New MXR bass synth pedal released

[wintoid]

4 hours ago, EmmettC said:

I'm very pleased, though I was also happy with the C4, the biggest gain is how easy it is to adjust on a gig and how intuitive it is to use.

 

I love how practically everything on the label has been replaced

[wintoid]

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

If you used a compressor before it you would remove the transients you need for the envelope of some of the patches I would assume.

 

Yeah that's true actually, I suppose unless I used a really long attack.  I think I'll spend some time today playing with the gate/compressor settings on the MXR.

[Al Krow]

4 hours ago, EmmettC said:

Decided to just dive straight in and use it on my wedding gig, I'm just home and it was a huge success (as in no one else noticed). I took the C4 off and but the MXR on. I had to make a sound for I Wanna Dance With Somebody, but it was really intuitive, and even though it took 5 minutes, I think I liked it more than the C4 patch that took hours. I also made a sound for Blinding Lights, again a 5 minute job, this wasn't as good as the C4 sound I got from the Source Audio site, but it was still very passable, and I think I can improve on it with a little bit of time. I used the synthadelic IMA patch (based on Flashlight by Parliament) for a couple of things - mostly for my own amusement and used the "live setting" to entertain myself during We Got the Love.
I'm very pleased, though I was also happy with the C4, the biggest gain is how easy it is to adjust on a gig and how intuitive it is to use.

 

Great to hear such a favourable report from a function gig! Did you get any clips of you guys playing live?

 

What's the latency/tracking like vs the C4?

[EmmettC]

2 hours ago, wintoid said:

 

I love how practically everything on the label has been replaced

There is a story about that - in an attempt to reduce the amount of gear I replaced my pedals with a HX Stomp, I didn't like it so I replaced the HX Stomp with some Source Audio stuff (I liked the idea of preset patches), I didn't like the UI for the the Genesis Chorus so I replaced it, the envelope filter was cool, but it was all available in the C4 and I prefer the 3Leaf as just a straight up filter, so I replaced them. Then I just go a lot of GAS and I replaced evertything, usually more than once. Pretty sure @krispn and I have bought and sold enough gear off each other to start a shop.
TLDR I really like pedals.
 

 

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

 

Great to hear such a favourable report from a function gig! Did you get any clips of you guys playing live?

 

What's the latency/tracking like vs the C4?

I think the tracking low down is a little better on the MXR (that might just be imagined), latency is completely fine on both, nothing that would be distracting in any of the sounds I used. The only difficulty I had with the C4 was how sensitive the input gain was, particularly for dirty Moog kind of sounds. I'd set it at home and it would be perfect, but then on a gig I'm digging in a bit more, and it would't like it, adjusting mid-song was hard because you can't actually see where the input gain is on any sound, so you can't just nudge it up or down. I'm not really sure how the input gain works on the MXR, but I used 2 basses last night and the Musicman is quite a bit louder than the McIntyre, and it didn't seem to be an issue at all using the same IMA preset with both instruments - that would have really caused issues with the C4. No recordings from last night, but I'll try and get some clips tonight (fewer deps tonight, so it should sound better too).

Edited yesterday at 08:29 by EmmettC

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, EmmettC said:

I think the tracking low down is a little better on the MXR (that might just be imagined), latency is completely fine on both, nothing that would be distracting in any of the sounds I used. The only difficulty I had with the C4 was how sensitive the input gain was, particularly for dirty Moog kind of sounds. I'd set it at home and it would be perfect, but then on a gig I'm digging in a bit more, and it would't like it, adjusting mid-song was hard because you can't actually see where the input gain is on any sound, so you can't just nudge it up or down. I'm not really sure how the input gain works on the MXR, but I used 2 basses last night and the Musicman is quite a bit louder than the McIntyre, and it didn't seem to be an issue at all using the same IMA preset with both instruments - that would have really caused issues with the C4. No recordings from last night, but I'll try and get some clips tonight (fewer deps tonight, so it should sound better too).

 

Thanks for that - hope the gig goes well tonight and look forward to your clips!

 

PS that's a seriously impressive pedal board!

