Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Chase Bliss rolls out another interesting variant of its Automatone Auto-Slider Format - the Big Time Hybrid Echo / Delay - in collaboration with EAE's John Snyder
There were all kinds of weird rumours going around before the launch of this pedal - I though it was more likely to be a sympathetic resonance modulator / filter style thing - where there are filters here - but used rather to define the different delay voicings.
This is mostly a digital device, I’m not 100% clear on the inflection of ’Hybrid’ in respect to Delay here - as there are no specific analog / BBD delay-line components that I’m aware of. This is very much a sibling to the CXM 1978 Reverb, but with some additional levels of versatility and complexity. The Preamp MKII and CXM 1978 are somewhat simpler affairs. The ’Analog’ parts are the Stereo Analog Preamp, and the Stereo Analog Compressor / Limiter. So you can say the pedal is overall a Hybrid design - but from a delay perspective it is entirely a Digital Delay. The Hybrid Echo sub-header might be construed as somewhat misleading by some - while I kind of get where they are going with that moniker!
So much of the Big Time is interactive - and there are lots of secondary / alt functions, alongside 4 options for each arcade button versus the 3 of its predecessor siblings.
The Big Time Delay is certainly intriguing - supposedly you achieve Tap sub-divisions by combining Scale and Time settings - but I’ve no clear idea of how I would create say a adotted eighth time signature. I typically tend to gravitate towards Multi-Head Tape-style Echoes and Delays - in particular Space Echo and Echorec types - where most of my preferred delays include coverage of that style.
Controls - Color [Texture], Time [Rate], Cluster [Depth], Tilt EQ [Crossover], Feedback [Diffuse] Wet Lvl [Dry Lvl], Scale [Shift] (Time & Pitch Response) : Off / Chromatic / Oct + 4 + 5 / Octave, Motion [Spread] (Modulation / Type) : Off / Sine / Square / Envelope, Mode [0.5x] : Mod 3-46ms / Short 46-736ms / Long 736ms - 12.2s / Loop : Variable, Filter Voicing & Tone [Diffuse Type] : HiFi / Focus / Warm / Analog, State Limiter Mode [+12dB] : Digital / Compressed / Saturated / #!&%, Tempo (Presets) Footswitch + Loop Play/Record, Presets 1-10 (127 via MIDI), Bypass (Hold/Alt) Footswitch + Loop Stop.
Ports - L In (Mono), R In, L Out, R Out, MIDI In, MIDI Out / Thru, AUX, EXP, 9V DC [-] 1000mA.
The Big Time's Delay Modes / Voicings are split into HiFi / Focus / Warm / Analog. You have different delay lengths at your disposal - so you can easily do Chorus / Flanger / Vibrato Modulations or Slapback and Double Tracking style delays - as well as more conventional Short and Long time signature delays.
Motion is Movement / Modulation - and Scale is how the delay responds to Pitch and Timing intervals - so you use the Time/Rate and Scale controls to get your Sub-Divisions and delay variations.
There's obviously bits of Tonal Recall and Thermae in here (albeit not the BBDs!). You have factory presets that include Compressed Chorus, Slap/Double, Bouncy Thermae, Broken Dynaflange, and Crushed Analog.
There's certainly plenty of versatility and variation here - but no reverse or tape-style delays (unless Reverse is a function of the looper?) - which are flavours I tend to use a lot. Also the nature of the limited overall controls means that some of the operations here are rather complex - and involve the setting of several interactive and tandem values.
The Automatone format was originally developed for the Preamp MKII - and serves that very well. You could probably do with some sort of screen though - to aid with setting the Reverb and Delay variants - I'm not sure the format is entirely 100% suitable for those variants - however good some of the output can sound.
The Big Time Automatone goes for $999 in the USA, and €1099 in the EU and UK - which amounts to £952 for us Brit locals. Don't forget that you should really buy the Fadershield dust cover too - which is a further €89 (£77) and equivalent from Chase Bliss.
Newsletter subscribers will already have gotten the Big Time Product Link, and those not on the Newsletter will need to wait for the pedal to appear fully on the 2 Chase Bliss Webstores - www.chasebliss.com! You have plenty of time to get one of these - deliveries start some time in June in theory! And this is NOT a limited release!
It's a large pedal, with a high ticket value - so most will need to save up or credit-card this pedal - and several decisions need to be made about whether this pedal is entirely right for you, and how easily it fits into your rig and setup - space is always of a premium for me!
I saw an Insta / Facebook post where some Chase Bliss fan had written that they already had reserved a space for this pedal .... not on their board ... but on their shelf - next to their other 2 shelved Automatone units!
I am so not a shelfware type of gear enthusiast though - this has to be a practical and usable weapon of choice for me - and definitely straight onto the board. It's too large and expensive to be reduced to a sometime and bit part role - it needs to be a principal pedal. Which for similar reasons to the CXM 1978, I'm not sure it ever will be for me.
I never say never of course but there are other delay pedals I'm already pre-committed too - including the Mentha Works Monk Echo, and the forthcoming Blue FX Devices Cassetta Stereo Tape style Delay. If I do go for one of these Big Time Delays - it will be at leisure, and much later in the year. Right now it's a nice-to-have rather than a must-have for me. While things are wont to change overnight.
This pedal is on general release, with no limits beyond individual batch limits - so there's no urgent or time-sensitive acquisition window - you can get this one at your leisure for sure!
A very impressive beast though with lots of weird and wonderful outputs - and with so much aforethought and such a smart feature set - but not necessarily the easiest to set up - very creative though!
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