OPFX is a small Italian builder out or La Spezia specializing in synthy pedals, and the Asteroide is their take on the Sampler/Harmonizing stompbox, i.e. the “freezing with harmonizing effect that creates organ-like droney chords from a single note.
The device samples and loops a section of your signal and adds two harmonics and a lower octave to taste. It features a Dual Mode that lets you sample two notes that will then be played at the same time and go through the same multi-octave effect circuit.
The OPFXS Asteroide can also be used as a looper. The site doesn’t mention how long a sample it can record, but it states that it’s long enough to be used for rhythmic loops.
Here are the videos.
ASTEROIDE lets you sample a note you’re playing by hitting a footswitch, the sampled note is memorized and played back following the input envelope. You can add lower and higher harmonics to give the sampled note a fat bass sound or organ like timbre.
You can sample two notes by switching into DUAL mode. Sampled notes will be played back as a chord.
ASTEROIDE can be useful if you want a simple bass line following your playing dinamically or create harmonically complex riff or chord progressions. Can be used in conjunction or as an alternative to loop recorders in some situations, altough loop recording lets you record and play back complex music patterns, they always suffer from the limitations and constraint of time, with ASTEROIDE you can go free on improvisation and timing of your playing.
SAMPLE footswitch can be pushed once to sample or long pressed to sustain the sampled note indefinitely.
BYPASS erases the sampled note(s) and goes in bypass mode.
