Matthew’s Effects’ new The Alchemist transmutes Stereo and Mono guitar signals
So what exactly is a Transmutation Box?
Matthew’s Effects’ The Alchemist Transmutation Box seems a very handy little unit to own if you ever want to use a stereo amp rig or sum a stereo signal back down into mono.
Stereo Rigs
The Matthew’s Effects’ The Alchemist pedal allows you to split your mono guitar signal or sum your stereo signal to mono. The real beauty here is the neatness of this compact pedal format. The Alchemist runs from an external 9-18V power supply and has an LED indicator light on the side to let you know when it’s on.
Its simple layout is really easy to understand. There are four jack sockets, two of which are marked in black and the other pair in red, giving you visual queues that tell you where to plug in all your cables when you’re getting setting up. The instructions on the Matthew’s Effects website really couldn’t be any simpler, which I love.
- Leave the black input unplugged to automatically split your signal to an always-on tuner without any tone loss, or create a parallel mono signal path.
- Leave the black output unplugged to automatically combine your stereo inputs into the red output.
The only thing you need to be mindful of when using The Alchemist is that you allow the pedal 2 seconds power cycling each time you unplug the pedal (thus turning it on and off), or every time you switch between stereo-to-mono summing and splitting mono modes.
Matthew’s Effects The Alchemist pedal. Stereo or Mono rig? No problem · Source: Matthew’s Effects
Buffers
Having built-in independent buffers is pretty essential, as these help maintain your guitar’s signal when using long cables, which is often what you want to do when using a stereo amp rig, because you need a bit of distance between your amps to achieve a nice, swirly stereo effect.
Beyond the attractive size of the pedal, it also seems really cheap for what it does. Because it eats up much so little space, I can squeeze even more delays and fuzz boxes on there!
Matthew’s Effects The Alchemist product page
RRP USD 89.95 plus shipping/taxes
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