METASONIX RK8 Filterwall Device Owner’s Manual
- June 12, 2024
- METASONIX
Table of Contents
METASONIX RK8 Filterwall Device
Product Information: RK8 Filterwall
The RK8 Filterwall is an abnormal product designed and manufactured by METASONIX. It is important to note that this product does not produce moody or conventional filter sounds. The RK8 Filterwall incorporates a 48v dc supply internally and includes various safety features to ensure user protection. Please read the following instructions carefully before operating the RK8.
Product Usage Instructions
- Caution: To reduce the risk of electrical shock, do not disassemble the RK8.
- Danger: High voltage is present inside the RK8. There are no user-serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing to qualified service personnel.
- Detailed Safety Instructions: All safety and operation instructions must be read and followed before operating the RK8.
- Retain Instructions: Keep the safety and operating instructions for future reference.
- Heed Warnings: Adhere to all warnings on the RK8 and in the operating instructions.
- Follow Instructions: Follow all operating instructions provided.
- Water and Moisture: Avoid using the RK8 near water or in wet environments. Take care to prevent liquids from spilling onto or near the enclosure.
- Ventilation and Cooling: The RK8 operates warm to the touch and requires proper ventilation. Ensure its location does not interfere with convective cooling. Do not place it on surfaces that may hinder cooling.
- Heat: Keep the RK8 away from heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or devices that produce heat. It is not recommended to leave the RK8 powered up for extended periods.
- Power Source: Connect the RK8 to a Eurorack power supply with adequate capacity. It uses approximately 1400 mA on power-up and 600 mA after warming up from the +12v line. Avoid using low-cost power supplies.
- Power Cord Protection: Route power supply cords in a way that they are not likely to be walked on or pinched by items placed against them.
- Cleaning: Only clean the RK8 with a soft cloth moistened with water. Remember to unplug the power supply before cleaning.
- Non-Use Periods: When the RK8 is left unused for a long period of time, unplug the power supply from the outlet.
- Damage or Tube Replacement Requiring Service: If the RK8 has been dropped, physically damaged, exposed to liquid or rain, or exhibits abnormal performance, it should be serviced by qualified personnel.
- Servicing: User servicing is prohibited. All servicing must be referred to qualified service personnel.
Please note that the RK8 Filterwall comes with a limited warranty provided by METASONIX. Refer to the warranty terms and conditions for more information.
WARNING:
this is an extremely abnormal product. If you purchased it expecting to get
“moody” or “conventional” filter sounds, you will be sorely disappointed.
CAUTION: to reduce the risk of electrical shock, do not disassemble.
DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE INSIDE. There is a 48v dc supply internally. No
user-serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing to qualified service personnel.
DETAILED SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
All the safety and operation instructions must be read before the RK8 is operated. If you don’t read and HEED them, you are a MORON and you deserve to be raped by a 400-pound brony.
RETAIN INSTRUCTIONS: The safety and operating instructions should be
retained for future reference.
HEED WARNINGS: All warnings on the RK8 and in the operating instructions
should be adhered to.
FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS: All operating instructions should be followed.
WATER AND MOISTURE: The RK8 should not be used near water (e.g. near a
bathtub, washbowl, kitchen sink, laundry tub, in a wet basement, near a
swimming pool, etc., ya stupid bastard). Care should be taken so that liquids
are not spilled onto or near the enclosure.
VENTILATION AND COOLING: The RK8 normally operates VERY warm to the
touch. It MUST be situated so that its location or position does not interfere
with convective cooling.
The RK8 MUST NOT be used on a bed, sofa rug, or similar surface which may
prevent proper cooling. It is NOT a toy, AND IT IS NOT A DILDO. If the RK8 is
mounted in a rack or other built-in installation, space must be left around it
to allow convection from the case.
HEAT: The RK8 MUST be situated away from heat sources such as radiators,
heat registers, stoves, or other devices (including power amps) that produce
heat. We DO NOT recommend leaving the RK8 powered up for long periods.
POWER SOURCE : The RK8 should be connected to a Eurorack power supply of
adequate capacity. It uses about 1400 mA on power-up and 600 mA after warming
up fully from the +12v line. DO NOT attempt to use low-cost power supplies.
POWER CORD PROTECTION: Power supply cords should be routed so that they
are not likely to be walked on or pinched by items placed upon or against
them.
CLEANING: The RK8 should only be cleaned with a soft cloth moistened with
water. Unplug the power supply before attempting to clean it.
NON-USE PERIODS: The power supply of the RK8 should be unplugged from the
outlet when left unused for a long period of time.
