HEXE Guitar Electronics proudly announces the third generation of the BitCrusher pedal.
The BitCrusher III pedal is equipped with a lot of new features, while still maintaining the ease of use and musical
usefulness of the previous versions.
What's new:
completely redesigned circuit offering now a 12bit processing, compared to most 8bit bit crushers the new HEXE pedal
allows to get more subtle digital distortion and ensures less background noise,
a new bitcrushing algorithm,
a second footswitch, called "MODULATE". The footswtich activates the internal LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator)
which controls the DOWNSAMPLE parameter,
a new possibilities for external control - the expression pedal can be now assigned to BOTH, CRUSH and DOWNSAMPLE parameters,
INPUT GAIN switch allows to adjust the overall gain, the pedal can be used with many sources, like guitars with
low output level single coils, strong humbuckers or even in line level applications,
input impedance increased to 470kOhm,
a reliable, long lasting relay based True Bypass.
Controls:
CRUSH, a bit mess/digital distortion parameter,
DOWNSAMPLE, sets the sampling frequency, range from 32kHz (at zero) to 1kHz (at max),
TELEPHONE, a bandpass (350Hz-3.5kHz) filter for ultra lo-fi sound,
BLEND, dry/wet mix ratio knob,
LEVEL, output volume regulator,
EXP In, expression pedal input (jack stereo),
EXP Pedal Assign, a switch, allows to assign the Crush, Downsample or both of them together to the expression pedal,
INPUT GAIN, settings: signle coil, humbucker, line level signal.
MODULATE, activates/deactivates the modulation mode for the DOWNSAMPLE parameter.
ON/OFF, true bypass footswitch.
Technical info:
12 bit processing,
32k-1k sampling frequency,
470k input impedance,
below 1k output impedance,
analog dry signal path,
9V DC, 70mA power, regulated adapter only.
Demo videos:
I. Test with guitar
II. Expression pedal use
III. Test with 5 string bass
IV. Test with drum loop
IV. Dubstep bass experiments: BitCrusher followed by Roboduck
The 2nd version of the true digital Bit Crusher pedal is a real lo-fi sounds factory. The new bit crushing algorithm,
Blend knob and ability to control the parameters with an expression pedal open up a new world of 8bit (maximum!) sounds.
Features available in the new version:
Crush, a bit mess/digital distortion parameter,
Downsample, sets the sampling frequency, range from 32kHz (at zero) to 1kHz (at max),
Telephone, a bandpass (350Hz-3.5kHz) filter for ultra lo-fi sound,
Blend, dry/wet mix ratio knob,
Level, output volume regulator,
EXP In, expression pedal input (jack stereo),
EXP Pedal Assign, a switch, allows to assign the Crush or Downsample parameter to the expression pedal,
Bit Crusher is a hardware version of the effect well known as a plugin in audio editing software.
What is exactly happening there with the signal is that, what we mostly do not want to happen. The AD converter is
not fast enough, the algorithm makes a lot of mess in the bit representation of the sound. In addition there's bandpass
"telephone" filter knob which allows to set a wide variety of Lo-Fi sounds. With all the knobs at max the sound is a total
disaster. But that's what bit crushing is :) The sound sample shows some of the sounds produced by the BitCrusher.
