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Delicious Audio #2, The Best Synth Pedals, Brooklyn Stompbox Exhibit & Synth Expo

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delicious<br />

audio<br />

Issue <strong>#2</strong> Vol. #1<br />

Spring 2019<br />

delicious-audio.com<br />

the stompbox blog/video aggregator<br />

SYNTH PEDALS<br />

SPECIAL!<br />

bk Pedal & <strong>Synth</strong> <strong>Expo</strong> ’19 issue


What’s <strong>Delicious</strong> <strong>Audio</strong>?<br />

<strong>Delicious</strong> <strong>Audio</strong> is a blog entirely focused on stompboxes, whose content<br />

is driven by the videos published on YouTube by the most reputable videographers<br />

shooting demos of guitar effects.<br />

<strong>The</strong> team that runs it also organizes the <strong>Stompbox</strong> <strong>Exhibit</strong>s, free guitar<br />

pedal parties, with editions in <strong>Brooklyn</strong>, Austin, Los Angeles, Toronto and<br />

Montreal, and the shared <strong>Stompbox</strong> Booth at the NAMM shows – see<br />

pictures of our 2019 NAMM booth on pages 10-13.<br />

In 2018 we have merged the <strong>Stompbox</strong> <strong>Exhibit</strong> with the <strong>Synth</strong> <strong>Expo</strong> (which<br />

we started in 2014), since the formats are increasingly complementary.<br />

Why an Aggregator?<br />

<strong>The</strong> aggregator format allows us to amplify the content posted by expert<br />

in the stompbox sector, while allowing us to be at once informative,<br />

neutral and supportive of both the content makers and the community of<br />

pedal builders. <strong>The</strong> “aggregation” of content is not automatic but curated,<br />

which allows us to retain a voice through the website’s blog posts.<br />

Does <strong>Delicious</strong> <strong>Audio</strong> Create Any Original Content?<br />

Yes it does. We regularly work on in-depth articles focused on a specific<br />

kind of effect. Some of our most popular pieces are about the “Klon<br />

Klones”, ambient reverbs and Uni-Vibe pedals – you can easily find these<br />

articles through generic Google searches.<br />

What About the Magazine?<br />

<strong>The</strong> issue you are reading is born on the ashes of <strong>The</strong> Deli, a magazine we<br />

started in 2004 that was focused on emerging NYC bands. After we debuted<br />

the <strong>Stompbox</strong> <strong>Exhibit</strong> in 2011 and then the <strong>Synth</strong> <strong>Expo</strong> in 2014, these<br />

shows allowed <strong>The</strong> Deli’s print issue to survive until the winter of 2019,<br />

when we decided to convert it into the publication you are reading now.


delicious<br />

audio<br />

Issue <strong>#2</strong> Vol. #1<br />

Spring 2019<br />

delicious-audio.com<br />

the stompbox blog/video aggregator<br />

EDITOR IN CHIEF / PUBLISHER<br />

PAOLO DE GREGORIO<br />

EDITOR / PEDAL GURU<br />

NICHOLAS KULA<br />

ART DIRECTOR<br />

KAZ YABE<br />

( WWW.KAZYABE.SQUARESPACE.COM)<br />

ASSISTANT EDITOR / COPY EDITOR<br />

ERIN BETHUNE D’SOUZA<br />

COVER ILLUSTRATION<br />

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS<br />

( WWW.PLASTICFLAME.COM)<br />

WEB DEVELOPER<br />

BINOD LAMSAL<br />

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS<br />

BRANDON STONER<br />

SHIPPING COORDINATORS<br />

MAIA AND HANA DE GREGORIO<br />

INTERN<br />

RENE COBAR BUSTOS<br />

With our events for musicians approaching their 10th anniversary,<br />

we thought it was time to introduce an educational<br />

component consisting in a number of presentations and<br />

workshops. Since there’s a lot more to be said and learned<br />

about synths than pedals, we decided to team up with popular<br />

synth blog <strong>Synth</strong>opia to curate a program of panels and<br />

presentations that we thought local synth and pedal lovers<br />

might find interesting. A last minute, unexpected change of<br />

venue - and the scrambling of our lives that ensued - didn’t<br />

allow us to finalize the schedule of the presentations in time<br />

for it to be included in this issue. But even without that, we<br />

are still able to publish the list of all the panels and workshop<br />

here on the right. Thanks to the magic of the internet those<br />

interested in knowing the times will be able to find the updated<br />

schedule at this link: bit.ly/bk-xpo-schedule.<br />

See you at the show!<br />

Paolo De Gregorio<br />

Advertising Inquiries:<br />

paolo.dg@thedelimag.com<br />

<strong>Synth</strong> & Pedal <strong>Expo</strong> 2019<br />

PROGRAMMED EVENTS<br />

(For times go to: bit.ly/bk-xpo-schedule)<br />

Saturday 6/8<br />

6:30pm LISA BELLA DONNA LIVE<br />

sponsored by Moog & EarthQuaker Devices<br />

Weekend Presentations and Seminars<br />

(co-curated with <strong>Synth</strong>topia.com)<br />

• Basic and intermediate Eurorack classes (by STEM Modular)<br />

• Classes about synthesis (by 343Lab.com)<br />

• MPE and the new frontiers of musical expressions (by ROLI)<br />

• Understanding FM synthesis, (by Yamaha)<br />

• Performing with <strong>Synth</strong>s and <strong>Pedals</strong> (by Lisa Bella Donna)<br />

• Making killer bass patches (by Omnisphere)<br />

• Eurorack Patch Show-Off!<br />

• New synth presentations by several manufacturers<br />

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE<br />

BUT REQUIRE RSVP<br />

DIRECTLY AT THE SHOW


OSCILLATOR<br />

Every sound is a wave.<br />

An oscillator is a device<br />

that generates a constant<br />

electric wave, or a note.<br />

WAVE SELECTOR<br />

Different waves sound different,<br />

this is the switch that selects<br />

the wave’s shape, creating<br />

smoother or buzzier sounds.<br />

FILTER<br />

A heavy handed EQ that<br />

lets you cut the wave’s<br />

frequencies.<br />

RESONANCE<br />

A boost in EQ applied just<br />

before the frequency cut.<br />

Oscillator<br />

Wave<br />

Selector<br />

Filter<br />

Resonance<br />

LFO<br />

LFO<br />

Another name for modulation,<br />

appied through a slower<br />

oscillator.<br />

OCTAVER<br />

A device that transposes<br />

the original’s note picth<br />

one or two octaves higher<br />

or lower.<br />

OCTAVE SELECTOR<br />

It lets you choose what octave<br />

is played by the octaver.<br />

SUB<br />

Another name for the lower<br />

octave generator.<br />

Octaver<br />

Octave<br />

Selector<br />

SYNTH 1<br />

Sub<br />

SYNTH 2<br />

Envelope<br />

FOOT SYNTH<br />

A TYPICAL SYNTH PEDAL<br />

Mix<br />

ENVELOPE<br />

It controls the way the wavenote<br />

is shaped when and after<br />

you trigger it, giving it percussive<br />

or droney qualities.<br />

MIX<br />

Blends clean and synthesised<br />

signal.<br />

10 delicious audio Spring 2019


STOMP ON THAT<br />

SYNTH!<br />

UNDERSTANDING SYNTH PEDALS<br />

BY CHRISTOPHER SCAPELLITI, PAOLO DE GREGORIO AND NICHOLAS KULA<br />

In September 1963, as the Beatles convened in Abbey Road Studios to record “Don’t Bother Me” for their<br />

second album, With the Beatles, George Harrison was curious to know if it was possible to make his guitar<br />

sound like another instrument. “Can we have a compressor on this guitar?” he asked audio engineer Norman<br />

Smith. “We might try to get a sort of organ sound.”<br />

Poor George was born a few decades too early. Had<br />

he made such a request today, he’d have a wealth of<br />

effect pedals from which to choose, several of which<br />

are designed explicitly to make a guitar sound like<br />

an organ. Advances in digital signal processing have made it<br />

possible for effect makers to package this sophisticated circuitry<br />

into stompboxes, allowing guitarists to emulate everything<br />

from a Hammond B-3 to a Moog modular synthesizer.<br />

If adding some strange sonic brew to your guitar tone sounds<br />

enticing, the pedals we’ve gathered here should spark your<br />

interest. <strong>The</strong> range is pretty vast, containing everything from<br />

pedals designed to emulate specific vintage synths to octave<br />

dividers and full-blown experimental devices.<br />

WHAT DOES A SYNTH PEDAL DO?<br />

Those of you who have already ventured into synth-pedalresearch-mode<br />

may have realized that things can get a little<br />

confusing. <strong>Stompbox</strong> manufacturers like to attach the word<br />

“synth” to pedals that do very different things, so we thought<br />

it would be useful to start with a little recap of the most common<br />

subcategories:<br />

ANALOG-STYLE SYNTH PEDALS THAT TRACK<br />

YOUR SIGNAL AND FEED IT INTO AN OSCILLATOR<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is no analog synthesizer—at least the real thing—without<br />

an oscillator, i.e. a device that generates an electric wave<br />

whose pitch can be changed depending on how quickly it<br />

oscillates. <strong>The</strong> stompboxes that come closer to being true<br />

analog synths are the ones that track your signal and convert<br />

them into a similar sound generated by an oscillator. <strong>The</strong>se<br />

