METASONIX

Jan 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Gino Robair

           

The Metasonix TX-1 Agonizer misuses obscure, new-old-stock tubes for meta-musical purposes.

Metasonix threw down the noise gauntlet when it printed on the box of the TX-1 Agonizer ($499) “Don't buy this thing. It's too horrible.” Oh yeah? I know horrible noise — I'll take that challenge.

The TX-1 is an analog synth module that incorporates a pair of obscure new-old-stock (NOS) tubes — a 12AU6 and a 13Z10 — to create a waveshaper supreme. According to the manual, the harshness of the TX-1 is due to the nonlinear quality of the 13Z10, and the misuse of the tube's beam modulator in particular. (Metasonix notes that this “bizarre tube defines poor fidelity,” and I agree).

The Agony

The TX-1 has three unbalanced ¼-inch jacks (an audio input, an audio output, and a 10V peak-to-peak CV input), and four knobs (Level, Pound, Strangle, Grind). The manual suggests keeping Level, which acts as the input gain control, in the lowest range to get the nastiest sound. When the knob is in the 9:00 range, however, the result is more of a device-generated hum than nastiness.

Sonically, Strangle does what the name implies: at the highest setting, it chokes off the sound — particularly the hum and original tone as if it is fully shortening the duty cycle of a square wave. The Grind knob controls a feedback loop that creates instability in the beam modulator.

The CV input can be used to control the Pound circuit, which adds further complexity to the distortion. A typical CV with a 10V range can be sent to this jack, and I found the most interesting results using the signal from an envelope generator (in this case, a Blacet EG2070 VC ADSR module). In fact, depending on the setting of the TX-1 and the Blacet module, I could control the TX-1's internally created tones using the EG's Attack and Decay controls — ah, the joys of analog synthesis.

Unlike other Metasonix devices, the TX-1 includes both a power switch and a bypass switch. Once you hit the power switch, you have to wait a few seconds for the tubes to warm up before you can start working. But before you hit the bypass switch, make sure your monitors are turned down, because the TX-1 will substantially increase the output level of your source sound. The level was strong enough that my volume pedal couldn't cut it out entirely.

The Ecstasy

Although I don't agree with the claim that the TX-1 sounds horrible, the processing could be best described as severe: the TX-1 can obliterate any sound going though it. The resulting distortion isn't the light, sweet kind you get from a typical fuzz box. Rather, it's thick and intense and threatens to explode (see Web Clips 1 and 2). And when you go too far, the sound either chokes out or disappears into an annoying hum. I often wound up with a speaker-ripping pulse-wave sound that would destroy a monitor if turned up too loud. Dangerous? Yes.

The TX-1 worked best with line-level source material that was harmonically rich to begin with (electronic percussion and nasty synth tones being the best). By design, its overall behavior is unpredictable. For example, the controls don't change the sound in a linear way: as you turn a knob, the sound may begin to break up nicely, then clear up a bit, then break up in a different way. But if you think having Level, Pound, Strangle, and Grind at their maximum settings will give you the noisiest, most intense sound, guess again.

Metasonix recently revised the design of the TX-1. Besides a change in a couple of resistors that yields greater saturation, the TX-1 Special Edition adds a switchable highpass filter into the circuit, referred to as Suckbass.

In Extremis

Both in price and in design, Metasonix makes a bold statement that the TX-1 is not for everyone. To get the point across, the product's Web page and manual are filled with invective meant to scare off potential consumers who, according to Metasonix, may not — to put it charitably — understand the full potential of the TX-1. For example, when introducing the Pound CV input, Metasonix explains that “only extreme synthesists and sociopaths will understand what it means.” That's as polite as it gets.

But there's nothing polite about the sound of the TX-1. If you think you've heard it all, guess again. For truly rough and messed up sounds, the TX-1 Agonizer moves to the front of the line.

Overall EM Rating (1 through 5): 3.5

Metasonix
Tel.: (707) 263-5343
Email: synth@metasonix.com
Web: www.metasonix.com