MakeNoise Mimeophon

[Underglow]

When I first bought and started using Mimeo, it was my first hardware delay...so my inclination was to use it as an aux effect.

This was a mistake, and will DEFINITELY give you an audible noise floor.

When used as a single voice (like instantiating a delay plugin on a DAW track, then using dry/wet)...the noise issue is moot IMO. Plus you'll just get WAY more creative use out of it that way.

I had a similar experience with Beads. No noise floor obviously, but...yeah it's much better used as a voice than an aux.

[clwilla]

When I first bought and started using Mimeo, it was my first hardware delay...so my inclination was to use it as an aux effect.

This was a mistake, and will DEFINITELY give you an audible noise floor.

When used as a single voice (like instantiating a delay plugin on a DAW track)...the noise issue is moot IMO. Plus you'll just get WAY more creative use out of it that way.

I had a similar experience with Beads.

It has a noise gate that I don’t quite understand. I tend to use my effects in a stereo effects bus using a stereo mixer and an AXYS to have pinpoint control over send levels and mix, but I admit to not having tried Mimeophon that way. I’ve only ever used it as part of the voice, but I still get mad noise.

[Underglow]

When I first bought and started using Mimeo, it was my first hardware delay...so my inclination was to use it as an aux effect.

This was a mistake, and will DEFINITELY give you an audible noise floor.

When used as a single voice (like instantiating a delay plugin on a DAW track, then using dry/wet)...the noise issue is moot IMO. Plus you'll just get WAY more creative use out of it that way.

I had a similar experience with Beads.

It has a noise gate that I don’t quite understand. I tend to use my effects in a stereo effects bus using a stereo mixer and an AXYS to have pinpoint control over send levels and mix, but I admit to not having tried Mimeophon that way. I’ve only ever used it as part of the voice, but I still get mad noise.

As I understand it, the noise gate is just that - a gate. I haven't tested the threshold, but I imagine it is quite low...at or around the noise floor (say, -50 to -60 dBm). So in standalone use, I haven't found any issues. Even the softest passages in, I would imagine most if not all productions, don't get THAT soft. At least not IME.

So, nowadays, Mimeo noise is really a moot point in practice for me.

[sleepmute]

Turn up the source volume, turn down the input gain, problem solved. The only time I ever get noise is when I forget to do one of those things.

[Yunsnare]

And…it’s still my fav delay !

[GOM]

I've read through this thread and the character assassination of the module is crazy at times and the defence nowhere near as strong as in the Ghost thread for example.

I've had the module over a year and never noticed anything regarding noise. I mean, it's based on tape delay so it would be justified but anything that's there isn't worth writing home about.

[Spaceman Jacques]

I've read through this thread and the character assassination of the module is crazy at times and the defence nowhere near as strong as in the Ghost thread for example.

I've had the module over a year and never noticed anything regarding noise. I mean, it's based on tape delay so it would be justified but anything that's there isn't worth writing home about.

I barely ever notice it and if I do it’s just a helpful reminder to gain stage properly.

[Del]

For my part, I don't really get how it can be defended (unless there are just good and faulty versions of the module and some of us happened to get bad ones). That's why I put up an example on the previous page. It's real. It's extremely noticeable. And, as I've said elsewhere, if you intend on making music with space / silences in it, it's going to bother you to no end.

Turning up the source and turning down the input gain doesn't help. Nor does using it as a voice if you want to use it as an end-of-chain effect. The only thing that helps that I've found, is turning up the mix very high. But that is also not how I want to use it, especially because that's where the module pans everything out wide, vacating the center. The sweet spot for me is when the mix is quite low — 15% or so. And that's usually a very noisy place to be. Anyway, there should not be a certain way you have to use it to avoid that kind of excessive noise. And I, like another person on here mentioned doing a few posts back, shouldn't have to use noise reduction software just to deal with it.

[informationsource]

Can people please go and get better power solutions so we can talk about this excellent-sounding module instead of rehashing this same topic? You can likely improve your case's power for less than the cost of a Mimeophon, and you'll solve a bunch of noise issues in other stuff at the same time.

