OTO Machine BIM BAM BOUM

Sounds super nice, but at 415 Euro a pop that aint cheap

Yes pretty expensive but the build quality is stunning

These do look nice, although there are a whole lot of well built vintage 12 bit and even 8 bit delays and reverbs floating around for much less. They're also mostly a lot bulkier and 30 years old, though, so I can absolutely see where these could be preferable if price isn't a concern. They definitely have that sound.

They strike me as something I'd enjoy using just for their look and feel. And they sound good.

I love how the back panel labelling is upside down. Brilliant.

So I got my state tax return really early and preordered a BAM about a month ago.  Got it today.

The demos don't even come close to doing it justice, this thing sounds fantastic and the build quality is fantastic.  Not cheap, way out of my usual low-rent price range for gear, but absolutely worth it.  Just superlative, beautiful sounding reverb and very easy to use, the unlabeled LED interface seemed like it might mean reaching for the manual a bit too often in the beginning but I didn't have to open it once yet, everything is really easy to tweak by ear and nothing sounds bad.  A lot more variety than I expected, too.

I honestly considered calling in sick so I could stay home and try running every piece of gear I own through it. Ironically, laryngitis has been going around at work, and within two hours of getting here I started coming down with it too, so if I HAD called in sick I wouldn't have gotten sick.

I do have one complaint though, and that is NO POWER SWITCH!  I'm surprised something with so much attention paid to detail skipped that. My only free outlet that's near my mixer is also the one my lamp is plugged in to, so switching the whole strip off when I'm not using the BAM isn't really an option.  Everything else plugged in there has a power switch so it's no big deal, but this doesn't so I have to unplug it which isn't a huge thing but for something this well thought out, and where there are obviously no corners being cut to hit a budget goal, I'd have expected it to have a switch.

But yeah the fact that this is the only criticism I can come up with speaks to how goo this thing is.  As much as I love (and will keep using) Valhalla Vintageverb, this thing really is an order of magnitude nicer sounding.

  On 2/28/2017 at 11:57 PM, RSP said:

So I got my state tax return really early and preordered a BAM about a month ago.  Got it today.

 

The demos don't even come close to doing it justice, this thing sounds fantastic and the build quality is fantastic.  Not cheap, way out of my usual low-rent price range for gear, but absolutely worth it.  Just superlative, beautiful sounding reverb and very easy to use, the unlabeled LED interface seemed like it might mean reaching for the manual a bit too often in the beginning but I didn't have to open it once yet, everything is really easy to tweak by ear and nothing sounds bad.  A lot more variety than I expected, too.

 

I honestly considered calling in sick so I could stay home and try running every piece of gear I own through it. Ironically, laryngitis has been going around at work, and within two hours of getting here I started coming down with it too, so if I HAD called in sick I wouldn't have gotten sick.

That is good to hear... Both the BIM and the BAM sound great to me and I love the way they look. I'm still vaguely in the market for a desktop reverb and I always felt like the Eventide Space was the only reasonable choice but it's good to hear this is another sensible option.

Interesting. I have next to no desire to get one of these but they sure look cute. If I ever sell all of my other reverbs (doubt it) I'd probably get one, or a BigSky..

  On 3/1/2017 at 2:31 AM, RSP said:

I do have one complaint though, and that is NO POWER SWITCH!  I'm surprised something with so much attention paid to detail skipped that. My only free outlet that's near my mixer is also the one my lamp is plugged in to, so switching the whole strip off when I'm not using the BAM isn't really an option.  Everything else plugged in there has a power switch so it's no big deal, but this doesn't so I have to unplug it which isn't a huge thing but for something this well thought out, and where there are obviously no corners being cut to hit a budget goal, I'd have expected it to have a switch.

 

But yeah the fact that this is the only criticism I can come up with speaks to how goo this thing is.  As much as I love (and will keep using) Valhalla Vintageverb, this thing really is an order of magnitude nicer sounding.

i have a couple of things in this category. powerboard with switches seems like good option ? 

