We covered Greek pedal manufacturers Side FX in 2017 with this little profile so we are very curious to see what they’ve been up to since then.
It turns out they’ve been hard at work developing a new, all analog pedal that it’s now out, called Bug Elektrik Tremolo/Ring Modulator, of which JustNick shot a basic video of it (below). Nick only has good things to say about it:
One of the most musical boxes I’ve played in a long time. Fantastic analog optical trem with tons of range and two dynamically modulated modes. Two amazingly usable ring mod settings. And…a perfectly matched gain circuit to add texture and grind.
The company describes in these two paragraphs what makes this pedal special:
Apart from the usual Depth and Rate controls the Bug has two modulation waveforms (triangle and square), a Gain knob (because ring modulation sounds even more dope with some clipping) and a Volume knob to find the perfect balance between your bypassed and modulated sound. Plus, you can turn the modulation off and use it as a preamp!
To make things more random and out of control, you can engage two envelope modes that affect the modulation Rate. One is based on your playing dynamics and the other is controlled by a light sensitive element that lies on the chassis of the pedal. The amount of light that you allow to fall on the pedal will mess with with your dialed Rate…fun stuff!
Here are the two videos currently available of the Bug Elektric!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uccP96CvyXs&t=153s
Designing this circuit took months and a busted breadboard in the process… the goal was to combine both effects in a single pedal with no limiting of their features and a minimal carrier signal bleed-through (which is a common drawback with ring mods).
So here it is: fully analog, smooth or hard chopping tremolo and synthy, bit crushing ring mod madness.
Apart from the usual Depth and Rate controls the Bug has two modulation waveforms (triangle and square), a Gain knob (because ring modulation sounds even more dope with some clipping) and a Volume knob to find the perfect balance between your bypassed and modulated sound. Plus, you can turn the modulation off and use it as a preamp!
To make things more random and out of control, you can engage two envelope modes that affect the modulation Rate. One is based on your playing dynamics and the other is controlled by a light sensitive element that lies on the chassis of the pedal. The amount of light that you allow to fall on the pedal will mess with with your dialed Rate…fun stuff!
