My Recovery Effects' Zenith and Vales Bit-Crushing Digital Annihilation Fuzz has landed

A really cool sort of fuzz oddity, which is even less of a proper fuzz than the Mattoverse AirTrash. We’re dealing with various Bit-Crushed and Sample Rate Reduction and essentially modulation of the incoming signal - which renders some very sci-fi sounds. Mostly leaning into the synth side of things. You don’t get anything approximating traditional fuzz - but what you get is an extraordinarily versatile noise box - but one which requires patience and diligence!

Besides the two mode switches and volume control, there are essentially 4 sections that combine here - Sample Rate, Bit Reduction, Warble, and Aliasing.

I’ve often spoken about ’safe-cracker’ like fine movements of the dials to unearth the appropriate sweet-spots - and that is very true of this pedal - there are tiny in-between states which render the optimal degree of output - which moves through a variety of drone and percolation sounds, to more metallic almost clangy noises - and sort of zither-like pads. You also get a tonne of sustain on some of the outputs while others decay more rapidly.

This pedal is best for me at generating atmospheric sci-fi, and almost synthy sounds in places. I see it more as a textural - say underlay pedal, than one that handles the lead lines - but you can of course generate some rather cool riffs with this. It’s going to take a long time to explore fully - as several of the knobs are somewhat interactive - and as I mentioned, tiny movements yield new surprises!

Controls - Sample Rate, Bit Reduction, Volume, Warble Speed, Warble Amount, Aliasing, SR (Sample Rate) / BR (Bit Reduction) A/B Mode Switch, Aliasing A/B Mode Switch.

You also need to get used to the 4 Modes at your disposal - Sample Rate or Bit Reduction, and Aliasing Mode A or B.

The difficulty is not with finding sounds necessarily, but rather in finding something suitably musical - that cuts through well enough to be usable and useful. Because of the destructive and reductive nature of this effect - some of the output can be quite a bit under unity - so you will need to post clean boost that as I do. I also found that the Zenith and Vales paired particularly well with the Krozz Airborn Flanger on the board - and particularly for my first settings ’Zither Pad’!

Settings #1 : ’Zither Pad’ - Sample Rate @ Min, Bit Reduction @ 10:30 o’c, Volume @ Max, Warble Speed @ 9 o’c, Warble Amount @ Noon, Aliasing @ Min, SR Mode, ’B’ Aliasing.

Settings #2 : ’Kling Clang’ - Sample Rate @ 2:45 o’c, Bit Reduction @ 9 o’c, Volume @ Max, Warble Speed @ Noon, Warble Amount @ Min, Aliasing @ 2:45 o’c, SR Mode, ’A’ Aliasing.

Settings #3 : ’Doom Drone Percolator’ - Sample Rate @ Min, Bit Reduction @ 2:45 o’c, Volume @ Max, Warble Speed @ 3 o’c, Warble Amount @ 9 o’c, Aliasing @ 11:30 o’c, BR Mode, ’A’ Aliasing.

I really like this pedal - it’s pretty unique within the reference collection, while I feel that I’m going to need to spend a lot more time getting used to it, and mapping out its usable tones. It may prove a little frustrating for some players, and is definitely not for novices or impatient types. For more experimental types though - this is another fantastic addition to your arsenal!

I got involved early enough to get the first-movers discount where the pedal was $199 for about a month, before rising to its current standard price at $229. Of course available for orders from the Recovery Effects Webstore, and at selected International Dealers.