So, there are distortion pedals, and then there are DISTORTION PEDALS. Today’s featured effect, the Beautiful Noise Effects Exploder Distortion Device, clearly falls into the latter category (whatever that is), taking what you thought you knew about dirt pedals and smashing all expectations into oblivion. Sound too harsh? Well, if that’s the case, you should probably stop reading and go play a nice, quiet melody on your back porch. If you want to rock, however, come with us as we dive in and see what this monster is all about…
The Exploder is a highly expanded and modified version of the gain circuit from the Beautiful Noises’ When The Sun Explodes Reverberation Distortion, with wildly more tone customization options, and in a standalone pedalboard-friendly enclosure. The gain circuit is a 3-way switchable hard-clipping pre-amplifier with 1000x gain amplification, running into an active 3-band EQ post-amplifier which can shape and sculpt your signal across the whole frequency spectrum. Anything from gritty amp-like overdrives to massively destructive fuzz tones are easily achievable here.
Exploder also features an envelope controlled white noise generator (commonly used in analog synthesizers), which can be blended into your signal. This turns on and off with your instrument signal strength, which can add lo-fi sounds of cassette tape hiss, broken radio broadcasts, rainfall, or over-encumbering harsh washes of noise. (Warning: this pedal can produce buzzing, noise, and potentially harmful amp exploding levels of gain)
Much like the When The Sun Explodes and the Endless Sleeper Delay that came before it, the Exploder Distortion Device takes the distortion genre head-on, flipping it on its back, twisting it around and spitting it right back out, in a glorious and super-loud fashion. We love all of the Beautiful Noise Effects pedals we’ve had the privilege to explore so far, and can’t wait to see what comes next from these guys down in Newcastle, Australia. Be sure to visit their website for more info, follow them on all your favorite socials, and check out our Full Demo Video on YouTube below – cheers!!
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