DAMAGE OR TUBE REPLACEMENT REQUIRING SERVICE
- The RK8 should be serviced by qualified service personnel when:
- The RK8 has been dropped, physically damaged, or subjected to force;
- Liquid has been spilled onto the RK8 or it has been exposed to rain;
- The RK8 does not appear to operate normally or exhibit a marked change in performance.
SERVICING: The user MUST NOT attempt to service the RK8. All servicing must be referred to qualified service personnel.
METASONIX LIMITED WARRANTY and standard legal disclaimer
Thank you for purchasing this Metasonix product. And for not whining about
“problems”. The following terms and conditions apply:
- The warranty period is for one year from the date of purchase with proof of purchase submitted. The warranty covers electrical failure of vacuum tubes and gas-filled tubes, except in cases explained in 3 below.
- Operating instructions must be followed. This device was intended ONLY for use by AUDIO AND MUSIC PROFESSIONALS. IT IS NOT
INTENDED FOR USE BY ORDINARY CONSUMERS!!
The product must not have been damaged as a result of defacement, misuse, abuse, neglect, accident, destruction or alteration of the serial number, improper electrical voltages or currents, repair, alteration or maintenance by any person or party other than our own service facility or an authorized service center, use or installation of non-Metasonix replacement parts in the product, or the use of this product outside of the U.S.A. or Canada, or modification of the product in any way, or incorporation of the product into any other products, or damage to the product caused by accident, fire, floods, lightning, or acts of God, or any use violative of instructions furnished by Metasonix. It is also not intended for use as a condom warmer. Obligations of Metasonix shall be limited to repair or replacement with the same or similar unit, at our option. To obtain repairs under this warranty, present the product and proof of purchase (e.g. bill or invoice) to the authorized Metasonix service center, transportation charges prepaid. When returning the product for repair, please pack it very carefully, preferably using the original packaging materials. Please also include an explanatory note.
IMPORTANT
To save yourself unnecessary costs and inconvenience, please check carefully
that you have fully read and followed the instructions in this instruction
manual. This warranty is in lieu of all other expressed warranties,
obligations or liabilities. ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, OBLIGATIONS, OR
LIABILITIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE SHALL BE LIMITED IN
DURATION TO THE DURATION OF THIS WRITTEN LIMITED WARRANTY. Some states do not
allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, so the above
limitations may not apply to you. IN NO EVENT SHALL WE BE LIABLE FOR ANY
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES FOR BREACH OF THIS OR ANY OTHER
WARRANTY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WHATSOEVER.
Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of special, incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. METASONIX shall not be held liable for any incidental, consequential, or direct damages or expenses associated with the use or misuse of the RK8. The audio output of the RK8 is capable of damaging some types of solid state audio equipment; such use is entirely at the risk of the user. METASONIX does not guarantee that any of its products are designed for any particular use or purpose. The entire risk of suitability and performance of this product lies with the user. Products manufactured and/or sold by METASONIX are not authorized for use as critical components in devices used in life support and other systems whose failure or performance could result in compromised safety or danger to life or property. Don’t perform anal surgery with a RK8, unless you like to abuse your mother.
Did we mention the DANGEROUS HIGH VOLTAGES inside the RK8?
DO NOT OPEN THE RK8 unless you’re a service technician.
NOTE: All sales are FINAL, especially custom designs. Only a Metasonix
authorized dealer is permitted to return
products to Metasonix for a refund or exchange.
WHAT IT DOES
WARNING: The RK8 is not intended to serve as a “general purpose”
synthesizer filter. It is something you have NEVER seen before. It can NOT be
compared to any other product, ever made, PERIOD. Do not walk into this with
“preconceptions”. Also, please do not power it up, experiment for a few
minutes, and then quickly contact us, claiming it is “broken” or “bad”. Each
new RK8 was tested at the factory very carefully and shipped with plenty of
padding. Many of our past products were often returned with a warranty claim
that they were “broken”. And most such “broken” units turned out to be working
perfectly. We will publicly mock anyone who returns a working RK8 claiming it
is “broken”.
The RK8 contains six bandpass filters, which use vacuum tubes. They are simple “twin T” designs. Each filter is about one octave lower in range than the one to the left—treble on the left, bass on the right. Each filter may be manually swept with its own separate tuning knob, over approximately one and one-half octaves. Or ALL the filters may be swept together, using either the “MANUAL TUNE” knob or the CV input, which overrides the knob when a patch cable is inserted. Although it is capable of some conventional swept-filter effects, the RK8 is more useful as a complex equalization system or for unique special effects.
