Glowfly's Retroflect is a really elegant take on LoFi Tape Simulation / Modulation

Based on the venerable PT2399 chip - the Glowfly Retroflect renders a cool warbly degraded tape-like output / modulation in the most straightforward manner possible.

Controls - Wow & Flutter (Warble), Saturation (Soft Clipping), Noise (Hiss) : Lots / None / Some, Mix (Wet Mix), Volume (Output).

The beauty of this pedal is in the simplicity of its application - if you start with all controls at minimum bar the volume - you can already hear a slight chorusing effect. You then introduce further signal degradation via Wow and Flutter Warble, Soft Clipping Saturation, Greater Wet Mix, and added Noise / Hiss via the middle switch.

You need to be very aware that this is a highly input-sensitive pedal, and your pick attack triggers the modulation as such. In my pedal-chain I found that I either needed to switch off my trio of tone-sweeteners at the start of the chain, or else lower the output volume of my guitar. If I did not do such I would encounter / suffer a sort of whiplash effect typified by a rapid onset attack. As long as you’re aware of the sensitivity of this trigger you can tune that out so-to-speak - while for a V2 ediiton - it might be nice to see some sort of Input Sensitivity control added!

By and large though the pedal really behaves as expected and performs very reliably as long as you’ve figured out the minor challenge with the input sensitivity.

Tom Richardson’s Glowfly Pedals previously used to be called Wraa Labs - where I was already quite accustomed to its long-running GlitchWave pedal (now in 3rd updated edition) - which is still probably my favourite from the range. These are very reasonably priced pedals, and the Retroflect and GlirchWave are both available for just £80 plus shipping - from the Glowfly Webstore.

I will be following up this article with a ’9 Killer Compact Lo-Fi Modulators’ feature - which will of course include the Retroflect, and then I will likely do a ’best of overview’ of the Glowfly range - featuring the key killer compact enclosure pedals - the GlitchWave PLL Harmonizer, End Credits Glitch Stutter, Mini Ripples Glitch Delay, and this Retroflect Lofi Tape Sim of course.

So I’m currently one down and three to go!

Who among you is a fan of lofi tape modulation?