I don't run Mimeo in my NiftyCase for the same reason I don't run Arbhar there, both have been well-behaved in my Amalgamod apart from when I mess up the gain staging. Never had issues in a Mantis either. If you're getting noise issues, and you want to use the gear that makes those noise issues obvious, then fix the source of the problem.

Not denying the reality of the issues people have had, of course, but it's not like this is an insurmountable problem for every single person using the module either. And this is far from the only reason to use decent power (there are many more qualified to define "decent power" than I). If your power is sorted, RMA.

[Del]

Not denying the reality of the issues people have had, of course, but it's not like this is an insurmountable problem for every single person using the module either. And this is far from the only reason to use decent power (there are many more qualified to define "decent power" than I). If your power is sorted, RMA.

Does my Trogotronic case offer "decent power"? Does my MDLR case? I'm not being facetious by putting that in scare quotes. I just literally have no idea what that would consist of. I'm thinking FX Aid paired with an Enhance 2 might give me enough of what I like about Mimeophon and might be a surer fix.

[1barllama]

I have mimeophon installed in my Nifty Case. At first it was placed in the middle, near the power supply, and I had a LOT of noise, regardless of the mix or gain level. I really wanted to return it. But then I placed it far to the right in the case (there is just a Pico Out to the right) and I had no noise issues since then. In the audio chain I can place it wherever I want, even as first module. I really love this module.

So I think it is a question of where is it placed in the case. But maybe it was just my luck

[xcc]

Can people please go and get better power solutions so we can talk about this excellent-sounding module instead of rehashing this same topic? You can likely improve your case's power for less than the cost of a Mimeophon, and you'll solve a bunch of noise issues in other stuff at the same time.

I don't run Mimeo in my NiftyCase for the same reason I don't run Arbhar there, both have been well-behaved in my Amalgamod apart from when I mess up the gain staging. Never had issues in a Mantis either. If you're getting noise issues, and you want to use the gear that makes those noise issues obvious, then fix the source of the problem.

Not denying the reality of the issues people have had, of course, but it's not like this is an insurmountable problem for every single person using the module either. And this is far from the only reason to use decent power (there are many more qualified to define "decent power" than I). If your power is sorted, RMA.

Totally. It would be helpful if those that have noise issues would say what case/power they're using. Might help others.

I'll start - Intellijel 7U - no issues.

[Del]

Trogotronic 168. Power supply in the case. Big noise issues. I'll have to try my other cases, I guess.

[GOM]

MDLR Performance Case. No problems.

[1barllama]

Trogotronic 168. Power supply in the case. Big noise issues. I'll have to try my other cases, I guess.

Maybe do it my way and try to install it further away from the power supply? NiftyCase also has internal power supply.

[DukeOfPrunes]

My Mimeophon is connected to a run-of-the mill Tip Top Audio uZeus (with 3000 Ma power adaptor). Connected on the same strip are:

MN LxD
MN Morphagene
2hp 3:1
PNW
Intellijel uSTEP v.2
WMD Multimode Envelope
Intellijel Quad VCA
MN QPAS
MI Plaits
Intellijel Planar 2 + Gx Expander
MN Mimeophon
MN XoH
Disting Mk4 x 2

I don't have any noise issues, but the gain staging has been tweaked to avoid the obvious noise problems discussed all throughout.

[informationsource]

Not denying the reality of the issues people have had, of course, but it's not like this is an insurmountable problem for every single person using the module either. And this is far from the only reason to use decent power (there are many more qualified to define "decent power" than I). If your power is sorted, RMA.

Does my Trogotronic case offer "decent power"? Does my MDLR case? I'm not being facetious by putting that in scare quotes. I just literally have no idea what that would consist of. I'm thinking FX Aid paired with an Enhance 2 might give me enough of what I like about Mimeophon and might be a surer fix.

You are not going to get a simple answer to that, I'm sorry to say.

