Z-VEX

Ringtone

2007

The Ringtone has high-quality components, an attractive hand-painted case, and extended battery life.

At the heart of the Ringtone is a sequencer with eight steps of independently tunable ring modulation. Each step of the sequence is indicated across the top of the stompbox by a red LED and is accompanied by a small black knob about the size of a pencil eraser. These eight knobs control the carrier pitch of a ring-modulator circuit.

For those not familiar with ring modulation, the effect accepts two signals and gives you only the sum and difference tones at the output, with none of the original signal present. For example, if the input signals are 800 Hz and 200 Hz, you would hear a 1,000 Hz tone (sum) and 600 Hz tone (difference) combined at the output.

With the Ringtone, an internal carrier oscillator — with a frequency range of 2 Hz to 1 kHz — is used to modulate the input signal, to create a harmonically complex sound. The ring-modulated output can range from a slow tremolo (when the carrier frequency's tuning control is turned fully clockwise to get a subsonic pitch) to a thick, and often dissonant, array of harmonics (when the tuning control is turned fully counterclockwise). At around the 11 o'clock position, where the carrier pitch becomes audible, the tremolo effect becomes fast enough to create modulation sidebands.

The Ringtone also includes a true bypass switch, the Random/Step switch, and the Run/Step mode switch. The sequencer speed is controlled by a knob marked SPD to the left of the eight tuning controls. The speed ranges from approximately three to ten steps per second. At faster speeds, and with higher carrier-pitch settings, the Ringtone can generate a sequence that sounds just like a cell phone ringtone.

Besides being a unique guitar effect, the Ringtone has great potential for creative processing with bass, keyboards, and other electronic sources, including individual tracks in the studio.