If you’ve read any of my music gear reviews on Engadget, then you probably know that I love all things broken and lo-fi sounding. And you might also know that Chase Bliss is one of the best out there when it comes to making your instruments sound like they’re coughing up digital dust after crawling out of a decades-long hibernation. The company’s latest pedal, Lossy, is a collaboration with Goodhertz, a top-notch plugin maker with an incredible lo-fi pedigree.
Lossy takes whatever you feed it and makes it sound like a crappy MP3 from the late ’90s. It’s a real-time digital degradation machine that introduces artifacts, resonance, and crunch that will bring back warm memories (or chilly nightmares) of waiting hours for a single bootleg to finish downloading from Napster.
The heart of the pedal is the Loss control, which has three different modes and determines the overall character of the sound. It can deliver the familiar sound of a low bit-rate MP3 in Standard mode, play only those frequencies stripped out by compression for an especially tinny tone in Inverse mode, or spit out washes of unsteady glitches in Phase Jitter mode.
Of course, there’s plenty of variety within those three modes, depending on how high you have the Loss and Global knobs turned. While Loss determines the total amount of the effect, Global is a macro that sets the intensity of the effect. These two things combined shape the core sound, but the Packets switch is also vitally important. When off, you just get the core Lossy sound, but you can turn on Packet Loss for dropouts reminiscent of a bad cellular connection, or switch it to Packet Repeat, which fills those spaces with frozen audio for something more akin to a skipping CD. The Speed knob determines how often the effect interrupts your playing.
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There’s also a dedicated Freeze function, which is unlike any other I’ve seen on a pedal before. Rather than simply grabbing the last fraction of a second of audio and repeating it ad nauseam, it actually evolves over time. It stretches out notes, changing as you play to create ambient pads, drones, and shifting soundscapes.
Rounding out Lossy is a filter and reverb section to help glue everything together. Plus, there is a hidden limiter and auto-gain function that brings all the nuances of your playing to the fore and ensures the tiny details of the Loss effect aren’t, well, lost.
Last year, Chase Bliss shifted to a direct-to-consumer model, so the only place you can pick up a Lossy is straight from the company’s website. It’s available now for $399, and buying a pedal gets you 50% off the Goodhertz Lossy plugin that inspired it, which is normally $79. This makes it a great value for musicians looking to add a unique and evocative lo-fi sound to their arsenal.
The collaboration between Chase Bliss and Goodhertz is a testament to the growing trend of merging digital and analog technologies in the music industry. Both companies have a strong reputation for creating high-quality, innovative audio products, and their collaboration has resulted in a pedal that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of lo-fi effects.
The Lossy pedal is designed to appeal to musicians who are looking for a unique and inspiring sound that can add depth and character to their music. Its ability to transform audio into a vintage, degraded aesthetic is ideal for those seeking to experiment with unconventional sonic textures and create emotive, nostalgic soundscapes.
In addition, the pedal’s intuitive controls and versatile features make it a valuable tool for both live performances and studio recording. The ability to manipulate and shape the degradation effect in real time allows for endless creative possibilities, giving musicians the freedom to sculpt their own sonic landscapes.
Overall, the collaboration between Chase Bliss and Goodhertz has resulted in a groundbreaking pedal that offers a fresh perspective on lo-fi effects. With its unique sound-shaping capabilities and innovative design, the Lossy pedal is a must-have for musicians who are looking to explore new sonic territories and expand their creative horizons.