devices will then process that resulting tone through other<br />

circuits typically found in traditional analog synths, such as<br />

resonating low and high-pass filters and an LFO (modulation).<br />

A filter that cuts some of the signal’s frequencies (like a wah<br />

pedal) is the foundation of “subtractive synthesis,” upon<br />

which an overwhelming majority of analog synths are based.<br />

SYNTH PEDALS THAT USE PITCH MULTIPLIERS<br />

Many digital stompboxes billed as “synth pedals” don’t actually<br />

have any oscillators under their hoods, but simply use<br />

octaving or multi-note pitch shifting to create a resulting tone<br />

that sounds “synthetic.” This is more or less the basis of additive<br />

synthesis, in which new timbres are created by adding<br />

one or more harmonics to the fundamental pitch. If you’ve ever<br />

looked at a drawbar organ, such as a Hammond, and wondered<br />

what all those sliders are for, they’re for adding harmonic<br />

partials—such as 2nds, 3rds and 5ths—to the fundamental<br />

tone to create new, complex sounds. Often these pitch shifted<br />

notes are fed through subtractive synthesis circuits (filters),<br />

creating pedals using what we could call hybrid synthesis.<br />

EXPERIMENTAL, SAMPLE BASED, GRANULAR<br />

SYNTH PEDALS<br />

Digital technology has allowed the development of a new kind<br />

delicious audio Spring 2019 11


of synthesis whose sound sources aren’t based on oscillators<br />

but samples, i.e. recorded bits of sound. Some of the most<br />

edgy-sounding and experimental pedals out there belong to<br />

this category: <strong>The</strong>y take your sound and mangle it in ways<br />

that were inimaginable until a few years ago. In this field, granular<br />

synthesis is the name of the game.<br />

FUZZ BASED “SYNTH PEDALS”<br />

<strong>The</strong> grating sounding square wave is one of the most common<br />

waves an oscillator can create. Since a fuzz pedal converts<br />

your signal into something very close to a square wave,<br />

many stompboxes that present themselves as “synth pedals”<br />

use this simple trick to achieve a basic synthy tone, subsequently<br />

combining it with the usual filter-based subtractive<br />

synthesis effects.<br />

PEDALS THAT JUST REPLICATE THE EFFECT<br />

SECTIONS OF ANALOG SYNTHS<br />

(This category won’t be covered in this article). Many devices<br />

billed as “synth pedals” don’t track-and-replace, pitch shift<br />

or “square up” the signal at all, but simply feature effects like<br />

resonant filters and modulation that give a regular guitar tone<br />

one or more flavors from the synthy to the downright crazy—<br />

when more radical effects like ring modulation and bit reduction<br />

are employed. Others do include oscillators but as simple<br />

drones whose pitch can be changed with knobs (they don’t<br />

track your guitar’s notes).<br />

MONOPHONIC VS. POLYPHONIC<br />

VS… POLY-PITCH!<br />

As if the info in the previous paragraph wasn’t enough, there’s<br />

another source of confusion in the synth pedal realm: the<br />

monophonic vs. polyphonic dilemma! This is something you<br />

want to get right before you buy a synth pedal.<br />

For the uninitiated, a monophonic instrument is one that can<br />

only play one note at a time (many analog synths operate this<br />

way, and are mostly used for solo parts or basslines). A polyphonic<br />

synth is an instrument that can reproduce chords; but<br />

in the pedal world, things in this department aren’t as straightforward<br />

as one might expect.<br />

TRULY POLYPHONIC PEDALS<br />

<strong>The</strong>se are the stompboxes that can track more than a note<br />

at a time—play a chord with the guitar and get a reproduced<br />

chord that sounds like a synth. Needless to say, polyphonic<br />

pedals are also monophonic if you want them to be, since<br />

they do an equally good job on tracking single notes.<br />

PITCH-BASED POLYPHONIC PEDALS<br />

<strong>The</strong>se pedals produce chords (i.e. polyphony) out of a single<br />

note played on your instrument by splitting the signal into several<br />

notes with different pitches. But if you try to feed them a chord,<br />

you’ll get something that very closely approximates horror.<br />

MONOPHONIC PEDALS<br />

<strong>The</strong>se are unassuming pedals that can only track and play<br />

one note at a time—how refreshing!<br />

OUR SYNTH PEDAL CATEGORIES<br />

Keeping these differences in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the best guitar<br />

synth pedals and divided the market’s current offering into a few categories.<br />

POLYPHONIC, ANALOG-STYLE SYNTH PEDALS<br />

If you’re looking for deep, analog-style synthesis<br />

options with support for chord tracking (true<br />

polyphony), there actually aren’t many choices.<br />

Late in 2018, the Meris Enzo stole the show<br />

with its new technology, offering multi-voice<br />

capability, tight tracking, and a full synth palette<br />

of multimode analog-style filters, modulation,<br />

pitch shifting, and filter envelopes (among<br />

other things). Also, its sound is as good as the<br />

12 delicious audio Spring 2019<br />

real thing. <strong>The</strong> BOSS SY-300, about thrice as<br />

big, is also truly polyphonic and features three<br />

tunable oscillators, giving control over similar<br />

parameters as the Enzo plus more, while also<br />

offering a multi-effect section, step sequencing,<br />

comprehensive routing, and four footswitches to<br />

adjust the parameters on the fly. It features 99<br />

user patches, 70 factory presets and a big display<br />

to navigate it all. Electro-Harmonix, one of<br />

Meris Enzo<br />

*<br />

BOSS SY-300 *


the manufacturers most invested in pedal synth<br />

technology, released the <strong>Synth</strong>9 in 2017. This<br />

is a truly polyphonic synth pedal that emulates<br />

the sound of classic vintage analog synths, but<br />

features limited effect tweakability with just two<br />

variable “Ctrl” knobs.<br />

<strong>The</strong> BOSS GP-10 and the Roland GR-55 Gui-<br />

tar <strong>Synth</strong>esizer are also polyphonic, but based<br />

on an older technology. <strong>The</strong>y require the proprietary<br />

GK-3 pickup, which mounts to virtually<br />

any guitar and requires no modification to your<br />

instrument, but at about $220, it is an additional<br />

investment. On the bright side though, these boxes<br />

allow greater sonic manipulation.<br />

Electro-Harmonix <strong>Synth</strong>9 *<br />

MONOPHONIC, ANALOG-STYLE SYNTH PEDALS<br />

But do you really need real polyphony in your<br />

synth pedal? If you don’t, your options widen<br />

considerably, and if you’re looking for deep<br />

sound mangling for lead-only or bass parts<br />

(monophonic tracking), these devices could be<br />

just the thing. Unlike many other synth pedals,<br />

these devices feature an onboard oscillator<br />

triggered by the guitar, which then feeds any<br />

number of extras such as octave circuits, filters,<br />

LFOs and more.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Pigtronix Mothership 2 and the Electro-Harmonix<br />

Microsynth both feature multiple<br />

synth voices created via octave dividers, and<br />

also add on extra features for flexible sound synthesis.<br />

Each pedal starts with the same core, but<br />

the differences are in the details: the Microsynth<br />

gives you extensive filter options while the Mothership<br />

serves up more traditional synth controls<br />

like Timbre and glissando (“Glide”).<br />

<strong>The</strong> DigiTech Dirty Robot offers similar features<br />

in a stereo synthesizer emulation pedal,<br />

offering a fair amount of control over the various<br />

parameters to create filter sweeps, talk box effects<br />

and much more. Two different synth types<br />

await prospective users, one of which is a formant<br />

style—unique to this list.<br />

<strong>The</strong> TWA Great Divide 2.0 seems like an octave<br />

pedal on steroids, but what it does is wholly<br />

unique: It provides five independent voices, including<br />

a Syn[th] voice with four waveforms and<br />

a Sub[octave] voice, plus 12 internal controls to<br />

adjust various voice parameters. It achieves its<br />

tones by reading an onboard clock signal, splitting<br />

the signal, processing it and recombining<br />

it for a powerful multi-voice synth experience.<br />

Some of the Sub voices also allow harmonic<br />

intervals—that is, intervals other than octaves—<br />

for more complex tones.<br />

For a different type of analog synth pedal experience,<br />

the Electro-Harmonix Mono <strong>Synth</strong><br />

does just the trick. Featuring a sample-based architecture,<br />

the Mono <strong>Synth</strong> serves up extremely<br />

convincing models of several classic analog<br />

synth boxes, along with mode-specific control<br />

knobs to recreate all the idiosyncrasies of these<br />

legacy machines.<br />

Subdecay’s Octasynth gives players every<br />

single parameter of an analog synth—because it<br />

is one! Your guitar signal triggers an internal oscillator,<br />

which gets fed through a filter and sent<br />

right to a VCA. It sounds extremely synthlike...<br />

because it is. For those that crave the real experience,<br />

accept no substitutes.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Red Witch <strong>Synth</strong>otron is a simple but<br />

