Frostwave

Frostwave's Sonic Alienator is a really unique pedal that can be used with any electric instrument. I've only used it on electric guitar but it's definitely more versatile than just for this. The pedal is simple in it's make up, with 1/4" connections for input and output and requiring power from a nine volt power supply. It's not rack mountable as it's in stomp box form. UTILIZATION The make up of the Frostwave Sonic Alienator isn't too hard to figure out, but it's definitely a unique configuration due to the nature of the pedal. It gives you knobs for input drive, output level, sample rate, cutoff frequency, and resonance. It also has a button for setting the orientation to be pre or post routed. Lastly, the main parameter is for setting the amount of decimation that you'd like. The manual might be helpful for explaining these parameters, but I believe using it a bit will achieve the same effect. SOUND QUALITY The Frostwave Sonic Alienator can definitely make your instrument sound unlike anything it's ever sounded like before. Nowadays it's easy enough to use a synthesizer to get similar, lo-fi kind of sounds, but there's not much out there like this that will transform your instrument to make crazy sounds as found here. It's best described as a lo-fi distortion box, but really needs to be heard to be understood. Definitely not a pedal for everyone, but those who will use it will love it. OVERALL OPINION The Frostwave Sonic Alienator is a really fun pedal to mess around with! It's definitely not a necessity for anyone's pedal board, but will always bring something to the table for sure. It's not something that I'd need to personally have on my pedal board, but in the studio it's an awesome tool to have around for all different types of purposes. If you're into lo-fi sounds I'd highly recommend checking out the Sonic Alienator!

This a ring modulator with an LFO. It is pure 100% analog. It has 5 knobs to turn for all you editing needs, no computer necessary. It has 1/4" audio connections and expression connections (all knobs it can be controlled via expression pedals) and it is rackable if you buy the rackmount accessory (holds three mf pedals all together). UTILIZATION There are only five knobs to configure, but they have wide parameters, like all mf pedals, so there is a lot of room for change. If you memorize the "presets" in the manual, you should get a good idea where to start from to make your own sounds. SOUND QUALITY This thing sounds super weird, aka super sweet. I would have to say the sounds are very ;unreal; in a very good way. I use this in my synth/drum sampler/alt vocals mixer's effects chain (with the mf lowpass filter) and it makes even the crappiest sounding devices take on a whole new and very interesting life. Any sound that goes through this things comes out on the other end sounding crazy, so you really can't go wrong. OVERALL OPINION I have had this for 1 year. The best thing about this effect is, again, everything, and i mean everything that is sent through this sounds crazy cool. I don't think there is anything I don't like about this pedal. I did try the ring mod effect in the Boss ME-50 pedal, and thought it was ok, but this thing kicked its digital butt with glistening analog muscle. This pedal is around $275, and and Exp pedal costs around $40 ( I recommend getting at least one) which is a big chunk of change, but it is worth every penny. I would absolutely buy this again. It has impacted my sound to the bone. It is well worth the investment for anyone that needs something like this on a tight budget.