Re: The Sherman Filterbank

[Travis Weller <tcweller@spiraco.com>]

>>>- is it noisy?

>>yes. very, very noisy.

>That't too bad!  It was sounding so good up to this point....can you
>elaborate on the noise?  THanks!

well it is a bit difficult to describe noise in email, but i'll try. for
one, by nature, the filterbank is 'gritty'. the manual even quotes it as
having a "tube sound overdrive" effect in addition to the filter. its not
your usual straight digital subtractive synthesis.

don't get me wrong, i REALLY love my sherman filterbank. i ordered it over
two years ago directly from mr. gillis before he had any u.s. distributors
and ever since, its my favorite piece of gear (besides my violin, of
course).

as you may expect from an analog device it does have some quirks here and
there. i often hear noise from it when there is no source signal. there are
also ways to create random high pitches with it by tweaking out the
resonance and the lfo. i've even created huge sonic textures using only the
sherman and an edp feeding back on eachother... with no additional sound
source. its a highly experimental and hands-on instrument with a
personality all its own.

it _isn't_ a pristine, low noise floor studio rack effect that you would
expect to use for eq.

hope the answer to this question didn't turn too much into a review... i
just didn't want anyone to think i was being critical. it is very very
noisy, but in my subjective opinion, its all GOOD noise.

-travis