very original pedal with two switchable synth<br />

channels, modulation, envelope filter and a<br />

unique sample-and-hold filter. Its oscillators<br />

can be finely tuned, then fed into an amplitude<br />

modulator and a sample-and-hold filter—two<br />

features rarely found in synth units.<br />

For lack of a better classification, we would be<br />

remiss not to mention the Zoia, from Empress<br />

Effects. Essentially comprising a guitar effect<br />

computer, the Zoia is what amounts to a modular<br />

synthesizer, letting you build a whole pedalboard<br />

on one device. <strong>The</strong> Zoia serves up oscillators, filters,<br />

LFOs and about 80 other things which can<br />

be mixed and matched to your liking.<br />

Empress Zoia<br />

*<br />

DigiTech Dirty Robot<br />

TWA Great Divide 2.0<br />

delicious audio Spring 2019 13


PEDALS USING ADDITIVE SYNTHESIS<br />

(PITCH AND HARMONIC GENERATORS)<br />

If you want a different kind synth pedal based<br />

on additive synthesis that can generate chords<br />

and layers of sounds from a single note, check<br />

out these two very different offerings from Electro-Harmonix.<br />

<strong>The</strong> HOG2 Harmonic Octave<br />

Generator lets players create new tones by adding<br />

harmonic partials to their fundamental tones.<br />

<strong>The</strong> HOG2 provides 10 polyphonic voices ranging<br />

from two octaves below to four above the original<br />

guitar pitch, as well as two envelopes to control<br />

the attack and decay of the upper and lower notes<br />

and a filter with frequency and resonance controls.<br />

Octave pedals have been around for a while, and<br />

they’ve been a good way to add a synthetic harmonic<br />

richness to any tone by taking the original signal<br />

and passing it through an octave divider to create<br />

pitches that are an octave above it, below it, or both.<br />

Two other pedals here go beyond traditional octave<br />

pedals, allowing players to add pitches up<br />

to two octaves above and below their guitar’s<br />

original signal. <strong>The</strong> Electro-Harmonix POG2<br />

adds a low-pass filter with variable attack as<br />

well as detune, while the Bit Commander from<br />

EarthQuaker Devices provides a tone control<br />

in addition to its multitude of mixable voices.<br />

<strong>The</strong>n there’s the Data Corrupter from Earth-<br />

Quaker Devices, a PLL-style circuit. It brutally<br />

amplifies your input signal into a crushing square<br />

wave fuzz tone that’s then multiplied, divided<br />

and modulated to create a wild, yet repeatable,<br />

three-voice guitar synthesizer. Its feature set is<br />

extremely streamlined and easy to digest—a rarity<br />

in a sometimes-complex category.<br />

<strong>The</strong> FTElettronica PLL takes the idea of the PLLbased<br />

synth pedal as popularized by Schumann<br />

Electronics and expands it to its fullest capabilities,<br />

featuring all the original Schumann attachments<br />

integrated right into the pedal.<br />

While the PLL-type circuit isn’t cutting-edge<br />

pedal tech, several companies have found its<br />

features a welcome addition to their lines. <strong>The</strong><br />

Swarm from Beetronics adds mixable voices<br />

and improved tracking so chordwork is now<br />

possible when the settings are tweaked properly.<br />

<strong>The</strong> newest entry in this category is the SolidGold-<br />

FX Lysis, one of the biggest hits at Winter NAMM<br />

2019. <strong>The</strong> Lysis combines a waveshaping fuzz with<br />

two voices of DSP-based polyphonic octave-down<br />

pitch tracking, before finishing up with a generous<br />

filter section and an onboard vibrato circuit.<br />

PITCH MODULATING SEQUENCERS AND ARPEGGIATORS<br />

Additional synth flavors can be found under the<br />

smaller umbrella of sequencing and arpeggiating,<br />

at which additive synthesis pedals happen to excel.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y work similarly to their big brothers but add regenerative<br />

octaving or stepped pitch modulation.<br />

Two entrants in this category that work slightly<br />

differently come from EarthQuaker Devices and<br />

do things almost no other pedal does. <strong>The</strong> Rainbow<br />

Machine is a polyphonic pitch-warping<br />

engine that creates real-time pitch shifting using<br />

digital oscillators. <strong>The</strong> pedal lets you select harmonies<br />

ranging from a fourth below your original<br />

signal to a third above it and at every atonal pitch<br />

in-between. <strong>The</strong> pedal’s Magic control is the key<br />

to its wild synthetic tones, allowing the creation<br />

of ambient drones, pitch-shifting delays, chorus,<br />

metallic digi-flanging, ascending (or descending)<br />

“pixie” trails, whale noises and much more.<br />

Also in a class by itself is EarthQuaker’s Arpanoid,<br />

an intelligent polyphonic arpeggiator<br />

that creates arpeggios from notes and chords.<br />

It takes whatever you play and transforms it into<br />

an adjustable ascending or descending scale. Its<br />

eight modes work on complex chords as well as<br />

single notes in any key.<br />

Bananana’s Tararira works in a different way<br />

but achieves a result that combines a sequencer<br />

and an arpeggiator. It gives you eight steps, each<br />

programmable with a different scale. <strong>The</strong> sequencer<br />

works with as many steps as you want<br />

from two up to eight, and offers up tap tempo,<br />

major and minor scales and a random mode.<br />

Go to <strong>Delicious</strong>-<strong>Audio</strong>.com<br />

and search<br />

“<strong>Best</strong> <strong>Synth</strong> <strong>Pedals</strong>”<br />

EarthQuaker Devices<br />

Bit Commander<br />

*<br />

Electro-Harmonix HOG2<br />

Bananana Tararira<br />

EarthQuaker Devices<br />

Rainbow Machine<br />

*<br />

14 delicious audio Spring 2019


GRANULAR SYNTH PEDALS<br />

<strong>The</strong> Electro-Harmonix Superego takes a different<br />

route by using granular synthesis to create<br />

its tones. <strong>The</strong> pedal samples a tiny segment of<br />

the signal—hence “granular”—and then uses<br />

this sample to create a range of synthesizer-like<br />

effects, including fluid glissandos, infinite sustain<br />

and more.<br />

Detroit’s Red Panda has been at the forefront<br />

of granular synthesis. Its Particle is a full-featured<br />

glitch and granular synthesis machine that<br />

masquerades as a delay. While pristine digital<br />

echoes are easy to extract from its control set,<br />

the meat of the effect lies within the Chop knob,<br />

as well as the dual-function Delay/Pitch control,<br />

which changes parameters in each mode, and<br />

which parameter depends on the type of mode<br />

in which the pedal is placed. <strong>The</strong>ir recent Tensor<br />

delay applies granular synthesis to sound<br />

reverse/stretch experiments.<br />

For the ultimate in granular synthesis, Pladask<br />

Elektrisk’s Fabrikat delivers the goods. Featuring<br />

a rather astounding 16 different algorithms,<br />

the Fabrikat serves up all kinds of sample<br />

manipulating madness, allowing you to set a<br />

buffer length, sample the signal in and then mangle<br />

that stored phrase to your heart’s content.<br />

Red Panda Particle<br />

*<br />

Electro-Harmonix Superego<br />

*<br />

FUZZ SYNTHS<br />

We all know the backbone of many synthesizers<br />

is the humble oscillator, and sometimes<br />

instead of creating one to intermingle with<br />

pickup output, it’s far more tonally conscious<br />

to amplify a signal’s gain enough until it approximates<br />

a square wave. <strong>The</strong>n, it’s subjected<br />

to all manner of synth controls including filters,<br />

octaves and more.<br />

One such unit is Keeley’s <strong>Synth</strong>-1, a fuzzbased<br />

approach to the analog synthesizer. <strong>The</strong><br />

interface is simple enough: An Attack control<br />

sets the amount of envelope-controlled swell<br />

while the Blend knob cleverly provides a second<br />

voice. <strong>The</strong> Filter control features a massive knob<br />

with a massive sound, and you can use an expression<br />

device to control it as well.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Seymour Duncan Fooz takes the kitchen-sink<br />

approach to fuzz-based synthery,<br />

achieving the waveform in the same way but<br />

serving up a generously full-featured LFO section<br />

featuring an unprecedented four knobs of<br />

control. A plethora of filter options and an envelope-generated<br />

Attack control follow, and a tap<br />

tempo control puts the cherry on top.<br />

France’s Glou-Glou burst onto the scene with<br />

the Rendez-vous, but it’s the Pralines that<br />

marks its entry into synthesis. A gated fuzz circuit<br />

compliments four parallel band-pass filters<br />

with assignable modulation effects to each one,<br />

including a bevy of envelope filters, LFOs and<br />

expression pedal options.<br />

On the opposite side of the coin, the Emma Okto-Nøjs<br />

offers two independently footswitchable<br />

channels: one richly featured fuzz that<br />

slams into a gnarly octave unit with earth-shaking<br />

subsonic potential. <strong>The</strong> Nøjs side gives players<br />

a touch-sensitive octaving fuzz while the<br />

Okto side tracks that and outputs synthy madness<br />

that’s smooth as silk.<br />

One somewhat popular classification of fuzzbased<br />

synths are ones in which a fuzzed-up signal<br />

fights for spectrum space with an oscillator,<br />

often blending the two into a soup of fuzz and<br />

synthesis. One such unit is the Industrialectric<br />

Incinerator, a device that features two separate<br />

oscillators and a highly transistorized signal<br />

path. Featuring two separate channels that<br />

can be used simultaneously, this one isn’t for the<br />

faint of heart. d<br />

Industrialectric Incinerator<br />

Keeley <strong>Synth</strong>-1<br />

*<br />

*<br />

*You’ll be able to play these pedals at the 2019 <strong>Brooklyn</strong> Pedal & <strong>Synth</strong> <strong>Expo</strong>!<br />

Emma Okto-Nøjs<br />

16 delicious audio Spring 2019


A BOUQUET<br />

OF SOUNDS<br />

A BOUQUET<br />

Rose is a modulated delay<br />

OF SOUND<br />

unlike any other. Learn more<br />

at eventideaudio.com/rose<br />

“<strong>The</strong> combination of onboard controls,<br />

built-in filter and openness to CV<br />

modulation makes EuroDDL capable<br />

of creating quite adventurous sounds.”<br />

— Ask <strong>Audio</strong><br />

Eventide is a registered trademark of Eventide Inc. © 2019 Eventide Inc.


GUITAR<br />

VOYAGER<br />

TAKE THE PLUNGE<br />

INTO EURORACK<br />

BY NICHOLAS KULA<br />

Guitarists and synthesizer aficionados often<br />

stand at opposite ends of the party, eyeing<br />

one another from across the room and sizing<br />

each other up. Both are so similar, yet so different, but<br />

there is one arena that both types can agree upon,<br />

it’s little gadgets that can be connected in series to<br />

manipulate an audio signal. For you, the reader, it’s<br />

effects pedals. But for... them, it’s Eurorack modules.<br />

Now, there’s a good chance that many readers have heard of<br />

Eurorack modules—essentially, these are pedals for synth heads,<br />

but instead of mounting them on a board, they’re mounted in—<br />

you guessed it—a rack, and are connected through front-facing<br />

eighth-inch jacks and accompanying cables. Unlike guitar effects,<br />

these modules feature stunning arrays of connectors that<br />

go far beyond input and output, giving nearly every parameter<br />

what’s called “CV control” (see elsewhere in this mag), giving way<br />

to a morass of wires that is a point of pride among some circles.<br />

Because these two ideas are so topologically similar, one might<br />

think that interfacing the two is as easy as shoving an adapter-equipped<br />

cable into a Eurorack module and shredding away.<br />

Not so fast, bucko. <strong>Synth</strong> signals are much, much hotter than<br />

guitar signals, and so plugging directly in will yield awful tone.<br />

Using a pedal to boost the signal to synth levels might overload<br />

the unit, but will more than likely fall short. And what do you<br />

plan on doing once you need to run that mess to an amp?<br />

Mistakes can and will be made.<br />

I’ve touched on the idea of assembling a pedalboard featuring<br />

stompboxes with CV outs, and you can use those to control Eurorack<br />

modules, but what if you want to do more than assemble<br />

a costly Eurorack case just for one or two (or 40) effects? Luckily,<br />

there are many ways to go about it, and here’s how to do it.<br />

EURORACK GUITAR MODULES<br />

<strong>The</strong> simplest way to plug straight in is to buy a module that accepts<br />

