Noise Engineering Dystorpia review – probably the most powerful noisescaping fuzz box on earth
$399, noiseengineering.us
That’s it, everyone – we’ve arrived. We’ve finally hit the point where the difference between digital and analogue no longer has any real meaning… and it’s the Noise Engineering Dystorpia that pushed us over the line. Because really, when an octave fuzz comes with radical sound-sculpting power like this, who cares about circuitry any more?
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The key to understanding the sheer weirdness of this pedal lies in the fact that Noise Engineering is not a stompbox company at all: the Dystorpia is the first guitar-based product from a company that, until now, has specialised in synth modules. It’s a bit like Ferruccio Lamborghini branching out from his original tractor business into the much sexier, more exciting world of supercars. But is this a thrilling ride in a V10-engined Huracan, or an uncontrolled skid into the ditch? Well, that depends on your driving.
What is the Noise Engineering Dystorpia?
First of all, yes, it’s a digital pedal. This is understandable, as synthesizer people tend to be less hung up on the whole analogue thing than us plank-whackers. But if you think ‘digital’ means the soulless perfection of pristine clarity, and a good fuzz should only have about three components, your preconceptions are about to take a bit of a tumble: this thing is a slavering monster, and it’s hungry for eardrums.
It’s also an extremely heavy chunk of metal, with a complex control set that’s more reminiscent of a Chase Bliss soundscaping device than a 60s-style scuzz-belcher: six knobs, two three-way toggles, two footswitches.
Image: Richard Purvis
Three of those knobs are for the simple business of adjusting the gain, tone and clean blend; the others control the midrange, a ‘wavefolder’ for extra-unnatural clipping, and an up-octave. The central switches let you play with a down-octave and a noise gate, while the second footswitch is for infinite hold – basically a loop-based drone effect that you can play over the top of. Oh, and there’s an expression pedal input, linked to the tone circuit.
How does the Noise Engineering Dystorpia sound?
As with any knob-heavy pedal, the first task is to find a familiar starting point – one that won’t send your housemates scurrying for cover in the cupboard under the stairs. In this case that means setting the ‘Fold’ and ‘Pura’ knobs to minimum, and both toggles to off, for a straightforward fuzz tone.
And it is straightforward, if not exactly traditional. The distortion itself is fine-grained and buzzy rather than loose and gurgly, with a sensible gain range and a taut smoothness that makes it ideal for big lead lines; but what really stands out is the potency of the two EQ controls, allowing you to dial in anything from a doomy mids-scoop to a stuck-wah honk. The way they interact is not entirely intuitive, but that just makes it all the more rewarding to stumble upon a tasty new combination.
Now, who wants to properly mess things up? Sheer horribleness is just a twist of the Fold knob away – this is where things get angry and raspy, a lot like a vintage-style octave fuzz only without the actual octave. It’s reasonably manageable up to about 9 o’clock, but a nywhere beyond that and you’ll be scrabbling desperately for the tone control to compensate (or at least blending in some clean signal).
Image: Richard Purvis
The Pura control does something similar in tonal terms, if not quite so vicious, but this time you are adding the octave-up effect. So again you’re likely to find yourself knocking off some treble to avoid the sensation of being attacked by hornets while trapped inside a jet engine; but once the tone is balanced, the octave tracks tidily on the upper frets and creates some great lo-fi textures on chords. Noise Engineering actually suggests that the Fold and Pura controls play well together… well, that’s technically true as long as you go easy on both of them, but I found the combination to be almost always overwhelming.
Oh, but if you like being overwhelmed, allow me to introduce you to the Doom switch. In the middle position, this introduces an octave-down effect that’s chaotically glitchy; flipped over to the right, that chaos is multiplied by several million for a screeching maelstrom that makes all the stuff I was talking about a couple of paragraphs ago sound like a purring kitten. It’s utterly, gloriously unbearable… and now you might be glad of the noise gate, which works effectively and has a clever Dynamic mode that clamps down more gently when you’re playing quietly.
Plugging in a TRS expression pedal to mess about with the tone is an easy way to add a different kind of dynamism, but my very favourite feature of the Dystorpia is the infinite hold. Hit a chord, tap or hold down the left footswitch and you’ll hear it turn into an ever-sustaining bed that has just enough movement to sound natural, sits at the perfect level for noodling over the top of, and is generally much prettier than it has any right to be. How can this even exist in the same pedal as all that extreme noise terror? It’s the sort of thing that could keep you solo-jamming way past bedtime, and maybe inspire a few new songs along the way.
Who is the Noise Engineering Dystorpia for?
Let’s be honest, the Dystorpia is for one very specific group of people: those who can afford to drop 400 quid/bucks/euros on a fuzz box. And that is perhaps not a very large demographic. But it is Chase Bliss territory, and I wonder if that resemblance goes deeper than the control layout: it’s a different kind of noisiness for sure, but driven by the same spirit of fearless exploration.
To put it another way, this is much more than just a fuzz. If you want to discover new sonic territories, and you’re prepared for some of those territories to be on the hostile side, then it’s one hell of an asset to have on your board.
Noise Engineering Dystorpia alternatives
Just looking to upset people? There are plenty of other pedals that specialise in nastiness – two of them even have ‘Unpleasant’ in the name. The Fredric Effects Nouveau Super Unpleasant Companion (£185) offers four different flavours of aural distress, and the Fairfield Circuitry Unpleasant Surprise (CA$259/£199) is equally extreme but takes you in the direction of splattiness.
Fans of Jack White will be drawn to the Gamechanger Audio Third Man Hardware Plasma Coil (£284/$350), which includes a six-way octave switch, while Alex Lifeson’s Lerxst Snow Dog ($295) is something more like a traditional octave fuzz but with enhanced control over each half of the circuit. And let’s not forget the filtered fuzz tones of the Dreadbox Disorder (£129/$169) – another guitar pedal from a company better known for its synth gear.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
