Catalinbread Bitters: Modernizing the Iconic Alesis Bitrman
Can this new Catalinbread pedal live up to it's namesake?
4,3 / 5,0 | 
The Catalinbread Bitters is a versatile multi-effects pedal inspired by the Alesis Bitrman. It features controls for distortion, phaser, and effects like Decimator, Bitcrusher, Frequency Modulation, and Ring Modulator, with a mix control to blend dry and wet signals, making it ideal for various instruments and genres.
Features and Effects
The Bitters is essentially a supercharged multi-effects unit with separate controls for distortion and phaser. It also includes a unique “Bitters” program offering four effects: Decimator, Bitcrusher, Frequency Modulation, and Ring Modulation. These effects can be reordered and tweaked to suit your creative needs, providing further flexibility.
- Decimator: Reduces bit depth for gritty, lo-fi sounds.
- Bitcrusher: Adds digital distortion and texture.
- Frequency Modulation: Creates complex modulations for added depth.
- Ring Modulation: Introduces unique harmonic content, transforming your sound.
Revamping the Alesis Bitrman
To understand the Bitters namesake, it’s important to look back at the Alesis Bitrman. Released in 2004 as part of Alesis’s “ModFX” series, the Bitrman stood out among seven effect types including vocoder, tremolo, compression, phaser, flanger, and filter. The Bitrman was unique and powerful but had its flaws and lacked a modern interface and quality refinements. The Catalinbread Bitters captures the essence of the Bitrman, fixes its issues, and streamlines it for modern use.
Balancing Sound and Chaos
The Catalinbread Bitters sits at the crossroads of sound design and chaos. It offers many usable effects, selectable via the Program Wheel, and the ability to turn your signal into a digital frenzy. This makes it perfect for a wide range of instruments and setups, including synths, drum machines, DAWs, electric guitars, and basses. One of its standout features is the mix control, allowing users to blend the wet and dry signals seamlessly which enables players to use more extravagant effects, but keep them tame all at the same time.
The new Catalinbread Bitters is available now at Thomann* for $226.00 / £208.00 / 249.00€.
More Information
*This post contains affiliate links and/or widgets. When you buy a product via our affiliate partner, we receive a small commission that helps support what we do. Don’t worry, you pay the same price. Thanks for your support!
This might also interest you
