HexeFX - The Carrier

Trio of doom:

analog octaver, massive fuzz and an ultra versatile ring modulator.

Octaver controls:

Octave Mix - -1/Dry/+1 octave blend knob.
Octave ON/OFF - switch:
- ON - the Octaver is activated together with the Fuzz.
- OFF - the Octaver can be activated by holding the Fuzz footswitch pressed (rev.A = momentary action, rev. B = latching action).

Fuzz controls:

Low End - 3 position switch, controls the "fatness" of the fuzz sound.
Fuzz - gain, drive, amount of overdrive.
Tone - tone control knob.
Volume- fuzz output volume.
Mid Boost - 2 position switch, adds more mid range.
Resonance - low end boost, internal trimpot.
Gate ON/OFF - noise gate ON/OFF switch.
FUZZ Footswitch - a short click toggles the Fuzz state. This footswitch shares some functions with the Octaver part.

Ring Modulator controls:

Frequency - carrier base frequency, the incoming audio signal is multiplied with the carrier wave.
Carrier Wave - waveform selector switch. There are six available waveforms:
- Sin
- Triangle
- Square
- Ramp Up
- Ramp Down
- Hypertriangular.
Mix - Dry/Wet mix control.
Ring Tone - 3 position switch, lowpass filter for the ring modulator sound, center position = OFF.
RING Footswitch - activates/deactivates the ring modulator.

LFO controls:

Ramp/ENV/LFO switch - ramp/envelope controlled or plain LFO modulation mode selection switch.
Speed - LFO rate.
Depth - LFO amplitude control, works together with the Frequency control.
Symmetry - phase distortion control for the LFO waveform, allows to further manipulate all the LFO waveforms.
LFO Wave - waveform selector switch. There are six available waveforms:
- Sin
- Triangle
- Square
- Hypertriangular
- Stepped
- Random.
LFO/Ramp Footswitch - short click in LFO mode activates/deactivates the modulation.

Octaver

A classic analog octave down and octave up effect with one simple blend control:

Min setting: 100% octave down.
Mid setting: 25% octave down + 50% dry + 25% octave up.
Max setting: 100% octave up.

Using the Octave toogle switch, the octaver can be assigned to the next block in line: the fuzz. In ON state, the octaver will be switched on or off together with the fuzz. In OFF - switching the octaver will be done by holding down the left footswitch.

Fuzz

A massive thick sounding fuzz of hybrid, silicone/germanium construction. Additional Low End 3 position toggle switch controlls the amount of bass band in the input signal. Apart from typical Fuzz, Tone, Level controls, the Carrier is equipped with a noise gate.

Noise Gate / Envelope follower:

The noise gate measures the input dry signal level and uses it to control the gate. This way, the gate threshold does not have to be adjusted eg. after changing the Fuzz gain. In version I of the pedal, the gate controls (threshold, on/off) were internal. In versions II and III the gate on/off switch is available in the top row of the controls.

The noise gate signal is also used to drive a simple attack-decay generator, available as one of the modulation options for the ring modulator part.

Ring Modulator:

The heart of the pedal: a 4-quandrant analog mulitplier with 6 available carrier waveforms. The carrier frequency can be controlled manually using the Freq knob (or an expression pedal if plugged in) or modulated using one of the onboard modulation blocks: LFO, ramp generator or an envelope follower.

Modulation blocks:

The type of the modulation applied to the carrier frequency is set with the 3 position (2 position in Carrier I and II) toogle switch

LFO
ENV: LFO + Envelope follower
RAMP: ramp generator

LFO:

LFO section is controlled via SPEED, DEPTH and SYMMETRY knobs. There are six available waveforms, one of them acting as a random sample and hold effect.

The DEPTH control works in an interesting and a novel way. Together with the manual control for the parameter (FREQ) it sets boundaries where the LFO's signal is generated, as it is shown on the simulation.

Click on the knobs and play with the settings to see how the LFO ouptut changes.

Ramp Up/Down Generator:

Ramp generator uses the same controls as LFO:

SPEED controls the ramp slope.
DEPTH and FREQ controls the bottom and top ramp levels.

Pressing the right footwitch shortly will start the Ramp Up mode. Holding the footswitch down activates the Ramp Down mode. If the modulation signal reaches one of it's boundaries (set by DEPTH and FREQ knobs) it stops and signals it by lighing up both Up and Down leds.

Envelope follower:

Envelope follower works in conjucion with the LFO part. When active, the envelope of the incoming signal will affect the LFO DEPTH parameter. This option is available only on the latest model "III".