Catalinbread Bitters

Catalinbread Bitters is a multieffects unit on steroïds with controls for distortion and phaser and based upon the infamous Alesis Bitrman.

The Bitters is essentially a multi-effects device on steroids, giving you individual knobs for distortion and phaser, along with a third user-selectable effect called Bitters. This effect can be one of 4 different programs: Decimator, Bitcrusher, Frequency Modulation, and Ring Modulation.

The 3 effects are run in series but you can reverse the order such that Bitters comes first for some complete sonic mayhem. Just like the original, the Bitters pairs just as well with synths, drum machines, and DAWs as it does with electric guitar and bass. And since the original didn’t have a mix control of any kind, the Bitters is infinitely more usable than the original ever was.

Controls:

• Distort: Harmonically-rich digital distortion.
• Dual: Speed of the deep sine-wave phase shifter, from 0Hz to 20Hz.
• Bitters: Depends on the selected program, turning this knob to zero removes it from the signal path.
• Mix: Blends your pre-Bitters signal in with the output of the Bitters, from 0 to 100%.
• Program selector: Each program is listed twice to select the order, ether Distortion>Phaser>Bitters or Bitters>Phaser>Distortion.
  – Decimator: Alesis’ name for sample rate reduction, it samples your input signal and lowers that sample rate, which introduces Nyquist aliasing.
  – Bitcrusher: Reduces the fidelity of the input signal all the way down to one bit for some true digital destruction. Includes a noise gate to compensate for the introduced noise.
  – Frequency Modulation: Also known as pitch vibrato.
  – Ring Modulator: Tremolo with extremely fast modulation, it introduces additive and subtractive frequencies relative to the input signal and the carrier frequency.

The pedal is powered by a standard (9-18 volts) power supply.

Catalinbread Bitters demo video