Electro-Harmonix Announces New Mainframe Bit Crusher Pedal
This stompbox is designed to recreate the lo-fi sounds of old arcade games, consoles and terminals.
![Electro-Harmonix Mainframe](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/34eBcFbqW6r3doJh6NTXfa-320-80.jpg)
Electro-Harmonix has pulled back the curtain on its new bit crusher pedal, the Mainframe.
Designed to recreate the lo-fi sounds of old arcade games, consoles and terminals, the Mainframe is equipped with bit depth reduction ranging from 24-bit to 1-bit, and sample rate reduction ranging from 48kHz to 110Hz.
The pedal's selectable High/Low/Band-Pass filter allows users to shape the artifacts of the bit crushing and sample rate reduction, while the Sample Rate Tuning Mode allows users to set the sample rate to match the key of a song, or to continually adjust the sample rate based on how they play.
The Mainframe's programmable preset and expression pedal settings allow users to save their sound or control any combination of the pedal's knobs with an external expression pedal.
Tones can also be tweaked via the pedal's secondary controls, which include filter strength, input gain and styles of sample rate and bit depth reduction.
The Electro-Harmonix Mainframe bit-crusher pedal is available now - with a standard EHX 9.6DC200mA power supply - for $179.
For more info on the pedal, point your browser over to ehx.com.
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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