Alesis Bitrman

Alesis has compromised parameter-adjusting capabilities for a stripped-down (and very inexpensive) unit. There are no menus, no displays, no hidden features. On one hand, it's WYSIWYG, but being a digital device, the knobs are really controlling more than you realize, and at that, more than you need to know... If you're familiar with what the effects that it's doing are, then you'll be able to handle it.

I've been a long-time analog effect freak, and I'm really impressed with the tones in this digital box. If you're even considering using this unit, then you are already looking to mangle your tone with the "BITRNESS" effects. The additional DISTORTION, COMPRESSION and PHASOR effects are just icing on the cake.

The BITRNESS effects are not for the meek. They include the subtle COMB FILTERING effect (which is similar to, but more subtle than using a flanger with no sweep), the nasty DECIMATOR and BIT REDUCER, which are both like extreme digital distortion that makes the tone more and more glitchy and degraded as you increase the BITRNESS control. There is an awesome sounding FM (Frequency Modulator) and RING MODULATOR. These are worth the price and then some. If you are at all into the clangy, chaotic sounds of ring modulation, this thing is killer. It may not be authentic and analog, but it gives you not only the classic gong-like ring mod sounds (and a really rich and deep tone at that, with little or no carrier bleedthrough) but at minimum settings, it gives you the added bonus of a KILLER TREMOLO, much like the Moogerfooger Ring Mod.

That's all well and good, but get this, IT'S STEREO! In the tremolo range, it is a stereo panning trem, and as you turn up the rate into ring mod land, the carrier frequencies are going up on one channel and down on the other. Very cool effect that you can't do with just any old ring mod. Similar to the Ring Mod is a cool FREQUENCY MODULATOR. It starts out with a warped sounding vibrato, much like the ring mod's tremolo effect, but becomes more and more crazy as you increase the rate, and ends up sounding like another flavor of ring modulator. The FREQUENCY SHIFTER is yet another member of the ring mod family, which is similar to an effect found on old modular Moog and Buchla analog synths. Unlike the FM and Ring Mod effects, it takes the tone of your signal and cranks the pitches up as well as down, in a non-harmonic pitch shifting-like effect.

Bottom line, as a sonic destruction tool, this thing rocks.

Oh yeah, it also has a DISTORTION controlled by one knob, which increases the amount of gain, a COMPRESSOR which increases the amount of compression with it's associated knob, and a very cool sounding stereo DUAL PHASOR, which has a single knob controlling rate and depth combined in such a way that it sounds appropriate at any setting.

You're probably not going to buy this thing for any of those effects, but there are two big reasons why they really make this thing even cooler. One is that I have found that the distortion is actually great by itself on the guitar. You heard me. I hate digital effects, and I have gotten a really sweet dirty guitar tone with a Jazzmaster through the BITRMAN and straight into a Silvertone Twin-Twelve amp. Really juicy and meaty sounding distortion that doesn't sound thin or cheap-pedally. I'm a guitar tone snob too!

The other thing that makes these effects a great bonus is that you will find all kinds of great new effects by combining things like the phasor with the ring mod (especially a slow phase with a panning tremolo effect! Very cool in stereo).

It gives you the ability to choose the order of effects too, for example compression before distortion before bitrness before phasor, or pretty much any other combo. This makes for some great variations that are worth experimenting with.

On one hand, it's more than likely a one-chip DSP chip effect that doesn't have much to go wrong with, and if something goes wrong, it all goes wrong. That's probably not going to happen. On the other hand, the case is plastic. The knobs are lightweight. It's not meant to be abused.

Never had to deal with Alesis regarding this effect. I'm not sure if they support it anymore.... I don't even know who owns Alesis at this point...

For the $40 price I paid for this thing as a closeout, I think it's one of the best deals I have ever gotten in my entire music career. It does things that I used to wish I had a Sherman Filterbank, an Adrenalinn, a Microsynth or a bunch of vintage analog synth modules for. It has even given me some incredible guitar tones with just the distortion effect through an amp. I bought it because I couldn't pass up the closeout deal at Musician's Friend. Now that I know what it sounds like, I would love this thing if I paid list price for it.

