I would described as the
sound of a dying, batterypowered synth, but with
the benefit of a consistent
musical performance.
Bringing up the Sustain
gave me cocked wah tones,
which varied based on Freq
setting. As I started rolling
the Blend control counterclockwise—bringing more
of the fuzz into the mix—I
found myself octave fuzz
territory, with tones getting
more or less synth-y or
vintage depending on where
I set the Blend control.
Subdecay also says that
“there’s no reverence for
1960’s fuzz tradition here;”
well, maybe not there, but
here, where I test stuff,
there is. And, man, the
Harmonic Antagonizer cops
some great takes on classic
fuzz tones. Using the Freq
knob I could get both Ernie
Isley’s “Who’s That Lady?”
tone and Eric Clapton’s
solo tone on “I Feel Free,”
and, of course, a whole lot
of tones in between. I also
was able to get fantastically
organic sounds that blurred
the line between classic fuzz
and pitch-shifting synthesis,
notably the downtuned
overtones (fifths?) that
resulted with Freq at 8
o’clock and Blend at 11
o’clock each. Bringing in a
little of the Sense control
(also at 8 o’clock) helped
bridge the overtones
without adding the ‘80s
Space Invaders swoosh.
With Freq at 11:30 and
Blend at 12:30, I got Neil
Young’s dying amp tone on
“Hey, Hey, My, My.”
In addition to sounding cool,
the Harmonic Antagonizer
provided consistent
performance, even in
settings that suggested
imminent disaster; when
set properly (as above),
overtones were consistent
across the fretboard, and,
as opposed to most octave
fuzzes, tracking was a nonissue, and chords worked.
results in apocalyptic
frequency sweeps that
validate Subdecay’s
claims that the Harmonic
Antagonizer is more than a
fuzz. But, my friends, I have
to tell you, it’s a heck of a
fuzz, too.
WHAT WE LIKE
A variety of incredibly
cool, tweakable and usable
distorted tones in one small
box, ranging from the classic
to the—at a minimum—
interesting.
CONCERNS
Umm . . . I mean, if the
Sense reflected the Freq
setting it would be even
better . . .
The above use suggests
set-it-and-forget-it use.
Those who have the latitude
to twiddle knobs during
a performance (or in the
studio), will find that there
are lots of really cool, glitch
noises to generate, and
here’s where the Sense
control can really be a lot
of fun, as knob twiddling
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