Finegear - The Dirt Magnet

The Dirt Magnet from Finegear lives up to its name. A powerful effects box with noise, ring mod, filter and tape delay.

The Dirt Magnet gives your sounds the charm of attic finds. Old, almost forgotten and really dusty. It is an effects unit that combines multiple sound sources, effects and modulations to give you high flexibility and variety.

There are two sound generators, a noise generator and a crackling source. The noise gives you an extreme modulation source or can be used to create hi-hats for example. It has a bandpass filter that can tame the noise. Crackling produces sounds similar to those of one of the records in my grandparents' attic...only better. The density of the crackling is adjustable and a highpass filter lets you remove unwanted lower frequencies.

The effects section includes three true classics of the past and present. A Ring Modulator is the first instance and provides analog ring modulation. Here the source signal is multiplied by any modulator. The sounds are metallic and give a lot of room for exploration. The next effect is a voltage-controlled filter (VCF) with MS20 charm. Raw sound with the option for self-oscillation. The last effect is a real (!) tape delay. This stereo delay (!) works with cassette tape to delay the incoming signals. It immediately sounds dusty, old and comfortably warm. High feedback makes the delays distort. The tape is of course easily replaceable, changeable in length and offers a lot of room for experimentation. There is also a panorama parameter and a ping-pong function.

All this is in and of itself already a lot! But the fun is just beginning. The most important parameters of each section are voltage controllable. Yes, also the delay speed, filter cutoff and crackle density! With the internal VCLFOs, it's easy to get even more out of each of the effects. There are two digital LFOs, which are MIDI syncable due to their digital design. The 5 waveforms include sine, triangle, pulse, S&H, envelope and there is CV control over speed and symmetry. Each of the two LFOs has an inverted CV output. With these two LFOs alone a lot is possible, but what's stopping you from using external modulations? That's right: nothing!

Features:

• 2 VCLFOs with 5 waveforms
• Noise generator with bandpass filter
• Crackle generator with highpass filter
• VCF in MS20 design
• Analog tape delay with stereo
• Extensive CV control possibilities