Voted Best in Music 2023!! Thank you!EarthQuaker Devices Night Wire Harmonic Tremolo Pedal
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The Harmonic Tremolo was traces its roots back the to the Fender Brownface and Magnatone amps of the early 60's. Harmonic tremolo differs from regular Amplitude Tremolo (such on Blackface amps) in that the Harmonic Tremolo modulates the high and low frequencies separately, while a typical Amplitude Tremolo varies all frequencies in unison. In practice the Harmonic Tremolo sounds a little smoother with less of the pulsating volume dips that happen with a standard tremolo. In lower settings it can live in the background adding a dreamy texture to your tone without getting in the way of your playing style. But living in the background is not good enough for Earthquaker....
Earthquaker takes the concept of Harmonic Tremolo and makes it totally tweakable; allowing you to vary the center points of the LFO filters, operate them in fixed or sweep mode, or even have the filter sweep altered by by playing attack. As with most Earthquaker devices the Night Wire invites experimentation, and it's wide range of control options lets it cross over to phaser and envelope filter territory. There is a lot going on in this little box, and the Night Wire takes an effect that has existed for 60 years and gives it a total facelift.
In the words of Earthquaker Devices:
The Night Wire is a feature-rich harmonic tremolo. What is harmonic tremolo? In short, the signal is split into high pass and low pass filters, then modulated with an LFO that is split 180 degrees. The Night Wire takes the traditional harmonic tremolo a few steps further by allowing the center point of both filters to be adjusted for different tones. The filter frequency has three modes: Manual, LFO and Attack. In Manual mode, the center point can be set to a fixed position with the frequency control. In LFO mode, the filters are continuously swept and the frequency control adjusts the speed. In Attack mode, the filters are dynamically swept according to pick attack and the frequency control acts as a range control, much like a standard envelope filter. The tremolo section has two modes, Manual and Attack. In Manual mode, the speed of the tremolo is governed by where the rate control is set. In Attack mode the speed is controlled by pick attack and the rate controls the sensitivity; the harder you pick, the faster the rate and vice-versa. The tremolo can be subtle and shimmery or full-on throbbing depending on where the depth control is set. With the depth set to zero, the Night Wire will act like a fixed filter, phase shifter or envelope-controlled filter depending on which mode the filter frequency is in. It also features a cut/boost volume control to get your levels just right.