Pigtronix Philosopher King Envelope Generator and Sustainer Pedal

The Pigtronix Philosopher King is a compressor, sustainer, distortion and polyphonic amplitude synthesizer. Combining the award-winning Philosopher's Tone circuit with a next generation envelope generator, the Philosopher King takes tone several steps further with a full set of ADSR controls including swell, fade, hold level, speed range, one-shot mode, selectable auto reset, CV i/o and expression pedals for swell and fade times.

With the Swell and Fade functions switched off, the Pigtronix Philosopher King provides transparent optical compression with endless sustain on tap. Adjustable compression (ratio), sustain (threshold) and treble (2k cut / boost) controls allow the musician to tailor the nature of the effect to meet the needs of the material at hand. From a subtle dash of added punch to massive, over-the-top howling sustain, the Philosopher King delivers clean, powerful optical compression. The grit control blends in a layer of sweet harmonic distortion that plays nice with other gain pedals as well as amplifier-generated tube distortion.

The Pigtronix Philosopher King's swell function provides a pick triggered volume swell effect. The volume swell can be reset at any moment by muting or held open by continuous playing. This "slow gear" type effect is smooth and controllable with variable timing from extremely fast to very slow.

The fade function can be used independently of the swell and is also pick triggered. A major feature of the decay cycle in this pedal is… read more the ability to fade out from peak level only partially, bringing the audio down to a predetermined level, set by the hold control. The hold level is then maintained until the player releases the note to close the cycle. With the auto reset turned on, the cycle will begin again immediately, creating undulating amplitude modulation and even pulsating tremolo stutter effects at faster decay settings. With the auto-reset turned off, the player determines the exact timing for the beginning of the next cycle.

Another feature is the one shot mode, which causes the Pigtronix Philosopher King to run through the swell / fade / hold / release cycle regardless of what is played after the cycle is triggered. In this mode, the Philosopher King creates complex waves of amplitude modulation on top of the music coming from your instrument. A trigger input jack allows the swell and fade functions to be controlled by an external source such as a band mate or drum track.

Inspired by the EH Attack Decay as well as the own Pigtronix Attack Sustain, the Philosopher King is a state-of-the-art stompbox unmatched in its ability to re-shape the essential nature of any sound source.

Check out all the different tones the Philosopher King can achieve:

Features

- Optical Compressor with Outrageous Sustain

- ADSR Envelope Generator for Guitar

- POLYPHONIC (works with chords)

- Grit control for F.A.T. Distortion

- 2K Treble Cut / Boost

- Expression Pedals for Swell and Fade Times

- Pick Triggered Volume Swell

- One Shot Mode & Auto Reset

- CV in / out

- Trigger Input for External Rhythm Source

- Pigtronix 18VDC adapter included

- Works with Voodoo Labs PP2

- Circuit Design by Howard Davis

- Sound Design by David Koltai

- True Bypass

read less