Caroline Kilobyte Lo Fi Delay

The Caroline Kilobyte is a lo-fi delay pedal from Caroline Guitar Company, first launched in 2013¹. Where most delay pedals aim for clean, faithful repeats, the Kilobyte is built around the opposite idea: the maker keeps your dry signal path analog and pure, then feeds a low-fidelity digital delay chip, the kind designed for karaoke machines and kids' toys, through a +21dB boost/overdrive preamp to smash it into what Caroline calls "smeared, repeated glory"²³. The result is a delay whose repeats degrade and darken rather than stay pristine, in the spirit of old tape and bucket-brigade units, but done digitally⁴⁵.

The pedal's list price is $219.99 USD¹, and it is listed on Caroline's own product page².

What it does to your sound

The Kilobyte's character comes from deliberately abusing a cheap delay chip. Caroline's own description of the design sums up the approach:

The chip in question is the PT2399, a digital delay chip that Premier Guitar's reviewer found had "an alluring, analog-like character"⁴. The Pedal Zone describes it as a chip normally found in old karaoke machines and toys from the 80s⁹. Because the repeats degrade on the trails, the delay has an analog-style vibe that Chicago Music Exchange's Joel Bauman noted is useful with high gain, where cleaner delays can get lost in the mix⁵.

Delay time runs over 500ms¹⁰, and Guitar.com's review put the maximum "not far short of a full second"⁷. With the modulation backed off, that review found the repeats had just a touch of treble roll-off helping them blend in naturally, and with a small amount of modulation it described "this warm, soothing delay"⁷.

Controls and switches

The Kilobyte's control set is small, but it ranges from clean slapback to total meltdown:

The modulation circuit was designed by Jack DeVille and adds a subtle sweetening to the repeats²³. The Havoc switch is the pedal's signature trick: hold it down and the feedback maxes out for self-oscillation, then let go and the repeats fall back to where the summation knob set them⁷¹⁰. Guitar.com's reviewer called it "a real bonus to have the havoc switch at your disposal here" for creating soaring and swooping self-oscillation patterns⁷.

Two versions: 2013 original and the Cusack redesign

There are two distinct Kilobytes, and a used buyer should know which is which⁸:

The original run was limited to roughly the first 470 handmade delay pedals⁸, and Caroline warranty-services the original 3PDT bypass switch for the life of the product⁸. The Kickstarter version carried a fifth external Tacos knob, while on the standard retailer version that control was an internal trimpot, so modulation remained available¹¹. Kickstarter supporters and other advance customers who paid a premium got a black and gold sparkle finish; the standard color is Kingsport Gray, a gun-metal shade¹¹.

Where it came from

The Kilobyte began as a Kickstarter campaign, available there until January 19, 2013¹², with the maker describing it at the time as "the pending release of our Kilobyte™ lo-fi digital delay pedal"¹³. The modulation effect was crafted by Jack DeVille after the successful campaign⁸. In April 2014 Caroline announced the move to the Cusack surface-mount design and relay switching, while continuing to support the original thru-hole version⁸. The pedal is made in the USA⁸.

What reviewers said

The Kilobyte picked up strong press over its run. Pedal of the Day's Sharrod J, after a month with the pedal, wrote: "If you like something that can be simple but can get real weird real quick then this pedal is the one"¹⁰. Guitar.com named it in its 2016 Gear of the Year awards, where Gary Walker's verdict was that riding the havoc switch "is as much fun as I've had with a pedal this year," and that it took the prize over the Red Witch Titan as his favorite delay of recent times¹⁴. The same publication's review concluded that "lo-fi doesn't have to mean analogue - and the Kilobyte proves it"⁷. Pete Thorn demoed it and called it "a lo-fi vibey delay"¹⁵.

The Kilobyte today

Players shopping the used market should check which version of the Kilobyte they are looking at, since the 2013 handwired units and the later surface-mount pedals differ in switching, layout and modulation control⁸. The original thru-hole run was limited to the first four hundred and seventy something handmade delay pedals⁸, while the newer version moved to a Jon Cusack SMD board design with silent relay-based true bypass and the Tacos modulation control on the outside⁸.

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