cobascis wrote:What does a micro synth DO actually?
Makes synth noises.
Nah, really it's kind of a single-note octaver (none of the polyphonic stuff like the POG or the Ring Thing), fuzz pedal, and a filter section. Combined, it can create some pretty keyboard-ey sounds, but sometimes it's fun just to isolate certain sections and play with them. For example, with only the +1 octave and square wave voices dialed in you get a pretty good approximation of an octave fuzz. It sounds fucking nasty. Turn the attack filter halfway and it sounds like a backwards fuzz.
The Ring Thing is brilliant. It has basically four modes. There's regular Ring Mod, basically copied over from the Frequency Analyser but with extra controls. Then you have the option of isolating your upper or lower band and applying the Ring Mod to that instead. In these two modes it's much more musical than the usual robot-in-a-can sounds. Messing with the controls will get you a Uni-vibe sound, trem sounds and all that jazz. Top these three modes off with the ability to tune the modulation to the note you're playing and it's sort of amazing because it's a ring mod that you can actually play musically.
The last mode is pitchshift, with 2 octaves up and down. It's also polyphonic, and it really doesn't feel like it was just tacked on. You have a whole four octaves of travel, too, not just the actual octave notes. It even has a fine tune control.
It sounds great after the Micro Synth with a couple of jittery mod effects.