Cicely

Inspired by Roger Mayer’s legendary “Octavia” pedal, Expert Sleepers Cicely transforms its well-known sound into the modular environment.

Jimi Hendrix in particular popularized the “Octave Fuzz” sound and used it on his classics “Purple Haze” and “Fire” among others. Here, a note played straight is augmented by a note one octave higher. More complex tonalities, on the other hand, develop in unpredictable directions, the whole thing garnished with overdrive for even more character and asymmetrical clipping through the “Centre” control…it could get interesting and not only because Cicely’s input and output jacks are illuminated in color.
From top to bottom, three CV ins (gain, center with 5V range as well as mix with 10V range), two envelope follower outs (normal/inverted), 2x audio in as well as an audio out show up first. Next to it are the five knobs Gain, Attenuator for Gain CV Input, Centre (12 o’clock corresponds to “0” position), Attenuator for Centre CV Input and Mix.
Via the input, the signal first ends up in the gain stage (controllable via Gain and CV) and then in the octave stage (controllable via Centre and CV). The octave output is then mixed with the input signal and can be adjusted via the Mix knob and CV. Mix at 9, Centre at 12 o’clock (“0” position) and a high gain value bring about classic tonalities, some filter application slims down the high-end spectrum and imitates Guitar Amp and Cab, while the two audio inputs are simply summed.
From an electronic point of view, it is an analog circuit with the characteristics of a Frequency Doubler, Envelope Follower and Amplitude Modulator with additional frequency-shaping filter circuits.

Features:

• Modular adaptation of the legendary Octavia pedal used by Jimi Hendrix.
• “Octave Fuzz” sound (played note is augmented by a note transposed up an octave)
• Analog circuit with features of Frequency Doubler, Envelope Follower and Amplitude Modulator
• 5 knobs (Gain, Attenuator Gain-CV, Centre, Attenuator Centre-CV-In, Mix)
• 8 patch points (Gain CV-In, Centre CV-In, Mix-CV-In, Env. Follower Out, Env. Follower Out inverted, 2x Audio In, Audio Out)