The Alienist Voicing Boost is a boost pedal from Area 51 Tube Audio Designs, a small builder of hand-wired effects. Pedal of the Day describes it as "hand-wired and designed to specifically drive your favorite tube amp," and calls it "the ultimate in treble-boosting, giving you vintage amplifier tone in the blink of an eye"1. In plain terms: it sits on your board, pushes the high end of your signal, and is meant to hit the front end of a tube amplifier hard enough to bring out its natural breakup.
What it does to your sound
The pedal's core is a treble boost, the kind of circuit players use to push an already-breaking-up amp over the edge. Pedal of the Day's reviewer found it "responsive, warm" and character-shaping1. Where a plain boost just adds gain, The Alienist shapes which part of the frequency range gets pushed, which is where its name comes from.
Controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Voicing (6-way rotary) | Each position moves the frequency range of the pedal up or down; each voice is interactive with the Norm/Res switch1 |
| Norm/Res switch | Engages a special resonant filter circuit that drops the gain slightly and creates a tone similar to a fixed wah, but without the noise1 |
| Volume | Sets the output level of the boost1 |
The Voicing switch is the heart of the pedal. Rather than a single fixed treble curve, the six positions let you choose which band of the spectrum the boost centers on, moving that range up or down the scale. Because each voice interacts with the Norm/Res switch, the resonant filter mode sounds different in every voicing position, giving the pedal a wide spread of tonal options from one rotary knob and one toggle1.
Germanium or silicon
A second toggle selects between two transistors: NOS germanium or higher-gain silicon. Pedal of the Day notes these "add different flavors" to the boost1. Germanium transistors are the older technology, associated with vintage boost and fuzz circuits, while silicon runs at higher gain. Having both in one pedal, switchable, is the pedal's main departure from a conventional single-transistor treble boost.
Build and appearance
The pedal is hand-wired, and its copper-toned enclosure has a see-through bubble that "lets you look directly into the guts" of the circuit1. For a hand-wired pedal, that window is more than decoration: it shows the actual components doing the work.
"Cheers to Dan and all at Area 51 Tube Audio Designs on a killer booster"
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Questions
What does the Norm/Res switch do on The Alienist?
The Norm/Res switch engages a special resonant filter circuit. According to Pedal of the Day, it drops the gain just a little and creates a tone similar to that of a fixed wah, but without the noise. Each of the six voicing positions is interactive with this switch, so the resonant filter changes character depending on where the Voicing knob is set.
Is The Alienist Voicing Boost a germanium or silicon pedal?
It can be either. The pedal offers a choice between two transistors: NOS germanium or higher-gain silicon, which add different flavors to the boost. That makes it unusual among treble boosts, which typically commit to one transistor type.
How many voicing positions does The Alienist have?
Six. A 6-way Voicing rotary switch moves the frequency range of the pedal up or down with each position, and each voice is interactive with the Norm/Res switch.
Is The Alienist hand-wired?
Yes. Pedal of the Day describes the pedal as hand-wired and designed to specifically drive your favorite tube amp.
Sources (1)
- Area 51 The Alienist Voicing Boost, Pedal of the Day, 2020-06-04
