Peavey Spectrum Analog Filter

thehighesttree · Post by **thehighesttree** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:10 pm

Hey everybody! I need some advice on this analog filter I'm looking at as a potential purchase . I looked up the specs and was really disappointed to learn that this MIDI-equipped analog filter with 3 mono inputs only has a single mono output...WHY??? Why would they do that? It makes no damn sense! Sure it can "auto-gate" any incoming sound to the EG, but why make features which alienate anybody who isn't a guitarist, but include MIDI in/out/thru? For that matter, under what kind of scenario would any of this setup make sense? Who's gonna route, say, 2 guitars and a bass into the same mix?

Anyways, I'm still rolling this around in my head. The guy's asking $150 and it doesn't come with a wall wart, but I wouldn't take a whiff of it for any more than $100 if I can confirm that it works.

My position is this: I'm using VAs right now, specifically an R3 running into the shitty mono-only line of my EMX, which is then routed through my ESX, then through a kaoss pad to the mix (R3 > EMX[mono-input] > ESX > KP3 > mix). Would this piece of gear power up the sound of my R3 sufficiently to make it worth keeping in its current mono-out configuration? I know this is a matter of opinion, so I'm really wondering if the "analog effect" will make the R3 sound completely asskicking in the setup I've got. Thoughts?

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 6:52 am

You would have to try. The filter in the R3 is pretty decent, as VAs go, in my opinion, so it's really debatable if a budget analog filter we be an upgrade. If it's all you plan to use it for, I'd say save the money. But again, try it.

axxim · Post by **axxim** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:01 pm

Running a synth which has stereo outputs thru a mono input is simply a crime. Specially the modern synths get about 30% of their sound "power" from their stereo FX section.
The only synths remaining, that wouldn't suffer from this castration are the vintage monophonic ones and they surely don't need to get "afterburned" by another analog filter. YMO

thehighesttree · Post by **thehighesttree** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:36 pm

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I've decided that it's not worth it, especially where it doesn't come with an adaptor. I really don't know how else I'd be using it in a configuration as well so there's not much point. For now I've still got my monotron