Mark Seel's 3 Degrees Audio Delivers the Really Cool Bygones Nostalgic Multi-Effect - a Stereo Lo-Fi Modulator with Delay

I can’t recall exactly where I came across this first - but it was certainly well before Mike Famiglietti (The Dharma Initiative) announced that he had secured one - and in fact the now 2nd demo. Mike seems to always be on the pulse for these cool textural and glitchy effects pedals. As usual I’m overcommitted for the month so this launch of 20 pedals was somewhat academic for me - but I would very much like to pick one of these up at some stage. Actually - it seems I’ve missed out on at least 2 batches of 20 - so a little off the pace here - I guess you can’t be first for everything though!

It seems Mark Seel is currently exploring different formats and variations of this particular Multi-FX unit with more granular individual controls. While I really quite like the current control topology - where the two first LEDs indicate which row of functions you are targeting - by clicking on each of those knobs - the display goes from none to left only, right only, and both LEDs - each of which options targets a different one of those 4 rows of Effects - then you simply match up the required function / parameter with the knob above that column.

I see this very much as a sort of Lo-Fi Modulator and Texturiser where you have 10 controls to tweak your tone and texture in various ways - Blend, LoCut, HiCut, Resonance, Pops, Hiss, Stutter, Warp, Jitter, and Scrape. And then can also add in Delay with Regeneration - all of which options can be applied simultaneously. The LEDs also indicate the level of each function / effect with the far left illuminated one marking the minimum value, and the far right the maximum.

The ’Nostalgic Multi-Effect’ sub-header is highly descriptive too as that’s entirely the mood you generate - slightly degenerated lo-fi sounds that seem to come from an era way in the past.

I would personally classify this under Glitch Effects in many ways - but also a Lo-Fi Modulator and Lo-Fi Delay. It certainly delivers some interesting textures in a neat way.

’Enable’ is obviously the Bypass/Engage footswitch - while I assume Select allows you to recall one or more presets - in fact and indeed this allows you to scroll between 7 Presets. I obviously don’t have access to a manual - so all my info is really drawn from the two below Demo videos.

This is a really cool textural effect that would happily sit on the number #34 slot of my pedal-chain - in rotation with the Cooper FX Arcades. This is definitely down on my wishlist and I will be contact Mark Seel when he next announces a batch of these! Note that in between the time of my first writing this and when this was finally published - Mark has actually announced pre-orders for a new patch - but it’s the one with 12 individual knobs - instead of this featured topography - I was kind of won over by this one - but surely the newer iteration is more practical - yet I’m still a little undecided and not sure which one I should be going for!

It seems that currently you need to contact him courtesy of his 3 Degrees Audio Instagram Page. Do note that these are certainly not cheap and currently have a $325 price tag applied - which is significant. Update - you can actually make a Pre-Order on the 3 Degrees Website - for one of the V2 individual back-lit knobs edition.

Any of you readers taken a fancy to this device? - I certainly feel that it has some cool potential - and it’s great to be able to apply 12 textural effects simultaneously in stereo - obviously some finesse and due diligence is required there for optimal results!

Looks like there are a number of pedals on Mark Seel’s bench at the moment in fairly similar functional / topological format - including the Preamp Dual Overdrive and Lumen Stereo Tri-Chorus / Flanger / Pitch-Shifter.