quarter-inch inputs for this exact purpose. If you’d like to throw<br />

all your eggs into this basket, you need a module that accepts<br />

your guitar and offers an envelope follower circuit to essentially<br />

transform the signal into a type that’s usable for further processing.<br />

Many modules have this option built in, saving space in your rack.<br />

18 delicious audio Spring 2019


trol voltage so you can use your instrument to control parameters<br />

of other gear. As of the time of writing, only the Analogue<br />

Systems RS-35 offers such a feature.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Doepfer A-119 is one such module and is an excellent entry<br />

point, offering a simple lightly-crunchy overdrive in addition<br />

to an envelope follower circuit. Another such device is the Befaco<br />

Instrument Interface, offering a little more control over how<br />

you plan on serving the signal to auxiliary modules.<br />

Perhaps the best option is the Bastl Instrument Hendrickson,<br />

which essentially offers up a guitar input and output in the<br />

same module. While plenty of devices will happily accept your<br />

input signal, getting it into your guitar amp is a whole different<br />

task. Normally, this involves sending the synth signal to a separate<br />

module called a VCA, and then to an external mixer where<br />

you can tamp down the hot signal to be used with a guitar amplifier.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Hendrickson eliminates the need for such outboard<br />

nonsense in a single stroke.<br />

EURORACK PEDALBOARDS<br />

If you’d rather explore the world of modular synthesis at your<br />

feet instead of a nearby table, several options are available. <strong>The</strong><br />

absolute simplest way to integrate the worlds of pedalboard<br />

and synth rack is the Pittsburgh Modular Patch Box, offering<br />

up actual footswitches in addition to attenuated inputs and<br />

outputs. <strong>The</strong> biggest obstacle facing you is that they were discontinued<br />

a few years ago, but finding one used (or even new, if<br />

you know where to look), isn’t an insurmountable task.<br />

If the idea of chasing discontinued gear doesn’t please you,<br />

there is always the option of maintaining an actual Eurorack<br />

case on your pedalboard. If you thought that shopping for a<br />

pedalboard was tough, shopping for a Eurorack case is tantamount<br />

to overload. What’s more, potential buyers must be<br />

mindful of unused space, because holes in a Eurorack case’s<br />

facade mean exposed circuit boards, and so one must buy either<br />

blank panels, or all the modules at once. This results in poor<br />

cable management or a decidedly un-rock-‘n’-roll assembly.<br />

Here, the Eurorack setup is a little more flexible, and it opens<br />

up dramatically when you either build or purchase true bypass<br />

loopers with eighth-inch outs. Simply Google a wiring diagram<br />

for these simple utility boxes or have your pedal-building buddy<br />

take care of it. Connect the module input and output to the box,<br />

and each one will allow you to switch one module in and out<br />

of your chain just like a pedal. Build an entire switchbox—one<br />

channel per module—for an all-in-one solution.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Hendrickson module is a must in this situation by letting<br />

you interface your guitar and amp, but there are several more<br />

modules at play here. One such device is the Addac Pedal Integrator,<br />

offering up two sets of send and return jacks to run<br />

your existing gear in between synth modules. Other devices<br />

include the Strymon (yes, that Strymon) AA.1, or perhaps the<br />

best option of all: <strong>The</strong> ALM S.B.G., which gives you a wet-dry<br />

blend over the send and return.<br />

With just a little ingenuity and perhaps a little elbow grease, the<br />

world of Eurorack synth modules is yours for the taking. On a<br />

side note, if you haven’t looked at the cost of these modules<br />

before reading this, you might be a little shocked. However,<br />

many of these units are capable of effects far beyond the capabilities<br />

of many pedals—beware the rabbit hole! d<br />

If you’re feeling especially fancy, find a pitch tracker module,<br />

which converts your amplified signal into corresponding condelicious<br />

audio Spring 2019 19


EL EC TR IC<br />

FEEL<br />

CONTROL VOLTAGE,<br />

GUITAR PEDALS AND YOU<br />

Right around the same time in the late<br />

’60s, two men, each thousands of<br />

miles apart from one another, reinvented<br />

the way that folks pluck electric<br />

guitars. Bradley Plunkett of Thomas Organ<br />

Company in California and Fumio Mieda of Japan<br />

developed ways to manipulate a guitar effect<br />

in real time without the use of one’s hands.<br />

Plunkett’s invention—the wah—was originally<br />

intended for trumpet players and controls the<br />

center point of a bandpass filter, while Mieda’s<br />

one was the Psychedelic Machine, which was<br />

inspired by modulated short-wave radio circuits<br />

and eventually became the Uni-Vibe.<br />

Source <strong>Audio</strong> Reflex<br />

BY NICHOLAS KULA<br />

CV Controllers<br />

CV = Control Voltage<br />

Though the use of a large foot-controlled pedal was a novel idea<br />

in the ’60s, a sparse number of manufacturers implemented them.<br />

However, the first stone was cast: Expression pedals, as they came<br />

to be called, offered a dynamic performance arc that standard pedals<br />

just couldn’t match.<br />

Meanwhile in the world of synthesizers, CV, or “Control Voltage,” was all<br />

the rage. Bob Moog implemented it in all of his synth designs as a way<br />

to automate certain synth functions. While it differs from expression<br />

control in terms of extremital usage, its goal is nearly the same: control<br />

a parameter remotely without having to manually fiddle with the thing.<br />

For years, CV and expression control advanced in parallel, with the<br />

two paths never crossing. <strong>The</strong>y glanced in 1977 when Roland developed<br />

the GR-550 guitar synth, but it wasn’t until far later that synth<br />

players and guitarists broke bread at the auxiliary control roundtable<br />

and began offering one discipline’s mechanics on the other’s devices.<br />

While expression and CV units are nearly identical, they differ in a key<br />

way. Expression pedals operate passively and require CV to be fed<br />

into them, so that they may manipulate a parameter via an onboard<br />

potentiometer, then plug the CV back into the original box. <strong>The</strong> expression<br />

pedal does so with a stereo cable, carrying the information<br />

on the tip or ring, and back to the box it’s controlling via the other. A<br />

CV pedal is always powered and will deliver the voltage straight into<br />

an auxiliary unit, and thus it is controlled with a standard mono cable.<br />

It stands to reason then that any powered unit is capable of generating<br />

control voltage, and so that’s where we find ourselves—rigging<br />

our pedalboards up with CV devices and seamlessly controlling one<br />

another the old-school way: volts and volts alone.<br />

CV Controllers<br />

If you’re looking for an all-in-one CV distribution powerhouse, the<br />

Source <strong>Audio</strong> Reflex is the king of all expression devices. Featuring<br />

three assignable CV outputs, it’s the only guitar-centric three-CV unit<br />

on the market. Beyond the Reflex, you’re out of luck, as the next<br />

best on the market is the discontinued Moog MP-201 and now sells<br />

for around $700. Fret not, however, as many pedals output a single<br />

stream of CV, and distributing them among your thirsty inputs yields<br />

impressive results.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Mission Engineering CV-5 outputs two foot-controlled CV<br />

streams at once, letting you shift dynamic waves of change with just<br />

one foot motion. Spicy!<br />

Some of today’s expression pedals and control devices give you<br />

the option of plugging in a standard mono cable to output CV, and<br />

it is here that beginners should start their quests. Items such as the


CV Out<br />

Electro-Harmonix Expression Pedal and Selah Quartz Timer output<br />

CV in two totally different ways, via foot operation or BPM pulses.<br />

However, the smart money is on the Electro-Harmonix 8-Step<br />

Program, which allows you to sequence bursts of control voltage<br />

and deliver them unto your CV-equipped board. If you’re going to<br />

pick one CV-centric control box, this is probably the one.<br />

Dreadbox Komorebi [Left]<br />

Dwarfcraft Happiness [Right]<br />

Pigtronix Philosopher King [Bottom]<br />

WMD Geiger Counter Pro [Left]<br />

Malekko Charlie Foxtrot [Right]<br />

Endpoint of<br />

CV Line<br />

<strong>Stompbox</strong>es with Integrated CV Outs<br />

Besides a foot controller, many pedals are capable of seamlessly providing<br />

a steady source of CV despite operating within the signal path.<br />

Many of these types of pedals feature a CV output that is tied directly<br />

to the pedal’s low frequency oscillator (LFO) or, in layman’s terms,<br />

any pedal with a “speed” or “rate” control.<br />

<strong>Pedals</strong> like Dwarfcraft’s Happiness filter and Dreadbox’s Komorebi<br />

feature an LFO out, and adjusting the rate of the filter similarly adjusts<br />

the CV emitting from the unit. You can then plug this CV into a different<br />

pedal that accepts it and sync up the units with a single cable. Others<br />

such as the WMD Protostar offer up an even greater degree of CV<br />

outputs, with outputs for both the envelope and the LFO dot the unit’s<br />

top panel. Pigtronix’s Philosopher King is an envelope generating<br />

machine that similarly has a CV out—use it to let your picking dynamics<br />

do the talking as they control the action of the King and its adjacent<br />

CV-equipped pedal. Of course, many pedals with this feature also support<br />

CV in, so you can use them to chain multiple CV devices together.<br />

<strong>The</strong> End of <strong>The</strong> CV Line<br />

When assembling a CV-centric board, it’s nice to have an endpoint in<br />

mind, as throughput at the end of the chain simply squanders sonic<br />

potential. With that said, Malekko has all but mastered the art of<br />

guitar pedal control voltage. Its newest pedal platform that includes<br />

the Scrutator, Charlie Foxtrot, Downer and more offers user-assignable<br />

CV control over as many as five knobs simultaneously, and<br />

in any direction. Similarly, WMD’s Geiger Counter Pro offers two<br />

CV inputs for some serious sonic corruption. Red Panda’s pedals<br />

accept CV, and the company even sells a custom expression-to-CV<br />

adapter, or gives you plans on how to make your own. <strong>The</strong> myriad<br />

devices crafted by Chase Bliss make a great choice as well, all of the<br />

brand’s DIP switch insanity works with CV. Don’t forget—CV originated<br />

in synthesizers and is still immensely popular in that world, and so<br />

manufacturers that handle both guitar and synth products are more<br />

likely to implement CV to interface with their synth products.<br />

With just a modicum of planning, CV is easy to integrate into any setup<br />

and doesn’t require any special cables. It’s truly one of the more expansive<br />

control platforms, and it’s only becoming easier to operate. d<br />

22 delicious audio Spring 2019


<strong>The</strong> pedals of the<br />

bklyn stompbox exhibit 2019<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

