Freqscene Effects reinvents and improves on the CE-2 with its Koldwave Warped Analog BBD Chorus and Vibrato

It’s rare confluence - when an ideal control topology gets married to the ideal design and layout. And Freqscene Effects seems to have hit the jackpot here on all counts! The knob selection, graphics, colour choices, and format evolution from the 2-knob Boss CE-2 are just pure perfection.

The Designer / Engineer Wade explains how his Koldwave smartly refines and expands the scope of the CE-2 - giving it a more 3-dimensional output - where the Warp / Detune knob gives you all kinds of interesting flutters at the edge of modulation. The Amp control gives you a further output boost - above and beyond unity - and the Freq control allows you to refine the effected / wet tone of the modulation. All really smart choices - and a wonder why no one’s thought of doing this before.

Wade improved on Boss’s Slow Gear also - with his ’Slow Life’ pedal - I really have a lot to catch up on here. I covered the recent Freqscene Humans Resonant Filter Wah-Drive - while I’m generally a little late to the party - my friend Phil from Pedal Experiments latched onto Wade’s genius far quicker than I on this occasion!

There are several pedals in the range that I like the look of - while near enough everything is out of stock at the moment. I’m not fully clear if these are mostly one-off micro batches, or micro batches that get periodically restocked? The legend ’Last Call’ that appears on one of them seems to indicate the former, while there is also a note advising "If something is sold out, click the ’notify me when product is back in stock’ link at the bottom of the page!" So I guess I’m still in with a chance!

Wade is building a cool legacy for himself here. I’m usually onto Canadian builders fairly quickly - and I support most of the leading lights in that land already. It’s something of a mystery as to why I didn’t latch onto Freqscene sooner - as there is genuinely so much to like here!

I’m certainly a fan, and need to make amends for my former oversights and tardiness!

Koldwave Controls - Speed, Depth, Mode : Vibrato / Chorus, Warp : ±Detune, Amp : Output Level, Freq : Wet Tone.

Presumably the guts of the circuit uses the same CoolAudio V3207 + V3102 BBD Chip Set that nearly all the current  CE-2 and VB-2 types are made with.

The Koldwave and Slow Life are currently at the head of my list - and yes I’ve triggered those notifications and signed up to the mailing list too!

I look forward to adding some Freqscene pedals to my reference collection, while I’m not clear on the timings yet. It’s already quite tricky for me to juggle the 400+ brands I already deal with!

All in good time as the saying goes!

The Koldwave is really well priced @ $199 when in stock on the Freqscene Webstore, and I would imagine that anyone who’s keen on choruses would want one. I’m a huge fan of choruses - and own around xx to date - the Koldwave will be a valuable addition to those!