Red Witch Synthotron III is a new multi-fx pedal that turns your guitar into a 4-voice analog Synthesizer with filtering and chorus.
What do guitarists and Synthesizer players have in common? The love for guitar pedals. Once you start, you can’t stop. A bottomless pit just like Eurorack modules. Both worlds have become even closer since the recent synth wave trend.
The have been some new modern Synthesizer pedals for guitarists. An exciting new one comes from developer Red Witch. By the way a cool name for a pedal brand.
Red Witch Synthotron III
Synthotron III is the third version and a very special interest pedal to me. It’s a colorful all-analog monophonic Synthesizer in pedal format with filter, sample-and-hold modulation, and a chorus.
Many modern Synthesizer pedals are implemented digitally; see the latest releases from BOSS SY-1, SY-200, and others. But Red Witch goes the classic analog route.
Color-coded on the interface, Synthotron III features four all-analog voices with pitch and octave settings across them using the toggle switches. These can be used independently but also linked with each other, where one voice influences the other.
Each voice offers an independent decay envelope and an infinite sustain option giving flexibility how to use the voice architecture. So you can create a crisp, staccato feel, or a gentle decay, or an endless drony sound where the pitch only changes if you play a different note.
An additional flux controls the “spring” or glissando between notes.
Filtering & Chorus
A filter is one of the must-haves of an analog Synthesizer. Ok, unless you have a simple drone synth. Don’t worry, Synthotron III also has one but a filter that is driven via modulation.
You can choose between three modes: sample & hold, envelope filter, or manual sweep using an expression pedal. It has velocity and frequency control to adjust the filter.
Further, you have an analog chorus section based on the NOS MN3007 bucket brigade chip. The circuit is inspired by the Empress Deus Chorus, says Red Witch.
On the pedal, you can control it with three knobs: velocity, dry/wet mix, and depth. Thanks to its twin voice settings it gives you a warm CE-1-style chorus or a bright shimmery chorus.
Nice, all three sections (synth, filter, chorus) are independent, which means you can use them independently or simultaneously. The Synthotron III is true bypass so will not impact your tone when not engaged.
Connectivity
On the connection side, you get a mono input, a main out, an external dry out for splitting between two amps, an external CV input, trigger in, and more.
First Impression
A fascinating FX pedal for guitarists. Of course, it sounds different than a beefy analog Synthesizer. But I always found the idea of playing synth sounds with the guitar something unique. Here in classic analog and with an interesting feature set.
Red Witch Synthotron III is available now for $599. As a little extra: each pedal is hand-signed and numbered by the developer Ben Fulton.
More information here: Red Witch
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