As guitarists who love to experiment with bizarre sounds, how could we pass up anything called a “modulated monophonic harmonizing PLL?” The phrase itself almost makes no...
As guitarists who love to experiment with bizarre sounds, how could we pass up anything called a “modulated monophonic harmonizing PLL?” The phrase itself almost makes no sense, unless you’re one of the science nerds on The Big Bang Theory. But it portends secret labs and clandestine government agencies messing with the fabric of time and space, so count us in.
There actually is a boatload of science in the Data Corrupter ($225 street), and if you truly believe the mysteries of PLL—or phase locked loop—technology, it dates back to 1673 and some wacky Dutch physicist goofing around with pendulums. Fast forward a few hundred years to 1932, and you have the British deploying the PLL concept to both strengthen and stabilize telecommunication signals. A relatively quick trip of four decades later, RCA comes up with its CD 4046 CMOS Phase Locked Loop IC, which ends up sometime around the early 2000s in John Schumann’s PLL analog harmonizer—a rare and much-sought effects box for sonic alchemists and iconoclasts that can currently fetch prices of more than $2,000 for a used model—and, thanks to Schumann’s particular madness, a pre-war telecommunications circuit becomes a musical tool.
The Data Corrupter is perhaps a more intuitive and stable device for plugging in guitars, basses, and keyboards, but it’s still faithful to Schumann’s PLL concept—which is to viciously morph an input signal into something buzzy, fuzzy, and completely unique. You get three voices to tinker with: Square (a wonderful fuzz tone), Subharmonic (with eight octave/interval options), and Master Oscillator. There is also a Frequency Modulator switch that works in Glide mode (a portamento slide between notes) or Vibrato mode (the pitch modulates up and down for very cool sci-fi laser effects). A three-voice mixer gives you ultimate control over the blend