Clube dos Amantes de Pedais de Boutique e Efeitos Analógicos - Parte VII

The Inferno is a full-range fuzz box featuring a combination germanium/silicon circuit. All components are hand selected and auditioned for the best sound resulting in the warmth of vintage germanium transistors combined with the high gain of silicon. A lot of distortion/fuzz units cut a significant amount of bass and low mids out of your tone, giving at best, a thin sound or at worst, that lovely fingernails on chalkboard tone. The Inferno exhibits none of these issues due to its wide frequency range. As a result, the Inferno works well with a large range of instruments (guitar, bass, synths, etc.). The Inferno is very responsive to picking strength and to the volume knob on your guitar or instrument and will give a range of tones from mild overdrive to full-on sick fuzz.

Controls

Smoke - Controls the amount of fuzz/distortion and initial gain
Fire - Controls the effect output volume
Heat - Controls the amount of boost, gain and compression
Turn down the smoke (or your guitar volume knob) and adjust the heat to your liking for overdrive to light distortion tones (picking strength will also alter the amount of distortion quite a bit from clean to medium to heavy distortion/fuzz). For medium gain fuzz, turn the smoke halfway up (or adjust the guitar volume knob) and set the heat to taste. For full on dense, insane fuzz, crank everything up to 11 and flail away. For some seriously sick sounding fuzz, drive the Inferno with a preamp, EQ or overdrive (like the x-ray or TS-808) and watch the sparks fly out of the back of your amp! (You might want to turn that amp down before doing this!) The Inferno exhibits some interesting sustain and compression dynamics, especially at high gain settings. Like everything else, experimentation is key to finding sounds you really like.

The Ultraviolet2 is an insanely versatile quad channel fuzz with three active filter sections. For everything from warm, full range distortion to in-your-face, multi-layered, wall of sound fuzz and feedback fury. Think of it as 4 parallel fuzz units run through 3 differently voiced wah pedals. The Ultraviolet2 boosts your instrument signal, routes it through 4 separate parallel fuzz channels with 3 of the channels routed through active filter sections (each filter section voiced differently to affect different portions of the frequency spectrum); then recombines them with the ability to mix the fourth unfiltered fuzz channel back in. The assorted control knobs allow for a highly tweakable sound allowing you to get a wide range of tones from warm distortion to creating a very thick synth-like sound to "my amp is about to explode" sounds. The Ultraviolet2 also creates some really cool multi-layered, evolving harmonic structures not to mention being able to tune your feedback harmonics using the 3 active filter sections. With some instruments, it is even possible to achieve dual or multi tone feedback! For as dense as the Ultraviolet2 is, the signal remains highly articulated, with surpringly little intermodulation distortion and low end "mud". The UV2 is designed for use with any kind of instrument, audio source, appliance, etc. you can think of plugging into it. Near infinite sonic possibilities for insane fuzz audio terrorism!

Controls

Fuzz - Controls the overall amount of fuzz and gain. Dial in less fuzz for a cleaner, lower gain sound. Dial in more fuzz for a denser, more layered sound.
Low Freq - Controls the center frequency of the low frequency filter section
Mid Freq - Controls the center frequency of the mid frequency filter section
Hi Freq - Controls the center frequency of the hi frequency filter section
Mix - Controls the amount of signal from the unfiltered fuzz channel which is mixed back in with the other three (filtered) channels.
Volume - Controls the overall effect output volume

The following suggestions are included to help you get started. Experimentation with your Ultraviolet is key to getting wicked sounds with your particular instrument/amplifier combination. A little time spent figuring out how each parameter affects the sound is well worth the minor effort.

To make it easier to dial in the various filter frequencies, start with the mix knob all the way counter clockwise. Adjust the three filter frequencies and then slowly add more of the unfiltered signal back in with the mix knob until you get a sound you like. You might not even want to add any of the unfiltered signal back in.

To adjust the feedback frequencies, hit a chord and while it's sustaining, adjust the three filter frequency knobs to taste. Different chords obviously have different harmonic structures so your feedback harmonics will vary from chord/note to chord/note.

For use with bass, mixing the unfiltered fuzz back in is a good way of keeping more of the low end "thump" of your instrument. Using less "fuzz" and judicious use of the filter frequency ranges can keep the output from overwhelming your amp and causing it to become too muddy.

For that cheap, tinny speaker sound: Turn the mix knob all the way down (counter clockwise), turn the 3 filter frequencies all the way clockwise.

For lots of bottom end: Turn the Low Freq knob all the way counter clockwise. For brighter high end, adjust the mid and hi freq knobs towards the clockwise end of the spectrum to taste and for even more low end, adjust the mid and hi freq knobs more counter clockwise to taste. Turn the mix knob up to between 2:00 & 5:00 (all the way up).

For more scooped mids: Adjust the low and hi freq knobs towards the clockwise end and adjust the mid freq knob towards the counter clockwise end of its travel. This gives more of a "shelved" EQ sound.