Chase Bliss Habit Echo Collector Delay Pedal

Chase Bliss describe their Habit pedal as "a delay with a memory." As you play, everything you do is stored in the background for later use — like a 'musical sketchpad' that makes old new again! You can revisit and reuse sounds from the past to build compositions right inside the pedal, gather up loops, design custom echo patterns — the only limit is your creativity! You can even set Habit to auto-scan and periodically sprinkle in old notes, doing all kinds of things that will be new and unexpected.

In its simplest form, the Chase Bliss Habit is an experimental delay pedal with up to a minute of delay time. But at its most extreme, it's a self-contained song full of chance encounters. As Chase Bliss say, Habit is "an evolving paint-splatter of everything you do!"

Key Features

• Use Habit’s interconnected machinery to design new rhythms and patterns.
• Trim, filter and shape your echoes with Habit’s two banks of flexible modifiers (tape delay, dissolving echoes, shrinking subdivisions and much more).
• Scan freely through the memory, or let Habit do it for you.
• Collect free-form compositions by simply playing into the pedal.
• Turn up the SPREAD control to listen to two moments at once. This is the key to Habit’s multi-tap abilities, but can also get into some wild cognitive dissonance. Echoes of the past and present, playing side-by-side.
• Advanced connectivity and customisation options including MIDI, CV and Expression control, sync, presets, and internal modulation of any or all its knobs.

Controls

• LEVEL (RAMP): Influences the volume of the echoes (to mix fully wet, engage the DRY KILL dip switch). If ramping is engaged, the function of this knob will change (to control the speed of the movement).
• REPEATS: Sets the number of echoes. At maximum, you will get stable, infinite build-up — like looping.
• SIZE: Affects the space between echoes. SIZE offers clean adjustment, meaning there is no pitch warping as you move the knob. It ranges from 50ms, up to 60 seconds. SIZE can also be set by tapping the left footswitch.
• MODIFY: Introduces various effects for sculpting your echoes. The [1, 2, 3] and [A, OFF, B] toggles select which modifier is active or turns the modifiers off.
• SPREAD: Introduces a secondary echo that plays part of Habit’s memory. At shorter settings, this can be used to design unique multi-tap delays. At longer settings, it gives you the ability to be in two places at once. The position of the knob sets the distance between the primary and secondary echo. In the left-most position, SPREAD is off.
• SCAN: This is how you interact with Habit’s memory. It has two possible functions, depending on the MANUAL dip switch. AUTOMATIC (default): Introduces an auto-scanning effect, where Habit will automatically travel through the memory and play bits of old audio. The knob sets how frequently it will auto-scan (minimum = off), and how far into memory it will go. MANUAL: You choose which part of the memory is played. The minimum position will play the present, while turning up the knob will go further and further back into the memory.
• Please Note: Both SPREAD and SCAN are linked to SIZE, so that things are always rhythmically related. You can think of it like SIZE setting the tempo and SCAN and SPREAD following, so that wherever they’re placed is in sync.

Toggle Switches

• 1, 2, 3: Choose which modifier is on.
• A, OFF, B: Choose between two different banks of modifiers, or bypass them.
• IN, OUT, FEED: Changes the internal routing of Habit, which can have a dramatic effect. You can switch between these at any time. IN: Results in an accumulating effect from MODIFY. With each echo, the active modifier is applied again and again. OUT: Results in a consistent effect from MODIFY. Each echo will sound the same. FEED: Habit’s output is routed back to the input, so everything you hear is recorded to the memory. You’ll notice the REPEATS knob behaves differently when FEED is on.
• PRESETS: The left and right positions each store a preset, while the middle position is live (current settings). To save to the right slot, hold the right foot switch for 3 seconds, then add the left footswitch for another 3 seconds. Do the same for the left slot, but start by holding down the left footswitch. The middle LED will blink to indicate success.

Footswitches

• BYPASS: Activates the pedal.
• LOOP: Holding the bypass footswitch causes the echo to loop. The loop is frozen, meaning you can play overtop without affecting it. You can also adjust SIZE without erasing any audio. The loop function can be momentary or latching, set by the LATCH dip switch. Please Note: The memory does continue to record when looping, which can be interesting!
• TEMPO/SIZE: Tapping this switch allows you to adjust SIZE. Two taps will do it.
• MOMENTARY SCAN: Holding the left footswitch engages a momentary auto-scanning effect, like turning the SCAN knob to max. When you release the footswitch, it snaps back to the setting on the SCAN knob.
• CLEAR MEMORY: Pressing both switches at once will clear the memory.

External Control

Habit is compatible with MIDI, CV, expression, and external tap. CV and expression can be used to control Habit’s knobs. MIDI lets you go deeper and control everything, including tempo sync. CV and expression are set up the same way as ramping, using the dip switches on the top of the pedal. The pedal will simply detect a CV or expression signal when you plug it in, and hand over control.

Please Note: MIDI requires a Chase Bliss Midibox to convert the signal to a ¼" TRS jack.

Specifications

• Mono I/O
• Presets (2)
• Internal Modulation (Ramping)
• MIDI (PC, CC and Clock)
• CV Control
• Expression Control
• External Tap
• Tap Tempo
• Analog Dry-Thru
• Buffered Bypass
• 9V DC Center Negative ~150 mA