Bastl Instruments - Kastle 2 FX Wizard

Bastl Instruments Kastle 2 FX Wizard — A Little Box of Digital Spells.

Bastl's Kastle 2 FX Wizard packs nine distinct stereo effects into a small, compact, battery-powered box. Instead of navigating through presets, you'll find yourself creating sounds through modulation and patching. This unit is made for digital sorcery.

Three effect categories cover different sonic territories: The Delay section offers a clean stereo delay, a flanger with chorus capabilities, and a freezer for... freezing. The Amplitude category features an autopanner that doubles as a ring modulator, a digital crusher with feedback possibilities, and a rhythmic slicer that can transform any drone into dynamic patterns. The last section is the Pitch-Shifting FX that rounds things out with three distinct shifters - from tonal patterns to reverse effects and detuning.

It wouldn't be true digital sorcery unless there was some sort of modulation present, and yes, thank god, there is. There's a built-in LFO, pattern generator, and envelope follower can be patched to any parameter. The stereo field can be widened through detuning, followed by a multimode filter that lets you shape your sound further. Every effect reacts to triggers and clocks in both predictable and surprising ways.

The interface follows a clear concept - follow the white rabbit! Knobs marked with rabbits control the main parameters, while other controls come alive through patching. Thanks to the normalization in the patch points, you can achieve complex modulation setups with minimal patching. So 'Who is this for?' I hear you ask — all we can say is that this compact sorcerer's companion reveals its true magic in the hands of the curious…!

Features:

• 9 stereo effects modes including delay, flanger, freezer, panner, crusher, slicer, pitcher, replayer and shifter
• Stereo audio processing at 44kHz/16-bit
• USB-C and 3x AA battery power options - very portable in other words!
• Voltage controlled parameters: Time, Feedback, Amount
• Built-in LFO with triangle and pulse outputs
• Pattern generator with programmable CV and gate outputs
• Envelope follower for dynamic effects
• Flexible filter in the feedback path
• Stereo widening for each effect
• Trigger input for tempo sync
• Stereo input with adjustable gain up to +12dB
• Headphone-capable stereo output (up to 250 Ohm)
• Analog sync input/output
• Approximately 15-18 hours battery life