My Ribbons is slated to be here this week and I’m super excited to start messing around with it! Naturally I’ve been combing through the manual and I’ve got some questions about the synth mode. I just received a Chase Bliss Mood MKII last week which also has a synth mode, but I’ve been disappointed with the synth thus far because it seems to require freezing an actual note through the input jack before you are then able to modify it with midi. This is demonstrated in the first part of this video:
My question is does Ribbons require something similar, or will it automatically generate a note based on a Midi Note message without requiring any previous input in the pedals internal buffer? I’d love to be able to plug a midi keyboard into my pedalboard midi input to be able to play guitar through my signal chain but also generate synth from Ribbons if I place it near the end of my chain.
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Hi @cmakohon -
So glad you’re excited to receive your Ribbons! Here are some answers about Ribbons’ sine wave synth:
Correct - there is no need to “freeze” or capture a note with Ribbons’ synth. You just plug in a MIDI controller and start playing. It has four-voices of polyphony, can be pitched up or down 5 semitones using the pitch slider / wheel, does note stealing, and has controls for attack, release, and volume.
Other things to note:
No need for an external MIDI box. You just need a TRS to DIN MIDI cable - Ribbons defaults to MIDI type A (which we generally recommend) but there are internal jumpers to accommodate a couple other MIDI types.
The synth gets mixed in with the audio from the input jack, so for example you could have the synth arpeggiate something while you play along with your guitar.
The synth can be processed by all of Ribbons’ tape effects, Touch Modes, and looper. There are lots of possibilities for creating unique textures using the sine waves as a starting point and then dialing in some wow, flutter, saturation, etc.
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Thank you so much for the response Jaak! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the time and thought you’ve put into every feature of this pedal. I can’t wait to try it out and I also can’t wait to see what products Kinotone comes out with in the future.
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