Tried out a Pigtronix Mothership today...

Swimming Bird · #1 11-27-2010, 10:14 PM

I was out at Action Music in Falls Church VA this morning (one of the best shops in the DC-Metro area if you haven't been) and I got to try out a bunch of cool stuff. I didn't go home with anything, but I am now GASing for a Pigtronix Mothership.

Quickly, before I go into this, I should note that I am a skeptic when it comes to Pigtronix -- I hate the Disnortion, the EP-1, and the Attack Sustain. I wrote off the Echolution because it can't do what I consider an essential feature for it (it continues oscillating in one mode when you switch to the other). I think the EP-2 is a good fix of the issues that made the EP-1 completely unusable for me, but I'm not clamoring for one. Basically, I found Pigtronix's pedals to be vastly overhyped -- generally good ideas that were poorly executed.

The Mothership is awesome.

First thing, I set the VCO on square and tuned it to be in unison to my clean pitch then turned the clean signal most of the way off. Tracked basically perfect, sounded great. Same goes for the sawtooth wave.

Kicked on the sub octave. Also tracked and sounded great. I had zero glitching and it seemed like an accurate representation of my bass tone an octave down.

Turned on the intelligent ring mod, played around a little just getting odd ring mod noises until I dimed it and it sounded incredible mixed with both VCO modes.

Turned on the glissando and nudged it up so I got a subtle slide up to every note. Synth pop heaven. Turned it up more and it got goofy, but still very cool.

Turned off the VCO signal, switched the ring mod so it tracked the VCO pitch, turned up the gliss a bit and presto -- I got some of the sounds I love from my Copilot Orbit (maybe not as much gated fuzz love) except that the tracking ring mod made it consistent in every key.

Long story short, none of the online demos do it justice. If you sit down with it, turn every parameter to zero, and start one section at a time I can almost guarantee you'll find very usable synth tones. To me it was essentially an expanded Copilot Orbit with a tracking ring mod and switchable sections. I LOVE my Orbit, so that's a high compliment from me. I didn't get to try it with any external switches, but I can only imagine it would be fun. The only downside for me is the price tag, which I find excessive.

Explorer · #2 11-28-2010, 12:35 AM

I probably don't use my Mothership as much as I should. The tracking ring mod is definitely a handy feature, and can add an interesting texture to the regular and bass oscillators. I sometimes use the ring mod as a bass oscillator, or, by tuning the main oscillator up an octave and then tuning the ring mod to an octave below that, getting a ring-modded sound at the original pitch.

And then, of course, you can have a mix of the glissing oscillator and the ring mod, using the original signal as the ring-mod input so it doesn't gliss.

I go back and forth about keeping it, as it's not the first synth on the board, but it's still around. It's serial # 42 (picked up at a NAMM show early on), and very cool. I normally regret getting rid of something like this, so I'm holding on to it for now...

(...although I did consider sending you a PM for a few seconds there, until my hoarding instincts kicked in to protect me. *laugh*)

AztecViking · #3 12-12-2010, 08:36 AM

Sounds like a "must try" for the to do list at NAMM. I don't think I've ever heard a bassist use a ring modulator tone so I've got to at least try it. Plus if it really tracks like you say the synthotones should be a gas to play.

**grygrx** · #4 12-12-2010, 09:11 AM

I had one, and was really displeased with the tracking overall, maybe I had a bum unit?

but

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swimming Bird

Turned on the intelligent ring mod, played around a little just getting odd ring mod noises until I dimed it and it sounded incredible mixed with both VCO modes.

The intelligent ring mod was awesome... I found myself wishing it was a stand alone pedal.

FreaqyFrequency · #5 12-12-2010, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AztecViking

I don't think I've ever heard a bassist use a ring modulator tone so I've got to at least try it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-jKB1UJMIU

Jazz Ad · #6 12-12-2010, 12:08 PM

I like to use a ring mod too but not in such a subtle way.
http://jazzad.perso.neuf.fr/Musique/ringmod.mp3

Swimming Bird · #7 12-12-2010, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grygrx

I had one, and was really displeased with the tracking overall, maybe I had a bum unit?

I thought tracking was fine both in your video and live. I tested with a Ric 4001, so there may be impedance issues with your active that I didn't hear in your vid. There's a gate mod which may or may not solve this if it is indeed the problem here.

Also I go for maximum note control when I'm doing synth sounds, so I play lightly at the neck with my fingers. It tracked quick staccato playing well. You had a lot of grind playing with the pick (lots of upper harmonics and such), which is something I avoid as much as possible for smooth tracking.

Quote:

The intelligent ring mod was awesome... I found myself wishing it was a stand alone pedal.

I would add exp control for the carrier freq tune and keep the clean octave down.

**grygrx** · #8 12-12-2010, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swimming Bird

I thought tracking was fine both in your video and live. I tested with a Ric 4001, so there may be impedance issues with your active that I didn't hear in your vid. There's a gate mod which may or may not solve this if it is indeed the problem here.

