Whether you own the “holy grail” Colorsound Dipthonizer, or you don’t know a diphthong from a Frampton solo, there is a new pedal from TWA that might tickle your ears. The TWA Little Dipper MkII is an envelope-controlled vocal formant filter that is based on the original Dipthonizer.
While an envelope-controlled vocal formant filter sounds quite complicated, it is an effect that you will know instantly. It’s that thing where someone plays guitar, and it sounds like human talking. To be more specific, it sounds like a human talking nonsense in only vowels mixed with a funky wah effect while maybe underwater.
As the MkII suffix implies, it is an update to TWA’s original Little Dipper. The MkII is a big update, however, and improves upon the original in numerous ways. Among the most interesting are the addition of an EXP jack to control the pedal with an outboard expression pedal, and an extra “diphthong” setting added in addition to the original 4, for tons of extra sonic possibility. Additionally, the Little Dipper MkII includes the TWA proprietary “Shortest Send Switching”, which is relay-based true bypass switching that defaults to bypass if power is lost.
Check out the demo videos to see this thing in all its funky gurgling glory. From the website it seems like they are almost sold out of the first run, so if you want to get your hands on one of these, it would pay to act fast! – Nathan Smith