 

Edited yesterday at 09:43 by Al Krow

[Quatschmacher]

Here’s a question I’d be keen to hear the answer to: how does the MXR deal with tuning when the string energy decays? Does the pitch drop as the note rings out when held for a long time? This is something that makes a huge difference. In the C4, you can hear the pitch drop off noticeably. The Future Impact handles this far better. The earlier version would cut off the note dead as soon as the unit detected pitch drop. The v4 is even better as there’s now a rolling buffer which stores the pitch value, so when the unit detects a small pitch drop in the string it takes the previous correct value from the buffer and holds that pitch for as long as the string continues to ring out. It’s an awesome feature, and allows the full release time of the ADSR to be used with rock-solid pitch throughout. 

Edited yesterday at 08:43 by Quatschmacher

[krispn]

19 minutes ago, EmmettC said:

There is a story about that - in an attempt to reduce the amount of gear I replaced my pedals with a HX Stomp, I didn't like it so I replaced the HX Stomp with some Source Audio stuff (I liked the idea of preset patches), I didn't like the UI for the the Genesis Chorus so I replaced it, the envelope filter was cool, but it was all available in the C4 and I prefer the 3Leaf as just a straight up filter, so I replaced them. Then I just go a lot of GAS and I replaced evertything, usually more than once. Pretty sure @krispn and I have bought and sold enough gear off each other to start a shop.
TLDR I really like pedals.
 

 

I think the tracking low down is a little better on the MXR (that might just be imagined), latency is completely fine on both, nothing that would be distracting in any of the sounds I used. The only difficulty I had with the C4 was how sensitive the input gain was, particularly for dirty Moog kind of sounds. I'd set it at home and it would be perfect, but then on a gig I'm digging in a bit more, and it would't like it, adjusting mid-song was hard because you can't actually see where the input gain is on any sound, so you can't just nudge it up or down. I'm not really sure how the input gain works on the MXR, but I used 2 basses last night and the Musicman is quite a bit louder than the McIntyre, and it didn't seem to be an issue at all using the same IMA preset with both instruments - that would have really caused issues with the C4. No recordings from last night, but I'll try and get some clips tonight (fewer deps tonight, so it should sound better too).

We both have impeccable taste what can I say!

My MXR should hopefully arrive early next week 😀

[krispn]

Scrap that delayed until the end of the month. 
Bass direct says stock expected October

Edited yesterday at 11:04 by krispn

[JazzyJ]

23 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

If you used a compressor before it you would remove the transients you need for the envelope of some of the patches I would assume.

I tried the synth before comp and back again and didn't notice any discernible difference across the presets. Could be my hearing of course 🤷‍♂️.

[LukeFRC]

I sold a few pedals last week and realised I had the ££ - so was very much asking myself if I wanted one of these and jump on the “new thing hype wagon” - eventually decided I didn’t need synth sounds but if I did the FI4 Quatschmacher is selling would be better bang for buck (more in-depth vs harder to programme)

 

edit - it’s sold, there’s a FI4 vip too in the for sale 

Edited 10 hours ago by LukeFRC

[Al Krow]

5 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

I sold a few pedals last week and realised I had the ££ - so was very much asking myself if I wanted one of these and jump on the “new thing hype wagon” - eventually decided I didn’t need synth sounds but if I did the FI4 Quatschmacher is selling would be better bang for buck (more in-depth vs harder to programme)

 

edit - it’s sold, there’s a FI4 vip too in the for sale 

 

+tracking/latency/glitching = usability live. Really interested to see if the MXR lives up to the hype on this!

[itu]

On 05/07/2025 at 11:42, Quatschmacher said:

The v4 is even better as there’s now a rolling buffer which stores the pitch value, so when the unit detects a small pitch drop in the string it takes the previous correct value from the buffer... 

Boss SY-1 has similar feature. It tracks surprisingly well, although I feel that it makes a calculation and follows after a short delay, like after the Attack (ADSR, anyone?). But if there's any signal coming in, the note stays there for ages. 

[Quatschmacher]

26 minutes ago, itu said:

Boss SY-1 has similar feature. It tracks surprisingly well, although I feel that it makes a calculation and follows after a short delay, like after the Attack (ADSR, anyone?). But if there's any signal coming in, the note stays there for ages. 

I’ve been through this many times in other posts. The Boss is not generating a pitched oscillator so is not tracking pitch at all, rather it’s simply overlaying/processing the incoming audio directly to make it sound like a synth, that’s why it feels so fast and will hold as long as audio is present.