The Heliotrope is an “analog bit crusher” of sorts. Since there is no analog to digital conversion happening it isn’t a true bit crusher, hence the name “Harmonic Pixelator”. It works with guitar, bass, keyboards, etc. We designed the pedal to be intuitive and easy to use even though what it is capable of sonically is actually quite complex and varied. The HI/LO switch switches the frequency range of the Heliotrope’s carrier frequency. The SAMPLE RATE is the fine adjustment of the carrier frequency within the given range. The RESOLUTION control determines the duty cycle or the ratio of on to off time of the Carrier Frequency. The effect of this control is somewhat like focusing the lens on a camera, you can make it as sharp or as blurry as you’d like. VOLUME controls your overall output volume. GAIN distorts and compresses the signal. You can get a decent amount of grit and fuzz out of it for more squarewave synthy type stuff.
