Spread your wings with two resonant filters.

Peddler Effects’ Barn Owl presents a pair of resonant filters – high pass and low pass – with independently settable cutoff and emphasis parameters and full expression control over both filters’ cutoff control. Based on the filters in the legendary Korg MS-20 synth and tuned specifically for guitar, the Barn Owl opens new tonal dimensions for your playing.

Approximate Dimensions (LxWxH): 4.7” x 3.6” x 1.9 / 12cm x 9.25cm x 5.08cm

Level – controls the overall output level of the pedal.

Cutoff – sets the cutoff frequency for each filter. The effect will be least noticeable when High Pass (red) is set at minimum and Low Pass (blue) is set at maximum. Extreme settings at the other end may cut out your signal entirely. 

Emphasis – adjusts how much of the filtered signal is fed back to the input, creating a sharp peak right around the cutoff frequency. This resonance is what gives traditional synth filters their distinctive “bite.” Extreme settings may create oscillation, so keep Level low when experimenting to protect your speakers and ears.

Depth – controls how the pedal responds with an expression pedal plugged in. Turning Depth to the right will add the expression pedal to the Cutoff frequency; turning Depth to the left will subtract the expression pedal from Cutoff. Depth also adjusts how pronounced the expression effect is – settings closer to center will be more subtle than the settings toward the edges. Setting Depth straight up (you should feel a “click”) turns off expression control. Each Depth knob works independently, so you could have the Cutoff frequencies move in opposite directions, in the same direction, or have expression control over one filter and a fixed setting on the other. Play around with it and see – it’s a very intuitive control.

Power – Use only 9V center-negative power adapters with your Barn Owl. The Barn Owl’s internal circuit runs at +/-18V, so it should have all the headroom you could ask for.

Controls

One of my daughters loves owls – they’re basically her spirit animal –  and asked me if I could name a pedal after owls. When I started playing around with the wood finish for this pedal, the “Barn Owl” name fit perfectly.

What’s with the name?