Pretty easy, keep turning the knobs. Be aware of the level knob on the back also, you may need to adjust it some as well.

Quality? Ummmm, hehe, yeah. The "distortion" on this thing is god awful. The compression - barely compression at all. I don't really know what it is. The phaser - quite swooshy. The ring mod - endless fun! Quality? No. Fun? Yes! I would be absolutely nuts about this thing if it weren't so omnipresent. By that I mean, even if you disengage it, it adds lots of noise and the phaser keeps swooshing in the background. Do all you can to avoid the 60 cycle hum with this thing cause it will be especially pronounced.

But, on the whole, this has got to be the most fun toy I own, even compared to my Boss DD-20, which is really a lot of fun (and much higher "quality"). But lets face it, a good ring mod is a good ring mod, and this is a good ring mod!

Does not seem like it could endure much punishment. Has some kind of out jack for a footswitch to activate. If I was ever gonna gig with this thing, I'd want to get it, just to keep from stomping too hard on it by accident.

???

Play with it, weeeee!!!

Couldn't be easier. The little manual is good too if you're that dense. Takes some tweaking to get musically useful stuff, but once you're, man, you'll wonder why Alesis didn't make a bundle off of this Modfx pedal alone.

Pristine? Hahaha. No way. I would give it 10 if it said "10-makes sounds like Satan's Transistor Radio". The modfx line does introduce some noise, but odds are if you're looking for something like this, you can deal with that. The ringmods, bitcrush, degradation effects on this are better than most lowerend multi-effects out there. Really love the ringmod, it sounds good for digital. The phaser effect is SUPERB, really deep and skronky, makes me want the FAZE modfx pedal. The compression pumps things up enough, but it fairly weak....makes sense as I had the Smashup MODFX compressor, and it too was weak. Maybe Alesis wanted to make a compressor that was worse than the 3630, hah. They succeeded.

Had it for 2 or 3 years, it's plastic, but well made enough. Don't go stomping on it like Kurt Cobain, and it should last quite awhile. This is more of a Robert Fripp studio piece or Electronic/Laptop Jockey tweakaholic piece.

Never had to use. Knock on wood.

The Bitrman is the most versatile and best of the MODFX pedals that I've used. I also own the Metavox and had the Smashup. It's too bad that the MODFX line didn't do so good, they were a great concept, and the planned second wave of MODFX pedals was going to be AMAZING, especially FORMANTZ. It's a shame, because these pedals were very innovative and sounded good, and the next releases would've been even better. The Bitrman would've been worth the original asking price, nevermind the clearance prices they went for. Kudos to Alesis for taking chances, they're one of the better companies out there. I think the MODFX line would've been more sucessful if they had had more cross-market appeal. I.E. good for rockers and laptop-jockies alike.

If you're not familiar with the terms on the box itself, and some could be outside of a bread and butter rocker's lexicon, then I recommend looking them up 'cause you'll probably get more out of it to know. The manual is surprising good and gives a great lay explanation, which may be enough for some. The processing concepts are actually awesome and further exploration (or a simple Google) might make for a good read. Knowledge is power, right?

Of course even with the label masked and no manual you could plug and go, very simple indeed. It's a noise machine, the kind of thing you go to to break some rules, most people might say.

"How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?"

This is subject to taste, but I will say I spend more time tweaking this than almost any other FX I use, because of the high level of variation. This is not a bad thing, IMO, 'cause it's fun to play around with, but I guess some very prickly souls out there might gripe that it's time-consuming. Full disclosure insists I mention that because there's a lot going on here, you may need a little time to feel your way through it at first.

I'm running keyboards and guitar through it, both of which sound delightfully twisted. I've also run a whole mix down through it, which was killer. Great on all counts. Anything will do.

