4ms Atoner. Lots of surprises inside.

[speak_onion]

I just got a 4ms Atoner today. There's this guy who sells them on ebay for even cheaper than the kits (Doug something on the commonsound boards) so I bought one on a whim, and I'm really glad I did.

I just got it today and it's an EXTREMELY complicated pedal, so I can't give a full review yet, but it's already blown me away in one respect. If you turn of the atoning (i.e., turn the blend all the way counterclockwise) you're left with just the distortion section, and actually, it's an amazingly good light overdrive for bass. I have the gain at about 10'o'clock, the tone all the way up (the atoning section sounds best like this) and I'm just loving the sound.

I'm planning to mod mine with a stomp (there seems to be room in this giant enclosure) to turn off/on the atoning so I can use the overdrive separately and kick on the atoning when necessary. It's not high on my list of priorities actually, because this pedal doesn't really fit (spacewise and soundwise) on my band board, but I could see situations where this pedal is the only one I'd need and I'd use the overdrive most of the time and kick on the atoning for insane parts.

I've recorded a clip of it this way, because I was so surprised that it could do something so simple and usable. I'll upload at my first opportunity.

[speak_onion]

Click here to watch Atoner-Overdrive

By the way, I don't want to sell the atoning on this pedal short, I've just not played with it long enough to understand that part of the pedal. I wouldn't know where to being explaining it, let alone demoing it in clips.

[Taylor Livingston]

Can you explain what this pedal does? I was really into 4ms a few years ago and had an insane Noise Swash/Fuzz Jade with 20 knobs and a stereo Panneur, but I could never figure out what the atoner was based on the description (which was written in abstract prose back then, not sure about these days).

[speak_onion]

Originally Posted by conical johnson

Can you explain what this pedal does? I was really into 4ms a few years ago and had an insane Noise Swash/Fuzz Jade with 20 knobs and a stereo Panneur, but I could never figure out what the atoner was based on the description (which was written in abstract prose back then, not sure about these days).

I actually cannot explain it. So far, I've got some insane fuzz tones, some sub-octave stuff, some jumping octave stuff, and the overdrive as discussed above. The pedal came with a page of like "helpful hints" and that doesn't really try to explain what is happening it just gives some suggested settings and a vague strategy for tweaking.

Once I dig into it a bit more I'll try to explain better. If you can't wait for that you could probably check out the commonsound.org messageboard. I bet there's good info there.

[KarateKid25]

thats kinda weird

[KarateKid25]

whats it worth? I can't find them on ebay. US only?

[speak_onion]

I think that ebay seller is probably US only, but you can order the pedal or kit directly from 4ms and they ship wherever. They charge 250 for a completed pedal, though, which is more than 2wice what I paid.