NEW<br />

PEDALS!<br />

Meris<br />

Hedra Rhythmical Pitch-Shifter<br />

A 3-Voice Rhythmical Pitch-Shifter with tap<br />

tempo and impressively deep functionality.<strong>The</strong><br />

top left knob lets you choose the key, which<br />

can be micro-tuned through the center-top<br />

knob, while the three bottom knobs harmonize<br />

the fundamental with pitch-shifted notes going<br />

from minus two octaves all the way up to<br />

plus two octaves. Each voice can be delayed<br />

and fed back in 4 intricate matrices, through a<br />

smooth or hard step sweep through intervals,<br />

with the option to slides between pitches at<br />

the speed you choose in Glide Mode.<br />

Old Blood Noise Endeaver<br />

Whitecap Asynchronous Dual Tremolo<br />

A three-control analog tremolo and a multishape<br />

digital tap tremolo interact to create<br />

new, unheard trembling textures. Holding the<br />

footswitch enables ramp mode to gradually<br />

change between the two speeds. Each tremolo<br />

features a volume boost, and a series/<br />

parallel toggle lets you run analog into digital<br />

or both side by side. It is possible to control<br />

the tap via the expression pedal input.<br />

Walrus <strong>Audio</strong><br />

Slö Reverb<br />

A new, affordable take on the creative atmospheric<br />

reverb circuit, that creates lush,<br />

modulated, sleepy and ambient soundscapes<br />

through three dreamy algorithms: Dark adds a<br />

lower octave to the reverb’s trail – X controls<br />

the octave’s volume; Rise is an auto-swell<br />

reverb – X controls the length of the rise after<br />

a note is played; Dream is the lushest of<br />

the three and features a latching pad function<br />

through the Sustain footswitch – a second<br />

press will make it fade with length related to<br />

the Decay knob setting. <strong>The</strong> X knob here adds<br />

a vibrato to the effect, controlling its depth.<br />

Birmingham Sounds FX<br />

Twentyseventeen<br />

Flower <strong>Pedals</strong><br />

Dandelion Tremolo V2<br />

Mod DIY Kits<br />

Thunderdrive Deluxe LTD<br />

One Control<br />

Silver Bee<br />

Designed to be a wide range<br />

overdrive and distortion, the<br />

2017 is a “Swiss Army Knife”<br />

kind of pedal, offering a variety<br />

of tones, from a slight hint of<br />

crunch all the way up to a huge<br />

distortion. A two band Baxandall<br />

EQ allows for tone shaping and<br />

fine tuning to any amp or sonic<br />

environment. Inside the box<br />

you’ll only find high quality components<br />

used throughout as well<br />

as a soft-touch relay bypass.<br />

A tremolo offering both standard<br />

and harmonic tremolo, along<br />

with 3 voicings for the harmonic<br />

mode (triangle, sine, and square).<br />

Controls are available for Boost,<br />

Depth, Speed, and Shape. Extra<br />

footswitch acts as tap tempo as<br />

well as ramping device. A set of<br />

secondary controls are accessible<br />

by holding the footswitch.<br />

Expression jack allows speed<br />

control or external tap.<br />

A build-it-yourself kit that - once<br />

built - will give you a flexible overdrive<br />

that will work as a boost at<br />

lower setting or deliver a smooth<br />

distortion when cranked all the<br />

way up. It can overdrive the preamp<br />

section of your guitar amp<br />

or add its own layer of distortion<br />

at lower volume. This LTD version<br />

is equipped with a three-position<br />

diode selector switch for even<br />

more settings and tones.<br />

Features a retooled version of<br />

the Honey Bee’s drive engine,<br />

giving you sounds reminiscent of<br />

classic American “silvery” combo<br />

amps of the ’60s, the kind of<br />

gear that had a helping hand in<br />

crafting some of the world’s finest<br />

rock records.<br />

delicious audio Spring 2019 25


<strong>The</strong> pedals of the<br />

bklyn stompbox exhibit 2019<br />

overdrive<br />

Animals Pedal<br />

Vintage Van Driving is Very Fun<br />

An affordable, flexible and very<br />

fun looking overdrive/boost that<br />

can deliver a variety of tones<br />

from clean boost to medium<br />

gain dirt. Engineered to respond<br />

well to both single coil and humbucker<br />

pickups.<br />

Jam <strong>Pedals</strong><br />

Double Dreamer<br />

A dual overdrive housing the<br />

company’s Lucy Dreamer and<br />

the Tube Dreamer, but also incorporating<br />

an extra high gain<br />

circuit that can be triggered<br />

through the central footswitch<br />

and assigned to either overdrive<br />

or both.<br />

Mooer<br />

Micro Preamp 016 Phoenix<br />

Part of a line of pedals recreating<br />

the preamp sections of popular<br />

tube amps, this is a digital,<br />

two-channel overdrive inspired<br />

to modern, German-designed<br />

metal amps. <strong>The</strong> clean channel<br />

goes from crystal clear to crispy<br />

crunch. <strong>The</strong> gain channel provides<br />

everything from fat rock<br />

rhythms and heavy metal riffs to<br />

searing lead lines.<br />

distortion<br />

MXR<br />

Dookie Drive<br />

A pedal celebrating the 25th anniversary<br />

of Greenday’s album<br />

Dookie, and the band’s “dirty<br />

and punchy guitar sound with<br />

the perfect amount of articulation<br />

to express the musicality of<br />

their fast, melodic riffs.<br />

Nobels<br />

ODR-mini<br />

SoundBrut<br />

DRVA MKII<br />

Neunaber<br />

Neuron<br />

REVV Amplification<br />

G4 Distortion<br />

<strong>The</strong> ODR-1 was one of the first<br />

pedals to start the “transparent”<br />

overdrive craze. <strong>The</strong> Mini version<br />

packs all of the overdrive tone of<br />

its older sibling into a miniature<br />

enclosure. You can increase<br />

the headroom by running it at<br />

18v, and it features true bypass<br />

switching. Glow in the dark<br />

buttons help you find your tone<br />

even on the darkest stage.<br />

26 delicious audio Spring 2019<br />

<strong>The</strong> DRVA shines in delivering<br />

tones that are full of character,<br />

thanks to a hard clipping circuit<br />

fueled by a NE5534 opamp<br />

(the “Dr”) and a MOSFET clean<br />

boost seasoned with a modern<br />

interpretation of the Varitone<br />

tone circuit (the “Va”). MkII adds<br />

a Treble-cut pot to DRfor high<br />

gain settings and simplified EQ<br />

controls for the boost.<br />

It can dial in a variety of amplike<br />

sounds ranging from chimey<br />

cleans to the dirtiest dirt. It is essentially<br />

a preamp that includes<br />

a number of additional features<br />

like a speaker simulator, noise<br />

gate, compressor, presets, and<br />

MIDI functionality – all in one<br />

standard pedal size.<br />

<strong>The</strong> G4 is the latest pedal by<br />

Manitoba-based amp builder<br />

REVV. It’s a distortion featuring<br />

the same exact controls as their<br />

previous (and celebrated) G3,<br />

but a slightly different palette of<br />

sounds. It’s the pedal version of<br />

the red channel of the company’s<br />

120 Generator tube amp,<br />

which has more gain and saturation<br />

than the purple channel<br />

offered by the G3.


June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

delay<br />

Eventide<br />

Rose<br />

Floating Forest<br />

Drift Echo/Tremolo<br />

Strymon<br />

Volante<br />

Teisco<br />

Delay<br />

A delay that marries digital precision<br />

with the lush sound of analog.<br />

With six knobs and delay<br />

multiplier, phase invert/reverse<br />

playback and shape buttons offering<br />

five modulation sources,<br />

Rose inspires petals of creativity<br />

to bloom. Five presets, MIDI<br />

control and a fully assignable<br />

aux switch/expression pedal input<br />

offer flexible versatility.<br />

reverb<br />

A delay with an embedded photocell-controlled<br />

tremolo. <strong>The</strong><br />

bottom right switch gets the<br />

tremolo controlled by the photocell<br />

(rather than the regular LFO).<br />

It comes with a USB light that can<br />

be plugged into the USB plug<br />

on the side of the pedal, which<br />

features a rate control. When the<br />

mix knob is around 75% you can<br />

engage the momentary switch<br />

(center footswitch).<br />

A delay/looper that aims at giving<br />

the modern guitarist three of<br />

the most sought-after vintage<br />

delay sounds: tape echo, drum,<br />

and reel-to-reel. Controls allow<br />

you to fine tune the character,<br />

fidelity, brightness and age of<br />

the delay, for more or less vintage-sounding<br />

results.<br />

Lo-Fi/Glitch<br />

With its warm and dark repeats,<br />

this pedal belongs to the “colored,”<br />

vintage sounding analog<br />

delay category, but it’s also capable<br />

of wild and noisy self-oscillation<br />

at extreme Feedback<br />

settings. A fully featured Modulation<br />

section can add that<br />

pleasant liquid vintage character<br />

to the repeats.<br />

Chase Bliss <strong>Audio</strong><br />

Dark World<br />

A feature-rich reverb with a<br />

“World” channel created by Keeley<br />

that houses Hall, Plate, and<br />

Spring algorithms, and an edgier<br />

“Dark” channel designed by<br />

Cooper FX. <strong>The</strong> channels can<br />

be routed in 33 ways, creating a<br />

varied palette of reverb ranging<br />

from subtle, tasteful, and lush all<br />

the way to broken video cassette,<br />

glitch shimmer, and infinite freeze.<br />

Old Blood Noise<br />

Rêver<br />

This circuit hosts two “signal<br />

blocks” whose order can be<br />

changed using the toggle switch.<br />

Block 1 allows for a momentary<br />

reverse of the signal. Block 2 is a<br />

modulated reverb that is fed into<br />

a delay. With the reverse at the<br />

start and reverb and delay after,<br />

the sound tends to feel washier<br />

and the reverse is smoother. <strong>The</strong><br />

other way around you have a<br />

more pronounced and glitch-like<br />

reverse effect.<br />

RPS Effects<br />

Bit Reactor<br />

A bit crusher and downsampler<br />

that takes whatever signal you<br />

give it and crunches it up into<br />

digital atoms. <strong>The</strong> central Crush<br />

knob selects the number of bits<br />

for the crunching, from 1 to 8,<br />

while the Sample one deals with<br />

reducing the sample rate.<br />

<strong>The</strong> King of Gear<br />

Mini Glitch<br />

Inspired by Jonny Greenwood’s<br />

random Max/MSP “stutter” effect.<br />

It does more than that,<br />

through three “glitch triggering<br />

mechanisms”: Random,<br />

Switched and Threshold. <strong>The</strong><br />

glitching sample can be set to a<br />

fixed length or randomized, while<br />

the Dry-Path switch can remove<br />

altogether the original dry signal<br />

when glitching is active.<br />

delicious audio Spring 2019 27


<strong>The</strong> pedals of the<br />

bklyn stompbox exhibit 2019<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

