Back in 2000, this beast emerged from Metasonix as one of the first modules showcasing their obsession with vacuum tubes not meant for audio—think pentodes and thyratrons pushed into chaotic, nonlinear mayhem that no solid-state gear could touch.
It's a dual-section analog effects unit built point-to-point with tubes: a PWM monostable multivibrator that thrives on sharp saw or square waves, tweakable via panel pots for wild pulse manipulation, paired with four independent tube-based bandpass filters—each with its own resonance and tune controls—mixing down to a VCA for filtered chaos. Feed it signals, dial in the metastable switch points, and watch it spit indeterminate soundscapes, from gnarly modulation to LFO-driven waveshaping. Compact rackmount design, mono out, and that raw, high-power tube hunger make it a high-end oddity in the synth world.
Reviewers in the early 2000s called it musically useful for extreme audio processing, with the "broken pulser" circuit becoming a legend—copied in later Metasonix designs like the TM-1 and R-53. Vintage hunters still chase these rare pieces for their attitude-packed tones, though expect some dead spots that reward patient experimentation.
