Superbooth 23: Finegear The Dirt Magnet FX and Modmix experimental mixing console

Superbooth 23: Finegear The Dirt Magnet, a dirty multi-fx with cassette magic & Modmix, an experimental mixing console, ready for pre-order.

Now it’s getting dirty and wild. Do you remember last year’s news from the Romanian company Finegear? Yes, the creators of the beautiful Dust Collector desktop FX. Last year, they showcased prototypes of the Dirt Magnet, a desktop multi-fx with real cassette tape, and the Modmix, an experimental mixer console.

A year has passed, and the lovely handmade products are out of their prototype status and are now finished. Both the Finegear Dirty Magnet and Modmix will be available for pre-order with the opening of the Superbooth 23 doors.

Finegear The Dirt Magnet

The Dirt Magnet is the second release of their Arkive_Effects_ series and the following up on The Dust Collector. It hosts a collection of classic effects in a hefty desktop format with large knobs and easy knobs. A lovely box and something that

This is a collection of classic effects in a large desktop format with large knobs and easy operation—something you don’t see that often anymore on the market. I particularly like that the concept is just as loved as with the Dust Collector. You not only get classic effects, but they are also patchable, like a semi-modular Synthesizer. And this time, all in stereo.

Dirt Magnet features a vintage-infused cassette-tape delay, a VCF, a ring modulator, a highpass filter, a crack generator, a noise generator with a modulatable band-pass filter, and two VC LFO. And all effects can be modulated individually.

Finegear promise character and noisescapes per excellence. You can use and abuse any effects to add noise or crackle to your sounds, ring modulate them, filter them, or delay them using the Tape section.

Since the effects individually have no fixed signal path and can be freely combined, you can create the wildest effects. The Dirt Magnet is a lovely desktop FX unit with great attention to detail.

Finegear Modmix

If that’s not experimental and crazy for you, then the Finegear Modmix is right for you. Already presented at Superbooth 22, now finished and ready to pre-order, the Modmix is an experimental mixing console from hell.

Modmix consists of four CV-controlled channels, four sends, stereo returns, and multiple send-to-channel switchable routing options made for no-input mixing and feedback techniques. What Bastl offers in its Bestie mixer in a light form, is brought to the top here.

Finegear’s unique take on a CV mixing console also features two MIDI-syncable multi-wave LFOs and envelopes for wild modulations.

All four channels have an XLR/6.35mm jack combo for connecting a microphone or line-level signal (balanced or unbalanced). Thanks to the preamp, three-band EQ, and insert jacks, you can also use it as a transparent channel strip. But you can also take it to sonic devil with the four CV-controllable sends, panning, and volume. This unlocks new sonic worlds.

Mixer Becomes Synth & Effects Processor

Then, Modmix offers four effect-send buses and four stereo inputs. The latter can be used as either the returns for the effects buses or as four extra stereo channels. A combination is also possible. With the flick of a switch, you can route each send to the corresponding channel (send 1 to channel 1…) turning Modmix into a no-input synth or feedback effect.

Further, it has a master section allowing you to set the channel mix level, master level, and the phones/cue level. Two analog vuMeters are also included to help monitor the output signal. Besides the modulation engine (LFOs, envelope follower), there are also high and lowpass filters.

Another product that was developed with great attention to detail. Here you can discover new worlds of mixing. From screaming, noisy synth sounds, feedback effects to creative mixing, the Modmix is a fabulous product. It’s not a product for the masses, but more for experimental musicians or sound designers with a favor for noise and feedback.