  On 3/1/2017 at 6:10 AM, modey said:

Interesting. I have next to no desire to get one of these but they sure look cute. If I ever sell all of my other reverbs (doubt it) I'd probably get one, or a BigSky..

Am I the only person who doesn't like the sound of the BigSky? Every demo I've heard reminds me of that pallid quality of daylight pouring in from the window when I'm too sick to do anything but lay in bed. Maybe it's best for melodic ambient. I like reverbs that can pump and make things funkier, give them more energy.

  On 3/1/2017 at 4:20 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 3/1/2017 at 6:10 AM, modey said:

Interesting. I have next to no desire to get one of these but they sure look cute. If I ever sell all of my other reverbs (doubt it) I'd probably get one, or a BigSky..

Am I the only person who doesn't like the sound of the BigSky? Every demo I've heard reminds me of that pallid quality of daylight pouring in from the window when I'm too sick to do anything but lay in bed. Maybe it's best for melodic ambient. I like reverbs that can pump and make things funkier, give them more energy.

 

All the demos I've heard sound good but not really to my taste, can't put my finger on it right now, I guess it's more hi-fi and modern sounding than I usually Iike.

I like my verbs lush and velvety. 

Having said that, I'm starting to appreciate using reverb as a sound design tool as well. Still, nothing like running literally anything through a super long warm sounding reverb :D

  On 3/2/2017 at 1:52 AM, modey said:

I like my verbs lush and velvety. 

 

Having said that, I'm starting to appreciate using reverb as a sound design tool as well. Still, nothing like running literally anything through a super long warm sounding reverb :D

Yeah, this seems to be what it's best at.

I'm not a big sidechain compression user usually, but putting a compressor after a reverb on an aux with the highest ratio and fastest attack it can do, and then using the dry signal that's feeding the aux as the sidechain trigger and adjusting the release time to fit the tempo of the track can sound really cool on rhythmic stuff like drum machines and arpeggiated synths with quick decays.

Only reason I could afford it was tax returns and some extra work I got over the winter, the timing just happened to line up with the production run.  Been able to pick up a few things I usually wouldn't be able to even consider, between contract work and getting ebtter at repairing stuff.

  On 3/1/2017 at 4:20 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 3/1/2017 at 6:10 AM, modey said:

Interesting. I have next to no desire to get one of these but they sure look cute. If I ever sell all of my other reverbs (doubt it) I'd probably get one, or a BigSky..

Am I the only person who doesn't like the sound of the BigSky? Every demo I've heard reminds me of that pallid quality of daylight pouring in from the window when I'm too sick to do anything but lay in bed. Maybe it's best for melodic ambient. I like reverbs that can pump and make things funkier, give them more energy.

 

You're not. People bang on like there is a choice between the bigsky and the space. Tried both and the space blows it away for my taste. The knobs felts fragile on the bigsky too.

I built one of these a year or two ago and it may only do one thing, but it does it really well:

https://buildyourownclone.com/collections/reverb-delay/products/reverb2

Most of the action happens in the Belton reverb module (which is technically a digital/analog hybrid digital but apparently the way it works is by having a few parallel digital delay lines with their own separate clocks that are deliberately imprecise, so they drift against each other in a similar way to real springs or something - it sounds very realistic however they're doing it), which puts it in the company of a lot of $200-$300 boutique spring reverb pedals.  It's also VERY easy to modify the circuit so that you can switch the dry signal out completely and use it as an aux effect, which is what I got it for and what I usually use it for.  Sounds better than some real spring reverbs I've used.

There are three different Belton modules available with different ranges of decay time, so if you really wanted it wouldn't be too hard to find a 6 pole, 3 throw switch, mount all three Belton modules on a second board, and rehouse the whole thing so you could select between different "spring size" easily.  OF course that would probably more than double the cost but you could do it.

