If there’s anything we love around here, it’s when a pedal goes beyond all the usually, normal boundaries. Today’s featured effect, the Intensive Care Audio VENA CAVA FILTER Distortion v.1 takes this concept to new heights, combining filter, distortion and ring modulation into one out-of-this-world machine. Lots of options and lots to discover – you all ready? Let’s Get Weird.
The VENA CAVA FILTER is a distortion with an auto-filter and ring modulation used for the treatment of Bland Guitar Syndrome and Excessive Aural Dryness. There are two soft touch footswitches, the left is BYPASS and the right is TAP TEMPO. WAVE FUNCTION is an 8-position rotary switch allows you to select 1 of 8 available LFO waveforms: Random Slopes, Random Steps, Sweep, Sine, Triangle, Square, Ramp Down or Ramp Up. FREQ sets the frequency (speed) of the LFO, while RING sets the base frequency of a ring modulator which is swept by the LFO along with the filter. Turning fully clockwise disengages the ring modulator. At settings below 12 o’clock the carrier frequency becomes inaudible and provides an interesting stuttering effect. Set correctly it can also create octave down effects which when swept by the LFO moves around with the wave shape set by WAVE FUNCTION.
The RING SWITCH removes the LFO controlling the ring modulator frequency so the ring modulator can be set at a specific frequency (the LFO will continue to sweep the filter). The VOICE SWITCH selects between two voicing options for the filter, with one being a narrower notch with emphasis on high frequency content. VOLUME sets the overall output volume of the effect, and PEAK sets the depth of the LFO controlling the filter notch and the ring modulator frequency. BLEND sets the mix between distortion (fully anti-clockwise) and filtered and ring modulated distortion (fully anti-clockwise). Use in conjunction with the PEAK control to set intensity of the overall filter effect. Finally, GAIN sets the gain of the distortion. It ranges from a very mild overdrive to a heavy, fat distortion. At lower gain settings the filtering effect becomes less pronounced.
Used regularly, the VENA CAVA FILTER can provide effective relief from the aforementioned afflictions, and other music and instrumentation related conditions. Like all medicine, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them. Serious side effects may include involuntary time signature changes, nausea and or vomiting, anxiety, difficulty passing riffs, thinking you are better at your instrument than you actually are and looking down your nose at other peoples gear. All Intensive Care Audio pedals are built in London, England, using high quality components and featuring soft touch, relay based trued bypass. We love the VENA CAVA FILTER Distortion v.1, and we’ve got more gear on the way from Intensive Care Audio, so check out their website and stay tuned!
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