Without the compressor, long sustained notes can die with a bristly farting sound at a moments notice, depending on how you set the trigger. The sound quality of the Electro Harmonix Microsyth improved greatly when i added a compressor before it in my FX chain and it sounds fearsome with my Strymon Echo pedal after it. You get a lot of control with the unit leading it to the kind of versatility that makes it very good value for money. It has the usual, sturdy metal chassis of an Electro Harmonix FX pedal

The starting tone slider broke quite easily within the first month of having it and i now need to keep a ready supply of tooth picks handy to slide between the gap in order to change this parameter.

To counter this I wrote a few of the settings that provided cool sounds on the handy record sheet that comes with the unit and am now quite comfortable with it. It took a while to get used it and I find that, compared to fuzz, vibrato, and the more usual fx units, it can be quite difficult to dial up a new sound that sits well on the fly during a gig. You can get the swirling, sub-octave synth sound of the Ming's Palace theme by Queen from the Flash Gordon soundtrack which, in itself, was enough reason for me to buy it. Although I consider the pedal to be an excellent one and there is nothing else like it out there, in its current design, based on my particular needs for volume boosts, I would have to relegate it to studio and practice situations. In certain combinations, can sound really awful when the square wave is engaged. Like a fuzz pedal, it works better with some than others or may not work at all. I have tried combining it with boost pedals at the pre/post stage, with varied results. The pedal has no general volume boost available, which potentially renders the pedal unsuitable for live situations.

In most of the live situations I'm in, I need to have a drastic rise in volume when switching from rhythm to solos. The pedal essentially works on unity-gain levels. There is however one drawback in the current design. It'll keep you aware of your legato technique and phrasing, which can only expand your musicality. You will have to change your playing to adapt to this pedal, which is a good thing. It has some really cool features that allow you to compete with or completely replace the lame keyboardist in your band -) Think the solo on Queen's 'I Want To Break Free' - it can easily be replicated with the MicroSynth! And although it is ideal to have an amp set up that is capable of responding to the frequencies it generates, it will still sound great in smaller amps and less-than-ideal set ups. I have always loved this pedal from the time I first played the predecessor version way back in the day. The dimensions are 143 x 119 x 60 mm (5.6 x 4.7 x 2.4 inches) - for some reason it was impossible to find the actual pedal's dimensions listed anywhere online! It came with its own power supply, but with the 9 V negative-center DC setting, I was able to daisy-chain it to the power supply of my other pedals without any problem. Kudos to Electro Harmonix for reducing the physical size in this new version.

Bass microsynth daisy chain