, there’s some super weird, useless and totally undocumented “feature”) and i think i described the issue pretty clearly already.

again:

4 Press splice again to stop loop playback and delete loop

what it looks like is happening is that (as you say) the loop is cleared, and the length of the loop is reset to the maximum (as determined by the speed switch), but it does not actually stop loop playback. so maybe this is actually a “feature,” but in that case it’s a feature that isn’t documented correctly and that it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting.

(i mean, in a physical tape loop you can disengage the record head, and you can’t do that here, without using the ‘multitap’ expansion pedal or using a cumbersome long-press. which is what i mean when i say that the performance UI of this pedal leaves much to be desired.)

i’ll update when i hear back

(also apologies if i sound frustrated - it’s really annoying me right now.)

#115

I’d definitely be interested in what Strymon has to say about it! I never considered it a bug myself (because I was so used to it with my El Cap) but it is strange. I also kinda just thought it was a quirky part of a tape looper.

#116

arg, i think it really is a feature! it’s horrible!

they’ve really made it impossible to bypass this behavior by any method except toggling in and out of SOS mode. even with the multitap expansion in ‘transport’ mode:

  • you can hold/tap a switch to go in and out of “infinite” mode (that is, toggle the virtual record head.) but when the loop spontaneously re-enters “play” mode, it automatically disengages “infinite” mode! bah! (this is obviously unrelated to physical tape loop behavior.)

  • you can tap a switch to “pause” the loop. this will prevent the reset from happening, but it also disables the echos! sucks!!

arg!!

aha, a reply:

It sounds like you might have old firmware version of Volante.

Please follow the instructions below to update:

https://www.strymon.net/faq/how-can-i-update-the-firmware-on-volante/

On very early firmware, entering the SOS looper would automatically start recording, even if you hadn’t spliced in. After you reached the maximum loop time, it would start playing it back.

This was not a bug, but was actually changed to have the looper function like a more traditional looper like that on the Timeline.

This behavior is the way the SOS looper works on Magneto and El Capistan however; it is always recording and if you never spliced in, it will start playing back then the loop limit is reached. This is not a bug, but normal operation.

and indeed, firmware update notes:

Volante Firmware REV v1.10 (Released February 2019)

What’s changed?

  • SOS looper no longer auto-records and closes the loop without pressing the SPLICE footswitch.

i guess i’m not the only one who didn’t get along with this behavior.

finally: updated to v1.12 and indeed, works as expected (e.g. does what the manual says, and nothing else.)

funny that this small change makes the pedal so much more useful for me.

4 Likes
#117

I’ll have to see about updating mine! Thanks for reporting back!

#118

I ended up selling my Magneto. I found this issue too annoying, and I realized I wanted something that does more to mess up the sound so I ended up getting a Qubit Nebulae for the looping portion. I also really started to not like the sound of the repeats. It sounds fake to me, there’s a like a fake harmonic distortion on it. I ended up just using an analog delay pedal for straight delay, DOD Rubberneck, and it sounds so much better to me. I also got a real spring reverb unit as well. I miss the multi tap delay, but its a trade off I’m willing to have.

2 Likes
#120

I’m really on the fence with it lately. I love the saturation and built in modulation, but find 80% of the cv options useless (to me). i wish there were a dumbed down 10hp version.

1 Like
#121

Even 20hp would be great, it really is a hog in smaller racks, but I can’t give it up yet.

#122

I just picked up a used Chronoblob V1, and for the money and space, its a great delay. It syncs perfectly to clock and the delay time is long enough where you can get all these lil loops going with the Hold function. It makes no claims about sounding like tape or analog, so it doesn’t bother me that it doesn’t sounds pretty, but it actually has a slightly dirty character due to the way the analog section in the feedback path is designed. With the send/return section you can use a filter to darken up the sound if you wanted, or actually it sounds quite good with a band pass filter, with the resonance up a bit. It feeds back quicker and gets even gnarlier.

Between the this, the Nebulae and an external analog delay I have no qualms about selling the Magneto.

2 Likes
#123

I would love to hear a demonstration of this technique. Do you have a clip anywhere that shows it off?

4 Likes
#124

Necro-ing this question. Anyone found a cool use for the quantizer yet? Or even sending pre-quantized voltages to speed?

#125

I just ordered one, along with an FH-2, so I could do this very move!! Trying out the combo of those two on your rig definitely sold me - thanks again for letting me try it out! I 100% plan on sampling my OP-1 into it, I’ll upload some samples next week!

I have some pretty big plans around clocking it from Ableton and using it to resample clips for manipulation. I have an idea (involving MIDI clips & follow actions) of how to automatically turn Ableton audio clips into synchronized Magneto loops with one button press, but I’ll have to wait til it gets here to know for sure if it’ll be as cool as I hope :slight_smile: