Perseus DIO: An Earth-shaking Sub-octave Sequel
Catalinbread’s Perseus DIO is a ripping sub-octave powerhouse, augmenting the original Perseus with superior controls and flexible filtering. The core of this all-analog pedal lies in its 3-voice mixer section, comprising a 1-octave down knob, 2-octave-down knob, and a “Dry” control — the latter delivering a boosted and lightly distorted version of your guitar’s signal. Used on their own, these three voices deliver a cavernous square-wave storm of sound. However, the fun truly begins when you start exploring the Perseus DIO’s filter section, sporting a dedicated Filter knob for each of the sub-octave voices to round off your tone with a funky flair. From crushing riffs to round, harmonic-rich bass lines, Catalinbread’s Perseus DIO transforms any 6-string into a ground-shaking sub-octave monster.
Dry control unlocks grit and grind
Much more than a simple dry signal blend, the Perseus DIO’s Dry knob imparts a much-welcomed grit and punch to your guitar’s base signal. Cranking this control boosts up your signal, allowing it to better match up with the Perseus DIO’s octave-laden tones. What’s more, the Dry setting imparts just a touch of light distortion to your tone for a raw, bitting rasp that Sweetwater guitarists find is perfect for driving the front end of an amplifier or another dirtbox into sweet saturation.
Dedicated filter controls for each octave voice
In addition to its 3-voice mixer section, the Perseus DIO also boasts two dedicated filters to shape your octave-down tones.
Filter 1: This second-order lowpass filter determines the cutoff point for the Perseus DIO’s Octave 1 knob. The sweep starts at around 7KHz, retaining the Octave Down’s natural square-wave synth-style voice. However, rolling this knob toward the 280Hz maximum cutoff point rounds over the edges for a cleaner, more harmonic-rich sound.
Filter 2: The Perseus DIO’s second filter shapes the cutoff for its Down 2 sub-octave voice with a deeper tonality. This filter’s lowest setting starts right around the same frequency as Filter 1, but descends all the way down to 140Hz to deliver a mighty double-octave barrage of sound.
Catalinbread Perseus DIO Sub Octave Pedal Features:
- An expanded update to Catalinbread’s original Perseus pedal, boasting a 3-voice all-analog octave-down design and flexible filter section
- Covers everything from video game-like square-wave bass lines to crushing sub-octave riffage
- Down 1 knob unlocks a single-octave-down voice, while the Down 2 knob supplies a double-octave down voice
- Dry knob mixes in a boosted version of your instrument’s dry signal, with a touch of light distortion to better fit with the octave-down voices
- Lowpass Filter 1 and Filter 2 knobs allow you to shape the octave-down voices from pure square waves to smoother, harmonic-rich tones
