Catalinbread Bitters Multi-Effects Modulation Pedal for Synths, Drum Machines, DAWs, and Guitars

The Catalinbread Bitters Multi-Effects Modulation Pedal is a reinterpretation of the hyper-deranged multi-effects processor, the Alesis Bitrman. With knobs for Distortion, Phaser, and one of four selectable sound manglers, you can make everything from a rich chorus to a devastating torrent of noise. A convenient Mix control keeps the mayhem under control, creating a one-of-a-kind soundscaping tool ideal for the pedalboard or mixing desk. The Bitters distills the chaos of the Bitrman circuit, addressing the original's flaws and reducing the fat to create an immeasurably more usable version. The Bitters, occupying the darkest corner of the soundscaping domain, will either provide you with luscious, usable effects or completely destroy your signal. The Bitters, like the original, works well with synths, drum machines, and digital audio workstations, as well as electric guitar and bass. Since the original lacked any sort of mix control, the Bitters is infinitely more usable than it was. In short, the Bitters is a multi-effects device on steroids, with individual distortion and phaser knobs, as well as a third user-selectable program named 'Bitters.' This application can produce one of four effects: Decimator, Bitcrusher, Frequency Modulation, or Ring Modulation. These three effects are run in sequence, but you can flip the order so that Bitters comes first for total sonic mayhem.
Control Knobs
Distort provides an elegantly equipped and harmonically rich digital distortion, with gain increasing as the knob is turned up. When switched off, the distortion circuit gets removed from the signal path. The Mix control, which was neglected in the original, allows you to blend your pre-Bitters signal with the Bitters output. Turn down the slider to hear only the dry signal, and up for complete wet. The Bitters knob functions differently depending on the mode, and you can choose from four different programs, which are listed below. Turning to zero takes it off the signal path. Every program gets mentioned twice. This allows you to determine the order in which these knobs appear in the signal route. The 'greater than' symbol next to the program indicates that the programs are ordered 'Distortion - Phaser - Bitters', whereas 'less than' indicates that the order is 'Bitters - Phaser - Distortion'. Turning Dual up accelerates a deep sine-wave phase shifter. This Phaser, like the original, goes from sluggish and syrupy to lightning-fast 20Hz, which is beyond the capabilities of most phasers. Turning this knob down reduces the rate to 0Hz, removing the phaser from the circuit.
Create with Program Wheel
Manufacturers that used the Decimator effect type had a term for sample rate decrease, and Alesis dubbed it this. It samples your input signal and decreases the sample rate, resulting in Nyquist aliasing. Bitcrusher decreases the integrity of the input signal to one bit, resulting in genuine digital destruction. Since this also introduces noise, Catalinbread used a noise gate to keep it under control. Frequency Modulation, often known as pitch vibrato, can be turned down to a faint warble (with the mix control, you can obtain a killer chorus sound) or turned up to its full potential, as Alesis intended. The modest ring modulator, which sounds like outer space noises, is actually a tremolo with extremely quick modulation. This introduces additive and subtractive frequencies with respect to the input signal and carrier frequency. The Bitters requires a center-negative DC power supply ranging from 9 to 18 volts.