AMA is an Italian verb which means “love” in second person imperative (tu, ama! = you, love!)
After an initial string of fantastic dirt pedal releases (Vola, Esplora, Combatti), the team at AC Noises ventured off into modulation/ambient territory with the AMA Reverb Bit Crusher. One of our favorite pedals from 2018, it has gained much notoriety and praise across the globe the last few years. This new version (simply marked as V.2) is the result of the feedback that AC Noises received from all around the world during the past two years, and has been created to provide the most exciting experience to all the sonic adventurers out there who love a gently modulated and oscillating spring reverb in front of the re-worked and now more musical bit crusher, which is still placed after the reverb portion.
The controls for the V.2 are as follows:
OSC
One of the new features offered by the V.2; In the first version, the reverb oscillator was only switchable (ON/OFF) and it was strictly related to the decay. Now things have changed: the OSC knob allows to decide how much oscillation has to be noticed on the reverb tail, going from no oscillation at all (OSC knob fully counterclockwise) to the as wonderful as noisy self-oscillation mode (OSC knob fully clockwise).
MIX
The MIX knob controls the balance between the dry and wet signal; turning it clockwise, the percentage of reverberated signal will be more noticeable (and vice versa).
REVERB
The REVERB knob controls the decay’s length; turning it clockwise, reverb tail will become longer (and vice versa).
RAMP
One of the most exciting feature of the AMA V.2, the RAMP footswitch is related to reverb’s oscillator and its work speed depends on the OSC knob setting: more closed will be the OSC knob, slower will be the oscillator ramp (and vice versa).
CRUSH
That’s the position of the toggle switch which allows to engage the bit crusher circuit placed after the reverb.
RESOLUTION
The amount of the oscillation pulse; turning it clockwise, pulses will be wider and signal will be noticed as less crushed (and vice versa).
SAMPLE RATE
Bit crusher internal oscillation frequency; turning it clockwise, the oscillation will be more focused on high frequencies and the bit crusher will be generally noticed as brighter.
Another new feature offered by this new version of the AMA is an expression input connected to the sample rate, which allows to bypass the knob and controlling the frequency’s cut by using an external expression pedal (10k value recommended – so most of the expression pedals on the market). The AMA is a true bypass pedal (switching system managed by soft switch + programmed relay) as well.
We decided we’d better take a deep dive into the AMA Reverb Bit Crusher V.2, so grab some good headphones if you’ve got ’em, and take a sonic journey with us below. We didn’t even imagine the AMA could get better after that first edition, and we were just dead wrong about that. We love the new features and the tones are an ambient experimenter’s dream – well done once again to the AC Noises crew. Can’t wait for more releases from these folks, be sure to visit their website and give them a follow on all the socials!
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