Somewhere Over, Above, and Beyond the Rainbow...

Yes the this site is called "Analog" War Cry, and yes we do focus on a lot of the amazing analog devices that surround us daily. This does not mean we aren't keen on or hip to many of the cool digital gadgets that are out there also making our tonal journey a dream and delight. I am not one of these analog nazis that only swears by analog gear, tube amps, and vintage gear. If it sounds good to my ears I let it into my circle of creativity. For those of you who have been following our site you may have seen our piece on the Electro Faustus EF101 Duel Oscillator, a sweet little gadget with a ton of possibilities. Electro Faustus has graced our ears with another of their slickly designed digital boxes of fun. This time we'll be entering the world of the theremin, an old but wonderful simple instrument. Electro Faustus has now brought us a new way to look at and experience this killer colorful tone tool. For those of you looking for some new weapons to throw into your arsenal, pay attention!

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EF102 Photo Theremin


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I don't know about ya'll, but I've had the pleasure of messing around with some of the coolest theremins out there. The theremin is an instrument that can take you just about anywhere! Throw some other effects into your signal and you have a world of colors to play with. The EF102 has made playing the theremin easier than ever, has made this instrument road friendly, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. The EF102 Photo Theremin consists of a light sensitive photocell that is controlled by blocking or letting in light to make it shift in pitch. The EF102 is capable of giving you some of the trippiest sound effects you will ever hear, hands down. Stack it up with some analog or digital delay and you're in psychedelia heaven! The EF102 is a very simple unit to use, it's very versatile, and it won't dent your pocket book something ugly. With all of the gimmick boxes out there today this little theremin is a breath of fresh air. Setting up and using this box is extremely easy, leaving more room for more creating and experimenting.

The last time I did an Electro Faustus feature I had an absolute blast! It was hands down one of the funnest gear demos I have ever rocked out on. Well, they've done it again!!! The EF102 has to be one of the coolest inventions to hit the market in a long long time. I found myself a slave to this box, hunched over and creating tons and tons of different sounds for hours and hours. All in all the EF102 was capable of many cool things and it worked quite well when introduced toother effects. The first thing I wanted to do was directly plug the EF102 into a nice sounding amplifier to get it's purest uncut sound. My choice of amp for the first wrangling with this box was my modified 4x10 Deville. This amp was perfect for setting up a sparkling clean tone to be manipulated. I carefully set the amp's volume, then set the tone knobs directly at noon, with the reverb at about 2-3. I turned the Ef102 on and WOOOOSH! A wall of wailing and howling came flying from my speakers. I waved my hand over the photocell eye and got exactly what I expected.... kickass bending/pitch shifting. The sound of this unit is really defined and clear but not super duper square waved like most digital units. The notes shift really smoothly and have zero kinks in them. Like a traditional theremin you can do all the pitch shifting you want, from low bellows to high squeaks. In fact I was really impressed at just how far the notes can climb and dive bomb. What this box does not offer is the vibrato that you can get from your second hand on a traditional theremin. But this is not a problem, cause I found a way to take care of that. Like I said, these Electro Faustus units get me thinking like no other. Here is what I did. I have this really cool ring mod pedal that sports an expression pedal input. What the expression pedal lets you do on this ring modulator is control the speed of what ever setting you have it set to. The pedal does these killer vibrato/tremolo effects that sounded great with the EF102. With this pedal an the EF102 I was able to do everything that a traditional theremin can do. With my hand I did all the pitch shifting and with my foot all of the vibrato. Pretty cool huh? Next I cranked the amp's reverb for some more dramatic spacey sounds. With a volume pedal I could create these weird long trailing beeps and squaks. My mind went racing into thoughts of ark Side of the Moon. Here is where I had to throw a delay pedal into the mix, first an analog delay, then a nice tight digital one. Both analog delay and digital worked wonders with the EF102 and brought me a new world of oddball shapes and sounds. The analog delay blended with the Ef102 to create a warmer, buttery sound effect, while the digi delay created some sharp in your face echoes. Adding in the magic of the volume pedal created some insanely cool swells and spaceship effects. If ever you've played with an analog delay's time control while a sound is going through it you know how awesome that can sound. With the EF102 theremin this is even cooler! I was able to create an endless amount of soundscapes and ambient noise by feeding the delay the theremin's sound and letting the delay pedal warp and mold it into mad world of psychedelic creativity. I'm telling you, the possibilities are endless. If your mind can dream it up I'm sure this little box can deliver. Electro Faustus has really perfected their skills at delivering affordable and great sounding products. I cannot say enough positive things about the EF102. If you're looking for something to shoot you into another level of creativity this is the route to go. The quality in the Ef102's sound is top notch, it's size makes it a perfect gigging companion, and delivery is second to none. I give these cats two thumbs up once again and hope ya'll take the time to check out their cool collection of tone tools.

For more info on Electro Faustus go to www.electrofaustus.com

We will be bringing more on this super hip company very shortly so make sure to stay tuned!

