Hey, Doug:
Congrats and welcome to the ModFX club ;-)
I have often sung the praises of my Bitrman (and, to a lesser extent, my Smashup) in this forum, and I am glad for an excuse to expound their virtues and problems once again.
First off, in spite of their many excellent and unique features and sounds, these boxes are unstable and prone to blowing up. Get an extended warranty AND register your purchase with Alesis. This will help when the little gems decide to go totally non-linear. (Look out for wacky sounds created without an input signal. When a ModFX starts self-generating spacetones without an input, it's the box's way of saying goodbye. Yes, record the device's strangely beautiful "death song" for future loops if you want, but it is a sign that it's time to send the box back to its maker, UNLESS you want to use it in its new application as a full-on noise generator instead of a signal processor. Me, I sent my Bitrman back and was glad I had registered it.
They sent me a new unit... free in exchange for the old one.
Overall, though, the Bitrman is a joy, an absolute joy. It makes my guitar sound totally unlike a guitar, which comes in handy for when I want to pray to my Martian ancestors. Complete derangement of the waveform, but it can be VERY musical noise, if you know what I mean. Best ring mod I've heard, and I am very fussy about ring mods (I own four!). It can also do stuff not found in any other box.
I only wish it didn't require AC, so I could run it with my Godlyke adaptor.
Hope this helps. BTW, lemme know if you ever decide to try double-process the signal, i.e., running the mono output into the other input, a setup that would process the signal twice. (Mono signal into mono input, then mono output into the remaining input, then a very troubled signal comes out of the remaining output.) I have been too chicken to try this.
Sonic Luv,
Tim Mungenast
www.cdbaby.com/all-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Baldwin
Sent: Mar 31, 2005 10:52 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: those wicked cool Alesis ModFX boxes...
...are on sale through Musicians Friend ($40 and $50 bucks per unit) and I just ordered the Bitrman, Metavox and Philtre. These are certainly going into my looping rig!
Question #1A: Who's got 'em, and any tips on using them (beyond their obvious applications, and the usual "run your drum machine through the distortion" stuff)?
Question #1B: Have any of you fine folks experienced any wackola problems with these colorful little skroinkers?
Q #2: Musicians Friend no longer carries the rack mount for these units. Is there an alternate piece of hardware available, or do ya think I could cobble something together from sheet metal and/or L-brackets on my own? (I'm good with tools, and never run with scissors.)
Thanx madly,
