Anyone tried the Meris Polymoon? Opinions?

Philtre

Wazmeister said:

Lovely sounding the Polymoon... i simply struggled to recreate sounds, and the lack of presets ultimately put me off.

I'd not realised that connecting it up to some kind of MIDI controller is necessary if you want to store and recall presets. I coul do that I guess but I want to keep my board relatively simple. So I'll regard the Polymoon as a source of serendipitous sounds.

GavRichList

Philtre said:

Wazmeister said:

Lovely sounding the Polymoon... i simply struggled to recreate sounds, and the lack of presets ultimately put me off.

I'd not realised that connecting it up to some kind of MIDI controller is necessary if you want to store and recall presets. I coul do that I guess but I want to keep my board relatively simple. So I'll regard the Polymoon as a source of serendipitous sounds.

You could buy an I/O box only, and one of these:

https://www.dawsons.co.uk/yamaha-mdbt01-bluetooth-wireless-midi-interface?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIivm4oueI3AIVxrHtCh1K6Aj-EAQYAiABEgKxKPD_BwE

Then you could operate via your phone. (Including presets). 

See here:

https://youtu.be/3wr7KjRqvyU

Philtre

Thanks, @GavRichList good idea. :-)

As for GigRig power I might try taking the power directly from a Distributor. Not isolated, I know, but it might work.

Teetonetal

Lots of digital pedals require more power at boot up and more power for some sounds / use than others. Eventide factor series and the moen gec switchers spring to mind. 

If you plug an expression pedal into the polymoon toe up and toe down are 2 presets. You then morph between them when you rock your foot.

Meris also sell a 4 button switcher to give access to 4 presets if you want.

Gadget

If you have another MIDI-equipped FX pedal which has presets, would it be possible to set some blank / bypass presets on that unit, but with patch change messages to send to the Polymoon, so you could use the other FX unit as a switcher?

Philtre

I solved the power supply issue. I simply took a connection straight from the GigRig Distributor. No noise and no need for a £60 TimeLord adapter.  I guess it's OK because all the other pedals on the board are fed via Isolators.

Philtre

Gadget said:

If you have another MIDI-equipped FX pedal which has presets, would it be possible to set some blank / bypass presets on that unit, but with patch change messages to send to the Polymoon, so you could use the other FX unit as a switcher?

Not sure. I have a Boss GT-100 I could try with. However, the Polymoon uses a TRS socket for MIDI which is a new one on me. Is an adapter available?

Gadget

Philtre said:

...the Polymoon uses a TRS socket for MIDI which is a new one on me. Is an adapter available?

@GavRichList  ; mentioned a couple above and a Google search for "TRS to MIDI" reveals a few others like a nice looking one by Lehle for example, but whether or not they're cost-effective for you is another matter.

Philtre

Gadget said:

Philtre said:

...the Polymoon uses a TRS socket for MIDI which is a new one on me. Is an adapter available?

@GavRichList  ; mentioned a couple above and a Google search for "TRS to MIDI" reveals a few others like a nice looking one by Lehle for example, but whether or not they're cost-effective for you is another matter.

Right. I think I can solder one of these together.

Gadget

Philtre said:

Gadget said:

Philtre said:

...the Polymoon uses a TRS socket for MIDI which is a new one on me. Is an adapter available?

@GavRichList  ; mentioned a couple above and a Google search for "TRS to MIDI" reveals a few others like a nice looking one by Lehle for example, but whether or not they're cost-effective for you is another matter.

Right. I think I can solder one of these together.

That wasn't quite what I meant. I was referring to buying a box for the purpose.

If you can build that, great, but if you are meaning soldering-up a cable, read the explanations on a few of the sites there, which point-out that musical MIDI is not the same as hi-fi DIN.

Artsutanov

I bought a Polymoon and within 15 mins it was back in the box, to return. Energy zapped & serious buyers remorse. 

It felt like i'd gorged myself on the most indulgent desert. 

It's so distinctive, that i just wanted to bury it under other things. Which misses the point to a degree, but i suppose would make for interesting layers/soundscapes.

Way too over the top for me, but it does sound good. 

That said, i get a sneaky feeling it will be playing on my mind for a long time. Let's see where the Empress Echosystem takes me.

Gadget

From what I've heard of the demos, it sounds great in stereo and distinctly average in mono (?)

Philtre

It felt like i'd gorged myself on the most indulgent dessert.

Yes, I know what you mean. It's not a bread and butter pedal. :-)

From what I've heard of the demos, it sounds great in stereo and distinctly average in mono (?)

Yes, indeed. I only use it now in stereo with two amps when I'm in an ambient noodling mood.

I must admit that it is a very unique and distinctive effect, and once you've heard the phaser and the other effects you kind of know its signature sound ("whoosh..."). I have managed to get some "ordinary" delays by switching everything off and setting the delay knob to "1" although that's an expensive way to get a delay.

I bought mine new, and I kind of regret it, and wonder whether I could have put that toward a Strymon. But I'll keep it for a while longer.

GavRichList

Philtre said:

It felt like i'd gorged myself on the most indulgent dessert.

Yes, I know what you mean. It's not a bread and butter pedal. :-)

From what I've heard of the demos, it sounds great in stereo and distinctly average in mono (?)

Yes, indeed. I only use it now in stereo with two amps when I'm in an ambient noodling mood.

