Binary Pulsar

DESCRIPTION
The Binary Pulsar is a stereo sidechainer-panner-tremolo pedal, based on our mono Deep Space Pulsar mini-pedal (now discontinued). Its operation is copied exactly from the original pedal, but greatly expanded - in several ways…. There’s a lot going on!

It’s our first stereo pedal, all digital - but with a switchable analog ‘warm’ circuit, and it’s housed in a brand new custom enclosure (with a nice ‘rolled edge’!), designed to be floor or desk mounted.

It’s spectacular live with two amps, and in the studio really adds a whole new type of excitement to a mix.

The Binary Pulsar is highly adaptable! Syncs with CV/gate signal (from modular synth set-up), or with the Rainger FX Snare Trap, or runs on internal tap tempo, or can be triggered with a mic (not supplied) - or a drum machine percussion voice output.

From a ‘4s’ input, it can generate pulses in 4s, 8s, 12s, 16s, and 32s!

Dip Manipulation
We experimented with ways of manipulating the dip, and focussed on things that had the most spectacular results. The ‘wide’ knob delays the right side, making a simple dip become stereo, or at higher settings doubles up the dips, and at higher settings, giving a swing feel.

We’ve added a ‘res’ knob, adding some synthy squelch to it.

There’s an ‘INV’ switch (like on the original DSP), just giving out pulses instead of dips, and a switch to invert one one side (‘½ INV’) which gives massive stereo effects.

Tap Tempo
The tap tempo is programmed by two presses on the pad (which used to be the separate Igor pressure operated controller). 

First, hold down the pad for a long second to cancel any previous tempo. Then tap once (L & R LEDs stay on to show it’s in record), then a second time, and the tempo is programmed and marches off…

The tap tempo is correctible; if you’re trying to sync manually with an external track (eg a DJ), at any point you can tap once again if it starts drifting out of sync. Or as many times as you want until it sounds right. Like this, you can get the pedal to stay in sync with an external track (eg a DJ) for minutes at a time.

To make a big change to the tempo you need to cancel it and start again (hold down the pad until the white LEDs stop flashing).

Other Features
There’s a ‘dist’ button to give a distortion/flanging combination effect for when the pad is pressed - with a knob to control that volume. Hold down the pad for longer than 3 seconds and this is latched on - until you hold down the pad again, and it goes back to momentary.

You can plug in a microphone (via XLR or ¼” socket), and this will trigger a dip (or pulse). Put the mic in your drummer’s bass drum and that will trigger a dip.

Or plug in any other trigger source there - anything with a sharp attack.

The ‘warm’ switch adds a gentle analog overdrive to the sound, and rolls off a little hi frequency, and boosts the mids slightly - making the whole thing less clinical-sounding.