One of the most anticipated effects of 2016 has got to be today’s featured piece of gear, and rightly so on all accounts. The Nemesis Delay from Source Audio combines vintage analog and tape sounds with pitch-shifting abilities, modulation, MIDI, tap tempo and more. All crammed into a super pedalboard-friendly enclosure, this delay was three years in the making, and the final results are nothing short of astounding.
Let’s start with the main delay engines, of which there are 12. Slapback mode features some excellent rockabilly, single-repeat tones, and Digital brings to the table some crisp, clear digital tones, thanks in part to the Nemesis’ 56-bit signal path and 24-bit delay line for unbelievably clean repeats. Up next is Diffuse, which boasts some tasty classic “oil can delay” sounds, washed and smeared all over your signal path, while the staple Analog mode provides warm and vintage-sounding bucket-brigade echoes, with a ton of lo-fi and resonant sounds.
The Tape mode painstakingly recreates the sound of classic tape head echo units, like the RE-201 and Echoplex, with warm and fluttery repeats, and the Noise Tape mode has some of those same sounds, but with a little darker attitude and grit. Degrade creates some cool distorted, noisy, classic repeats, and Shifter features a prominent polyphonic pitch shift on the delayed signal, allowing you to choose from Octave, Minor or Major 3rds, 4ths and 5ths.
The Helix mode is something new and unique, too, combining reverse delay and octave tones to produce otherworldly, shimmery echoes with ease. Reverse is a classic mode, and Source Audio has managed to reproduce those sweet tape head reverse sounds of years past, with all the strangeness and weird tonal qualities we all know and love. Sweeper mode gives off some excellent synth-like properties, and the Rhythmic mode rounds things out, using four different taps to produce a wide variety of rhythms.
Time, Mix, Feedback, Mod, Rate and Intensity knobs are also present here, allowing for a TON of control in each individual mode (you know what these all do, right?). Combining these 6 parameters with the 12 different modes opens up a HUGE sonic soundscape with which to experiment, explore, create and amuse. You can also run the Nemesis in Stereo if your setup can handle it, and the bouncing back and forth of the delay signals will really beef up your tone, as well as your live show, and give the crowd something to talk about, no doubt. An Expression Control jack gives you even more control over the multitude of parameters on the fly, making it an absolutely invaluable tool in the studio or on stage.
As if all this wasn’t enough, there’s more: you can access up to 8 presets on the pedal itself, and a whopping 128 presets via the MIDI control. The Source Audio-specific Neuro Mobile app lets you adjust parameters, share presets, download new delays and more, if you’re one of those tech-savvy cats that loves to get the most out of their pedals (like us, of course). Choose from analog buffered or true bypass options, use the Tap Tempo footswitch as a Hold/Freeze control by pressing it down and holding it, and even change delay presets with an external footswitch and TRS cable.
Holy cow! That’s a lot of features packed into this superbly-designed pedal package, and we can’t wait to sit down with it some more and keep the new ideas, thoughts and experiments coming in full force. Thanks so much to Jeff and everyone at Source Audio for unleashing this bad boy on us – the video below will give you some idea of what this thing can do, but we suggest you head over to the Source Audio website and pick one up for yourself (after watching the full demo, of course). Cheers!
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