Chase Bliss Bad Mood is the grumpy-sounding version of its original Mood micro-looping delay reverb effects pedal with all-new algorithms.
In 2023, Chase Bliss released Mood, the stereo version of their fascinating soundscape pedal based around micro-looping, delay, and reverb. A very successful pedal for the American developers.
Pedals have feelings too and can be in a bad mood. Chase Bliss demonstrates this with “Bad Mood”, the grumpy version of its Mood pedal.
Chase Bliss Bad Mood
It looks like a pedal fell out of the bed on the wrong foot this morning. And it sounds like it, too. Chase Bliss celebrates this emotion in another fascinating pedal. Like the Mood MKII, the one with the good mood, Chase Bliss gave the Bad Mood two sections.
You have a micro-looper on the right that chops incoming audio into fragments and puts it back together in unusual, crazy ways. A wet channel is on the left with delay, reverb, and a harmonizer.
There is also a glue section that glues everything together with a global saturator and destroyer.
Bad Mood Algorithms
The original Mood MK2 is a pedal for experimental musicians who like to try new things, perhaps even those waiting for that one happy accident. Much of its charm comes from its unpredictability.
It’s not like a reverb pedal, where you turn it up and you know you’ve got a fluffy space. Here you start more or less from scratch and explore through the colorful engine, which is good for a surprise here and there.
The limited edition Chase Bliss Bad Mood builds on this foundation but comes with an all-new “grumpy” and more raw, untamed side of the original pedal. This can be seen in the new algorithms.
Delay comes with three unusual modes: relay, flip, and soup, while the reverb also has three: burst, radio, and mask.
Super exciting is the radio mode that sends your loop through five different radio stations that interpret it differently: tape, ambient, orchestral, shoegaze, and dance. Each mode reassembles, layers, and twists the elements of a micro-loop differently.
And in between, you have all kinds of noises, glitches, and interruptions. The three-way processing idea also remains in the Bad Mood pedal. You can process the live input, just your loop, or the two at the same time.
If you just mangle the loop, you can use it like an instrument on its own. Bad Mood comes with the same parameters as the “Good” Mood MK2.
For example, the clock knob allows you to change the sample rate of both channels simultaneously, shifting everything in harmonized steps. Or with the dynamic knob, you can let them react dynamically to your input.
More Features & Connectivity
As is typical with Chase Bliss pedals, there’s much more hidden on the back via dip switches. Here you can explore alternative modes, modulation, and much more.
In terms of sound, it’s a different adventure that the developers send the user on. If the Mood MK2 is too cheerful, bright, and happy, the Bad Mood can be your best friend.
It’s more broken, noisier, wrong out, but still lush and ambient. You can even do shoegaze with it.
Along with the dip switches, you also have full stereo connectivity on 6.3mm TRS sockets, an expression pedal/CV input, a 9v DC power input, and MIDI. Yes, the engine is fully MIDI controllable.
Chase Bliss Bad Mood First Impression
Chase Bliss makes fascinating FX processors. They’ve proven that a lot. And this time is no exception. Bad Mood looks so familiar, but it’s a different sound design machine.
I actually like the results it produces even better than Mood. Very organic, crunchier, and, of course, very unpredictable. A pedal made for exploration.
Chase Bliss Bad Mood is available now for pre-order for 469€ in two different colors. As the pedal is a Small Batch series pedal, you can only get it by pre-ordering it until a specific date.
In this case, the deadline for pre-orders is August 31, 2026. This also applies to the new color of the Lost + Found pedal.
More information here: Chase Bliss
This looks really cool. I might get it.