EarthQuaker Devices - Grand Orbiter - Phase Machine Pedal (V3)
[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 Grand Orbiter™ is a 4 stage OTA-based phaser with a diverse feature set that can go from stationary and resonant to slow and mellow and on through fast and swirly. It has three way toggle switch to select between the ranges of modulation: Rate 1 is slow sweep mode, Rate 2 kills the LFO and allows you to use the Grand Orbiter as a fixed resonant filter and Rate 3 is fast sweep mode. The master Rate control fine tunes the speed of the LFO in each of these modes and the flashing red LED acts as a visual indicator, even when the effect is in bypass mode. The Depth control blends the shifted signal in with the dry signal and controls the intensity of the effect. The Sweep control governs the peak frequency of the phased signal’s tone, turned full clockwise the sweep is lively and intense, whereas turning counter clockwise yields a darker, more laid back peak. The Resonance provides a wide range of control over regeneration and at higher settings adds a more pronounced and resonant tone. You can also use the Grand Orbiter as a true pitch vibrato with the “Phase/Vibrato” switch. When in “Vibrato” mode, the dry signal is removed and the Depth controls acts as a volume control. This pedal is 100% analog, true bypass and built by entirely by hand in beachy Akron, Ohio.
Controls
Depth: Controls the amount of phase effect mixed with dry signal. Clockwise for more intense phasing, counterclockwise for less. In “Vibrato” mode, this acts as a volume control.
Rate: Controls the speed of the LFO. Faster clockwise, slower counter clockwise.
Sweep: Controls the frequency peak of the sweep. Higher peak clockwise, lower peak counter clockwise.
Resonance: Controls the regeneration of the phased signal. More resonant clockwise, more subtle counter clockwise.
Rate 1,2,3: Changes the range of the speed control. Rate 1 is slow mode, rate 2 is LFO kill to use the Orbiter as a fixed resonant filter, rate 3 is fast mode.
Phase/Vibrato: Cuts the dry signal to create a vibe/vibrato effect depending on the setting of the other controls. Vibrato is created by turning the resonance down low.
Flexi-Switching: This device features Flexi-Switch™ Technology! This relay-based, true bypass switching style allows you to simultaneously use momentary and latching style switching.
- For standard latching operation, tap the footswitch once to activate the effect and then tap again to bypass.
- For momentary operation, hold the footswitch down for as long as you’d like to use the effect. Once you release the switch the effect will be bypassed.
Measures: 4.75″ x 2.50″ x. 2.25″ with knobs
Power: The Grand Orbiter can be powered by 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! Since the switching is relay based, it requires power to pass signal.
Current Draw: 45mA
Input impedance: 1M
Output impedance: <1K