Is it noisy? Yep. It's cheap and it hums, not too bad on many settings, and almost not at all in some applications (like keys to BITRMAN and straight to board) but I'd be lying if I said it's not noisy. Part is due to the nature of the FX, and forgivable, but some think is just cause it's cheap, ya know.

Of course, for what it does, ALL IS FORGIVEN. It's an amazing little wonder full of racket and buzz. I love it, so hey why not chalk up a "10."


Again I'll give the caveat that this product is relatively non-conventional in nature, and while I can see few people thinking "WOW a compressor and phaser and distortion all in one, that'll save me from getting them separately!" no, I'm sorry, if so you may be in for quite a surprise. The point of these particular FX cobbled together is that one can radically effect the way another responds depending on the order they are processed (hence the "1-2-3-4 order selection"). If you want compression and phase alone look elsewhere, they're just here to mess with head of the Distortion side and further mutilate the signal. That said, messing with "order selection" is absolutely needed to get the most out of this little guy.

I wouldn't gig with it because I would be afraid someone would snatch it! They're not making them anymore from what understand.

Also, I imagine, because it's a cheaply sold product housed in plastic, that it's vunerable to any kind of abuse or misuse.

Too soon to tell, but I'll be being careful. Obviously as music gear goes (and costs!) this is on the cheap side, but used with care it could last forever.

Never crossed paths with them, would try though if something happens, though it's discontinued status probably means tough luck. But I'd try, this effect would be missed.

This is a very cool box. It's tradgic that it's discontinued because there's nothing else like it. Too get the same FX you'd have to part with some serious bucks on synth gear and even if money wasn't an issue, recreating something this unique would be debatably difficult depending on who you ask. There are several DJ-centric products that are similar but not quite the same, many of which are, again, pricier and some of which are also on the rare side of availability. Either way, I don't I've seen anything exactly like the MODFX anywhere.

It's a great match for my appetite for madness and signal distorting. I would've paid more for it but can NOT complain for the price, execpt to say that IF it was expensive I might have a gripe or two, BUT probably only about the dubious build quality. The lo-fidelty of the thing is what I LIKE about it!

******* LAST: Just a word about the whole MODFX line: THESE ARE THE KIND OF INTERESTING NEW UNIQUE effects THAT WE SHOULD SEE MORE OF ON THE MARKET, NOT LESS!!!! Maybe they're not all as funky-in-a-good-way as the BITRMAN, but it's a real shame they are reportedly discontinued. Maybe ALESIS will pick up the idea again or refashion the concepts or some other smart company will...

This is a complicated little device, largely because the various forms of distortion, coupled with the compressor and the different possible signal paths, result in rather different output levels. So you need to think on the fly. The manual is good though.

Ironic that "10" is equated here with "pristine sound quality." In fact, this box sounds like crap. That is the idea. In this category, it is simply the best thing I have ever heard in my life. You can keep your Blue Box, Buzz Box, etc.--this is the king. It is extraordinarily versatile in creating different types of noise--frequency modulation (FM), ring modulation, bit reduction, comb filtering, decmiation, and pitch shift. There's also a separate dedicated control for a pretty good phaser, stompbox-style distortion, and a compressor. There are six choices for the order in which you can run these effects, and the range of effect for each type is extremely broad. The phaser goes from imperceptibly slow all the way to self-oscillation. Same goes for the "bitrness" (noise) control. The compressor from mild up to squash. Plus it's stereo, if you want. Simply the best creative-noise-generating box I have ever heard.

Hmm...it seems extremely flimsy. It looks like a stompbox, but I wouldn't stomp it. I mostly use it in my studio. The bypass switch is ridiculously weak.

Alesis is almost invariably nice to me, and they always answer my emails. They apparently wanted to release another half-dozen boxes in this series, but the first batch sold so poorly that they got shelved. According to Alesis, there aren't even any beta versions. A damn shame.

All in all, it was the bargain of a lifetime. I highly recommend the Philtre and Smashup too. Great fun. I am considering trying to find a few more of these so that I'll have extras when everyone's paying $400 apiece for them. An absolutely unique, amazing box; nothing else is remotely like it.