I don't have either of those cases or power supplies, but I've had power issues before and upgraded to a solution that has avoided them so far (Amalgamod). There are plenty of threads where those more qualified than me talk about case/power/grounding/noise issues, which you might surface by searching for any combination of those terms with terms like digital noise, filtered bus boards, star grounding (or not, but it's a useful search term). Not sure how the whole switching-with-linear-regulators-and-filtering vs linear power supply argument plays out.

FX Aid and Enhance 2 might be nice (watch for phase issues with delay on sides) but would together cost more than upgrading the PSU, assuming of course that the issue here is not a faulty unit.

EDITED TO ADD: not trying to be obtuse, this is just an annoying topic to try to comprehend when you're finding out about it the hard way, and I'm currently at the point of having just little enough knowledge to be dangerous. There are a lot of variables and general advice (even from those qualified to give it) might not help you. But if the solution is as cheap as shuffling modules so they are (electrically) more distant from each other or the PSU or anything else, it's worth trying.

[starthief]

I have a MDLRCASE with two Meanwell RT65B PSUs, nothing special there. If I go looking for noise I can find it, but in normal usage with normal gain staging it's not an issue.


I wonder, are people using unshielded cables between the output and whatever they're plugging into? When I had a bundle of long, unshielded patch cables between my modular and audio interface, the noise floor varied a lot depending on which module was last in the chain -- some were just more susceptible to interference than others (and it wasn't an analog vs. digital thing either). I wonder if the choice of patch cable makes a difference with Mimeophon?

[sleepmute]

I don't think the noise is grounding noise or interference; it sounds more like bandpassed white noise, and it's exactly the same sound Morphagene makes, so I assume it's inherent to the Erbe digital modules. The only times it's been a problem for me is when I forget to properly gain stage and hear it afterwards on the recorded material. In other words, you can't feed it a super quiet signal and expect it to be noise free. But that doesn't mean you can't use quiet sounds; it just means you have to amplify them before the delay.

[polesay]

I love my mimeophon. Sometimes I’ll have a patch going and turn the mix down and it always amazes me just how much it adds. Noise hasn’t been an issue for me but I tend to make pretty cacophonous patches. Even on subtler stuff though, I haven’t had an issue.

[tru7h]

i have it in an unpowered case (behringer CP1A power supply) on the same power bus as PNW, intellijel buffered mult, maths, tallin and befaco out. no noise issues here. when i don't turn repeats to extreme settings my signal goes to zero (no audible noise even when turning the volume way up, nothing visible in the waveform). i am thinking that the people who get noise even when it is turned to full dry might have gotten faulty units.

[chorus7]

I have a Pod64x with 4MS 90w PSU with a Morphagene, Qpas and Disting 4 and the noise is extremely bad… With gain staging it helps a bit but it seems random when this helps or does not… but I still love the module 100%

[cackland]

Mimephon in the IntelliJ’s 7u case.. no noise at all for me

[Granny]

I have a Pod64x with 4MS 90w PSU with a Morphagene, Qpas and Disting 4 and the noise is extremely bad… With gain staging it helps a bit but it seems random when this helps or does not… but I still love the module 100%

Hmm, I have the same power supply. Everything related to supplying power is 4ms in my rack. But I don't really have problems… anymore

I just got the money back from 4ms for a faulty power supply

Sometimes I could hear a module in the mix that was not even patched. Other times I suddenly had no sound at all

I definitely had more than enough ampere left, and it was working ok so I thought it might just be the modules themselves. Also, changing the constellation of how I chained the PODS and cases seemed to have an influence on those glitches

Then I tried another power adapter and the sound leaking seemed to have vanished. I think I had a faulty power adapter all these years. I wish I would have realised earlier

However, I also had problems with the Behringer CP1A. I felt an electrical tingling sensation in my fingers when I touched the modules. But the reason might have been, that I had different cases with different powering in the beginning (Doepfer, Behringer, 4ms). Getting rid of different power modules and going pure 4ms solved the problem for me back then

now, after 5 years I seem to finally have figured it out

[Granny]

BTW I love my Miphon

pulling repeat up, filtering out the screams and feeding that thing with rhythmic stuff is always great fun

herb_and_the_repeats.mp3

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