Pros:
Rock solid build quality
Wide variety of sounds
Lots of creative tweaking options
Stereo in / out
External control input can be configured for CV / foot pedal, etc
Cons:
Price
Used for:
External effects unit for analog synths in a DAW-less synth / drum machine setup.
It?s not cheap but it?s worth every penny! Amazing unit, by far the most used and favourite effects unit in my setup. The build quality is superb - it is built like a tank. All metal exterior, very solid, nice weight with giant oversized Cutoff knob - this knob is huge, has a plush smooth rotation at both high and low speeds and the finger grooves make it super comfy to hold in all sorts of positions.
The controls are well spaced and clearly marked, despite this the whole unit is quite compact and the bevel free edges mean you can easily squeeze it into a crowded desk. I like having it in the top right somewhere so I can easily reach that glorious filter cutoff knob.
The sounds are amazing, and you can easily move between a subtle effect and full blown acid madness by tweaking the mod level. So whether you want a gentle house / disco type filter sweep, or more resonant squelchy acid or just total experimental noise madness you can easily move between all of these simply by tweaking the mod level and choosing different waveforms.
Speaking of waveforms, what makes this unit interesting is the envelope follower - instead of separate filter envelope controls you set the waveform and rate of the LFO, this in turn modulates the filter envelope via the envelope follower controls. Never mind how this works - it sounds awesome and gives you many creative options for sonic experimentation. You can also set it up so that the envelope follower feeds off the input signal - great for beat matched drum effects. The manual comes with several patch ideas to get you started quickly.
The waveforms offer a lot of variety for the filter envelope, and having Bandpass in addition to Lowpass filter is really nice. I also love that this is a stereo unit, I have it connected to a subgroup on my mixer so I can send any channel(s) along with stereo pan out to the Acidbox and straight back thru the stereo returns. Much better than mono aux send in my opinion.
The tap tempo button means you can make really nice beat synced effects or set it up to auto sweep while your hands are busy with other things.
Finally, the external control input can be set to accept a variety of input sources, including foot pedal, CV from synth / sequencer etc.
I?d give the AcidBox 5 stars if it was 100 euros cheaper and in the same price range as the Vermona Lancet and MoogerFooger. But I feel it?s worth investing the extra money for this unit, especially as it?s going to a small garage-based company in Latvia which needs our support no doubt!
