Chase Bliss releases Lossy pedal with Goodhertz

December 5, 2023 · 4 sources

Chase Bliss has released the Lossy, a pedal made in collaboration with the software plugin maker Goodhertz, the company said. Chase Bliss wrote that the pedal is available now and ready to ship, and that it aims to ship within three days of an order being placed¹. Guitar.com and MusicRadar both put the price at $399²³.

The pedal is a hardware version of the Lossy plugin. Chase Bliss described the effect as taking "the same techniques used to smoosh sound into an mp3 or a video call" and letting players control them in real time, using the resulting mistakes and artifacts as musical textures¹. MusicRadar reported that the project involved redesigning things from the ground up rather than a direct port, and that the pedal adds an all-wet mode and a Spectral Freeze mode that tracks playing³. Chase Bliss said the pedal has "a few new modes, a few new features, more than a few refinements" and called the spectral freeze "a whole effect in itself"¹.

Guitar.com reported three modes, named Standard, Phase Jitter and Inverse, plus two Packets that add randomised motion and blemishes, a Slope toggle, a Global control for the intensity of all sounds from the pedal, and a reverb knob². MusicRadar described Standard as low-rate mp3 compression, Inverse as a brighter, thinner texture, and Phase Jitter as replicating noises from imperfect clocking³. Gearnews described the modes as "Submerged sparkles, Feathery plunks, and shifting digital clouds," and reported six controls: Loss, Verb, Speed, Global, and a filter section with strength and frequency⁴. MusicRadar reported that the Filter dial sets the filter width, Freq sets its range, and the Slope toggle selects 6dB, 24dB and 96dB slopes³. Gearnews reported a built-in limiter and a gate that chops the signal rhythmically, plus DIP switches on top⁴. Guitar.com and Gearnews both reported control via MIDI, CV and expression pedal, and Guitar.com added presets and internal modulation of all knobs²⁴.

Buying the pedal includes 50 percent off the plugin, Chase Bliss said¹. Chase Bliss wrote that Goodhertz had received requests for a pedal version for years and had started development on one before COVID disrupted the plan¹.