Chase Bliss Onward Dynamic Sampler

Well, it’s time for another sonic adventure as we journey down the wonderful rabbit hole that is Chase Bliss. Their latest offering is the Onward Dynamic Sampler, and it may be one of the most impressive and experimental pedals they’ve done – and that’s saying something. Sampling your input signal and then twisting it, wrenching it, looping it, destroying it and more, this pedal is full of excitement, wonder and new ways to approach the creation of music…

Onward is a sampler controlled by your playing. It moves when you do, capturing the sounds you make to create rich musical landscapes. You will find responsive accompaniment, synthetic re-imaginings, and a whole heap of glitching dreamscapes. It has two sides – one freeze for soft, smooth sounds, and one glitch for angular, repeating sounds. Combine them into one moving mega-effect, or split them apart for waves of depth and dimension.

Use Onward’s clump of built-in effects to add texture, harmony, and motion to your samples. An overdriven sub-octave perhaps, or maybe a low-resolution chorus. Onward includes a synth-inspired Shape section that controls the way it moves, for everything from slow swells to infinite plains to tight bursts of sound. Break up the routine with three different flavors of malfunction. Mess with timing, playback, and condition to make the glitches feel more natural and/or get the freeze in on the fun.

Create rich, layered landscapes with your playing.

Freeze a moment infinitely, then mold it and bring it to life.

Introduce a variety of organic and musical glitches.

Swell, burst and sustain with the synth-inspired Shape section.

The key to Onward’s depth is the way its two channels interact. You can use them together as one mega-effect, including interactive elements like side-chaining and dynamic ducking. Or, you can choose from a variety of unique ways to split them apart to create more complex effects, like a small orchestra moving in and out of harmony. As usual with Chase Bliss pedals, Onward features advanced connectivity and customization options including MIDI, CV and Expression control, presets, and internal modulation of any or all its knobs.

As usual with the Chase Bliss lineup, you get lost in the Onward Dynamic Sampler really quickly, and hours have eased by before you know what’s happening. In the demo below, I run through all the controls and attempt to harness the power inside of this marvelous effect. With all the hidden options, dipswitches and connectivity here, you’ll be experimenting for days, weeks, months…and longer. Head to the Chase Bliss website for ordering and more info, and don’t forget to subscribe and turn on those notifications when you watch our demo video over on YouTube. Cheers!!

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