Fuzz<br />

Dusky Electronics<br />

Hypatia<br />

Outlaw FX<br />

<strong>The</strong> General<br />

Rabbit Hole FX<br />

‘Merkin<br />

Wampler<br />

Fuzztration<br />

A versatile fuzz/overdrive/distortion<br />

pedal with a wide gain range,<br />

an adjustable low end, a specially<br />

designed input buffer, and a<br />

MOSFET-based output buffer.<br />

It spans from ragged crunch to<br />

bludgeoning fuzz—all while remaining<br />

musical. <strong>The</strong> low end<br />

can be tailored for any instrument<br />

across a range of musical styles.<br />

A germanium fuzz that delivers<br />

’60s-era tones in a compact<br />

format. It uses only 2 simple<br />

controls (Fuzz and Level) and<br />

like all the best germanium fuzz<br />

pedals, it works well with your<br />

guitar’s volume.<br />

An original fuzz circuit that offers<br />

sustain for miles and precise<br />

fine-tuning to your gear through<br />

3 knobs and 2 switches. Clean<br />

knob adds clean tone for extra<br />

definition/low end. Wave switch<br />

adds octave effect.<br />

A flexible fuzz that packs a series<br />

of controls that allow you to<br />

get a lot of different tones out<br />

of it, including an Octave circuit<br />

with its own separate footswitch<br />

that can be applied pre- or postfuzz.<br />

<strong>The</strong> “Tone Voice” switch<br />

lets you choose between a more<br />

tight/compressed and a more<br />

open/dynamic sound.<br />

filter<br />

modulation<br />

Adventure <strong>Audio</strong><br />

Dream Reaper<br />

A “Fuzzy Feedback Modulation<br />

Machine” loaded with weird features<br />

and guaranteed to turn your<br />

tone into something unexpected.<br />

From high-gain saturated overdrive<br />

to glitchy.<br />

All-in-one<br />

Fairfield Circuitry<br />

Shallow Water<br />

Matthews Effects<br />

<strong>The</strong> Chemist V2<br />

Tech 21<br />

Fly Rig 5 V2<br />

This slim bar condenses all you need from a basic<br />

pedalboard in a superlight, portable format with<br />

Tech 21 trusted circuitry. It includes boost, tap-tempoed<br />

delay, reverb, 3 band EQ, and a choice of two<br />

overdrive flavors (Cali and Plexi-style). On top of<br />

that you get tuner and effect loop, for easy integration<br />

with your signature stompboxes.<br />

K-field (Simulation mathematics),<br />

is an undefined, two-dimensional,<br />

non-linear field where past<br />

and future forces interact at irregular<br />

intervals. Shallow Water<br />

generates this k-field by randomly<br />

modulating a short time delay<br />

to create unexpected shifts in<br />

pitch. <strong>The</strong> result is this non-cyclical<br />

vibrato/chorus/flanger-type<br />

thing favoring old tape flavours.<br />

A pedal featuring two channels of<br />

modulation that can be alternated<br />

at the touch of a footswitch (the<br />

right one). Two side switches on<br />

the side panel let you select the<br />

effect for each channel from Chorus/Vibrato,<br />

Octave and Phaser.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Reaction knob controls the<br />

dry signal, and the Catalyst and<br />

Formula knobs change depending<br />

on the algorithm you select.


<strong>The</strong> pedals of the<br />

bklyn stompbox exhibit 2019<br />

multi-effects<br />

routing<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

JHS <strong>Pedals</strong><br />

Space Commander<br />

Tomkat <strong>Pedals</strong><br />

Cloudy<br />

Analog Alien<br />

EPI Effects Pedal Interface<br />

EarthQuaker Devices<br />

Swiss Things<br />

This is the repackaged VCR after<br />

Ryan Adams’ fall from grace,<br />

featuring clean boost, chorus and<br />

reverb, plus a secret lo-fi switch.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Chorus is based around classic<br />

1980s analog chorus pedals,<br />

while the Reverb is a hall one<br />

with fixed size and decay and the<br />

knob controlling effect Level.<br />

A stompbox adaptation of the<br />

Eurorack Module “Clouds” by<br />

Mutable Instruments. It’s based<br />

on the “Parasites” alternative<br />

firmware which has 6 different<br />

digital programs including granular<br />

synthesis, pitch shifting, delay,<br />

reverb, filters, and resonators.<br />

Facilitates matching instrument-level<br />

effects boxes with<br />

line-level signals coming from<br />

and going into your studio, allowing<br />

you to use your guitar<br />

pedals as studio-quality effects<br />

processors.<br />

A “pedalboard reconciler” featuring<br />

two effects loops, an<br />

AB-Y box, a buffered tuner output,<br />

20dB of clean boost with<br />

adjustable gain, an expression<br />

pedal output for volume control<br />

and a quiet, high headroom.


<strong>The</strong> Sponsors<br />

of the<br />

BK SBE 2019<br />

A HUGE “Thank You” to<br />

these companies for letting us<br />

borrow their gear for the<br />

<strong>Brooklyn</strong> <strong>Stompbox</strong> <strong>Exhibit</strong>!<br />

PRS Guitars<br />

Founded in 1985, Paul Reed Smith Guitars<br />

has cemented its reputation for high<br />

quality guitars with an unmistakable<br />

look, and is known worldwide for being<br />

Santana’s six-string builder of choice.<br />

At NAMM 2019 they unveiled three new<br />

signature models of their SE series: the<br />

SE Santana Singlecut Trem (pictured),<br />

the SE Schizoid and SE Paul’s Guitar.<br />

<strong>The</strong> company also manufactures bass<br />

and acoustic guitars and guitar amps.<br />

Voodoo Lab<br />

(sponsor of the Mixed Board Area)<br />

Voodoo Lab has designed and manufactured<br />

professional electronics for recording and touring<br />

musicians (guitarists in particular) since<br />

1986. <strong>The</strong> North California company offers a<br />

wide array of rugged and reliable pedals, pedalboards<br />

and switching systems, but has become<br />

an industry standard with its Pedal Power series<br />

of power suppliers. <strong>The</strong>ir latest product in this<br />

line, the X4, can drive up to four battery-operated<br />

or high-current DSP effects and features<br />

multi-pole filtering to eliminate any unwanted<br />

noise. Its slim profile makes it ideal for mounting<br />

it under even the flattest of pedalboards.<br />

32 delicious audio Spring 2019<br />

MONO<br />

Already an industry leader in the instrument case realm, MONO has<br />

become a major player in the pedalboard realm since they entered<br />

it in 2017. Available in five different sizes, the MONO boards are cut<br />

from a single piece of 3mm anodized aluminum, and feature cutouts<br />

optimized to facilitate any kind of custom wiring. MONO also<br />

offers Rise elements in two different sizes to elevate key pedals.<br />

Each board comes with a sturdy padded soft case and is available<br />

in black or silver. <strong>The</strong> company just announced that small, medium,<br />

and large boards now come with our accessory case at no charge!


Two notes<br />

(sponsor of the Mixed Board Area)<br />

Specializing in digital amp and cabinet emulations, French company<br />

Two notes came to the forefront of the guitar gear world in 2010, when<br />

their Torpedo VB-101 earned them a <strong>Best</strong> of NAMM award. <strong>The</strong> company<br />

has been applying its research to both hardware and software<br />

products, receiving high praise for the quality of its emulation from<br />

musicians, producers and gear critics alike. At the <strong>Brooklyn</strong> <strong>Stompbox</strong><br />

