4ms Pedals Noise Swash
The generation of beats, tones and noise without other instruments is possible with the Noise Swash. Experiment with the infinite combinations of uniqueness. Control the first stage pregain and clipping type, amount of swash noise gate for silence when the noise ceases, second stage postgain and clipping type, sheering high equalization, rumbling low equalization, volume, and self-oscillation...
Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: $140.00
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User Reviews of the 4ms Pedals Noise Swash
- Submitted by burnn_out! from Roseville, MI (78 points) on Oct 30, 2010
- I'll try avoid covering similar ground. i own the max tweaker version and for the most part i use it in self-osc mode. very unpredictable and very unique sounding box. overall its very harsh in tone and when paired with other fx it remains distinct. the only problems i have are the build is skaky. the slightest dial turn will shift the sound in a completely, also the 9v adapter connection on mine seems loose (moving it sometimes results in powering down). overall i'm very happy with this and i gotta believe that like minded people would be pleased with it as well.
- Good Points: -Very unique distortion effect/ sound
- Bad Points: build quality could be better
- Price Paid: US$200.00
- Purchased At: da bayz
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- Submitted by Ferox from Los Altos, CA (432 points) on Nov 8, 2007
- I got mine off ebay from a guy who built it other than 4ms, came with noisegate, noise volume, lfo, post clip, low battery, and the regular goodies.
- Good Points: I've tweaked around with it for about 5 hours, and I can tell there are many more sounds to be discovered. Self-osc mode is an amazing sound source and when used as a pedal it can rip up a sound source when the knobs are used the right way. I highly suggest the low battery mod, it creates chance squeals, chirps, and burps. Used with organic feedback it works pretty well, but I still suggest using it in a chain or a loop. And yes, it is like having a wee Merzbow in a box.
- Bad Points: If you want to get the exact sound you had a little while ago, good luck buddy. Hard to control, but worth the effort. The price.
- Price Paid: US$157.00
- Purchased At: Ebay.com
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- Submitted by Paul from Woodstock, VT (32 points) on Aug 8, 2006
- As there hasn't been one reviewed in a while let's look at a 2006 Swash. You can see mine on their site as "7 Blue Swash". Other than the fact that Dann has significantly raised the price over the years, they're still hand built impeccably to the buyers specifications and end up sounding fantastic. Mine is prety well maxed out and can (and will) be used as a high end distortion box for guitar as well as a mean and nasty self-oscillating bitch. The learning curve is indeed tough so I would suggest getting one that is well labeled. 4ms is still at the top of their game!
- Good Points: -Construction -Looks -Sound -Endless tweakability
- Bad Points: -9V power cord happened to be no good (waiting for another).
- Price Paid: US$380.00
- Purchased At: 4ms direct
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- Submitted by Jeffrey from Salt Lake City, UT (12 points) on Jan 23, 2004
- Very fun pedal. I still haven't quite figured mine out, as it has no labels. I have, at times, gotten some terrific octave-sounding noises out of this thing. But can't quite remember how it was done. As mentioned in other reviews, this works both as a distortion pedal and noise generator. The self-oscillating mode (basically an internal feedback loop) makes lots of noise. Also works great in a feedback loop. Combine with a 'photo-eye' based feedback loop unit for organic control over the chaos.
- Good Points: A noisy beast with lots of knobs and switches, even in standard configuration. Works great in feedback loops.
- Bad Points: The learning curve others have pointed out. You can end up in a bad sounding buzz if not careful. This isn't really a bad point considering all that this unit can do.
- Price Paid: US$190.00
- Purchased At: 4ms bargain shelf
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- Submitted by spit + smudge from Savannah, GA (214 points) on Jul 2, 2002
- I've been eyeing the Noise Swash for over 2 years it seems. Honestly, I was 2 years stupid. This pedal is amazing. Hands down this is my favorite pedal as just a distortion pedal but also as a sound source. With only 4 hours of work into building it yourself, and the small amount of cash (about in parts) its worth it. With 8 knobs(one has a switch to turn self oscillation on) and 2 switches(preclip and post clip) it packs quite a nice variety of sounds.. from blips to deep end grumbling sounds.
- Good Points: Plenty of knobs to play with, the variety of sounds you can conjure up with this pedal is mind boggling. The guys who are the minds behind commonsound are also great to talk to if you have any problems with building your own.
- Bad Points: It has a small learning curve, after playing with it a little, you will get an idea of what sounds will make if you turn the knobs a certain way. Although I personally don't feel this is a bad thing.
- Price Paid: US$30.00
- Purchased At: mouser (for parts)
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- Submitted by Ben from United States (250 points) on Apr 1, 2002
- I have the Tweaker version with even more mods. The LFO mod is a very important addition. I strongly advise going for the most mods possible, because additions like the low power mod, LFO, etc. are useful. The Noise Swash has lots of tonal range, from very low to very high. It creates sounds from rumbles and whines, to rhythmic, pounding sounds. It can also generate some weird blips and such. It really is like putting Merzbow inside a stomp box. It can be very uncontrollable, and putting the same settings in on two occassions generally yields two different results. After a few hours of messing around with it, I've learned how to control it somewhat, but either the learning curve is steep (I don't think it is) or this pedal is very random (I think this is the case). Some knobs, like the LFO knob, are more useful in only about 25%-50% of their range, and are very sensitive. I intend to build one eventually, and experimenting with different values of pots will be something I will likely attempt to deal with this issue. All in all, I would almost trade most of my pedals for this, it's so great.
- Good Points: This is like a noise synth. I generally use this by itself in self-oscillation mode, and sometimes use it like this followed by a Meatbox, Corrosion, or both.
- Bad Points: Uncontrollable and random in operation -- though that's kind of the point.
- Price Paid: US$255.00
- Purchased At: 3ms
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- Submitted by K. from Sealy, TX (532 points) on Mar 19, 2002
- The noise swash is certainly capable of emulating / approximating most of the sounds from the Merzbow back catalog, though not on a consistent basis, it's just as easy to get crappy whines and squeals out of this as it is crunchy, rumbling noise. Certain settings of the dozen + controls will give pulsing oscilations and weird cyclic phrases, but as is the case w/ all the Soundshimmer devices a miniscule tweak of the wrong knob in the wrong direction and all is lost. My main complaint w/ the noise swash is that it doesn't play nice w/ other pedals, though it could be due to most commercial pedals having low impedance inputs better suited for guitar. I don't actually use my swash much, but it can definitely dish out the goods when needed.
- Good Points: Wide variety of noise, fuzz, pulses, and oscillations can be coaxed out of it, a very unique device.
- Bad Points: VERY difficult to control, though that's the idea.
- Price Paid: US$60.00
- Purchased At: built from scratch
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- Submitted by Tim from San Francisco, CA (42 points) on Jun 25, 2001
- If you took pre-laptop merzbow and shrunk him down and locked him inside the effect box with all of his shrunken effects and were able to control him with the knobs on the noiseswash, that is what this pedal is like. I built this from the kits that commonsound sells. You can also buy the finished pedal directly from them with your choice of colors and mods...
- Good Points: Highly controlable. Lot's of cool sounds eminate from this box...
- Bad Points: N/A
- Price Paid: US$53.00
- Purchased At: commonsound
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