Meris Enzo X

[Lunoxx]

Cool, that's good to hear. How do you find the inbuilt resonant filter? Can you get similar results than when running a synth pedal through a IE XD, or would it be wise to place a XD after the Enzo X for those synthy filter sweeps we all love?

 

[Little Jon]

Has anybody else received a Enzo X since the last post? If so, how do you like it? Initial reactions seem to criticise the tracking a bit, but maybe firmware updates or other workarounds (e.g., certain settings) have improved it since it was last discussed here in spring last year?

I bought one as soon as they were available, as I’d been a huge fan of the standard Enzo. I personally find the tracking to be just a hair slower than I’d hoped. Not to diminish the pedal, but I find myself using the MXR much more often. If you’re looking for something to keep on your board for gigs, the MXR is worth checking out. If you’re going for recordings and want something that you can really dive into, the Enzo X is a lot of fun.

 

[sunbeast]

I bought one as soon as they were available, as I’d been a huge fan of the standard Enzo. I personally find the tracking to be just a hair slower than I’d hoped. Not to diminish the pedal, but I find myself using the MXR much more often. If you’re looking for something to keep on your board for gigs, the MXR is worth checking out. If you’re going for recordings and want something that you can really dive into, the Enzo X is a lot of fun.

How does the X compare to the standard Enzo tracking-wise? Can you hear a big improvement? I feel like I still haven't heard much direct comparison here. I loved alot about my old Enzo (the Arp mode by itself for me was almost worth the price of admission, and the filter is fantastic), but for straight synth stuff I found the latency pretty underwhelming with bass back then and by the latency standards of the recent Future Impact update (super fast) or the MXR Bass Synth (fast enough) I think it'd be even more underwhelming. If I thought they had significantly improved it I'd probably have jumped at the X as I love their sort of modular vision in all these X versions and love their effects quite a bit.

 

[Little Jon]

How does the X compare to the standard Enzo tracking-wise? Can you hear a big improvement? I feel like I still haven't heard much direct comparison here. I loved alot about my old Enzo (the Arp mode by itself for me was almost worth the price of admission, and the filter is fantastic), but for straight synth stuff I found the latency pretty underwhelming with bass. If I thought they had significantly improved it I'd probably have jumped at the X as I love their sort of modular vision in all these X versions.

As Erithon said, you do have to play the pedal. While tracking is an objective measure, there’s still a lot of subjectivity to take into account. For example, the tracking for certain settings/effects are on the money, but if you’re one that uses the sawtooth wave a lot, prefer a heavier synth tone, and play uptempo tunes, you’ll find the tracking to be a bigger issue than someone who uses the pedal for pitch and envelope for more atmospheric music.

I am obsessed with bass synth pedals for the simple reason that they’re fun! I’ve bought and sold far more than is healthy! I can say with confidence, the best for playing live from a tracking perspective is the MXR. It’s also relatively idiot safe, so if a fool like me forgets to play the pedal, it’s much less of an issue. It has a wider array of tones than expected, it sounds great, and it’s very easy to use (especially if you don’t like using a computer or phone). It really surprised me and exceeded any of my expectations.

As for the Enzo X, it’s a fantastic pedal overall, but unless you really want to get in there and create unique sounds, the standard Enzo is more than enough. The tracking between the two is fairly equal. If you’re curious and love Meris products, try and hold off for a used Enzo X, they do pop up relatively often. But if you want something that gives you those classic synth sounds that be able to use right out of the box, go with the MXR. In my experience, it tracks better than the FIv4, the C4, and the Enzo(s).

 

[Erithon]

As Erithon said, you do have to play the pedal. While tracking is an objective measure, there’s still a lot of subjectivity to take into account. For example, the tracking for certain settings/effects are on the money, but if you’re one that uses the sawtooth wave a lot, prefer a heavier synth tone, and play uptempo tunes, you’ll find the tracking to be a bigger issue than someone who uses the pedal for pitch and envelope for more atmospheric music.

This is a good expansion of my point. The Meris Enzo X is especially easy to use for atmospheric music: synths pads, big reverb with filter sweeps, etc. And I like the depth and complexity of its sounds for rich bass synth, be it brassy or industrial. But for uptempo tunes, you have to really dial in the settings and play the pedal. The MXR is indeed much easier to plug and play for a cover band performing classic '80s tunes.

 

[sunbeast]

As Erithon said, you do have to play the pedal. While tracking is an objective measure, there’s still a lot of subjectivity to take into account. For example, the tracking for certain settings/effects are on the money, but if you’re one that uses the sawtooth wave a lot, prefer a heavier synth tone, and play uptempo tunes, you’ll find the tracking to be a bigger issue than someone who uses the pedal for pitch and envelope for more atmospheric music.

I am obsessed with bass synth pedals for the simple reason that they’re fun! I’ve bought and sold far more than is healthy! I can say with confidence, the best for playing live from a tracking perspective is the MXR. It’s also relatively idiot safe, so if a fool like me forgets to play the pedal, it’s much less of an issue. It has a wider array of tones than expected, it sounds great, and it’s very easy to use (especially if you don’t like using a computer or phone). It really surprised me and exceeded any of my expectations.

As for the Enzo X, it’s a fantastic pedal overall, but unless you really want to get in there and create unique sounds, the standard Enzo is more than enough. The tracking between the two is fairly equal. If you’re curious and love Meris products, try and hold off for a used Enzo X, they do pop up relatively often. But if you want something that gives you those classic synth sounds that be able to use right out of the box, go with the MXR. In my experience, it tracks better than the FIv4, the C4, and the Enzo(s).