<strong>Exhibit</strong> 2019 they will showcase their latest Torpedo Cab M by<br />

sponsoring the Mixed Board section of the event. “<strong>The</strong> C.A.B. M, a<br />

small box that features power amp modelling and uses convolution to<br />

achieve realistic cab and micing emulations, can be placed at the end<br />

of the pedalboard to have a lightweight rig to carry around, between<br />

the amp and the speaker as an amp DI. Thanks to its headphones out,<br />

it’s also ideal for home use with any pedals for quick and easy practice.<br />

Love My Switches<br />

(sponsor of the DIY Builders’ Corner)<br />

Born out of the desire of a <strong>Brooklyn</strong> based DIY pedal<br />

manufacturer’s to pay less for the components he<br />

needed to build its quirky devices, Love My Switches<br />

has slowly taken a life of its own, after founder<br />

Lawrence Scaduto started sourcing parts for pedal<br />

builders large and small, amp builders, synth geeks,<br />

luthiers, and just about every other type of maker in<br />

the DIY universe. How appropriate it is, then, for Love<br />

My Switches to be the sponsor of our DIY pedal builders<br />

corner, which we are launching this year! Currently<br />

based in Portland, Oregon, the family company has<br />

grown to include Lawrence’s wife Rebecca. Love My<br />

Switches offers same-day shipping and personalized<br />

customer service.<br />

343Labs.com<br />

Educational Partner<br />

Named after the speed of sound (343 meters per second) 343<br />

Lab has the goal to accelerate your music knowledge using the<br />

best music technology education in a beautiful, intimate space<br />

in Soho featuring production classrooms, a large performance<br />

space and a rooftop overlooking downtown Manhattan. All classrooms<br />

are equipped with the latest music technology and students<br />

are given access to the multitude of events, such as masterclasses,<br />

open mic nights and student performances.<br />

34 delicious audio Spring 2019


Scratch & Sniff<br />

Go Ahead, Try It Out!<br />

Scratch & Sniff<br />

What does it smell like?<br />

Let us know at<br />

www.deadbeatsound.com


FROM<br />

ANAHEIM<br />

TO BERLIN<br />

Superbooth 18 photos by Angela Kröll & von Bendeg.<br />

THE<br />

LATEST<br />

SYNTHS!<br />

TO BROOKLYN<br />

It’s impossible, for any synth expo, not to feel some kind of inferiority<br />

complex towards Superbooth. Even though chances are <strong>Brooklyn</strong> is<br />

way “cooler” than Treptow-Köpenick (the Berlin borough hosting the<br />

German event), it is very hard to compete with the Funkhaus, the gigantic<br />

and awkwardly stylish building Superbooth has been calling home<br />

since its 2016 launch. Those large rooms, vaguely reminiscent of the hotel<br />

from Kubrick’s <strong>The</strong> Shining, also have a fascinating history: they used to<br />

be the operational facility of GDR, East Germany’s Soviet controlled state<br />

radio. Heck, that place is so charmingly intimidating you may want to visit<br />

it even on a synthless day!<br />

Superbooth was an instant hit, and It didn’t take long for it to become the<br />

European hot spot for everything synth. Since, like it happens with NAMM<br />

earlier in the year, manufacturers are now timing their mid-year synth releases<br />

to coincide with it, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to cover the<br />

most exciting new releases, with the help of our friends at <strong>Synth</strong>topia.com.<br />

You’ll be able to try most of these machines in person at our event!


<strong>The</strong> synths of the<br />

bklyn synth expo 2019<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

Ableton CV Tool Free Add-On for Live 10<br />

With Euroracks making their way into more and more synthesists’<br />

rigs, the most popular DAW for electronic musicians was under<br />

pressure to provide a way to integrate modular synth gear with its<br />

Live platform. CV Tools, a free add-on for Live 10 Suite presented in<br />

Berlin, lets you do exactly that! CV Tools offers ten tools that allow<br />

tight communication between Live and your Modular or other Control<br />

Voltage based gear. You can send and receive Pitch, Control,<br />

Clock and Trigger CV with this set of creative Max for Live devices.<br />

You need to make sure your audio interface is compatible, though.<br />

Arturia MicroFreak<br />

Presented at NAMM 2019 and described as “a peculiar instrument<br />

that rewards the curious musician,” the MicroFreak is a hybrid analog-digital<br />

synth built around a unique, expressive touch keyboard,<br />

and propelled by 11 oscillators, four Arturia engines, and seven<br />

modes designed by Mutable Instruments. Offering various approaches<br />

to synthesis like physical modeling, wavetable synthesis<br />

and virtual analog, modes like Texturer, KarplusStrong, Harmonic<br />

OSC, and Superwave offer new takes on sound design that inspire<br />

musicians in search of new palettes of sonic possibilities.<br />

Elektron Digitone Keys<br />

A new eight-voice polyphonic digital synthesizer keyboard, the<br />

Digitone Keys is - as its name suggests - a “keyed” version of<br />

this 8 voice, multi-timbral digital synth featuring both FM and subtractive<br />

synthesis. <strong>The</strong> keyboard is a 37-key velocity and pressure<br />

sensitive keyboard with aftertouch. It features hundreds of new<br />

presets and a series of new features, including 5 controllers for<br />

hold/arpeggio/portamento/mapping/chord mode functions. On<br />

top of that, eight encoders placed on top of the keyboard can be<br />

assigned to any parameters.<br />

Gamechanger Motor <strong>Synth</strong><br />

Gamechanger takes its name seriously. Never happy with the technological<br />

status quo, this Latvian company seems to exists with the<br />

precise goal of trying the untried in the pedal and - now for the first<br />

time - synth realms. <strong>The</strong> builder’s latest creature is a synth running<br />

on little engines (“electromotors”), rather than oscillators. <strong>The</strong> Motor<br />

<strong>Synth</strong> produces sounds by accelerating and decelerating eight electromotors<br />

to precise rpm (revolutions per minute) that correspond to<br />

specific musical notes. This configuration allows for four-note polyphony,<br />

with two voices per key played. This sound source is then<br />

sculpted through familiar analog envelopes and filters alongside<br />

arpeggiation, cross and LFO modulation, sequencing, and multiple<br />

polyphonic mode facilities, as well as a looping system that allows<br />

users to layer rhythm and melodies.<br />

delicious audio Spring 2019 37


<strong>The</strong> synths of the<br />

bklyn synth expo 2019<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

IK Multimedia UNO Drum<br />

Rather new to the world of hardware synths (but a veteran in the<br />

soft synth one), in Berlin IK Multimedia launched the UNO Drum, a<br />

drum machine that offers a sonic palette combining analog sounds<br />

with digital flexibility and convenience. Its wide range of programming<br />

and live performance features and controls make it easy for<br />

musicians, producers and DJs to add drum grooves to their music.<br />

Six warm, rich, true analog drum sounds – two different kick drums<br />

plus snares, claps, and hi-hats – form the essential core kit for<br />

creating analog beats. Additional PCM elements (with 54 samples<br />

to choose from) provide deeper sonic possibilities for more realistic<br />

sounds like cymbals and toms.<br />

Korg Volca Nubass<br />

Korg’s Volca series of tiny synths celebrated the birth of a new member<br />

of the family with nubass, a bassline synthesizer implemented<br />

with Korg’s NuTube, an updated vacuum tube design roughly one<br />

tenth the size of its original counterpart. <strong>The</strong> NuTube technology<br />

is implemented into the oscillator, sub oscillator and drive circuits;<br />

creating ‘incredibly warm tones and rich distortions’ that only a<br />

tube can provide. nubass also calls upon NuTube to create classic<br />

stompbox-style analog overdrives. <strong>The</strong> tone knob controls either the<br />

distortion of the sound or its crispness. This new synth also features<br />

a 16-step sequencer that offers motion sequencing of the knobs,<br />

transpose, accent, slide and randomize.<br />

Moog Matriarch<br />

<strong>The</strong> Matriarch is a patchable 4-note paraphonic analog synthesizer<br />

that builds on the semi-modular design of last year’s Grandmother<br />

synthesizer. It features a built-in sequencer, arpeggiator, stereo ladder<br />

filters, and stereo analog delay. <strong>The</strong> company describes the new<br />

synth as ‘the pinnacle of Moog’s semi-modular family of analog synthesizers.”<br />

Thanks to its default signal path, it can also be played<br />

without any patching. <strong>The</strong> analog circuitry is based on classic Moog<br />

synthesizer modules and the default signal routing can be customized<br />

using the synth’s 90 modular patch points.<br />

Novation Summit<br />

<strong>The</strong> Novation Summit is the British company’s new flagship synthesizer<br />

that essentially combines two of their Peak rack synths into a<br />

knob-filled keyboard. It offers deep synthesis capabilities, a 16-voice<br />

two-part multitimbral engine and a hands-on workflow. <strong>The</strong> twin<br />

Peaks can be either split or layered across the keyboard. <strong>The</strong> Summit’s<br />

digital sound engines can emulate analog sounds, as well as FM<br />

and wavetable synthesis (there are 60 wavetables loaded). An analog<br />

multi-mode filter section does the rest. <strong>The</strong> 16-slot matrix allows users<br />

to change parameters on the fly for anything, including the four LFOs<br />

and envelopes. <strong>The</strong> keyboard features aftertouch, an arpeggiator, and<br />

chords with over 30 patterns, and each key can be split and layered.<br />

38 delicious audio Spring 2019


<strong>The</strong> synths of the<br />

bklyn synth expo 2019<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

Pioneer DJ Toraiz SQUID 16 Track Sequencer<br />

DJ giant Pioneer DJ entered the synth world recently with the Toraiz<br />

line and at SuperBooth 2019 introduced its first sequencer, called<br />

SQUID. Optimized for on-the-fly production, this device controls up<br />

to 16 instruments via multiple in and outs (USB, Midi, CV and various<br />

synch formats), and - among other things - can produce polyrhythmic-looping<br />

options and instantly change the playback direction and<br />

speeds. <strong>The</strong> proprietary Groove Bend feature improves your groove<br />

while you generate patterns in real time.<br />

Sequential Prophet XL<br />

Remember Dave Smith Instruments? Of course you do! <strong>The</strong> company<br />

founded by the creator of the Prophet line didn’t launch any new synths<br />

in Berlin, but it did show up with something new nonetheless: its name.<br />

New and old at once, actually, since Sequential Circuits was the company’s<br />

name at founding, back in 1974. Sequential hasn’t given up the<br />

Prophet saga, though, with the X and XL taking the line to the next level<br />

with their powerful fusion of samples and synthesis, newly developed<br />

sound engine and two high-resolution digital oscillators - all processed<br />

through the manufacturer’s celebrated analog filters. Its internal 150Gb<br />

samples can be integrated with extra downloadable sound libraries -<br />

the latest one dedicated to the sounds of the Oberheim OB-X.<br />

Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.6 w/Hardware <strong>Synth</strong> Control<br />

