You're about to aquire pure ducking.

New version now available
The Pill: Limited batch of 200*

*Every single pedal is handmade, crucial parts are hand selected, measured, matched and finally the pedal is calibrated, all by my ears. This is the only way I can guarantee the most bouncy ducking and the best sound quality. My available time limits the number of pedals I can build. Pre-Order. Shipping February 2025.

THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
THE PILL
Regular price 385.00 USD Pre-order. Shipping February 2025.
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Move your music
Discover The Pill
The Pill is the first of its kind Ducking Effect Pedal. Since 2019, it brings a music production effect to the live stage.

Its unique design is the missing piece for easy, trouble-free side-chain compression on stage and in studio. Instantly ready, it delivers analog ducking magic, without any need for other accessories.

The Pedal is developed by a musician, who understands what musicians wish for and need: 100% focus on functionality, musicality and sound quality. Made entirely in Switzerland without any compromises.

The Pill features a passive, optical compression circuit (hello LA-2A!). Crucial parts are hand-selected, measured, matched and finally calibrated by ear.

All it does is ducking. It's its core purpose. The Pill connects the energy of two musicians together. It can make a flat sound more vibrant, rhythmically always linked to another instrument. It's moving music, making it more lively, letting it breathe along with other instruments. It creates an organic sound with more depth. It’s all about groove. It’s bouncing.

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Features



Potentiometers

  • Release: Sets the duration of the ducking. From short to long.
  • Depth: Sets the ducking intensity. From subtle to complete silence.
  • Trigger: Sets the sensibility (gain/threshold) of the trigger input. Quickly adjusted to fit the input source.

Capacitive touch sensors

  • When there is nothing plugged into the audio trigger input, the trigger sensitivity knob turns into a touch sensor. Simply tap it with your fingertip to fire triggers manually.
  • If there is something plugged into the trigger input, simply tap the Depth and Trigger knobs simultaneously for the same effect.

Trigger routing

  • The trigger signal is not routed to or mixed with the instrument/line outputs.
  • To route your trigger source (e.g. bass drum from your drum machine) out of the pedal, simple use the Trigger out/thru jack.

Foot switch / CV

  • An additional trigger input enables The Pill to be triggered by a foot switch or by CV. It can be used simultaneously with the normal (audio)-trigger input.

Ducking curves

  • Release and Depth knobs interact with each other to create different ducking volume curves. Increasing Depth while decreasing Release creates a steeper curve while maintaining the same length of the ducking effect
Each pedal is calibrated by ear. Crucial parts are hand-selected, measured and matched.
handmade
Specifications

Audio Inputs (Instrument/Line)

  • 2x ¼ Jack (TS, unbalanced) Accepts any audio sources
    • Balanced signals are converted into unbalanced ones

Trigger Inputs

  • 1x ¼ jack for audio trigger (drum maschines, mics, piezo triggers...)
  • 1x â…› Jack for Footswitch/CV/Gate Trigger
  • Necessarily use TS cables for CV, TRS for footswitch
  • Can be used simultaniously

Outputs

  • 2x ¼ Jack instrument/line outputs
  • 1x ¼ Jack audio trigger output

Controls

  • Potentiometers: Release, Depth, Trigger
  • Capacitive touch sensitive Pots to manually fire triggers
  • Bypass footswitch

Dimensions / Weight

  • Enclosure: 117.2x90x39mm // 4.61x3.54x1.53inch

Power

  • Standard Boss type 9-12V DC (center negative). No batteries. 40mA@9V

...but most importantly

  • Analog. No digits in here!
  • Flexible input levels (from guitars/mics to studio line-levels) due to a unique, minimalistic audio path
  • Musical and best sounding audio compression due to passive, optical signal ducking
  • Crucial parts are hand-selected, measured and matched by audition by a musician
  • High quality components, selected over years by A/B tests
  • Each pedal is calibrated by ear
  • Die-Cast Aluminium Enclosure, made by Gorva Design
  • Durable powder coating and UV-Print
  • Handmade in Switzerland
  • Carbon neutral shipping with recycled boxing materials

please check my FAQ Page for more information.

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