The Pill Stereo: Analog Ducking for live performance
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The Pill Stereo · Source: The Pill Pedal
The Pill Stereo · Source: The Pill Pedal
The Pill Stereo · Source: The Pill Pedal
New updates to The Pill Stereo make it a thumpingly good live performance effect for ducking synths with drum machines, microphones and other sources.
The Pill
It’s a remarkable looking effects pedal handmade in Europe by David Koch of The Pill Pedal. The mono version was originally released via Kickstarter in 2019 with The Pill Stereo following along last year. After suffering from the component shortage they are taking preorders on the new batch due to ship in January 2022 which has a couple of new features developed from customer feedback.
The idea is that The Pill provides a ducking effect. You can plug a synth into the audio inputs and a drum machine into the side-chain trigger input and every time the kick drum sounds the synth sound is pulled down or “ducked” in volume letting the kick come through the mix. It gives a sort of pulsing effect to the sound and allows different sources to cut through the other sounds. If you’re wanting to make thundering techno then this is what you need.
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Of course, you can use it for all sorts of things but it can be a game-changer for electronic music live performance where it can be difficult to get a good balance of sound.
The controls are really simple with Release to set the duration of the ducking, Depth to set the ducking volume and Trigger to set the sensitivity.
In this new version, there’s a Trigger Thru output jack that carries the triggering signal back out again which can simplify the mixing of your signals. You’ll also find a separate CV/Gate/Trigger input has been added to offer a more versatile way of trigger the ducking and it can be used at the same time as the audio trigger. There’s also now a buffered bypass option.
The Pill Mono is available for $315 and The Pill Stereo for $355 both in very small numbers and shipping in January.
More information
- The Pill website
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