Deep Space Pulsar (incl. Igor & Mic)

This is a sidechainer pedal, an effect that ducks your instrument’s signal each time it gets a trigger – capable of putting deep spaces into your sound!

It’s an effect that’s heard on many recordings, often subtly – like when a rock rhythm guitar is sidechained with the kick drum, so every time the kick drum hits, the guitar volume dips slightly for that instant – giving a really powerful overall effect… The guitar sounds pumping, or spring-loaded!

Or it’s sometimes used strongly, to make the signal completely disappear with each kick drum, as in big 4-on-the-floor club tunes. All we’re talking about is change in volume – the Deep Space Pulsar doesn’t affect your tone in any way, and sounds great with bass guitar!

Whatever way you use it, this sidechaining effect has NEVER been so easily available – and controllable – as with the Deep Space Pulsar! (Up to now, it’s always been an effect that’s added in post-production – hardly ever live).

It comes with a microphone; put that inside your drummer’s kick drum, plug it into the top end panel of the pedal and you’re ready to go! The pedal sits there waiting for the drummer to play….

The ‘Dip’ knob adjusts the amount of dip to the signal, ‘Rel’ controls the speed of the release; how quickly the sound rises back up, and ‘Vol’ is the volume – the pedal can go quite loud, more than compensating for any loss in overall level due to all the ducking. The LED display gives a visual indication of the amount and length of ducking.

TAP TEMPO

However when instead you plug in the Igor pressure pad controller, the Deep Space Pulsar has tap tempo – a fully correctable facility – enabling it to work if you’re playing along to a DJ or drum machine. Two presses of the Igor programs a tempo (the ‘record’ LED coming on to show that the tempo is being recorded and it’s waiting for the second press), and at any point that tempo can be adjusted to bring it back into sync with the music, enabling the pulsing to stay in time for long periods.

Pressing on Igor for 1 second erases the tempo, for you to start again at a different tempo.

Or alternatively trigger it from a gate signal voltage! This needs a mono cable (sleeve 0V, tip signal), and each jump in voltage creates a ‘pulse’ in the pedal (like a single bass drum hit would).

PUSH-BUTTON SWITCHES

There’s a ‘Pad’ button to adjust to instruments with higher outputs (eg keyboards), and also an ‘Inv’ button to invert the whole effect; no sound is heard until the kick drum (or tap tempo) hits, when a pulse of signal is let through – introducing whole new kinds of sounds!

This is a revolutionary effect, designed specifically for those that play with other people – whether in bands, clubs or studios.

DEEP SPACE PULSAR MANUAL

Does the Deep Space Pulsar affect my sound other than the volume?

No. It has a very transparent amplifier, leaving all highs and lows unaffected.

I’m a bass-player…. Would the pedal work for me?

It sounds amazing with bass guitar! Really powerful. And it doesn’t affect your tone in any way.

Can I put effected guitar through it – like distorted guitar?

Of course! Anything you want!

My overdrive comes from my amp… How does the pedal sound going into an overdriven guitar amplifier?

It sounds even better! The distortion on your amp is usually very affected by the volume of the signal going into it; when you wind down your guitar volume pot, the sound cleans up a lot. The Deep Space Pulsar is doing this automatically, so not only does the resulting volume fluctuate – but also the amount of distortion!

With the ‘Invert’ button pressed, can the pedal be used as a triggered gate?

Only in a basic way. There may be quite a long pulse coming from each acoustic bass drum beat (including all drum vibrations – plus possible bass guitar leaking down the mic!), so because you may only want a quick dip to your sound with each kick drum attack, it’s only the start of a noise that triggers the Deep Space Pulsar to do its thing. The same applies in reverse when the ‘Inv’ button is pressed. The result is that the pedal ignores the rest of the sound after the initial start.

So if it’s recording (with the ‘record’ LED on)…. How do I play back what it’s recorded?

It doesn’t record audio – only tempos. The LED comes on when it’s recording the tempo you’re inputting. (If the LED wasn’t there, if you’d accidentally pressed the first press of a new tempo and didn’t realise it, the pedal would just sit there doing nothing – and you wouldn’t know what was going on!)

What kind of microphone does it come with?

It’s an all-purpose dynamic microphone, with a 3m long cable – that plugs into the same socket as the Igor.

Can the Deep Space Pulsar be triggered by MIDI?

No, sorry. Maybe sometime in the future…

I’m making up a lead to trigger the DSP with…. How should the wiring go?

You’d need a mono jackplug (ideally 3.5mm – or you’ll need an adaptor), and the tip is the voltage, the sleeve is earth.

What is the current draw for this pedal?

85mA

IGOR:

Is this Igor different to Igors for the other pedals?

No – it’s exactly the same (interchangeable), but with this pedal it’s configured to control the tap tempo.

Can the same Igor work different Rainger FX pedals?

Yes.

Can I use it with my hand?

Yes – it has dual sensitivity.

What are the dimensions?

55mm in diameter, 9mm thick.

Does Igor use a battery?

No – it’s entirely passive.

I’ve lost my Igor – what can I do? Get in touch…

Can Igor be used in place of an expression pedal for different makes of effects pedal?

Quite possibly – though all regular expression pedals vary in resistance, and often with wiring. Of course you’d need a minijack to ¼” adaptor. Igor works pretty good with Electro Harmonix stuff BTW.

What is the resistance of Igor?

He goes from about 1M Ohm down to tens of Ohms.

Does it have a mono or stereo minijack plug?

It has a stereo one, though the ‘sleeve’ tab is not connected