AJG Devices Hysteris Analog Distortion

I’ve had a number of pedals from new (to me, anyway) companies come through the shop recently, and I’ve got another beauty for you all today! The Hysteris Analog Distortion comes to us from AJG Devices right here in North Carolina, bringing a new circuit with new controls to the sonic table. With five highly-interactive knobs and a wide range of killer dirt tones, this unassuming effect is hiding a beast inside, one that’d itching to be unleashed on the world…

Hysteris is an overdrive/distortion pedal built around two distinct clipping mechanisms operating in parallel: op-amp saturation and hysteretic switching. The Gain knob controls the gain of the op-amp saturation branch and how hard the rest of the circuit is driven. At lower settings, the signal remains relatively clean with minimal distortion. As Gain is turned up, it moves from overdrive into more aggressive distortion sounds. The Hysteresis (lower middle) knob controls the stability of the less conventional hysteretic switching branch of the circuit. At lower settings it introduces a glitchy, gated character with rich harmonics. As you turn the knob up, the switching becomes more predictable leading to a cleaner, more conventional distortion sound.

The branches of the circuit interact with each other to produce the unique sonic profile of Hysteris. The op-amp saturation stage feeds into the hysteretic switching branch, and then the outputs from each branch are blended together. At lower gain settings, this means you can have a relatively clean signal blended with one that has been heavily mangled by the switching branch. At higher gain settings, you can blend two harmonically distinct distortion profiles together to create textures that move between conventional distortion, rougher fuzz tones, and broken amplifier sounds.

Hysteris isn’t based on a traditional diode-clipping topology. It was built by experimenting with less conventional ways of generating distortion and using those results to create something you can actually play. Be sure you head over to the AJG Devices website to get all the info on this pedal and to order one for yourself – thanks so much to those guys for sending the Hysteris Analog Distortion over for me to check out – don’t miss our demo video on YouTube, cheers!