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I've owned a Geiger Counter, a Frantabit, a Greyscale Devices Caligula and a Mobius.

Out of all of the bitcrushers, my favorite sound is from the Caligula - it's one knob, dead simple to dial in a sound and it handles chords like a champ. The Frantabit was nifty and well-made, but something about it didn't sing to me. The GC was great, but ultimately I felt like I was using it for a teeny-tiny fraction of its capabilities.

The Mobius bitcrusher is fine and it'll honestly likely stay on my board (I've sort of been sneaking the Caligula off and reacquainting myself with my Blargg-o-tron-o-tron in its place lately...). I do like the other Destroyer modes on the Mobius more, though, so there's certainly room for both. If you want tweakability, get the GC, but anyone looking at the Malekko Bit should check out the Caligula as a kick-ass alternative.

I used to own a Hexe bitcrusher. it kinda rules. I only got rid of it because I used the effect a lot less than I thought I would. I think that's a pretty great starting point, the pedal is really well designed, intuitive, easy to use, and there's lots of sounds in there. I was really impressed with it

Loved my WSOU. Just needed a blend.

I have both a Geiger Counter and a Hexe iii. In my opinion the Hexe is the way to go if you want a guitar-friendly unit for your pedalboard, and the GC is the way to go for a desktop signal processor. The GC seems really expensive for a guitar pedal in my opinion- it just doesn't have that many useful sounds in a band context, and all your usual riffs will turn into an ugly non-descript mush in 94% of the settings, while another 5% of them will literally explode your amp/ speaker. Run a drum machine or kid's keyboard through it though, and it reveals its true self, making a £4.99 kids keyboard sound rich, complex and ball-shatteringly heavy. It's not a great guitar pedal, it's a synth module which looks like one.
The Hexe is easier to use, has blend and LFO functions, a really useful lo-fi filter and a fairly musical distortion for a bitcrusher. I don't know why it's so rarely mentioned online (except buying one seems to involve some kind of summoning ritual? there's no option to buy on his site, and they have no dealers I can find )

You guys are awesome. So many great ideas and perspectives. I already had a ridiculously long list of bitcrushers but you guys named dropped a few i didnt know about yet. im still leaning heXe.

pigmaker wrote:You guys are awesome. So many great ideas and perspectives. I already had a ridiculously long list of bitcrushers but you guys named dropped a few i didnt know about yet. im still leaning heXe.

It's weird to me, I feel like none of the big makers want to touch bitcrushers for some reason, but I think it's a really cool sound, and I feel like I hear it a lot on albums and etc

ChetMagongalo wrote:it's a really cool sound, and I feel like I hear it a lot on albums and etc

any come to mind? ill check em out. i have a rule that i only listen to music that is available on 8 track, but i will break that rule in this instance.

This is the first track that comes to my mind
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34QXu__ywY8[/youtube]

oh yeah of course. but crushers on guitars? in rawk music?

Off the top of my head, that's a hard one! it must be around though.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnQP9rFyL8I[/youtube]

at the end, not guitar but almost the whole mix after the 2:20 mark

i played with heliotrope, WSOU, FrantaBit, Möbius.
I like the Möbius the most, heliotrope is more of a mix of fuzz and bitcrushed ringmod stuff and has its own thing going on, WSOU is just nice and musical. I kept these three and sold the FrantaBit.

On a side note, i can't get the exact sound of the frantabit from 0:16 to 0:30 of this recording with my current bitcrushers...
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/blackflamingo-1/nico-techno[/soundcloud]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSneR-_ilw[/youtube]

Intro riff is Geiger Counter.

Heliotrope is analogue sample rate reduction, which is a different kettle of fish to bit crushing. I dug the Heliotrope at bedroom volumes, but at gig volumes the carrier signal was massively overpowering and it just didn't cut through the mix. It was a nice idea but not implemented that well. I'm really keen to pick up a Franta to try both bit crushing and sample rate reduction. With clean mix, wohoo!

Good thread Pigmaker.

The korg kaoss pad 3 has a bitcrusher that I like. It's not a pedal, but you can set it on the ground and use your toes! It's also a looper. I think the mini kp has one too but only has a 1/8 input.