I just got mine, wizzed throu a few presets, its an interesting pedal, lots to explore, built like a tank too, its a hefty pedal.
Good multi fx pedal that can be used a static effects or using the 4 track sequence lanes to add even more movement.
First Polyend device, and I like it.
We just got our Mess earlier this week. I wish John Balance and Peter Christopherson were still with us to see how they would use this thing!! Prefuse73 would probably love this thing, as well as a Timetosser… but this post is about the Mess!!
Being familiar with the Polyend Play, I found some similarities with respect to its abilities to assign different parameters to each step very quickly. Although, those similarities also extend to Elektron gear as well.
Of all the effects, I think I love the Micro-Time Looper the most. I also like the ‘Delay Lama’ vowel effects quite alot!!
Of course sequencing out the effects is the big gamechanger with respect to stompboxes. And that is where this thing shines. A simple sequence can be turned into some sonically-bending, mental affair which I haven’t seen available outside of the Glitch2 VST.
Now I can use the Digitakt II to mangle my percussion, and my better-half can use the Polyend Mess to mangle everything else!!
Here’s a live track that starts out in a more ordinary fashion, but then… thanks to the Mess, is turned into something else entirely!!
My wife eventually opens the thing up and it becomes pretty chaotic and… industrial!!
The biggest problem I have with gear acquisition syndrome, is that now I want to go back and get the Mess’s rhythmic effect processing put into all of our old jams and songs from before we had this thing!!
Cheers from Delco PA!
How would you compare the mess with the chase bliss lost and found? Which interests you more?
Mess covers some classes of effect, whereas L&F is more a box of curiosities. You get a sequencer on mess, and you save a couple bucks with L&F. There’s some menu diving and configuring on mess, and the effects are relatively more under your fingers on L&F. Both can do serial or parallel or even double up the same effect or change order. Mess has 4 slots, L&F has two. Both accept midi but the L&F not as readily. Mess has however many parameters per effect a choice of which can be targeted with the sequencer, L&F has 3 parameters, one of which can be targeted with expression (I believe. The dip switches alter a bit for each Chase Bliss pedal) and any which can be controlled via cc. Mess has a bigger footprint (a consideration for pedalboards, but where do you place a multi effect on a board is anyone’s guess). Both are stereo.
Anyone got one of these and what do you think of it now you have had it for a while? I’ve been looking at getting my first multi effects unit and this one looks really nice (Red Means recording video was great), I’ve also been looking at the Chase Bliss Mood Mk2, but can’t decide which one is more fun and built for happy accidents.
I read some people doing like Polyend gear.
It’s to mainly use with my Digitone 2 and Novation Peak for melodic/ambient music.
I still love it. One of my never sell bits of gear. It’s just flexible. Glitch up your sequence. Create stutters you can sequence. Lofi ambient.
How is the MIDI sync performance?
Is it possible to have a ramp between the values or is always stepped modulation?
Does it feel like a finished product or is it something that seems like it’s going to need a few firmware revisions to become completely dialed in?
It’s very interesting to me and I really like screens that allow me to see what’s going on and name things so that I have some vague idea of what it does one year in the future.
I have a Holigram Chroma Console that can sound very nice, but if I don’t use it for a few months I forget how the thing works because I have far too many things that require me to remember fiddly settings.
I’m getting older and interfaces that require a little less remembering are becoming more valuable to me.
Please can someone help me out with which power supplies are ok to use with this? It says 9v - 18v, does that mean I can use 12v (0.7A)? Does it have to be center negative or positive?
This is the one I bought Amazon.com
Any 9V DC center-negative power supply, and the adapter should provide at least 500mA
Anyone using this in the fx send of a mixer? Does it work well for that?
The manual says it accepts both center negative and center positive psus.
I’m with you on screen feedback from devices. It’s part of the reason why I just ordered the unit. I had a Holigram unit and wound up selling due to wonky interface (Chroma Console). Will get back to you on the screen usefulness.
Does anyone have a bit more info on the behaviour when sending program changes via MIDI - how long it takes for the new fx to kick in / are there any trails of the previous effects?
Also am I right in thinking that the looper functionality is only for small steps and it’s not possible to loop/overdub audio over an entire bar?
FYI - played around with the pedal over the weekend. Going to return it. I didn’t like the gain staging for each effect, then global setting as it washes out the effects. You really need to spend a lot of time to fine tune, so if you like to fiddle for hours on a pedal to get that perfect sound, then this might be for that person. I did like the random effects generator though. The UI is “OK”, not great. And I kept messing up sounds I was going for, by hitting on the wrong track button or knob while tweaking. On build quality, the metal shield on the front is very solid, along with the foot switches. The screen is great, but the knobs felt cheap to me. The back ports are reasonable, and I did appreciate the SD card and USB port. Nitpic - for what you pay, they should provide a USB cable at minimum, and a power supply as a option. For the right person, it could be a goldmine device for endless exploration. But after plonking down with it for a few days, I came out of the experience wanting an analog pedal or group of pedals vs. a multi-effect pedal.
Here’s another demo, with a strong focus on ambient, electronica, and some Dub Techno. I’ve tried to show MESS also in some more “classical settings”, as I found other videos to cover the wild side quite nicely, already. Of course, I’ve also included sequenced fx with a more experimental approach.