Klowra South Zoo Voice Synth effects pedal

General

With the Klowra South Zoo Voice Synth, you can bring a quirky zoo to your pedalboard. This digital synth effects pedal transforms your guitar signal into sounds inspired by cats, frogs and horses. Don’t expect one-off sound effects, but rather playable synth textures that respond to your touch. If you play gently, the synth sound remains subtle in the background; if you play more forcefully, it comes to the fore more prominently. The low-latency polyphonic tracking follows both chords and single notes. Under the bonnet, Klowra’s WildSeed Engine, with 32-bit floating-point DSP and 24-bit AD/DA conversion, handles this unusual combination of guitar and animal sounds.

From meowing filters to rhythmic croaking

Use the Voice knob to select the character of your sound. CAT provides an expressive, wah-like filter sweep, whilst FROG transforms decaying notes into rhythmically repeated croaks. HORSE, on the other hand, delivers a sharper sound with a bright bite in the treble. You can then use TAILS to set the decay time, SPEED to set the repetition rate, and DETAIL to adjust the specific characteristics of the animal sound. The MIX control blends the effect with your dry guitar signal. You also have full control over the tracking: the three-position switch allows the synth to follow your pitch or disables tracking for flat, robotic lo-fi textures. This lets you move from melodic parts to quirky soundscapes.

Extra expression at your feet

If you hold down the footswitch, each switch position gains an extra function. In Pitch Follow, low notes become high-pitched synth cries and high notes become deep sounds. The other modes freeze the animal sound into a sustained tone, whilst SPEED or TAILS changes randomly. This offers plenty of possibilities for transitions and experimental passages. You can also control these temporary functions using an external TS momentary footswitch via the CTRL input. You can also choose between true and buffered bypass, and switching is silent thanks to a soft-touch relay. The compact South Zoo supports firmware updates via USB-C and requires a 9V DC power supply with a current draw of 150 mA.