I must admit that it is a very unique and distinctive effect, and once you've heard the phaser and the other effects you kind of know its signature sound ("whoosh..."). I have managed to get some "ordinary" delays by switching everything off and setting the delay knob to "1" although that's an expensive way to get a delay.

I bought mine new, and I kind of regret it, and wonder whether I could have put that toward a Strymon. But I'll keep it for a while longer.

The Strymon is DULL, so don’t fret on that 

Teetonetal

Philtre said:

It felt like i'd gorged myself on the most indulgent dessert.

Yes, I know what you mean. It's not a bread and butter pedal. :-)

From what I've heard of the demos, it sounds great in stereo and distinctly average in mono (?)

Yes, indeed. I only use it now in stereo with two amps when I'm in an ambient noodling mood.

I must admit that it is a very unique and distinctive effect, and once you've heard the phaser and the other effects you kind of know its signature sound ("whoosh..."). I have managed to get some "ordinary" delays by switching everything off and setting the delay knob to "1" although that's an expensive way to get a delay.

I bought mine new, and I kind of regret it, and wonder whether I could have put that toward a Strymon. But I'll keep it for a while longer.

We must be using it in very different ways. It's without question the most expiring and interesting sounding pedal I've ever bought. It does so much, but it's a pedal that you mix with a float around with other pedals to drive interest. a straight forward delay it is not and doesn't pretend to be, but it's properly atmospheric (even in mono). sure it has a signature sound of a filter / phaser, but your bog standard analogue delay is VERY distinctive in it's own repeats and you wouldn't want it any other way, other wise, you'd have bought the wrong pedal for the use case.

The first 26 seconds of this show it in stereo both with that filter sound and pretty clean



Here is the most fun thing I've done with it, the polymoon is subtle, driving the reverb tail of the next pedal to swell. you would hardly know there is a delay in there.



I think the pedal is genius but I'm an unashamed Meris Fan Boi

boogieman

Philtre said:

It felt like i'd gorged myself on the most indulgent dessert.

Yes, I know what you mean. It's not a bread and butter pedal. :-)

From what I've heard of the demos, it sounds great in stereo and distinctly average in mono (?)

Yes, indeed. I only use it now in stereo with two amps when I'm in an ambient noodling mood.

I must admit that it is a very unique and distinctive effect, and once you've heard the phaser and the other effects you kind of know its signature sound ("whoosh..."). I have managed to get some "ordinary" delays by switching everything off and setting the delay knob to "1" although that's an expensive way to get a delay.

I bought mine new, and I kind of regret it, and wonder whether I could have put that toward a Strymon. But I'll keep it for a while longer.

I’m finding new sounds in the Polymoon all the time and it’s been inspirational for me. It only takes a minor tweak of one knob to take it somewhere different, it’s definitely not a one trick pony. I don’t think I’ll take it off my board in the foreseeable future. IMO it’s still very good in mono, but yup stereo really makes it shine. The depth and spread of the thing is astonishing. 

Ordinary echo sounds pretty tame afterwards, I’m only using my El Capistan in front of the Polymoon now to provide more/different textures, it’s not getting much use on its own. The only thing the Polymoon really lacks is some way of saving to patches internally and I saw it's getting a fair bit of criticism on TGP for that, although I guess it only really matters if you’re gigging it and need that instant recall of certain tones. 

damm73

GavRichList said:

Philtre said:

Wazmeister said:

Lovely sounding the Polymoon... i simply struggled to recreate sounds, and the lack of presets ultimately put me off.

I'd not realised that connecting it up to some kind of MIDI controller is necessary if you want to store and recall presets. I coul do that I guess but I want to keep my board relatively simple. So I'll regard the Polymoon as a source of serendipitous sounds.

You could buy an I/O box only, and one of these:

https://www.dawsons.co.uk/yamaha-mdbt01-bluetooth-wireless-midi-interface?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIivm4oueI3AIVxrHtCh1K6Aj-EAQYAiABEgKxKPD_BwE

Then you could operate via your phone. (Including presets). 

See here:

https://youtu.be/3wr7KjRqvyU

Waaaaaait a minute...you need to buy an additional Bluetooth adapter?! I've totally misunderstood the marketing for the Meris I/O in that case...I thought that functionality was built into it, thus justifying it's costing £40 more than the Chase Bliss one!

GavRichList

damm73 said:

GavRichList said:

Philtre said:

Wazmeister said:

Lovely sounding the Polymoon... i simply struggled to recreate sounds, and the lack of presets ultimately put me off.

I'd not realised that connecting it up to some kind of MIDI controller is necessary if you want to store and recall presets. I coul do that I guess but I want to keep my board relatively simple. So I'll regard the Polymoon as a source of serendipitous sounds.

You could buy an I/O box only, and one of these:

https://www.dawsons.co.uk/yamaha-mdbt01-bluetooth-wireless-midi-interface?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIivm4oueI3AIVxrHtCh1K6Aj-EAQYAiABEgKxKPD_BwE

Then you could operate via your phone. (Including presets). 

See here:

https://youtu.be/3wr7KjRqvyU

Waaaaaait a minute...you need to buy an additional Bluetooth adapter?! I've totally misunderstood the marketing for the Meris I/O in that case...I thought that functionality was built into it, thus justifying it's costing £40 more than the Chase Bliss one!

Nope. The £40 difference is more or less for the two orange LEDs as far as I can tell, and I have both.