Warm Audio ODD Box V1 and Mutation Phasor II review – near-faithful recreations that sound convincingly close to the real things

Paul Riario

September 14, 2023 at 10:42 AM·5 min read

If you’re like me, you did a double-take when you saw the images for the ODD and Mutation Phasor II. No, neither of them is the original stompbox that we’ve seen before (and probably own); rather, both are very faithful recreations of the originals from Warm Audio.

Right now, Warm Audio is smoking hot with its “inspired by” pedals that accurately replicate the specs of tried-and-true originals that have attained legendary status.

One look at its Centavo (Klon Centaur) and Warmdrive (Hermida Audio Zendrive) clones and you’ll quickly understand why the company is gaining traction for producing lookalike rare pedals with tones nearly identical to the originals – and at a fraction of the cost.

Now, with the release of the ODD “Over Drive Disorder” Box and Mutation Phasor II, Warm Audio aims to continue in this trajectory. Moreover, after spending a great deal of time with both, it’s hard to deny how close these two sound to the classic pedals they emulate – I could even argue, maybe too close.

Features

Both almost look like the real thing, apart from the less-bold font used for the logo and a UK/US label for the mini-toggle on the ODD, and the Mutation Phasor II coming in a sensibly shrunken brick-sized steel housing compared to the enormous metal chassis of the vintage one.

To duplicate the hard-clipping and op-amp-based circuit of the genuine overdrive pedal, Warm Audio goes above and beyond under the hood for the ODD with through-hole construction using premium components, including a TLO82CP Op-Amp, 2N7000 transistors and hand-selected capacitors and resistors.

With the same controls for Drive, Volume and Tone, the clear tonal shift comes courtesy of the UK/US mini-toggle switch – with the UK setting having bumped upper-mids, warmer saturation and detailed harmonic chime. Flipping down to the US setting ushers in more clean headroom with scooped mids, a brighter boost and crumbly breakup tones.

The ODD features true bypass switching and runs on a 9-volt battery or an external 9- to 18-volt regulated DC adapter. Running the ODD at 18 volts offers even more headroom and expressive dynamics.

The Mutation Phasor II is a true-to-spec circuit recreation of the vintage original built with premium components that include classic RC4558P op-amps, vintage-style diodes, carbon resistors and film caps.

Of course, it features the exact control set of Depth, Rate, and Feedback, which govern the MP II’s width and speed of modulation and frequency range of phase-shifting swirl. The MPII is buffered bypass and operates with a 9-volt battery or an external 9-volt regulated DC adapter.

Performance

Lucky for me, I actually own a Fulltone OCD and a prized ’70s-era Musitronics Mu-Tron Phasor II to compare Warm Audio’s ODD and MPII with. Starting with the ODD, it’s astonishing how much the ODD actually feels like an OCD in your hand, having nearly the same substantial weight.

But what’s more important is tone, and the ODD, again, in its impressiveness, sounds almost indistinguishable from the OCD. The ODD delivers that unmistakable dynamic overdrive that approaches distortion – just like the OCD – in a lively and forthright manner, poking and cutting through with what feels like a natural tube-like response.

It’s staggering to hear how well the ODD is able to match the OCD’s distinct overdriven character in the same sweetly saturated way. I’ll also point out I spent more time with the UK setting rather than the US simply because the UK setting provided a much warmer tone, whereas the US setting had more treble bite and cleaner boost, which I found complementary when I stacked the ODD with other drive pedals.

Comparing the Mutation Phasor II to the Mu-Tron Phasor II is where I started to distinguish the more noticeable and subtle differences between the two.

There is no mistaking the MPII deftly imitates the chewy phasing of the Mu-Tron at modest settings using the Depth and Feedback controls – and it’s a unique type of funky swirl and throaty “wobble” you just don’t get from other popular phase stompboxes.

But at peak settings, the MPII falls just short of the extreme rise-and-fall sweeps and vowel-like growl of the original’s jet-style phasing. Not to say the MPII doesn’t get there, but to my ears, the phasing is more polite than rude, yet still retains a defined swirling complexity of the original but without any of the hiss (since the Mu-Tron’s antiquated power switch and AC power cord contributed to that chaotic noise).

Regardless, having the MPII with a more practical pedalboard footprint and that distinctly warm and richly textured swirl is enough for me to retire my vintage unit.

Specs