NPD, Kinda: Into The Unknown by Parasit Studios

[bnt]

I say "kinda" because I don't yet have a working pedal: I have a pile of parts and a soldering iron. It won't look exactly like the one on the Parasit website, since I don't have the top label, just a bare metal case. The kit came from MusikDing in Germany. I don't even have knobs yet, and labels will be rudimentary at best.

 

The ITU is a guitar synth / fuzz based on the CMOS 4046 Phase Locked Loop (PLL) chip. Not the full Schumann PLL circuit design, but a simpler version whose closest analogue is probably the Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander. The ITU does have some extra features, over that, including 1 / 2 octave up & down switches  (not much use on bass?), a Warp control, a LFO, and (I think) more control over tracking. Oh, and it's 1/4 the price. 

 

The PLL tries to track and follow an incoming signal, outputting a square wave at the same frequency in its simplest use case (fuzz). A circuit like this inserts clock dividers on both the output (for octaves down) or on the "comparator" circuit (for octaves up). It lets you mess with the tracking for a "laggy" feel on the octave up, letting you blend three voices total. Square waves are not subtle but the filter can take the edge off.  

 

I have a 4-day weekend from Thursday and hope to make a start on the soldering. CMOS chips don't like static electricity, so I'll need to be careful in handling them, but the kit includes chip sockets. When it's done I'll see about photos and maybe video clips. I haven't seen found any YT videos of this pedal on bass, so it might be a first. 

Edited 2 hours ago by bnt
typos