oscillator for subharmonic tones, a sync mode that slaves the VCO to the input signal for complex overtones, <strong>and</strong> even portamento to create those wild Keith Emerson “Lucky man” pitch swoops. And traditional waveforms aren’t the only options available when it comes to a synthesizer’s voices. A number of pedals today, like the Red P<strong>and</strong>a Particle <strong>and</strong> Electro-Harmonix Super Ego, make use of granular synthesis, which chops the input signal into tiny snippets, or grains. Heard in isolation, one grain wouldn’t be recognizable as a guitar tone, but when time-stretched or combined with other grains, it becomes a malleable material for creating new sounds based on your guitar’s own tone. Even guitarists who prefer the sound of their own instrument to that of a synth might enjoy adding some “Baba O’Riley”-style arpeggiation <strong>and</strong> sequencing to their fretwork. For that there’s the Alex<strong>and</strong>er Colour Theory, a versatile eight-step sequencer <strong>and</strong> effect processor that creates rhythmic combinations <strong>and</strong> tones previously heard only from synths. Other contenders include the meris Ottobit Jr., which combines sequencing, stutter effects <strong>and</strong> bit-crushing to create tones reminiscent of arcade games, <strong>and</strong> EarthQuaker Devices’ Arpanoid, a polyphonic pitch arpeggiator that transforms whatever you play into an adjustable ascending or descending scale. It was probably inevitable that greater degrees of synthesizer functionality would come to guitar pedals once technology made it feasible. But what’s surprising is how a sort of synthesist mentality is taking root in the industry, even with pedals that aren’t synth effects. The Chase Bliss pedals are perhaps the most obvious manifestation of a growing movement to give players deep control over sound creation within the realm of traditional effects. Taking matters to an extreme, Empress Effects’ upcoming Zoia (featured on page 31) pedal employs a modular approach to creating everything from effects <strong>and</strong> utilities to instruments. Its 8x5 grid of pushbuttons can be programmed in seemingly limitless ways. All of which begs the question, Will this hyper-functionality serve us, or will the trend toward complexity pass <strong>and</strong> we’ll once again gravitate toward the simplicity of single-function pedals <strong>and</strong> the familiar tones of the electric guitar? Time will tell, but both approaches have their own fans. What’s undeniable is that guitarists will continue to have a new <strong>and</strong> ever-exp<strong>and</strong>ing world of tone to explore, while synth players will find in guitar pedals new effects regular synths don’t provide. d red P<strong>and</strong>a ParTiCle (2013) Using “granular synthesis,” the Particle chops an input signal into tiny snippets, or grains, that can be time-stretched <strong>and</strong>/or combined with other grains to forge new sounds. ChaSe bliSS audio Thermae (<strong>2018</strong>) Like little synths, Chase Bliss Audio’s stompboxes are studded with control knobs <strong>and</strong> switches that can route the circuits in dozens of ways—they’re even outfitted with external DIP switches that allow the user to customize a host of parameters. zVex rinGTone (2008) The successor to the ZVEX Seek Wah, which was the first guitar pedal to feature a very simple step sequencer. The Ringtone lets guitarists produce textural rhythmic patterns, ranging from the intriguing to the atonal. diGiTeCh dirTy roboT (2017) A stereo mini-synth pedal with a synth voice <strong>and</strong> a vocal formant voice for talk box <strong>and</strong> vocoder-like emulations, as well as filter modulation <strong>and</strong> even chorus <strong>and</strong> vibrato effects. 28 the deli Spring <strong>2018</strong>
the deli Spring <strong>2018</strong> 29
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