SOMA LABORATORY Harvezi Hazze

With Harvezi Hazze, Soma presents an analog Distortion pedal with a dark, hard character and a circuit relic. The signal path consists of an optical compressor, a distorting preamp, the waveshaper and the tone stack section. The preamp has three distortion modes, the first two produce soft or hard clipping, the third mode focuses on total Feedback which causes all the controls to influence each other. This is followed by a waveshaper, which is built around a unijunction transistor. This dates back to the early days of semiconductor technology and is capable of replacing a number of complex devices. Depending on the operating state, this circuit functions as a distortion, limiter or Waveshaper with smooth transitions in between. The Tone stack section, which is located on the side of the device with six switches, completes the signal path. Apart from the compressor on/off switch, the others affect a specific part of the frequency band. Ultimately, this section is also able to tame the deliberate chaos inherent in this pedal to a certain extent. Even at the most innocuous settings, Harvezi Hazze raises the level and clearly colors the signal. Anyone looking for a distortion pedal beyond the familiar Distortion and Fuzz schemes should give this one a listen.