I kinda guessed that the tracking algorithm hadn’t been improved much based on the Zach Rizer demo (which seemed to focus on pad sounds rather than tight bass synth stuff) which is a shame. I love atmospheric synthy stuff, but prefer my input to those sounds to be more attached to my playing than I was able to get with the Enzo with a bass- it’s the same issue I have with the “OSC Synth” sounds in the Boss SY1000 that have pretty significant latency. Hopefully they update it at some point as the sounds available are top notch.

I also love bass/guitar synth pedals, and have the MXR as well as the FIv4 (as well as the v3), the C4, a Boss SY1000 and Roland GR-55 (including multiple instruments with hex pickups), Eventide H90, and a bunch of analog synth chain pedals. For me the FI v4 clearly has the best and fastest tracking algorithm for an actual pitchtracker (and it is still being improved with every update so far), though the MXR is no slouch I think it’s adjustment range is too limited to compare even if the basic tracking algorithm was on par. The SY1000 and H90 both have some synth algorithms that work by manipulating the input signal, so virtually no latency, but at the expense of somewhat limited sound and amplitude envelope options when you use those algorithms. I love having all the parameters tweakable from the face of the pedal itself on the MXR and love the filter section in particular, but it is fairly limiting in sound creation options compared to all the others mentioned and I find the tracking is not as consistent across instruments compared to the FI (I have a few basses the MXR just doesn’t jive with, I find the FI works reasonably with anything I’ve thrown at it).

I actually only sold my Enzo because it was one of the earlier ones where accessing the secondary knob functions tended to overwrite presets- they came up with an update to the pedal that required sending it in to them to add a hardware update to fix that issue as well as add a wider volume range, but then quickly stopped accepting pedals and started a long waitlist because of Covid (they didn’t get to my name til a year or more after I got on the list). I sold it intending to grab a new updated one at some point then just sort of lost interest amongst all my other synth pedals. While I love the idea of an integrated atmospheric Enzo, I feel like apart from that genius arpeggiator functionality I can get most of that with a combination of things I already have and that aren’t going anywhere anyway (the H90 in particular is a fantastic atmosphere machine for any source).

 

[jpTron]

I got mine a month or two ago. I own the original too. Tracking seems fine to me. I'm not a fast player in general and don't really use it that way - I'm way more ambient. I think it really is about not looking too much past the presets. Some are very accurate, some aren't, which is something I hear a lot. I guess it's all about finding what it is that makes some patches accurate and some not so much. There's a review with a guy who used it with a saxophone and he said it was magical with how accurate it was. Either way, I've been recording lots of stuff with it in the time I've spent with it and it's very inspiring.

 

[Lunoxx]

This is a good expansion of my point. The Meris Enzo X is especially easy to use for atmospheric music: synths pads, big reverb with filter sweeps, etc. And I like the depth and complexity of its sounds for rich bass synth, be it brassy or industrial. But for uptempo tunes, you have to really dial in the settings and play the pedal. The MXR is indeed much easier to plug and play for a cover band performing classic '80s tunes.

Do you feel the need to use a reverb pedal together with the Enzo X for synthy pads, or does the Enzo X pretty much cover this? Can/would you use it as a stand alone reverb?

 

[jpTron]

Do you feel the need to use a reverb pedal together with the Enzo X for synthy pads, or does the Enzo X pretty much cover this? Can/would you use it as a stand alone reverb?

They have a bunch of reverb algorithms included from their Mercury X.

 

[Erithon]

Do you feel the need to use a reverb pedal together with the Enzo X for synthy pads, or does the Enzo X pretty much cover this? Can/would you use it as a stand alone reverb?

Absolutely no need. The reverb algorithms are as good as it gets. The Enzo X can easily be a standalone reverb, delay, chorus, phaser, bitcrusher, tuner, etc. The time-based effects truly spectacular. The modulation effects are solid: they work well for building synth sounds, and are fine for standalone effects in a mix, but are not as good as their top-tier dedicated pedal counterparts--for example, the Enzo X's phaser does not outperform my analog Chase Bliss Wombtone.

 

[MM Stefan]

Very happy Enzo X owner here!
I gotta say this thing is some of the most fun I ever had with a pedal. I use it not only as a synth and Octaver but also as a Modulation and Reverb Pedal. All the the Effects in here are absolut top notch and the tracking is also great. It does take a little bit adjustment in your playing but then it really delivers. I have one for only a couple months and I'm only scratching the surface. Got two little segments of one of the first time I used it on a gig on a livejam right here:






Would love to hear some sounds you created!

 

[jpTron]

Very happy Enzo X owner here!
I gotta say this thing is some of the most fun I ever had with a pedal. I use it not only as a synth and Octaver but also as a Modulation and Reverb Pedal. All the the Effects in here are absolut top notch and the tracking is also great. It does take a little bit adjustment in your playing but then it really delivers. I have one for only a couple months and I'm only scratching the surface. Got two little segments of one of the first time I used it on a gig on a livejam right here:






Would love to hear some sounds you created!

I'll PM you my Soundcloud that has a couple tracks of just Enzo and Enzo X. I mean the drums are obviously programmed drums, but the rest of the sounds are all through the Enzos. That doesn't include the 50 open Reaper tabs I have of snippets all recorded using the Enzo X...