Splendid Ear Torture

Attention all you wicked visionaries, audio madmen, and fiendish tone hounds. Looking for a way to bring about all those sick and twisted sounds that hide inside the dark corners of your mind? Let us introduce you to Electro Faustus, a group of gifted madmen with a knack for designing some strangely beautiful and off-the-wall musical gadgets. Let's face it, in all of us there lives that hunger to create something unique and different. It's those odd little undertones that we incorporate into our music that gives our sound that something special. Sometimes we may shy away from noise boxes, oscillators, and other strange gizmos simply because they can be a pain to dial in or operate. The cats at Electro Faustus have put an end to this annoying ritual by coming up with a collection of straight forward, easy to use gear that not only sounds great, but covers a wide range of tonal possibilities. As a fan of cats like Zappa, Naked City, Fantomas, Pink Floyd, and Hawkwind, I found this gear to be quite exciting and dead on the road to psychedelic heaven. We will be taking a look at all of the Electro Faustus gear one gadget at a time, exploring their possibilities, and taking things to the next level. Let's proceed on this journey shall we?

EF101

(Duel Oscillator)

* Output: Feeds to amp, other effects, etc...

* On/Off Switch: Also works for machine gun effects

* Rate: Controls Speed of oscillation

* Frequency: Controls oscillation frequency

* Power: Runs on single 9V battery

There couldn't be a simpler, better sounding, easy to use oscillator out there. In the time it took me to pull this thing out of it's box and plug it in I was creating bugged out screams, screeches, and freakazoid squeals. You're instantly transformed into a musical mad scientist with this fantastic gadget. It seems lately more and more players have been in touch with their experimental side, me included, and gear like this is perfect for working out trippy background ambiance. Like I said, it didn't take much to get this going, simply plug in and let your imagination go. The first thing I did was plug it straight into my amp to see how it sounded on it's own. Once plugged in I realized it had lots of output, you definitely don't have to worry about having this baby heard when you gig with it. I ended up adding a volume pedal to control the output which gave me the ability to do swells and what not. The Rate knob will go everywhere from slow beeps, squeaks, and chirps, to laser gun effects, howls, and psychedelic space ship noise. The Frequency knob covers a huge range of tones that will let you dial the EF101 into whatever key your playing in, or just use it to go back fourth from high and low tones. Once I got a hang at getting what I wanted from it (which was faster than all hell) I broke out my guitar and mixed it into the EF101's sounds. First I dialed in a steady pulse to the tempo I was playing at, then matched the key I was in and that was that. It made the acoustic guitar and myself sound much more interesting and gave us an entire new vibe. This eventually gave me a bunch more idea's for killer sounding background noise and I was off to the races. I plugged in a phaser after it along with the volume pedal which totally worked beautifully. I set the phaser's depth at 100%, slowed the rate to an eerie wave, and controlled the overall sound with the volume pedal. The sound was unbelievable! More importantly that I was able to get that cool of a sound that quickly is what really impressed me. In fact I think I emailed Electro Faustus right after that to let them know how cool of a gadget the EF101 was. From here my mind started racing and I took the thing and went bananas. Next to go in the chain was a wah wah pedal, this combined with the phaser and EF101 got me some twisted sounding arpeggiator effects. All I did was set the beep of the EF101 to a medium tempo, matched the phasers rate to the tempo with the depth all the way up, through a bit of reverb on the amp, and rocked the wah back and fourth. The end result was freakin awesome! After this I found insane ways to use this thing with delay pedals, fuzz boxes, reverb units, tremolos, and even to trigger other effect units. One of my favorite ways to use the EF101 was with a delay and volume pedal. What I did was set the rate as far as it would go so that it becomes and endless tone, like the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sound your TV makes when you get the "This is a test of the american broadcast system...." announcement. With the delay and volume pedal you can slap in, swell it in, and crank out some of the most hellish sounds you'll ever hear. Every way I used this thing was pretty elementary, I'm sure there are much more complex and twisted ways to use an oscillator. This just goes to show how quickly and easily you can get great sounding usable sounds from it. A few days after the EF101 arrived I ended up using it in a solo acoustic gig I played. I set some marks to show me where the keys were for each song, brought a bunch of pedals to plug into it, and had it plugged in to the venue's PA system. It ended up being one of the coolest shows I'd ever played. I had everyone's attention, strangers, friends, other acts, and even the club promoter came up to compliment me on the sound. All I did was add in a little of the EF101's magic. Just goes to show how much a little noise can do for you. After that the EF101 quickly became a regular tool for my music, my band's, and our little recording studio's. There really are no limits with this simple little box, everyday I figure some cool way to add swirling layers, artistic noise, or splendid ear torture to my music. Behind your tunes as an accent tool is what makes this gadget so cool, and really where the EF101 shines and works it's best. I will be making some videos of the Ef101 in due time and once I do I will make sure to share them with you. I want you guys to see just how killer of a tone-tool this thing really is, you can't loose. For it's price ($39.95) you cannot beat this thing. It makes for a perfect gift to give your music buddies, and an affordable way to own a great sounding oscillator. Analog War Cry is going to make it their mission to go through all of the Electro Faustus gear and make sure to share the info back with all of ya'll. So make sure to check in with us in a few and until then make sure to check out the Electro Faustus video demos on Youtube and EF website. There are also some really really cool audio demos with graphics on of all the gadgets on the Ef website. I highly suggest you check out this gear, you will thank me for it. So to all of you screamers of the night, tone wizards, space rockers, and musical alchemists... Here is another way to get your rocks off.

For more info on Electro Faustus go to www.electrofaustus.com or click the direct link in our sidebar. We will be looking at more of this wonderful gear in the near future so make sure to keep your eyes peeled. We'll be back soon with some more EF fun.