Resonance is separately adjustable for each filter. Usually, the treble
filters will resonate strongly and oscillate under some settings. The bass
filters might not. Inputs and outputs are compatible with all Eurorack and
other modular
synthesizer equipment. The output peak voltage is limited to the supply rails
and can’t damage other modules. Don’t assume you know what you are getting
here—the RK8 is unlike anything else ever marketed. Also don’t expect it to
track VCOs, its voltage-to-frequency curve is “more or less” hertz-per-volt
but can’t really be guaranteed. The six vactrols in each RK8 were hand-
matched, but can’t be expected to remain matched or to track together
perfectly. Again, everything about the RK8 is abnormal. It is not perfectly
“clean” and perfectly “distortionless”, and it cannot be made so. Because it
uses vacuum tubes.
SUGGESTIONS FOR USE by Mike Weeks
In inaccurately simple layman terms – the RK8 functions as a 6-band “EQ” – run
a signal into the input, with the input/tune/resonance knobs more or less at
12:00, and you will get a colored but somewhat “neutral” tone (hahahahaha).
Each band can then be adjusted (volume/gain–center frequency and resonance) to
shape the sound like an evil equalizer. Right is bass, left is treble, you
know what to do.
That alone is enough to give you the incredible ability to make sounds and
tones (even non-staccato sounds) come through as “punchier” and more
harmonically aggressive. It’ll give your TikTok video soundtrack that extra
push.
With that logic – you can run anything through it – drum loops, pads, leads,
blah blah blah. Try any source material that is harmonically rich and get a
feel for each band in isolation, then add/subtract bands for more complex
filtering
tonalities.
BUT things get REALLY interesting when you inject some CV sources into the CV input. The CV input controls ALL of the bands, so the relative position for each filter center frequency can be modified dramatically by the modulation source coming in, relative to the starting point. LFOs do what you’d expect them to, but noise sources or other modulation types (including audio rate oscillators) will get you going in unique directions as well. Using a complex waveform LFO will animate the RK8 in unique ways and add layers of complexity you would NOT be able to attain with a standard filter. Through the prototyping phases, we determined adding individual CV control over each band was not worth the board space that didn’t exist, and sweeping all simultaneously gives a series of discrete emphasis effects across a wide range of frequencies that truly makes this device unique. And if you have more modules than sense, the individual outs make this a
DREAM for parallel processing of frequency bands. This is a drone composers wet dream – take each frequency band and input into various effects units: reverb, delay, further filters in series, or distortion, and take what was one signal and make it into a cascading wall of nightmares. Another experimental possibility: The RK8 is not really intended for use as a vocoder though it could give VERY crude vocoder-like effects if one feeds either: the output of an envelope follower, or a vco on its low bass range and tracking a keyboard, into the CV input. It’s totally unique. There is literally no other device that does what this does, not in the modular world and not really anywhere in pro audio. A tube vocoder would be possible but horribly expensive. And LARGE. Honestly, if we have to tell you how to do any more than this, you’ve clearly wasted your money and you should have stuck with software with presets
That alone is enough to give you incredible ability to make sounds and tones
(even non-staccato sounds) come through as “punchier” and more harmonically
aggressive. It’ll give your TikTok video soundtrack that extra push. With that
logic – you can run anything through it – drum loops, pads, leads, blah blah
blah. Try any source material that is harmonically rich and get a feel for
each band in isolation, then add/subtract bands for more complex filtering
tonalities.
BUT things get REALLY interesting when you inject some CV sources into the CV input. The CV input controls ALL of the bands, so the relative position for each filter center frequency can be modified dramatically by the modulation source coming in, relative to the starting point. LFOs do what you’d expect themto, but noise sources or other modulation types (including audio rate oscillators) will get you going in unique directions as well. Using a complex waveform LFO will animate the RK8 in unique ways and add layers of complexity you would NOT be able to attain with a standard filter. Through the prototyping phases, we determined adding individual CV control over each band was not worth the board space that didn’t exist, and sweeping all simultaneously gives a series of discrete emphasis effects across a wide range of frequencies that truly makes this device unique. And if you have more modules than sense, the individual outs make this a DREAM for parallel processing of frequency bands. This is a drone composer’s wet dream – take each frequency band and input into various effects units: reverb, delay, further filters in series, or distortion, and take what was one signal and make it into a cascading wall of nightmares.
Another experimental possibility: The RK8 is not really intended for use as a
vocoder though it could give VERY crude vocoder-like effects if one feeds
either: the output of an envelope follower, or a vco on its low bass range and
tracking a keyboard, into the CV input. It’s totally unique. There is
literally no other device that does what this does, not in the modular world
and not really anywhere in pro audio. A tube vocoder would be possible but
horribly
expensive. And LARGE. Honestly, if we have to tell you how to do any more than
this, you’ve clearly wasted your money and you should have stuck with software
with presets
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