“A multi-effects pedal on steroids”: Catalinbread’s Bitters reimagines Alesis’ cult sound-mangling DJ effects unit as a guitar pedal – and adds one crucial fix

Catalinbread has launched a reimagined take on the Alesis Bitrman multi-effects pedal. Dubbed the Bitters, it allows players to create “lush, usable effects or make your sound a digital mess”. 

The Bitters features four knobs, for Distortion, Phaser, Mix, and Dual, while a fifth control activates four sound-mangling effects: Decimator, Bitcrusher, Frequency Modulation, and Ring Modulation. 

The Decimator samples a guitar’s input signal and lowers the sample rate for fizzy, almost otherworldly sounds, and the Ring Modulator delivers “outer space noises” via “a tremolo with an extremely fast modulation”. 

The Bitcrusher reduces the fidelity of the input signal “all the way down to one bit for true digital destruction”, with the Frequency Modulation (sometimes referred to as Pitch Vibrato) essentially warbling the signal for chorus vibes or utter carnage. 

The order of these can be shuffled around for different results, which is why Catalinbread calls its latest invention “a multi-effects pedal on steroids.”  

Alesis released the Bitrman in 2004, aiming its marketing at tabletop musicians and DJs. Part of its ModFX range, it featured what Catalinbread calls “pedestrian effects” – including tremolo, phaser, and flange – but calls its seventh effect, known as ‘Bitters’, “a beast all of its own.”

Its new creation focuses on the beastly signal manipulation that mode offers. However, Catalinbread adds that it has fixed “the original’s shortcomings and trimmed the fat” for a more user-friendly update.

Considering the madness this pedal has under its hood, the Mix dial can help tame its fireworks, and offers a key fix, as its progenitor didn’t have one – it just left players alone in the maelstrom. 

Catalinbread Bitters - YouTube

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As such, everything from shimmery chorus tones to gnarly bit crushing and alien-like sine-wave phase shifting can reportedly come screaming out of this pedal.  

Just like its leftfield model, the Bitters is said to pair well with synths, drum machines, and DAWs as well as it does electric guitars and basses.  

Catalinbread ended last year with the release of its “most ethereal reverb unit to date” with the Sinkhole. Earlier this year, it chased the golden era of gain tones (ie: the 1970s) with its StarCrash collection of fuzz and overdrive pedals.

The Catalinbread Bitters costs $209.99 and comes with a three-year warranty.

Head to Catalinbread to discover more.