A fuzzbox with a difference, Dreadbox’s Disorder pedal packs a few neat tricks which make it work well for synths as well as guitars. Greg Scarth finds out more.
Fuzz pedals are among the most basic of effects units, adding dirty distortion to your signal and generally messing things up. The open secret is that most fuzzboxes are essentially very similar. You don’t get a lot of control, typically just the amount of fuzz and maybe a tone adjustment. There are differences in tone and overall sound, of course, but generally most fuzz effects do pretty much the same thing: simple, nasty filth. With the Dreadbox Disorder, what we have is quite a different proposition.
We’ve seen with previous Dreadbox effects that the Greek brand like to do things differently. Most of their pedals, like the Kinematic compressor/filter or Komorebi chorus/flanger, take a basic idea and add a new twist. The Disorder follows in a similar vein. It’s a fuzz effect, but instead of a simple tone control it has a multi-mode resonant filter, and there’s also an envelope follower to modulate the filter cutoff frequency. We’ve also seen how almost all Dreadbox effects have some element of semi-modular patchability, allowing you to hook them up to control each other or interface with synth hardware. The same is true here, with a CV input for filter cutoff frequency and a CV output for the envelope follower signal.
The Disorder is a reboot of an older Dreadbox pedal, bringing the format into line with the more recent effects and adding some new features. It’s straightforward to understand, with mono input and output, a bypass footswitch and simple controls: fuzz amount in the centre, filter controls to the left. Over on the right, you’ve got a master output level and an envelope polarity. The envelope sensitivity control is located right at the top of the front panel, alongside the CV sockets. It’s slightly odd to have it up there rather than down among the rest of the controls, but looking at the rest of the pedals in the Dreadbox range it seems highly likely that this is an attempt to simplify the manufacturing process by using a hole which is typically occupied by a socket on most other pedals in the range.
The sound of the Disorder, on a very basic level, is classic fuzz territory. Dial up the fuzz amount control and you’ll gradually move from relatively subtle overdrive through to some quite extreme square wave harmonics at the higher end of the range. Things start to get more interesting when you use the filter, which is a multi-mode resonant setup allowing you to dial in different tonal character to your signal. This is amplified by the envelope follower option, which tracks the level of the incoming signal and allows you to use it as a modulation source for filter cutoff, for everything from applying a gentle tonal difference to louder notes through to more extreme wah-style filter effects. The envelope can modulate the filter cutoff up or down according to the position of the toggle switch. Generally speaking, positive envelope settings work best for low-pass filter settings and negative settings work best for high-pass, but there is fun to be had experimenting with every combination, particularly with the sensitivity control dialled down so that the effect is relatively mild. The envelope follower is a great option, even with the fuzz setting dialled back to zero, giving you the option of focussing on the filter.
It’s also well worth exploring the potential of those CV options. The filter cutoff input is a fairly simple one, allowing you to insert a CV signal from, say, a synth’s LFO or an envelope generator to apply additional modulation, separate from the envelope follower. The potential for the envelope output is a bit more open-ended, but an obvious starting point might be to think about how it could work with other Dreadbox pedals. Chain the Disorder into the Lethargy phase shifter, for instance, and you could use the envelope follower output to modulate the Lethargy’s manual phase shift or even its LFO rate. The possibilities are endless.
We’re rapidly falling in love with Dreadbox’s effects range. These are well thought out, well built pedals which take simple concepts and put a unique twist on them. Downsides? Not many. There’s no power supply included, although it uses the standard 9V DC Boss-style supply which most will already have. Otherwise, at just under £120, the Disorder feels like great value. It’s a pedal which will appeal to guitar players and electronic producers alike, offering a new take on a classic fuzzbox formula.
Greg Scarth
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