• Home
  • Catalinbread CSIDMAN Stutter Pedal
Home

Catalinbread CSIDMAN Stutter Pedal

£209.00

Loading...

FREE UK Delivery

Free & Next Day delivery to most UK locations when spending over £149

Earn 627 Loyalty Points

You’ll get £6.27 to spend on your next order.

Click and Collect

Available to collect by request.
Looking to try or buy at our Guildford store?
How does click and collect work at Andertons?

SKU: CSIDMAN

Product Description

I see technology as the optimistic push through the limitations of existing paradigms: limitations in materials, processes, functionality, cost, and foresight. With each spearhead of technology, the limitations of incumbents are resolved. All too often, a slew of new issues are introduced that the marketplace is willing to overlook, at least for a short period of time. It isn’t too long before the marketplace demands better, and is willing to abandon the past and pay for the next-generation solution. Within a period of 125 years we’ve seen the evolution of recorded media go from wax cylinder phonograph, to tape, to digital.
 
Somewhere along the way, creatives exploit and embrace the way that limitations of technologies impose themselves. Imposing their ways much like a collaborator would, a creative will often find themselves in a love/hate relationship that they can’t imagine living without. What is the reason that musicians still use tape-based echo devices in an age where digital is nearly technically “perfect”? Wow and flutter, limited fidelity, and distortion are the hallmarks of tape technology that were engineered out over time, but musicians still often prefer tape because it adds “character” to their sound. So I got to thinking, “What are the artifacts of other antiquated technologies that have merit in a musical context? If David Byrne can find a way to use Powerpoint in an artistic way, why can’t we create a pedal that intentionally embraces technological limitations that musicians haven’t widely utilized?”
 
I was first introduced to glitch/stutter effects through that ridiculous Jonny Greenwood video a number of years ago. For years in the back of my head I puzzled over an application for such musical cacophony. I mean it is an over the top freakout for peak climactic moments in a performance where the music seems that it cannot rave-up any further.
 
Cool, that’s a one trick pony, right? Well, not at all. It came together when I realized the potential for this sort of effect to dice up familiar gentle sounds, in an uncomfortable yet beautiful way. I was reminded of an effect my friend and guitarist Paul Rigby (Neko Case, Garth Hudson) asked me for, something that sounded and intermittent like broken cable. Having spent time listening to Paul play. The economy, restraint and subtlety that he plays with fits almost within the subconscious of music in such a way that when he’s not playing everything sounds naked and vacant. There’s  also something here for these applications…
 
OK, glitch. I wondered if there was a cultural context for this sort of effect, something in history that would do this unintentionally… Something from the human experience, like the echo effect humans have experienced for eons when shouting in a canyon… Yup! One of the most frustrating experiences you may remember if you are old enough to have had one of those portable CD players that do not have pre-read buffers!!
 
The Portable CD player! There was a magical period of my youth where I could take select parts of my CD collection with me while I drove for hours around Japan. It was particularly profound because my soundtracks were carefully curated selections. All it required: a portable CD player, a stockpile of AA batteries, and a ” to cassette rig. The problem was that my portable CD player didn’t have read-forward buffering; if I hit a bump, so did the seamless experience of my soundtrack. At the time, it was very frustrating to be interrupted right when the music was about to rock, but in hindsight, that frustration was of the sort that I would never experience again. I began to explore the possibilities of putting this frustration in a pedal. I put some Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto on and wrote the software for what would become the CSIDMAN.

The first thing to keep in mind about the CSIDMAN is that it completely embraces and makes no apologies for the fact that it is digital (though it does have a 100% analog dry path). Digital is the CSIDMAN’s aesthetic: as a delay pedal, it strives to reproduce echoes as true to the input as possible without filtering. When you utilize its scratched disc, stuttery, and glitchy behaviors, it is pseudo-random, yet gives you a certain amount of “control” over the randomness.
 
Controls:

  • TIME Controls the echo delay line’s delay time up to 725mS, as well as the rate of the glitch.
  • MIX Gives you control over the wet/dry balance from 100% wet to 100% dry.
  • FEED Controls the amount of feedback going back into the unit.
  • CUTS (used in conjunction with the LATCH knob) controls the buffer memory length.
  • LATCH controls the relative time in a cycle that the CSIDMAN is in a latching skipping state. When full counterclockwise, it doesn’t skip, allowing you to use the pedal as a traditional digital delay. When full clockwise, the unit is stuck repeating whatever is in the buffer memory. At noon, this knob is a 50/50 balance (though random) between a skip-playback state and non-skip sample state.

 

Elliot Stent author picture

Written by Elliot Stent

Customer Reviews

5.0

3 reviews

Value

Looks

Durability

Sound

Trusted Customer12th Apr 2021

Value 4Looks 5Durability 5Sound 5

Mr Philippe Van den Berge25th Oct 2020

Value 4Looks 5Durability 5Sound 5

Patrick Nasralla22nd Mar 2020

Not for everyone. If you're into glitches and random weirdness then this is ideal. Love it.

Value 5Looks 5Durability 5Sound 5

Finance available at checkout for orders £300+

How do I use instant finance?

It's simple! Just add the products you want to your basket and click the "Checkout" button in your basket. Go through the checkout process and tick the "Finance" option under "Select Your Payment Method". You can then choose which finance term you'd like to apply for, and change your deposit if you wish.

At the end of the checkout you'll be taken to the V12 Finance web site. This is where your finance application is processed. Assuming your application is accepted you'll be able to place your deposit and confirm your order right there.

Then, your order will come through to Andertons and we'll send you the goods. Get approval before 3pm and we'll send your order out the same working day (stock permitting) for next working day delivery!

Who can apply for finance?

You must: spend over £300, be at least 18 years of age, have been a UK resident for 3 years or more, be able to make repayments by Direct Debit, be in regular employment (minimum of 16 hours per week) including self-employment, or in permanent residence with your partner who is in regular employment.

Read More About Online Finance

Andertons Music Company's Registered Office: 58-59 Woodbridge Road, Guildford, GU1 4RF. Andertons Music Company acts as a credit broker and not a lender and only offers credit products from Secure Trust Bank PLC trading as V12 Retail Finance. Not all products offered by Secure Trust Bank PLC are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Andertons Music Company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm registration number 716155. Credit provided subject to age and status.