New MFB Gear

[ar2jr]

So I went to Schneider's Bureau in Berlin not too long ago on my voyages throughout my home continent and had a chance to play around with the MFB 503 and the kraftzwerk. All I can say is that I was thourghly impressed. The 503 pretty much nailed the 909 snare drum and then some. My band uses a Jomox airbase and I have always had a bitch of a time dialing in the right sound but it never does THAT kind of in your face snare hit. Not to say that I always want that but, dammit, sometimes it's what I want and the 503 is the box to do it next to a real TR 909. The kick drum was also very nice and felt less woody than the jomox kick. It had a really nice and round low end and when tweaked, gave that distinct 909 attack. I was impressed that you could really manipulate the sound beyond just that standard kick into low and different kicks atypical for a 909. I don't think it was quiet as versitalie as the jomox kick synth but had enough parameters to generate a variety of sounds.
As for the rest of the sounds I liked the toms and the hats but feel that the Jomox sounds a bit sharper and in your face on these sounds than the MFB.

The interface of the 503 is pretty slick but, IIRC, you can automate, manipulate and trigger all parameters and sounds over cc's and midinotes respectivly, which means you are pretty much free to allocate all controls to an external controller. For me this is a dream since I can use a Nord G2 and an Akai MPC2000 to pretty much control this box beyond what the internal sequencer can do. And the internal sequencer is not bad either but I don't like having to switch between two modes to be able to tweak the sounds while programming the sequencer. This felt a bit akward and those tiny buttons really made me happy to have external means of controlling and sequencing.

All in all I was ready to buy the unit on the spot but the shop was sold out and wouldn't sell the floor model None the less I am really happy to have had a chance to mess with the drum machine.

Also on display was the Kraftzwerg, which means some kind of "work dwarf" as the guys from Shneider's explained. The envelopes and raw oscillator sound totally flored me. The envelopes snapped like the CEM envelopes from the SMS modular (Salamander ... the old big one I rave about) and when modulating the filter did super fast ping like sounds I really dig. it was quiet an eloquent interface for something so small (about the size of a VHS tape) and the sound was beyond it's size.

I'd write more but am running out of time at the net caffe. I've been traveling all about for roughly two months and am concluding my trip in the uk, where my poor us dollar just doesn't cut it.

-matia

[Jyoti]

Oooh, cheers for that! I'm very interested in the MFB stuff, particularly as they do modular bits'n'bobs.

[ar2jr]

their modular stuff was really nice. the compiled little semi-modular synth is just amazing in terms of sheer sound quality. the other thing i wanted to mention is that as far as the mfb 503 is concerned, the samples that are on the web just don't do it justice. it sounded really good and had more tonal flexibility than what is currently presented. as soon as i get back to san francisco and finish paying off the bills (because the price's in london are the same as sf only in pounds)i've accumulated over the last two months of traveling, i will be picking up the 503. the thing that excites me the most about some of these new products is their ability to integrate into a larger set up. i know that with such a small footprint for the 503 i can use the nord modular and my mpc to control pretty much everything and offload the unit itself to a location that is not in the main workspace. this is really nice when space is must (and i have too much shit anyways )

anywho... london is looking like the spot i am going to be moving to within the next year or so ... unrelated but ... what a wonderful city.

-matia