Retro Mechanical Labs - Hyde Distortion Filter (Euro-Box)

Hyde is a dark sounding filter box with tons of distortion. Yet, the little box always delivers musical results. Hyde is composed of a distortion circuit, a resonant diode ladder filter, an overdrive and a saturation stage. For modulations, there is a LFO plus a total of five CV inputs. Hyde’s sound is simply gorgeous: Dark, mysterious and flattering at the same time.

Hyde was designed to be used with line level equipment and modular systems. As the name suggests, it is essentially the dirty channel from the large Jekyll N Hyde Dual Filter Box. However, there are some new features waiting to be discovered.

Audio material fed to Hyde first runs through a powerful distortion circuit. Next in line is the resonant diode ladder filter. Its cutoff frequency can be modulated via the built-in LFO and two CV inputs (0 to +5 V). One of the voltage control channels works inverted. Another CV connector makes it possible to influence the resonance. In addition to the diode ladder filter, there is a simple, voltage-controllable high-pass filter.

Last but not least, there is an overdrive and a clipping / saturation stage in the Hyde’s signal path. Thanks to a True Bypass switch, you can quickly (de)activate the little monster.