Audio Disruption Devices Optical Ring V2 Ring Modulator Pedal of the Day

Let’s face it: Ring Modulators are not for everyone. They’re quirky, weird, loud, uncontrollable and will sometimes do damage to your other gear. Which are all reasons why we love ’em here at Pedal of the Day, and why we were wicked excited about today’s featured pedal arriving in the mail. The Optical Ring V2 is a complete ring modulation and fuzz system, wrapped in a giant enclosure to let everyone know you mean business about your sound. While the controls are relatively few, this big box produces a slew of sounds that will have you experimenting more, writing new material and even questioning the very fabric of the space/time continuum.

Let’s look at these knobs, first of all: they’re YUGE! With an enclosure this size, you gotta have knobs to compliment it, and these beauties are fairly easy to adjust with your foot on the fly. In addition to the Volume Output control, Ring Blend varies from side to side, with the left half being your fuzz and the right half being more ring modulator. Many variants exist in the spectrum between these two extremes, and wild, crazy and unique octave fuzz sounds are emitted over and over again.

The Modulator knob sets the pitch of the carrier signal, and can be manipulated via an external Expression pedal (we used one for the demo below, if you’re interested!). There’s one toggle switch as well, Shift, which produces three differing frequency ranges: glitchy fuzz, traditional ring mod and stutter trem. Distinct wind down and pitch bending effects are the bread and butter of this pedal, with no shortage of experimental settings anywhere to be found.

The Optical Ring V2 is a unique and original ring mod circuit that uses an optical theremin as the carrier. The signal is first passed through the fuzz circuit where picking dynamics control changes in pitch and volume of the theremin. As you’ll see and hear in the demo, this thing gets ABSOLUTELY NUTS. Don’t like noise, loudness or non-traditional music? Well, get the hell away from this pedal then, ’cause you’ll be disappointed! However, for those of you who toss caution to the wind, you’ll have a great time playing with this one. Be sure to check out more fabulous creations from Audio Disruption Devices on their Instagram page – cheers to you guys for a wacky job done and done right!