The EarthQuaker Devices Data Corrupter Modulated Monophonic PLL Harmonizer launches today. This mouthful of a pedal is a monophonic analog PLL harmonizer with modulation. It takes your input signal and amplifies it into a square wave fuzz tone that is then multiplied, divided and modulated to create a wild, yet repeatable, three-voice guitar synthesizer.
The Master Oscillator is the central nervous system at the heart of the Data Corrupter’s cyberpunk hive mind. It feeds your input to the Data Corrupter’s signal harvester in its original octave (Unison), one octave down (-1) or two octaves down (-2) for maximum compatibility with your preferred instrument and frequency register. Once you’ve chosen your input octave, then the Data Corrupter will perform its calculations and spit out an analog synthesized frequency, which can be pitch-bent for portamento or vibrato sounds by the Frequency Modulator. From there, you can blend in one of eight Subharmonic intervals up to three octaves below the input and mix in a square wave fuzz tone for maximum data corruption. Full review to come soon.
whoa, it’s love at first (ear) bite, here.
even if i have almost no use for distortion, which is not exactly what this pedal does for a job (though what comes out of it has much ado with) i find it really captivating, really worthy of attention.
as is often the case with pedals and effects, then, half of the “want it, badly” effect is the very sonic output of the thing, but the another half is actually what musical idea has the presenter / performer / demonstrator concocted (with his or her playing) in order to make it sound… interesting.
and, if the maker and the performer are (at)tuned to the same… attitude, the “want it, badly” effect can easily trick you into the “damn, just ordered” (altered) state of conscience. like it seems to be the case here, as this video shows a perfect example of clever audio settings matched to clever musical choices, for quite an original effect pedal.
this video demo’s been made by a seasoned, smart, clever pro, and it shows. but there’s so many settings possible, and so much textural capacity here, that might really make a game changer of this box.
except for a thing, which might then hint its ideal application isn’t in your guitar’s pedalboard: you’ll only enjoy its wonders when going at it hands-free. which means your gtr track must have already been played / recorded / looped, or it must be played by someone else if you wanna tweak and scramble it in real time.
four out of fourteen audio examples on its maker’s website are drum machine samples, and quite effective ones, i’ll concede. which show how the unit was intended for much more than your average guitar signal.
but, on the other hand, given how the tracking capability of its engine probably marks the border between “it’s a joy to use” or “it just doesn’t work with my playing”, i wonder if the choice of a Gibson Les Paul guitar for all guitar samples was just due to the fact that its maker / presenter has a knack for Gibson Les Pauls, or whether a guitar with a weaker output voltage (and a leaner tone in general, like the ubiquitous Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster) would actually trigger it less accurately, less reliably, player’s discipline in outputting clean and distinct lines notwithstanding.
given how a hands-free approach might pay when using this effect, if only i had such a box on my table, i’d love it even more if (select) functions could be assigned to [or operated by] one {or more} expression pedals. well, provided it works as good as this with a Fender Telecaster, too, one or two external switch and expression pedal interfaces would make it even more stellar.