Animal Factory Amplification - Baron Samedi Module (2022)

Baron Samedi is a fuzz module with an angry, sometimes unpredictable sound character. Besides volume and gain controls, there are three voltage-controllable parameters for sharpening, filtering and / or thinning out distortion effects. Self-oscillation and producing weird noises is possible as well.

Baron Samedi is not a precision circuit, but a specialist for ludicrous fuzz distortion. Many of the module’s parameters influence each other. Therefore, it is sometimes impossible to accurately predict the behavior of the module. The sound shaping controls are all imaginatively named:

• Voodoo: The baron’s volume control.
• Rum: Gain knob to determine the degree of distortion. The control range can be adjusted via a trim potentiometer on the circuit board. High settings lead to very harsh results.
• Life: Tone control, based on a strange notch filter design. The circuit is well-suited for emphasizing mid or high frequency ranges. Deep roaring self-oscillation is possible as well.
• Death: Depending on the position of the other controls, this potentiometer can be used to create gating effects or to thin out the sound.
• Burial: This is not a high-pass filter, but it works similarly. At high settings only sporadic crackles are audible.

In addition to the parameters mentioned above, Baron Samedi also features a Blend control for mixing wet and dry audio signals. Using a jumper on the circuit board, it is possible to invert the phase of the fuzz circuit.

Life, Death, Voodoo and Burial come equipped with CV inputs plus attenuators. The potentiometers of the latter parameters are bipolar and there are switches for quick (de)activation. With no control voltages patched, the CV channels still influence the sound character of the module. The behavior of the Death knob, for example, changes fundamentally depending on the position of the switch.

Weird, dirty noises can be generated simply by touching the tip of the cable connected to the baron’s audio input. – Great fun!