When Earthquaker Devices set about creating a new stompbox, they tend to do it with a clear goal in mind: to break the mould. Purveyors of some of the most mind-bending effects available on the market, they've got a reputation for setting the bar when it comes to weird and wonderful tones. Their latest creation is a typically supercharged modulation pedal with heaps of features and flexibility – say hello to the Pyramids!
Flange to your heart's content
The Pyramids Stereo Flanging Device started life as an offshoot of the Avalanche Run DSP architecture. It was tweaked and contorted until it became it's own beast entirely. The pedal you see before you is a stereo flanger with user-definable presets, eight distinct modulation modes, tap tempo and subdivision control, in-depth feedback controls and much more!
Pyramids “Activate” foot-switch features EarthQuaker Devices’ exclusive Flexi-Switch technology. This relay-based true-bypass switching platform allows for momentary or latching operation, making it easier than ever to engage the effect to bedazzle individual notes or phrases! For standard latching operation, tap the foot-switch to activate the effect and tap again to bypass. For momentary operation, simply hold down the foot-switch for as long as you’d like to use the effect. Release the foot-switch to bypass.
The Pyramids' eight flanger modes are:
- Classic: delivers the “classic” (duh) jet-plane liquid-silk flanging sound we all know and love. In this mode, Pyramids recreates the studio-quality sounds of old-school ADT (automatic double tracking) as heard on timeless recordings by those fabulous mop-tops from England (you know which ones) and on the most ripping double-tracked riffs to come from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
- Through-Zero: provides authentic tape-style flanging without all the calibration, biasing, demagnetising of heads, and so on that a real tape machine – two of ‘em, actually – requires. Use Through-Zero Mode to achieve intensified, swirling, dramatic phase cancellation and comb-filtering effects in stereo!
- Barber Pole (Up or Down): infinitely sweeping upward or downward flanging effect with no discernible beginning, middle, or end creating an “endless circular staircase” effect derived from the Shephard Tone auditory illusion popularised in television, video games, and film.
- Trigger (Up or Down): In this mode, Pyramids provides an infinitely upward or downward sweeping flanger that restarts the flange cycle with each new pick attack or by pressing the Tap/Trigger foot-switch.
- Step: sweeps up and down in stepped increments, producing a rhythmic flange effect similar to an arpeggiator and/or sequencer on a synth instrument.
- Random: sweeps up and down in random intervals, creating a chaotic flange effect similar to a synthesizer or envelope filter’s “sample & hold” function.
Connect the dots!
To accommodate any input source, Pyramids includes stereo input and outputs which allow for a variety of routing options onstage or in the studio. Routing possibilities include: Mono in / Mono out – Mono in / Stereo out – Stereo in / Stereo out. In addition, Pyramids’ Trigger Up/Down modes allow for Side Chain Flanging, in which an external control source (drum machine, sequencer, CV) may be used to trigger the flanger while you play another instrument! In this configuration, the primary instrument is routed through the Right Input and Right Output while the control source is patched into the Left Input.
