Prosody is the successor to the hugely popular vsound pedal, featuring a host of new features and capabilities demanded by our customers. Using impulse responses (IRs), it modifies the signal produced by any electric instrument (or acoustic string instrument fitted with a pickup), to match the timbre and voice of a high-quality acoustic equivalent. Prosody is complex piece of electronics, but it is very simple indeed to operate. Simply plug your instrument into Prosody, plug the output from Prosody into an amplifier or headphones, switch on and select an impulse response (IR), blender and effect.

Prosody comes with 16 pre-loaded IRs in its memory, and many additional ones are included with the software package for guitars, violin, cello, violas, upright basses and guitar cabinet (CAB) responses. There are even hybrid responses – IRs that are blends of cellos and violins, for example – which have been created specifically for string instruments with extended ranges.

Prosody is controlled using the rotary switches on the top panel. These are high quality digital controls that provide tactile feedback to confirm the chosen position. Selection of an IR is achieved simply by turning the top-left rotary switch. The lightning-fast processor responds so quickly that there is no noticeable delay in the output. You can also download your own responses or contact us to provide you with new or modified responses.

 The top-right rotary switch controls the blend between the original dry signal from your instrument and the wet signal produced by the IR processing. Position 0 gives 100% wet, and position 15 gives 100% dry, so it is possible to control the blend with a high degree of precision. The unique algorithm not only responds instantly, but the blending is implemented so that there is no lag between the wet and dry components.

 The bottom rotary switch lets you choose from one of 16 effects, including parametric EQ, reverb, distortion and echo. All of these effects can be customized and locked into the pedal using the software provided.

Control Summary

 Top panel

• Top-left rotary switch. Response select. This is used to select the IR. The pedal can hold 16 IRs in its memory, numbered 0 to 15.
• Top-right rotary switch. Blend adjustment. This controls the blend between the signal processed by the IR (wet) and the original (dry) signal. For position 0 the wet / dry balance is 100% / 0%, and position 15 the wet / dry balance is 0% / 100%. The proportion changes linearly as the switch position is rotated clockwise.
•  Lower centre rotary switch. This allows selection of one of the effect presets as follows:

   0: flat, i.e. no additional effect. The output is the signal processed by the IR and blender.
   1-5: Equalization for five audio bands – sub-bass, bass, midrange, presence and brilliance.
   6-8: three reverb presets.
   9-11: three distortion presets.
   12-14: three echo resets.
   15: mute output.

 All presets can be customised from the user software.

•  Bypass toggle. This switch toggles between true bypass and the processed signal.

 Side panels

• Left: output. Uses a standard ¼ mono jack plug.
• Right: input. Uses a standard ¼ mono jack plug.

 Front panels

• Power input. This is standard 9 V, centre negative socket, for 5.5 x 2.1 mm plug.
• USB. This is a mini-USB socket, used to connect the Prosody pedal to your computer. It may also be used to power the pedal, as an alternative to the 9 V socket.

• Parametric EQ. Prosody holds 5 EQ filters, by default for sub-bass (below 60 Hz), bass (below 250 Hz), mid-range (centred at 1 kHz), presence (centred at 4 kHz) and brilliance (above 6 kHz). Each filter can be adjusted with respect to its frequency, gain and Q (selectivity).
• Reverb. Prosody holds 3 reverb presets. The these can be adjusted to mimic performance in a wide variety of ambient spaces, from the scale of a bathroom up to the dimensions of an empty cathedral. Three sliders control the acoustic tonality of each reverb – persistence, ambiance (dimension) and direct/indirect signal balance.
• Distortion. Prosody holds 3 distortion presets, each of which can be modified using the distortion control panel. Using the sliders and the graphical display, it is possible to implement a wide range of distortion effects and download them into the pedal with a single mouse click.
• Echo. As with reverb, Prosody has 3 echo presets. The echo control panel allows an echo interval between 1 and 1000 milliseconds, and a decay between 0 and 1.