Plague Bearer
Quantity: 2 in 1U
A pair of Flight of Harmony Plague Bearers, built into this small-format 5U panel:
Dual Plague Bearer
These are sold in a variety of packages. See the Flight of Harmony Plague Bearer page for details and to download the manual. I bought two barebones packs. They will customize the order as you like with power connector, pots, connectors. I didn’t order the pots, because I use panel-mounted Alphas. What does it do? From the manufacturer:
It is designed to infect, corrupt and pervert a signal beyond recognition. It contains a Voltage-Controlled Resonant Bandpass filter that is designed with the goals of maximum signal alteration and maximum parameter controllability. Each filter has controls for varying the high and low corner frequencies of the passband, as well as variable gain and an input attenuator. Each section of the Plague Bearer can be used as a filter, an oscillator, a noise generator, or even as a resonance oscillator! Depending on the settings, the filter can be a lowpass, highpass, single-bandpass, or multiple-bandpass. Adjusting the resonance point can cause the filter to self-oscillate in many ways. By adjusting the controls to just below the point of oscillation, and then applying a pulse, square, or other abrupt-edged input signal waveform will “ring” the filter. A simple “click” on the input can give a percussive output sound – from bass drum to bell to a harsh metallic clang; Crank the controls up and this beast will scream like a banshee! The oscillation can be damped or continuous. Chain a couple in series and get accumulating feedback – the build-up can be slow, fast or instantaneous. White Noise is easy to do – you don’t even need an input signal! Turn the input all the way down, and then slowly turn the gain up. You can adjust the “color” of the noise with the frequency controls. Daisy-chaining multiple filters can give a “comb” or multi-phase noise. About phase-shift characteristics: A single filter can give a STRONG chorus effect if so desired, useful as a sub-oscillator or just to “fatten” a sound.
Construction
I butted the two PC boards together and mounted them to a Bridechamber 3-jack bracket. It’s a nice, long bracket that left plenty of room for the jacks in front. The P.B. boards each have four mounting holes, two on one end and two on one side. I had to drill the bracket to match these. The wiring uses headers on the board for all connections. I like this, because if there were to be a problem, I could easily return a board for repair without unsoldering wires.
Although this model of the P.B. has a CV Gain input, I had to omit that in order to fit two of them into the 1U panel. This is a little unfortunate, because the gain modulation produces interesting timbre changes. Here’s a photo:
You can barely see the tiny surface-mounted chip! These small boards are also low-cost. Notice the two MOTM/Blacet/Oakley style 4-pin power connectors. I made up a special power cable that jumpers them both.
Usage
I made a patch that uses them in the filter position in a nominally standard patch. It’s called ‘Plague Birds’. Look for it in the music section.
