When I got back from holiday there were two boxes waiting for me – WAHOOO!!! I knew exactly what was in them & had been hanging out ever since I ordered them a week or so ago… After ripping open the boxes like a kid on christmas morning my grin just got bigger & bigger, and you know what? it is so much more fun & satisfying than being emailed a download link!

You could easily be mistaken for thinking I bought these for the names alone: a Barcus Berry Planar Wave, a Metasonix TM6 Multimode Filter and a JoMox T-Resonator! The latter two I bought from the most excellent Analogue Haven – a store I would undoubtedly haunt if it wasn’t on the other side of the planet. But despite the distance they have been fantastic to deal with & made it dangerously easy to part with hard earned cash!
So each of these gadgets I will post more about in the future as I need some time with them to fully learn how to use them & also to compare their sonic characters with other gadgets I own, but heres a brief breakdown of whats in the boxes…..

First the Barcus Berry Planar Wave. I had been hunting for a second contact mic for ages and while I am totally happy with my Trace Inducer it would seem the company who made it no longer sell that model of mic/preamp & now limit their stock to a stereo contact mic system for acoustic guitars…. I have tried a number of different contact mics and am convinced that to get truly hi-fi results you need a combined pair of the contact mic element and a matched preamp. I will justify this theory a little as it is dependant on the application eg if you want to make noise music (and I am not being derogatory) then a raw $2 piezo element plugged straight into a distortion pedal should be fine, but I want to do two things: 1. use a lot of gain to amplify very small sounds/vibrations and 2. capture a broad frequency range including subsonic frequencys and also sounds off the top of the human hearing scale. My theory is that piezo elements have an unusual impedance & output level, accordingly plugging one straight into a mic preamp doesnt provide the best results. (If anyone reading this has a better technical understanding please comment!)
So anyway the Planar Wave is a piezo element in a sturdy brass surround, as you can see in the photo & I’d guess its about 4cm across & terminates in a 1/4″ plug with about 1.5m cable. The specs say its frequency response is 5Hz – 30kHZ +/- 1.1dB… I like the idea of that 5Hz & will be testing it soon! The preamp can run on either a 9volt battery or phantom power, the latter being a vastly better idea than my old Trance Audio preamp that works only on 2 x 9volt batterys. The Planar wave preamp also has an XLR balanced output with an optional 12dB pad.
The unit is actually designed for use with pianos & harps and this is apparent in the fact it also has a monitor output with level (for a performer to monitor) and the XLR also has a ground lift switch, would could be a life saver in a live PA situation. So thus far it seems very well built & I am seriously intrigued to hear what it sounds like! I’ll be doing all my contact mic recording in stereo from now on, so once I have done enough experimenting to have tried a broad range of sources i’ll post examples with both this & the Trance Audio to compare… More info on the Planar Wave at the Barcus Berry site here – it retails for US$399 but it was pretty easy to find it online for US$290…

Next the Metasonix TM6 Multimode Filter. If you dont know of Metasonix then you are in for a treat – they make a range of FX processors (and also an analogue synth) which are all based on vacuum tube technology! As their website FAQ mentions “Eric Barbour, our founder and designer, was applications engineer at Svetlana Electron Devices for several years, and is well known as a tube expert from his extensive writings in VACUUM TUBE VALLEY, GLASS AUDIO, and engineering publications such as IEEE SPECTRUM. He must know something about the subject.” Indeed! Frankly I was sold on the TM6 after listening to just one audio demo, this one (a slightly weedy synth line that gets beautifully bent out of shape)
download TM6 demo mp3

The specs for the TM6 make me smile: “Frequency response less than 10 Hz to greater than 40 kHz. Distortion from less than 0.1% to greater than 20%, depending on input signal.” This isn’t some pristine equalizer for making subtle adjustments & I suspect it will live happily next to my Sherman Filterbank…. time will tell!
More info on the Metasonix range here and especially check out their tube synth; Wretch Machine and the somewhat twisted TM7 Scrotum Smasher – perhaps the ultimate distortion unit ever, accompanied by perhaps the most twisted graphic design yet… you have been warned!

Third box to get unpacked was the JoMox T-Resonator. According to their website “The T-Resonator transforms timely events into an analog feedbacked filter network.” Sounds simple? Sounds evil more like! Just check that signal flow diagram. “You can create gaining analog echoes, “klingon parties” by extremely feedbacked wave guide algorithm and much more…” A demo or two might help explain what its capable of:

heres an example with a drum machine feeding through it:

And a synth getting mangled
(wait for the bit where he hits bypass to appreciate just how much mangling is going on!)

and of course, some of the unit feeding back on itself…

More info on the T-Resonator here

No doubt my neighbours will wonder what the hell arrived in those boxes by the sounds rattling the roof over the next few days…. uber-fun!