all -
About a month-ish ago i bought the Second Sound Unisyn, a $419 pedal that converts a mono signal to MIDI, CV, and its own internal synth. While there have been other products (pedals, apps, pickups) that have done this some limited success afaik this is the first pedal that really makes it feasible to play a MIDI or CV synth with you bass guitar.
I wanted to test how much latency there really was with this product, so I plugged my Dingwall AB1 6 into a splitter, one going into channel 1 of a focusrite interface, and channel 2 going into a Broughton Fliptop preamp (to bring the level up) into the Unisyn.
The Unisyn had 3 outputs:
- MIDI Out went into the MIDI in on the focusrite
- Synth Out went into channel 2 of the focusrite
- CV Out went to a Arturia MiniBrute2 which output went to channel 3 of the focusrite.
I recorded all 4 channels (1 MIDI, 3 audio) in Logic, played some long notes, then zoomed into measure latency between the direct bass and the other 3 signals:
Understandably the latency gets higher the lower you go as has been with every other tracking synth ever made, and tho the numbers are kind of high for a low B it is still pretty playable.
What is surprising is the CV latency is less than the MIDI despite @Admiral Akbar , @cosmicevan , and myself all thinking that MIDI seemed quicker to respond.
You have to clean up your playing as you do with any synth - playing with a pick might help - I tend to boost the mids a bit which seems to help with tracking. However its pretty remarkable how quickly the unit can track your playing (as long as you play clean) - quick runs are really tracked quite fast and come thru pretty clear. Bends are tracked really well, and playing with a fretless is amazing in how well it tracks long slides.
Zooming into the MIDI side sometimes the Unisyn will track the note a 1/2 step down and then correct it within 5-10ms - i never noticed it playing but it is there. Alot of MIDI info gets sent with every note. Normally I will just plug the MIDI out into my Moog Minitaur which is a great sounding synth, but have also played soft synths in logic which is crazy fun.
I'm not super experienced on the CV/Eurorack side of things - I have the Arturia MiniBrute2 but no other CV synths and I struggled a bit to connect everything correctly, and my impression is that the MIDI side tracks better, but admittedly that might be due to my setup. I would like to get more into Eurorack but it is also a frightening money pit.
I'd like to test latency on the other bass synths I have - Dubterranea, Future Impact, FMeron, and the synths in the new H90, and see how they compare.
Shout out to @cosmicevan and @Admiral Akbar who convinced me this pedal is the real deal.
About a month-ish ago i bought the Second Sound Unisyn, a $419 pedal that converts a mono signal to MIDI, CV, and its own internal synth. While there have been other products (pedals, apps, pickups) that have done this some limited success afaik this is the first pedal that really makes it feasible to play a MIDI or CV synth with you bass guitar.
I wanted to test how much latency there really was with this product, so I plugged my Dingwall AB1 6 into a splitter, one going into channel 1 of a focusrite interface, and channel 2 going into a Broughton Fliptop preamp (to bring the level up) into the Unisyn.
The Unisyn had 3 outputs:
- MIDI Out went into the MIDI in on the focusrite
- Synth Out went into channel 2 of the focusrite
- CV Out went to a Arturia MiniBrute2 which output went to channel 3 of the focusrite.
I recorded all 4 channels (1 MIDI, 3 audio) in Logic, played some long notes, then zoomed into measure latency between the direct bass and the other 3 signals:
Understandably the latency gets higher the lower you go as has been with every other tracking synth ever made, and tho the numbers are kind of high for a low B it is still pretty playable.
What is surprising is the CV latency is less than the MIDI despite @Admiral Akbar , @cosmicevan , and myself all thinking that MIDI seemed quicker to respond.
You have to clean up your playing as you do with any synth - playing with a pick might help - I tend to boost the mids a bit which seems to help with tracking. However its pretty remarkable how quickly the unit can track your playing (as long as you play clean) - quick runs are really tracked quite fast and come thru pretty clear. Bends are tracked really well, and playing with a fretless is amazing in how well it tracks long slides.
Zooming into the MIDI side sometimes the Unisyn will track the note a 1/2 step down and then correct it within 5-10ms - i never noticed it playing but it is there. Alot of MIDI info gets sent with every note. Normally I will just plug the MIDI out into my Moog Minitaur which is a great sounding synth, but have also played soft synths in logic which is crazy fun.
I'm not super experienced on the CV/Eurorack side of things - I have the Arturia MiniBrute2 but no other CV synths and I struggled a bit to connect everything correctly, and my impression is that the MIDI side tracks better, but admittedly that might be due to my setup. I would like to get more into Eurorack but it is also a frightening money pit.
I'd like to test latency on the other bass synths I have - Dubterranea, Future Impact, FMeron, and the synths in the new H90, and see how they compare.
Shout out to @cosmicevan and @Admiral Akbar who convinced me this pedal is the real deal.
