After a quick day off yesterday to move the shop, we’re back with a bang! From the insanely talented and innovative brain of our pal Joel Korte over at Chase Bliss Audio comes one of the most talked-about and anticipated effects pedals of 2016. The Tonal Recall Analog Delay not only manages to squish a TON of options into a regular-sized, pedalboard-friendly pedal, but takes the entire genre, dumps it on its head and reinvents everything we thought possible about delay. Although you could probably spend years with this thing and never truly unleash ALL its power, we’ve tried to give a good review and demo below, so let’s check it out!
One thing we love here at Pedal of the Day about Joel’s pedals is the consistency – the layouts don’t change, no matter what the effect, so you always feel like you’re returning to see an old friend with each new pedal creation. Plus, given the layout of the knobs, jacks and dip switches, you’re already somewhat familiar with how the pedal is set up and how it will possibly work, cutting down on the sometimes tedious guess work involved when you skip the manual (which most of us do immediately so we can play with our new toy). The Tone (Ramp) knob remains in tact, and is used here as a low-pass filter for the delayed effect, allowing you to adjust the darkness or brightness to taste. Mix does what it should, while Rate sets the rate of the LFO (low frequency oscillator) for the pitch modulation on the repeats, for that true analog sound we all know and love.
The Time knob sets the delay length, up to 550ms, and can be overridden by the tap tempo footswitch if necessary. Regen acts as a feedback control, letting your delayed notes ring out into infinity, and will produce wicked self-oscillation when maxed out – the longer that a delay is regenerated, it will eventually devolve into a beautiful, smeary, tape-saturated blur. A Depth knob coexists with the aforementioned Rate knob to set the intensity of the delay modulation, which also incorporates a wave shape toggle that lets you select from triangle, sine and square waveforms.
The S-L-B toggle (Short/Long/Both) determines how many Xvive MN3005 delay chips your delayed signal will pass through. Short maxes out at 275ms, Long goes to 550ms and Both creates a blurry, wash-like reverb effect. The Tap/Hold switch lets you set the delay time on-the-fly, but will also send the Tonal Recall into the self-oscillation we talked about earlier when held down, great for live experimentation and musical interplay. Use the Exp jack and dip switches to set which parameter you want to control using an expression pedal, or use it with 0-5V Control Voltage on tip as well. You can also employ an external tap tempo switch or connect controls via MIDI with the Tap/MIDI jack, as if there wasn’t enough control already available on this pedal.
Built around a pair of reissued versions of those legendary MN3005 bucket-brigade delay chips, the Tonal Recall packs an analog delay punch unrivaled by most pedals, and especially having the options it does in such a neat and tidy little package. Due to the digital control of the pedal, every knob and switch is connected to a little digital brain while your guitar signal stays 100% analog and never gets digitally processed. Since the control of the effect is digital, it opens up unprecedented effects and features that have never been heard or offered in analog stompboxes. Add in the unprecedented control you have using the dip switches, and this is one hard pedal to top or rival. Thanks so much to Joel and Chase Bliss Audio for sending it our way to check out – we can’t even imagine what they’ll come up with next, but we absolutely cannot wait! Fantastic!
Specs:
100% analog signal path, full digital control of parameters. No digital conversion or processing
2 onboard save-able presets + live mode for 3 distinct settings (expandable to 122 with a midi controller)
Tap Tempo / Hold for setting delay time via tap. Holding the switch gives runaway oscillation. 6 delay subdivisions including dotted eighth note
True bypass or buffered bypass with trails
2 Xvive MN3005 delay chips
S stands for “short” (1 MN3005, 20ms to 275ms delay), L stands for “long” (2 MN3005, 40ms to 550ms delay ), and B stands for “both” which creates more of a blurry, reverb-like wash
Circuit is tuned for 550ms max delay time (longer delays are possible via trimmer adjustment, but compromises tap tempo accuracy and optimal clock filtering)
Sine, triangle, and square wave modulation with independent rate and depth controls. At max depth, madness ensues
Full midi implementation to control presets and parameters
Expression / CV control over any parameter individually or simultaneously
Ramping over any parameter individually or simultaneously
Tone control for full range of clear or dark repeats
Mix Control goes 100% dry to 100% wet. On “short” delay setting, pedal can be used as a vibrato or chorus
Internal trimmer for max regeneration. Pedal ships with self-oscillation abilities, with the potential to get wilder
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