Apoligy to Eric Sorta...

[tomg]

I was totally unfair and careless when I compared Eric's Hellfire
to the Serge waveshaper. It is obviously a completely different
approach that he has worked very hard on and I should have been
more sensitive to that. 

My simple unexplained off-the-cuff statement that the "Surge 
waveshaper does all of this and more" wasn't enough. If I was
going to say something like that I should have been willing to 
explain my comment. Eric and Surge deserve at least that much.  

It was never my intention to suggest that the Hellfire did not 
perform as Eric claims. I don't know. I've never actually seen one
in person and have no idea what it's capable of.

So at this point I should and do offer my public apology to Eric
not because of the threats to me or our beloved DIY but because
I was unfair.

Eric could have gotten me to say that easily if he had just written
me a short note asking me to be fair. I react badly to threats.

Now as to explaining myself......What I should have said in response
to the questions..... 

>>I just took a look at the Hellfire at the > Metasonix 
>website.  It seems to do things that have never > been done 
>with solid-state. 

>BTW, anybody have any thoughts on this module, the unique 
>sounds/waveforms?

Yes there are solid-state solutions. I can't really compare them
to Eric's Hellfire because I have never used one of Eric's devices.
I have used the Surge waveshaper and it is very capable of the sort 
of waveforms Eric shows on his page for the Hellfire. As a matter of
fact the Surge circuit is capable of converting a saw wave to a tri
wave. This is a feature Eric does not claim for his Hellfire so I 
assume there are other features the Serge solution offers that may
also not be available with Eric's approach, again please keep in
mind I have personally never used a Hellfire. There may be other
wave-shaping features that make up for the omission of this critical 
wave-conversion. 

As for the rest of the Hellfire's features LFOs, VCAs and preamps 
with modulation functions are also readily available in solid-state 
versions. They may not work or sound like the Hellfire but they do 
indeed work.

In my personal opinion the high cost and lack of readily available 
parts associated with working with tube designs are the major 
problems. I have always enjoyed tube circuits and sound however I 
would never really consider them for synth-circuits. For example
Eric charges $549 dollars for the Hellfire. I'm sure he is justified
in this price because the parts cost so much. On the other hand
solid-state versions of all functions can be built for a fraction of the
price. There are complete synthesizer solutions available for only
a little more or in some cases slightly less than the cost of the 
Hellfire. So it's up to you to decide how best to spend your hard
earned money on the devices you use to create sound. The 
Hellfire may be just what you are looking for.

-tg