Since the Beltons are made as drop-in replacements for real Accutronics spring tanks, you could also probably rehouse it with the Belton module on a separate board and add a switch and pair of RCA jacks (or a switched, stereo 1/4 jack you could use with a TRS to 2xRCA insert cable) so that you could hook up real springs when you were recording but use the Belton module if you were playing out or something and didn't want to deal with the logistics of a real spring reverb. This last one is something I've been meaning to do to mine for a while.

  On 3/3/2017 at 12:20 AM, RSP said:

I built one of these a year or two ago and it may only do one thing, but it does it really well:

 

https://buildyourownclone.com/collections/reverb-delay/products/reverb2

 

Most of the action happens in the Belton reverb module (which is technically a digital/analog hybrid digital but apparently the way it works is by having a few parallel digital delay lines with their own separate clocks that are deliberately imprecise, so they drift against each other in a similar way to real springs or something - it sounds very realistic however they're doing it), which puts it in the company of a lot of $200-$300 boutique spring reverb pedals.  It's also VERY easy to modify the circuit so that you can switch the dry signal out completely and use it as an aux effect, which is what I got it for and what I usually use it for.  Sounds better than some real spring reverbs I've used.

 

There are three different Belton modules available with different ranges of decay time, so if you really wanted it wouldn't be too hard to find a 6 pole, 3 throw switch, mount all three Belton modules on a second board, and rehouse the whole thing so you could select between different "spring size" easily.  OF course that would probably more than double the cost but you could do it.

 

Since the Beltons are made as drop-in replacements for real Accutronics spring tanks, you could also probably rehouse it with the Belton module on a separate board and add a switch and pair of RCA jacks (or a switched, stereo 1/4 jack you could use with a TRS to 2xRCA insert cable) so that you could hook up real springs when you were recording but use the Belton module if you were playing out or something and didn't want to deal with the logistics of a real spring reverb. This last one is something I've been meaning to do to mine for a while.

That could be fun. Spring reverbs sound so good although it seems like there's a pretty limited range of sounds you can get out of them - they can't be tuned or anything, right? 

You know lately I have been thinking about picking up their parametric EQ. If I may be a bit shallow, I don't particularly care for how it looks nor can I be arsed to deal with a custom case, but on paper it sounds pretty good: 

https://buildyourownclone.com/collections/wah-volume-eq/products/paraeq

  On 3/3/2017 at 3:24 AM, sweepstakes said:

You know lately I have been thinking about picking up their parametric EQ. If I may be a bit shallow, I don't particularly care for how it looks nor can I be arsed to deal with a custom case, but on paper it sounds pretty good: 

 

 

https://buildyourownclone.com/collections/wah-volume-eq/products/paraeq

 

I've got my eye on this:

http://tapeop.com/columns/gear-geeking/113/

EDIT: looks like a prime candidate for a capacitor upgrade, too.

BOUM is out soon ! 

here's some demo of it : 

Had a weird experience with the BAM the other day.  I was doing a kind of drone thing for future sampling, and while I was getting the sound right there was a part where I was feeding a continuous signal into the BAM for about 15 minutes.  Not unusually hot or anything.  after 5 or 6 minutes with algorithm 4 or 5 with the reverb time up to about 90% and the damping at about 75% it started to degrade into digital pops and clicks, buffer underrun type sounds.  Turning the reverb time down cleared that up but then I didn't get any signal at all until I power cycled it.  I've had it for about a year wihtout a single issue and used it for another hour or so on the same  source material with the reverb time turned down a bit lower, and it never happened again, but it's weird. 

Maybe a bug ? Report it to Denis !

I will after I see if I can replicate it

BOUM is looking very tasty. I'm gonna go Pokemon on OTO.

If I had the money I'd definitely have at least one more. The BAM is just about the best sounding piece of gear I've used that doesn't have tape in it.

Bim firmware upgrade incoming :

http://www.otomachines.com/forums/topic/ideas-for-bim-firmware-upgrade/