and then into my DAW. The Knife Drop has a very easy-to-use user interface on the top of the pedal. The LED on the left active foot switch can be set to green filter pre-distortion or red filter post-distortion. When the pedal is bypassed, the LED is off. The Right footswitch LED options are Green-Upper octave, Red- Upper & Lower octave, or Off-No octave.
Guitarist Jack White wrote the five presets that come standard on the pedal. If you press and hold the Octave footswitch, the pedal will always default to Preset 1, Jack’ s favorite Knife Drop sound. Knife Drop can also be controlled via the Eventide H90 control app. I downloaded the app and added the Knife Drop pedal. The app comes with 16 presets on board. All the pedal controls are mirrored in the H90 Control app. On the top section of the app, you have active or bypass, pre or post-distortion filter, octave on and off, octave up, or octave both up and down. There is a source input for guitar or bass. The output can be stereo or mono with a direct pass-through. You also have system settings such as expression pedal mode, MIDI, Kiill Dry, Bypass mode, Knob Catch-up, and MIDI channel. Writing new presets in one of the 127 spots is very easy.
THE SOUNDS: Knife Drop does a great job as an octave pedal and a synth. I reviewed each of the 16 preset settings in the H-90 control app. I took my time getting to know the pedal and the different possibilities. The pedal excels at playing lines that require distortion and octaves. It’ s perfect for the Lakewood Music song“ I’ ve Got The Victory” from the Oh How Worthy live album. The pedal excels at single-note lines. You can go with a complete guitar synth or very dirty fuzz with an octave down or both octaves up and down. You can mix the amount of synth you want and the amount of drive for distortion. You could make some very cool rhythmic envelope-filtering sounds. I found some cool funk patches that are reminiscent of an Auto
Wah. You will also find a whole new set of possibilities by engaging the expression pedal. I can’ t forget to mention how cool it sounds on bass. It adds extra low end and is a super fat sound with the octave up and down. In the synth mode, it’ s like having a Minimoog.
MY TAKEAWAY: Knife Drop is a very special pedal. I am drawn to new possibilities as I spend more time with it. I keep thinking of places to add it to my guitar parts and even solos. It’ s not a one-trick pony pedal. It’ s a Fuzz, a Synth, a Resonant Filter, and an Octave Fuzz. It’ s excellent for layering guitar and bass lines, too. Also worth mentioning is how cool it looks on a pedalboard. You won’ t be using it on all your songs, but when you engage, it will be a special moment. Kudos to Jack White and Eventide for re-inventing the octave fuzz while adding the Synth factor.
$ 299.99 www. EventideAudio. com
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