The blue-ringed octopus has an insanely high concentration of venom. This pedal also has an insanely high concentration of venom.

Good Points: Vicious insane highs. Alien sounds. Built like a tank. Looks cool. Sloped face. Wet/dry. CV input works best with something off/on off/on like a tremolo.

Bad Points: Power supply and price.

Was this review helpful to you?

I'm the manufacturer, so I'm not reviewing it, just clarifying some points.
1. FM effect: you need to have some signal (whether a steady tone, or audio material) going into one of the main audio inputs at the same time as you put line level audio into the CV input, or you won't hear anything!
2. Spare AC power supplies:
The Ringer is happy with anything from 14v AC to 18V AC, plug is a barrel jack with a 2.1mm inner connector. In the USA, www.jameco.com is a very good source of all kinds of plugpacks. most domestic burglar alarms use 16V AC supplies, so you could steal one of those (joke!)and connect a lead (they usually have screw connectors).
3. the CV pedal control:
Easily made by connecting a patch lead to a 9v battery & plugging it into a volume rocker pedal (the kind with a pot inside). Then the output from the pedal goes 0 to 9 volts, woohoo, how good is that!

Good Points: Modesty forbids.. but you CAN use it as a car chock in San Fancisco..
BTW if there ever is any carrier bleedthrough, you can open the base & there are 2 holes in the power board, the one near the side of the box lets you adjust the 10 turn pot for zero bleed. WARNING: takes a steady hand!! and a jeweller's screwdriver.

Bad Points: No mode indicator.. what was i thinking??? Pretty easy to put a three pole footswitch ion & wire a led in if you want, though.

Was this review helpful to you?

I freaking love this thing... It rocks my little world..! The BEST Ring Mod you could imagin... I even like it better than the mooger, because it has more personality - and I find it less sterile... Although I wish it had regular esxpresion pedal control insted of CV - because I don't own a CV controler... But this thing can do it all... Throbbing sine wave trems to high pitch atonal belltones! Crazy range!
I havn't had a chance to fool with the carrier moxer or the mic input yet... BUT I WILL!.. I have only begun to explore this great beast...

Good Points: VERY good constuction
sexy ass looks
fabulous sounds
great range
very versitle, and tons of controlability...

Bad Points: No status LED, just a power on LED...
I wish it had a way to control it without CV...

Was this review helpful to you?

First, it seems like every review i read of any frostwave product is oddly positive. I was skeptical as whether they are reviewing their own stuff, and making some of the reviews sound less technical to throw us off. The customer service is great, the prices are fair, the products seem very sturdy, look great, and the blue ringer has a really nice unique ring modulator sound. I've only played with digital ones before this, like the Kaoss Pad and ones in software. I like the warmth and control of this one.

Good Points: Sounds really nice, it can be real smoothe and rich or you can boost the input beyond a peaking point and take out the trash. I have sound running through aux sends into the ringer and I am able to make a feedback loop this way of just ring modulator feedback. It sounds great with some chunky distortion. With a little delayed distortion or tremolo'd distortion it can creat some really interesting noise and rhythm. When the frequency is really low on the Blue Ringer it acts as a tremolo itself and the depth is controlled by the balance knob. There is a lot of experimental potential in this little pedal. I've got a few ideas running through my head right now. It has a an input on it also for microphones so you can make that ring modulated robot voice. You can actually use the line in (input-a) and mic in at the same time. The mic-in has a little higher preamp though. There is an input-B to use as a carrier signal or in conjunction with the internal occilating carrier signal. Input-B works best when there is a constant signal running through it to compare the input-a signal to. good times.
http://harmstryker.org

Bad Points: The Blue Ringer has a light on it but it's basically only there to tell you if the pedal has power. It would be nice to know if the effect was on or not, but it's not really a problem. The CVin control using my Frost Wave Theramin as the controllwer isn't really all that exciting. It says with the one sheeter manual that if i plug an audio signal into the CV input that i can get some fm synthesis sounding stuff, but i don't hear it, atleast not very loudly. I didn't get it for that anyways.

Was this review helpful to you?

I was looking for a good affordable ring modulator and this one fits the bill. Its the same price as the EH with more features and about half the price as the big briar. It sounds great with guitar, drum machines, thermin...whatever. I especialy like being able to ring mod two signals together and not just one signal and the carrier signal.

Good Points: Good sound quality, affordable, all the features you want in a ring modulator.

Bad Points: I have had problems finding a power supply as its australian and doesn't run on batteries.

Was this review helpful to you?