Chase Bliss Habit is a new delay/echo pedal im collaboration with Knobs with a built-in sonic travel machine allowing you to pick up and modify sounds from the past.
Chase Bliss is a young, innovative pedal company that has released impressive effect pedals in recent years that go far beyond normal, traditional effect processors. Each of their releases has an experimental, performance-oriented approach that inspires musicians and invites them to juggle with sounds.
For their latest release Habit, the developers have teamed up again with YouTuber Knobs. The result is a time traveling delay pedal.
Chase Bliss Habit
Habit is the latest pedal development between Chase Bliss and YouTuber/musician Knobs. Habit is a delay with a built-in sonic travel machine. More precisely, its a unique looper that captures everything you play for later, so you can revisit and bring back sounds from the past. A “Frippertronics” style time travel machine that goes back up to 2 minutes allowing you to scan through these sound memories.
As a reminder: Frippertronics is a tape looping method popularised by Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and Brian Eno. Habit’s unique design makes it possible to use it as a fun delay/echo or to turn it into a looping instrument. The delay/echo section has classic parameters including repeats and size that can output up to 60-second of delays.
Big highlight, however, is the built-in odd looper. The pedal records up to 2 minutes in the background. Once captured, you can scan through them and modify those sound memories with two banks of modifiers. Alternatively, you can let the pedal do this process itself. There are many beautiful modifiers aka echo-altering effects availabe:
- stepped speed changes the speed and direction of your echoes in precise steps
- stability adds an analog feels reminiscent of tape delays with wow, flutter and, filtering.
- trimmer (stepped) cuts off a portion of your echos and creates a repeating effect out of it.
- smooth speed changes the speed and direction of your echoes in a smooth way.
- filter is a simple multi-mode filter
- dropper causes playback errors giving you brief moments of silents. At maximum you can achieve granular-style effects.
Each modifier also gives you the freedom to craft your own custom effects and behaviours including reverse delays, sliced subdivisions, wizard jazz, and more.
Secondary Echoes
That’s not all. Habit also has fascinating multi-tap abilities. By turning up the spread control, you can listen to echoes of the past and present, playing side-by-side. That’s very novel and I can imagine that this is a very special sound experience. If all this is not experimental enough, you can also modulate internally all its knobs.
Chase Bliss pedals are always going deep into the parameter forest. Instead of a display, CB uses a back panel dip-switch matrix in almost every release for managing the hidden parameters.
Some YouTubers have also released demos on time, including experimental musician Hainbach and the harp player Emily Hopkins.
First Impression
The idea of going back in time and picking up ideas is awesome. You often jam and it’s only a moment later that you realize what an ingenious loop you’ve created. Normally this is lost in time, here you can simply go back, and tweak them with modifiers so they might fit into a new track. A fascinating concept.
And dear Chase Bliss, I hope your next pedal can look 2 minutes into the future of my music, hehe.
Chase Bliss Habit is available now for $399 USD.
More information here: Chase Bliss
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