The Atom Smasher hacks the digital delay guitar pedal
Boutique glitch delay pedal
The Atom Smasher is a new pedal designed and built by Alex Lynham of SSD Devices in Manchester, UK. It’s a digital delay pedal, reverb pedal and micro-sampler in one. This digital effect has essentially been built hacked and torn apart with code to create a delay that just wants to smash it up.
Smash it up!
After this week’s Syntax Error and The Curse, I didn’t think we would get any more twisted pedals for some time. Boy, was I wrong!
Alex is a passionate guy when it comes to hacking digital chips, so much so that he has even written a fairly in-depth article for people that would like to get into the realms of digital chip programming. What I love is that he has put so much work into this project and created something pretty unique, plus he is willing to share his ideas and thought processes to anyone wanting to have a go themselves.
Atom Smasher digital delay and Uplink · Source: SSD Devices
SMD
SpinSemi FV-1 is an SMD chip used in the circuit design for digital delays and other effects that require a delay line, like reverbs, choruses, flangers and phasers. It is programmed with an assembly-style language called SpinASM.
Control
The Atom Smasher is 9V negative tip and powered by a PSU-only (no batteries here). It’s also True-Bypass.
The controls consist of a footswitch for VAR1, a parameter which the footswitch can momentarily max out on command, three control parameters plus a mix control. There is also a Rotary patch-selector for accessing eight patches. You can also buy an optional UPLINK expansion pedal allowing for momentary spiking of VAR2 on all patches as well.
These are the following modes or patches for the pedal: Stutter, Glitch, Reverse Ramp Delay, Dual Pitch Delay, Pitch Shift, Glitch Reverb, Pitch Shift Reverb and Reverse Reverb. Each control will then change its functions according to what patch you are in. Rather than me trying to explain it (badly), just check out the two videos below.
Boutique Digital
As a one-man operation, I expect think Alex will take a while to make you one of these. I’d imagine the waiting list will be around six months or so. I do think he is offering something that is desirable and for a very reasonable price, considering all the hard work and imagination he is putting in.
RRP – Atom Smasher GBP 180 and optional UPLINK pedal GBP 25
Atom Smasher pre-order page
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