FreakShift

FreakShift is a ring modulator and frequency shifter built for hands-on sound design. Inspired by home-built electronics and the simple joy of sculpting sound by ear, it pairs two of the most characterful effects around and wires them to a shared LFO and envelope follower.

The Ring Modulator covers both slow tremolo and pulsing at low carrier settings, can create gritty glitches and crackle or clangorous, bell-like metallic tones as you climb up the Hz.

The Frequency Shifter slides the entire spectrum out of tune, giving you everything from subtle phasing and shimmer to barberpole sweeps that seem to rise or fall forever, and characteristic inharmonic metallic timbres.

Drive the input into soft clipping for grit and fuzz before it reaches either effect, feed the RM with an external carrier or insert another effect between the two engines, and let the LFO and envelope follower modulate it all! The LFO and follower’s CV can ofcourse be routed out to move the rest of your rack. Whether you want a touch of movement or a full spectral mangling, FreakShift rewards twisting knobs and chasing happy accidents!

Ring modulator and frequency shifter in series, sharing one LFO and one envelope follower for modulation.

Input / Drive

• Input Drive — soft-clip saturation, unity to ~+24 dB (fuzz at maximum)
• Drive Routing — Pre Mix (in series) or Wet Only (parallel distortion)

Ring Modulator

• Amount
• Tune — carrier 0.1 Hz to 15 kHz
• Shape — Sine, Triangle, Square, Ramp, Random, Drift

Frequency Shifter

• Mix
• Range — Fine (±50 Hz) or Coarse (±2.5 kHz)
• Shift (Fine and Coarse amounts)
• Feedback — continuous rising/falling barberpole tones
• Stereo Width
• Anti-Reflection — cleaner single-sideband shift on/off
• Quality — High / Eco / Lo (Backside)

LFO

• 6 shapes (Sine, Triangle, Square, Ramp, Random, Drift)
• Free or host-synced, with tempo divisions
• Independent Depth + Destination for Ring (Tune/Amount) and Shifter (Shift/Mix)

Envelope Follower

• Sensitivity, Attack, Decay
• Independent Depth + Destination for Ring (Tune/Amount) and Shifter (Shift/Mix)
• CV signal output

Output

• Mix — master dry/wet
• Output Level

CV & Jacks

• CV inputs: Input Drive, Mix, Ring Amount, Ring Tune, FS Shift, FS Mix, Stereo Width, LFO Rate, LFO Depth RM/FS, EF Depth RM/FS
• EF Signal CV output
• RM Direct In/Out — external carrier input
• FS Direct In/Out — insert point between the two engines