EarthQuaker Devices - Bit Commander - Analog Octave Synth Pedal (V2)
[Guild Note: No one can present EarthQuaker Devices better than the EQD Marketing Team themselves. What follows derives straight from either the manufacturer's website, or the product's instruction manual.]
The Bit Commander is a monophonic analog guitar synthesizer with four octaves of vintage square wave synth tones. Its no-nonsense interface makes it easy to add or subtract octaves to create a wide variety of sounds without having to dial in envelopes or oscillators. Ripping sub-octave thump, pulsing octave down, a lightly squared base tone and a swelling transformer based octave up all join together to make a single guitar sound like an army of olde tyme synths.
Like all analog octave effects, there are some basic rules to follow that will get you the most enjoyment from your Bit Commander. Use the neck pickup and play single notes. The best tracking occurs from the 7th fret up on all the strings. Below the 7th will still track but there will be occasional glitches and stutters. The lower the note, the harder it is for the Bit Commander to register. The use of Bass and lower registers on keyboards will yield unexpected, sometimes pleasing, sometimes disgusting results. These are not mistakes or flaws, it is the nature of analog octaves. Analog, true bypass and hand made one at a time in the republic of Akron Ohio.
Controls
Sub: Two octaves down level
Down 1: One octave down level
Up 1: One octave up level
Base: Squared input signal level
Level: Master volume
Filter: Tone control, more highs clockwise, more warmth counter clockwise
Measures: 4.75″ x 2.50″ x. 2.25″ with knobs
Power: Our pedals take a standard 9 volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. We always recommend pedal-specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated-output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise. Do not run at higher voltages! Current draw is 25 mA.