WMD Geiger Counter

http://www.wmdevices.com/geiger.php

I've had my eye on one of these for a while, and just got around to ordering one. As you can see from the clips on the website, it can make a LOT of different and very cool sounds. Of course, it hasn't arrived yet, but I'll demo it when it does.

How funny! I found the site for these guys earlier this week, and I gave the soundbytes a listen. That thing produces some truly twisted tones!

EricHaven wrote:

That thing produces some truly twisted tones!

Definitely! But my favorite thing about it is that no matter how crazy the thing can get, it can still give you a nice, simple, low gain, tubey overdrive, and everything in between.

Sweet. Can you save your settings and switch through them or something?

No. It does save your wave table setting when you turn it off, but not anything else. Its because its basically an analogue pedal, except for the wave shaping computer thing.

Can't wait to hear how you like it!

how unique in design...how mundane and boring in the sampled sounds. EXCEPT my RP50 Digitech won't do this sound from his site:

http://www.wmdevices.com/sounds/TweakingWMDGeiger.mp3

that one sounds like my jackson preamp with a 3/4 dead battery --lol

amimbari wrote:

how unique in design...how mundane and boring in the sampled sounds. EXCEPT my RP50 Digitech won't do this sound from his site:

http://www.wmdevices.com/sounds/TweakingWMDGeiger.mp3

that one sounds like my jackson preamp with a 3/4 dead battery --lol

....wow. That sounds pretty cool, but I can't imagine using those sounds for anything other than textures on a track.

Sounds cool, cant wait for the demo.

How much do they cost?

I think around $300...

Interesting.

It just arrived today. Its AWESOME! I'll do clips after I've played with it more. There's a bit of a learning curve to it, and it might take a few more hours of experimenting before I really get the hang of it. Here's some stuff I've noticed:

1. It's only about 3/4 the size I was expecting. I was expecting a big pedal. Instead, it's about the size of a boss pedal with 50% more width. In a way this is nice, but it makes the controls a bit cramped. Overall I think the size is a good thing. It's very portable
2. Its not as extreme as I was expecting. The craziest of the clips on the site are about as crazy as it gets. Which is good, because those are the outer limits of what I'd actually use.
3. All those weird computery effects are much more musical than I was expecting. Almost pretty sounding... ALMOST. I didn't think I'd use them at all, but I'm really liking them
4. Some combinations of settings don't "work." Either I get no signal, or I'll only get these weird, random, super low tones
5. Despite the company's claims that the tone knob gives "a very large range of sounds," I can't hear a huge difference, even between all the way down and all the way up.
6. Despite WMD's promises otherwise, this thing can get REALLY noisy. In some settings, the background noise actually drowns out my signal. (EDIT: thats not really fair, its pretty predictable what will be super noisy and what won't)
7. I could give you guys hours worth of clips and it still wouldn't fully capture what this thing can do
8. My mom has told me "turn that thing off, we've heard enough of it!" Twice. This is a good sign .

So far, I'm pleased with it. But I have to wait until I'm past the OMG SHINY NEW PEDAL! LOTS OF KNOBS AND STUFF! phase until I can really say whether I really like it.

Neato. Is it something that you'd keep on as a fundamental sound or something that you'd use more sparingly?

OK, so through a little experimentation (and a lot of giving up and finally looking at the manual) I've been able to coax a nice overdrive out of this thing. Also, the tone knob will get you a good range of sounds, but only on the less extreme settings.

Chowderboots wrote:

Neato. Is it something that you'd keep on as a fundamental sound or something that you'd use more sparingly?

Depends on the song, band, and setting. If I ever found myself in an industrial band, I'd use the thing constantly. It can get some insane sounds, and can do a really cool old school video game synth sound. Actually, the tamer settings would work well in pretty much any rock setting, as it can do a tubey overdrive pretty well. Kinda almost reminds me of Bill Wyman's tone. I guess it depends on my band mates. If they want a super clean sound, thats what I'll do. If they're fine with a bit of grind (or a lot of crazy whacked out distortion), I'll do that.

We'll have to see how much I actually use it. Its less than a day old. I'll be using it constantly for the next couple weeks. Wait until the OMGZ NEW STUFF! feeling wears off.

What does the wave table do?

Darkstrike wrote:

What does the wave table do?

It changes the shape of your signal ,someitmes in really extreme ways

By the way, I've been getting some REALLY cool synthy sounds out of this thing

Ahhh, coool.

So I've been thinking about how I can demo the Geiger Counter, specifically the synthy modes, and I've decided what better way to demo a pedal that makes my bass sound like an 8 bit synthesizer than to cover some old school video game themes?

So far, I'm doing The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and the Mute City theme from F-Zero. Any other requests?

Synth, Videogames, Bass????


You gotta do....