Third of the Klowra Budding Bloom Series is the very left-field and quirky South Zoo Animal Voice Synth

I have to say that I’m a little mystified as to exactly who this pedal is aimed at. It doesn’t have that unbridled joy that the Korg Miku pedal delivers in spades, and in truth none of the Animal voicings are particularly close to those actual source sounds. The Frog voice is the most versatile - and gets the closets to a ’Ribbit’ and even some ’Frog Chorus’ type sounds. The Cat voice is very faintly a mewing / miaow sound - the B’s Music Meowdulator is more convincing - while I feel that is a sample-based pedal , where I feel the South Zoo seems to be more native waveform synthesis.

The Horse voice - really sounds nothing like any animal I know from the equine genus - I’m guessing it’s supposed to sound like a horse’s ’Whinny’ noise - but in over an hour of trying to dial that in - I never really got even vaguely close enough to anything recognisable!

The Frog voicing is close enough at times that you can guess what it is without context and prompts - the Cat voice mostly not really - or at least not consistently, and the ’Horse’ voice not at all. There are some other more glissando voicings that you can dial in which are musically and melodically more useful - but really sound nothing like the animals they’re supposed to represent.

In the Licks Demo video there are some great examples of combining these voicings with modulations, auto-wah and even gain pedals - but it still makes me wonder what the intended purpose and original intentions were - as truly none of those noises are nearly close enough - apart from the Frogs!

Of the first 3 Budding Bloom Minis - this is the one pedal I spent the most time trying to dial in - hours and hours went into trying to get authentic animal sounds - and if that’s your mission - then beyond the Frog voicing - it’s mostly doomed to relative degrees of failure. I tried to get as close to those actual real animal voices - but some really didn’t get anywhere close enough.

I guess I would need a lot longer to fully get used to the tapers of all those controls - and how they interact with each other - the Mix dial is very straightforward - the others really not so much. Tails is the kind of the sustain of the effect, Speed is how quickly each animal voice waveform is played / looped, and I’m less clear on ’Detail’ which is kind of a Texture control - but I seemed to get inconsistent results from that - and there was often an odd interaction with Tails and Speed. It’s also really very much about tiny safe-cracker-like micro-movements!

I had the most joy on the Frog voicing - that mostly sounds kind of Ribbit-y and you can get some cool variations going. While as with the others - the variations just take you further and further away from the ’authenticity’ of that voicing. I have a few odd and quirky pedals in the collection - including the Korg Miku - and that for me is a lot of fun - it behaves more predictably - and in many ways is more on-rails and nailed-on than this more variable synth-modulator.

I’m OK with the Frogs, where if you like Cats - you’re possibly / probably better served by the B’s Music Meowdulator, and if you’re into Horses then I’m at a loss - as I’m not aware of any specific horsey sounding pedals. I’m sure there’s probably a children’s keyboard or noise maker available somewhere that does all the animal noises more authentically - and I’m sure you can get more pro synth sample packs that more authentically - even through pure synthesis - fully represent those source voices. This South Zoo Animal Voice Synth is just every-way odd to me - and I really don’t know what the musical serving suggestions are here - and to whom this pedal would significantly appeal to.

In any case I’ve tried my very best to dial it in as well as it can be dialled - I’ve literally swept every micro-millimetre of every dial - back and forth hundreds of times - in pursuit of authentic tones, and I’ve invested numerous hours over several days - trying to get the best out of this device. I was confused when I started writing this - and still am do a degree!