Also I go for maximum note control when I'm doing synth sounds, so I play lightly the neck with my fingers. It tracked quick staccato playing well. You had a lot of grind playing with the pick (lots of upper harmonics and such), which is something I avoid as much as possible for smooth tracking.

I would add exp control for the carrier freq tune and keep the clean octave down.

Well, its certainly not the kind of unit I have much experience with... so I'm a noob with a video camera on that one.

Swimming Bird · #9 12-14-2010, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grygrx

The intelligent ring mod was awesome... I found myself wishing it was a stand alone pedal.

I just realized you could do this pretty easily with a pitchshifter and a Copilot FX Caracol.

Swimming Bird · #10 12-23-2010, 11:30 PM

Alright, I traded a whole mess of stuff I wasn't using for one. I love love love Atomic Music (home of the Sanford and Sonny Bluebeard). I love that one of my locals is about as good a shop there is in the country.

All in all, I'd say this is another not-completely-finished Pigtronix project, but I'm happy with it. Active basses make the Mothership track like... I dunno, something that tracks very poorly. Otherwise, it took some tweaking but I enjoy it a lot. I will certainly have to contact them about the gate mod after the holiday season.

Here's what should be fixed in the Mk. 2: When I max out both VCO tune knobs, it's about a whole step shy of +2 octaves; for some reason this is fixed by turning on the glide mode. There's no way to turn on the glide function without the ring mod section gliding regardless of the input source. Tracking seems to get noticeably worse when the glide mode is on (I feel like it takes a longer time to register mutes and new notes). VCO tracking appears to be worse in the square wave mode than sawtooth... or maybe square is just noisier in general? Last, it sounds like my clean signal (when pedal is engaged) comes out very compressed and a little extra hissy.

I'm very happy that the ring mod and sub octave sections are independently footswitchable --- great for live use as I can drop voices in and out at will. Given how much live control is offered on this unit, I'm surprised that you can't use a remote switch to turn the VCO off or switch between waveforms. It would also be nice to mix the two waves.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it at the $479 price unless you have to have one of the sounds off the demos, have a bunch of cash, or like me tried it and happened to fall in love enough to see past its flaws (and have cash). The reason I picked it up was because of a combination of a sweet deal and I traded in a whole bunch of gear I wasn't using any more. That said, it will almost certainly be at the heart of my continuously improving synth board.

Sorry for being so wordy. I'll try to post clips as soon as I am able to do so.

Swimming Bird · #11 02-05-2011, 10:40 AM

Okay, update time. I talked with Dave at Pigtronix about the gate mod. Turns out, when the website says "CV and gate mod" they meant "CV gate control mod" which is a world of difference. So, no adjustable input gain to aid tracking.

HOWEVER, it turns out that the early run of Motherships were not suited for bass and the one I happened to get was in that early run. There's a difference of two capacitors. Having destroyed a Blue Box trying to remove a cap, I was nervous enough that I just sent it in instead of potentially wrecking a $500 pedal. It took them a couple of weeks to do it, mainly because (and I didn't realize) they were at NAMM, but I have it back and it does seem to track bass much better. It even seems to like a really hot output, which I'm excited about.

There seems to be some more oddness with this (that I hadn't noticed before), but since I'm in a different state, with a different bass and a crappy 10W guitar practice amp, I can't tell if it's the Mothership's fault or if it's something my decent 50W bass practice amp at home simply didn't highlight. More on this as I get hold of a better amp. And my apologies for the continued lack of clips.

Explorer · #12 02-05-2011, 10:33 PM

No longer near it, but I *love* Atomic, and was always in all three of their Greenbelt/Beltsville locations. Last time I was in DC, I almost bought a used Parker there, but didn't due to the inability to easily take it with me while traveling.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I should have just had it shipped after I got back home...

----

Anyway, I have been using the Mothership more, although that's still rather off-and-on. It's one of those pedals which does a few specific things really well, and so it just depends on what I'm working on....

markjazzbassist · #13 02-05-2011, 11:01 PM

i played one at a music shop long ago, but would love to give it another go. my only hesitations are my from the clips i've heard, it doesn't so as much like a Moog/Arp/Korg monophonic synth, it sounds like an octaver (+1/-1) with a couple tone knobs.

maybe i'm expecting too much, but the word "synthesizer" conjures up those tones for me, and the mothership doesn't.

not bashing, just trying to get a better idea of the tones/sounds it's capable of.

Swimming Bird · #14 02-06-2011, 10:59 AM

Got my Firewire Solo back.

Sample. Starts clean, then square wave, then add sub octave, then add the ring mod.

This clip is short and simple with lots of explanation in the comments. For the record, signal path is bass >> Mothership >> bunch of bypassed pedals >> Behringer Xenyx 1202 mixer >> M-Audio Firewire Solo >> Audacity.

I will post clips by request. I also have a Ric 4001 and a big pedal board, so anything goes. I'm not sure if any of the expression pedals I have will work for it, but I can try later.