A true force in the world of virtual synths, Omnisphere is Spectrasonics’<br />

flagship product that brings many different types of synthesis<br />

together into an instrument that will spark a lifetime of exploration.<br />

In Berlin the developer showcased their NAMM news to the European<br />

audience: a new version 2.6 that allows Omnisphere to be controlled<br />

by over 65 hardware synths through “personalized” patches<br />

(meaning that the controls do to the software what they do on the<br />

hardware). <strong>The</strong> new version also features improved arpeggiators<br />

with inversions, pattern modes, step modifiers and chord voicings,<br />

among other new features. Omnisphere 2.6 also features a newly<br />

expanded “Hardware Library” with 600 new patches. <strong>The</strong> latest one<br />

is dedicated to the sounds of the Oberheim OB-X.<br />

Yamaha CP73 and CP88<br />

Yamaha’s renewed focus on synths was confirmed at NAMM 2019<br />

through the release of two stage pianos that also feature classic<br />

synthesizer sounds inside them: the CP73 and CP88. Neither is exactly<br />

as affordable or compact as the Reface mini-synth series, the<br />

CP73 and CP88 are powerhouse keyboards for professional musicians<br />

and feature weighted keys, incredibly realistic piano sounds,<br />

and an extensive library of samples. A big effort went into creating<br />

intuitive controls for on-the-fly sound shaping, and these keyboards<br />

feature “one-on-one” controls that only have one function to avoid<br />

confusion. <strong>The</strong> CP series also features a very creative effect section<br />

including a looper and several other effects.<br />

40 delicious audio Spring 2019


<strong>The</strong> synths of the<br />

bklyn synth expo 2019<br />

other synths<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

6<br />

3<br />

1<br />

5<br />

2<br />

4<br />

1 1010music Blackbox Sampling Workstation<br />

Blackbox is a portable sampler and groovebox that lets you record,<br />

save/load, apply effects and edit one-shot samples and beat-sliced<br />

loops. You can create sequences with samples by tapping on pads,<br />

playing a virtual keyboard, using external MIDI controllers or by<br />

drawing-in notes using a standard Piano Roll editor on a touchscreen<br />

interface. Sequences can be played back to create song sections<br />

and entire compositions. You can finish your song by mixing it,<br />

adding stereo effects. You can record hours of song ideas, jam sessions,<br />

and performances thanks to a microSD slot that enables you<br />

to expand internal memory. Blackbox comes with gigabytes of premium<br />

samples and loops by SoundTrack Loops and Loopmasters.<br />

2 Deep Space Devices Antikythera Mini <strong>Synth</strong><br />

A debut in the synth field for this edgy pedal builder, the Antikythera<br />

is a noise making box with a single octave keyboard that can produce<br />

an extensive range of tones with its “Pitch” control, along with<br />

a 4-step sequencer controlled by 4 aligned knobs, each affecting<br />

the pitch of each step. <strong>The</strong> “Chaos” button on the side takes things<br />

down a noisy and experimental route, triggering an oscillator at a<br />

certain pitch depending where the “Chaos” knob is set.<br />

3 Landscape Stereo Field<br />

<strong>The</strong> Stereo Field is an instrument that lets you manipulate and patch<br />

two analog stereo circuits directly via touch plates, using skin conductivity<br />

as new paths for the circuit to follow, creating new circuits<br />

and new sounds in relation to where your fingers are patching.<br />

42 delicious audio Spring 2019<br />

4 ROLAND Cloud<br />

As usual, Roland will be at the <strong>Brooklyn</strong> <strong>Synth</strong> <strong>Expo</strong> with a lot of<br />

hardware synths, but the Japanese company, as of late, has been<br />

focusing a lot on Roland Cloud, an evolving cloud-based suite of<br />

software synthesizers, drum machines, and sampled instruments offered<br />

through an affordable monthly subscription. Its catalog includes<br />

recreations of legendary vintage Roland synths and newer products<br />

(like the Aria series), but also sample-based virtual instruments of<br />

non-electronic instruments like piano and guitar, and some genre-targeted<br />

sound apps. Roland Cloud also provides a DAW called R-Mix<br />

to make all the instruments come together in a final song.<br />

5 ROLI Seaboard Block and Songmaker Kit<br />

ROLI’s BLOCKS system walks the line between cutting edge synthesis<br />

and super-fun, intuitive expression by offering separate, wireless<br />

controllers that can be connected to each other through a simple<br />

magnetic snap, to create larger and more powerful work stations.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se MIDI controllers can interface with desktop applications as well<br />

as mobil apps (wirelessly over Bluetooth), allowing new possibilities<br />

for both simple on the go recording and deeply expressive polyphonic<br />

sound editing. <strong>The</strong> Songmaker Kit features ROLI’s two-octave version<br />

of the company’s signature Seaboard, a Lightpad-M illuminated playing<br />

surface, and the Loop Block for production control.<br />

6 Sensel Morph<br />

A multi-touch, battery powered, programmable surface that can become<br />

a series of different controllers thanks to different overlays that<br />

can be purchased separately. Approx. 20,000 pressure sensors and<br />

5g - 5kg sensing range per touch (32,000 levels) to achieve the highest<br />

level of touch sensitivity. Connects to your device using Wireless<br />

Bluetooth LE, USB, or Serial.


<strong>The</strong> synths of the<br />

bklyn synth expo 2019<br />

Eurorack<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

1010music Music Toolbox<br />

Toolbox is a touchscreen based sequencer<br />

and function generator for eurorack. It<br />

is designed to drive signal patterns to your<br />

other modules via Midi or CV. Its 3.5″ touch<br />

screen gives immediate access to sequences,<br />

parameters, and events, providing<br />

a full overview of all the active notes and<br />

events and offering touch based scrolling<br />

and zooming, just like a smartphone, <strong>The</strong><br />

builder offers similar Eurorack units dealing<br />

with synthesis, sampling and effects.<br />

Eventide Euro DDL Delay<br />

10 seconds of pristine delay at a sample<br />

rate up to 192 kHz. Soft saturation clipping,<br />

low pass filter, feedback, insert loop, relay<br />

bypass, and +20 dB boost are all analog.<br />

Can do looping, and has reverse and tap<br />

tempo functions.<br />

Maffenzeef Møffenzeef Modular Stargazer<br />

A drone machine featuring a dual wavetable<br />

oscillator with ninety arbitrary waveforms,<br />

two resonant low-pass filters, three<br />

wavetable LFOs, sample rate reduction, bit<br />

rate reduction, amplitude modulation, and<br />

CMOS distortion. an expression pedal input<br />

allows control of the speed of all three<br />

LFOs at the same time, which frees up your<br />

hands to control other aspects of the drone.<br />

Mystic Circuits Spectra Mirror<br />

A resonant down-sampler tailored for use<br />

as a low pass gate. Incoming audio can be<br />

completely attenuated or passed through<br />

unaffected by modulating the sampling frequency,<br />

width of the sampling clock or the<br />

on board through-zero VCA. Each control<br />

voltage input can be attenuverted, allowing<br />

the user to sculpt response to CV. <strong>The</strong><br />

Spectra Mirror is also capable of an effect<br />

called “high-pass sampling,” which attenuates<br />

signals below the sampling frequency.<br />

44 delicious audio Spring 2019<br />

Stem Modular ADSR Envelope<br />

Playing with the length of Attack, Decay,<br />

Sustain, and Release - the four phases<br />

of this control voltage generator - allows<br />

synthesists to mimic a lot of different musical<br />

instruments, or make changes to the<br />

envelope of their own sounds. <strong>The</strong> ADSR<br />

lets you apply the resulting voltage to the<br />

cv input of a voltage controlled amplifier or<br />

voltage controlled filter.<br />

Strymon Magneto<br />

A stereo multi-head tape delay that can<br />

do a lot of other things. Can function as a<br />

looper, phrase sampler, vintage spring reverb<br />

unit, phase-aligned clock multiplier,<br />

chaotic oscillator, zero latency sub-oscillator<br />

and more. Adds vintage character to the<br />

signal through Tape Age, Crinkle and Wow<br />

& Flutter Knobs.


<strong>The</strong> synths of the<br />

bklyn synth expo 2019<br />

Eurorack<br />

June 8: 12pm – 7pm / June 9: 11am – 6pm<br />

Lytehouse Studio (356 Devoe St., <strong>Brooklyn</strong>)<br />

FREE!<br />

Tall Dog Electronics µBraids SE<br />

A voltage-controlled digital oscillator/sound source with a wide<br />

range of creative and useful sound generation algorithms (aka models),<br />

based on the classic Mutable Instruments Braids design Fully<br />

compatible with upstream Braids firmware. Updates and simplifies<br />

the original design with a custom brilliant orange LED display module<br />

protected by a clear acrylic lens, a low-profile rotary encoder, and<br />

a new added attenuverter for the Color control.<br />

Vinicius Elektric Lizard<br />

A powerful hybrid VCO with a 1MHz sample rate comprised of two<br />

independent modules but in total synchronism: the LIZARD and the<br />

analog wave switcher, each featuring an independent output. <strong>The</strong> first<br />

can operate as VCO (with 24 generation modes), Sequencer or External<br />

clock (with 12 different modes). It also features 8 parameter control<br />

potentiometers whose function varies with the selected Mode. Other<br />

functions include Frequency controls (FREQ & FINE) and FM Width,<br />

whose FM input functions as Clock input in External Clock mode.<br />

THE NEXT EVOLUTION OF THE PROPHET<br />

150 GB SAMPLES · FULL SYNTHESIS ENGINE · STEREO ANALOG FILTERS<br />

CHECK OUT THE PROPHET X, PROPHET-6, REV2 AND OTHER<br />

SEQUENTIAL SYNTHS AT THE BROOKLYN SYNTH EXPO!<br />

W W W . S E Q U E N T I A L . C O M<br />

Deli - Prophet X - 2019.indd 1<br />

5/10/19 2:26 PM


S<br />

Empress Zoia<br />

One Control Silver Bee<br />

Strymon Volante<br />

Eventide H9<br />

PRS Standard SE<br />

Roland SH-01A<br />

Morph<br />

Music Maker Bundle<br />

ALL THE GIVEAWAYS OF THE<br />

BK SYNTH & PEDAL EXPO!<br />

See: bit.ly/GIMMEGEAR<br />

Arturia MicroFreak<br />

Animals Pedal<br />

Vintage Van Driving is<br />

Very Fun<br />

Novation<br />

Circuit Mono Station<br />

Outlaw FX<br />

General<br />

Gamechanger <strong>Audio</strong><br />

Plasma Distortion<br />

Two notes<br />

Torpedo C.A.B.<br />

ROLI Seaboard Block<br />

Pioneer DJ Toraiz SQUID<br />

Chase Biss<br />

Dark World


Y15194 Deli Magazine Yamaha <strong>Synth</strong>.indd 1<br />

2/20/19 12:19 P

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