Catalinbread Wake

The Catalinbread Wake is a chorus pedal with a twist: alongside its eight-voice chorus it carries a blendable, clean sub-octave, an octave-down signal you can dial in with its own control. Catalinbread says the octave runs in parallel with the chorus, giving what the maker calls a "whistle-clean octave down" without shedding artifacts into the chorus path, and that using it with the Mix control produces a three-part effect that adds depth to your tone¹.

It is a digital design, and the press coverage around its April 2025 launch placed it squarely in dream pop territory. Guitar Pedal X called it a machine for "lush 80's and 90's Dream Pop sounds," while Delicious Audio described it as "an eight-voice chorus that prioritizes dynamics and mood over overt artificiality"²³.

An eight-voice chorus with a clean sub-octave

Most chorus pedals use one or two delayed, modulated voices blended against your dry signal. The Wake uses eight, and that architecture is what gives it its character. MusicRadar reported that Catalinbread engineered the eight-voice chorus "to play with the other pedals in your signal chain," and that the design was inspired by the early digital processing hardware of the late '80s and early '90s⁴. Delicious Audio likewise says it draws on "the lush, studio-grade choruses of the '80s and '90s, particularly the dream pop era"².

The sub-octave is the other half of the pedal. Gearnews described the combination as producing "dreamy chorus tones" and noted that keeping the sub-octave from oscillating makes the chorus sound "deep, lush, and very full"⁵. Because the octave circuit is digital and runs in parallel, it handles chords: gearnews reported that "it tracks flawlessly" on polyphonic playing, according to Andy in the site's video demo⁵.

Where does it sit stylistically? Guitar Pedal X's take:

Gearnews traced the lineage further, saying the pedal was inspired by the chorus and flanger-drenched sounds of 1980s dream pop, shoegaze and post-rock bands such as Cocteau Twins, The Cure and My Bloody Valentine⁵. Within Catalinbread's own range, the Wake is the digital option next to the analog BBD Callisto, and its modulated-reverb sibling the Sinkhole also carries a four-voice chorus in its circuit.

The controls: Rate, Depth, Mix and Octave

The Wake has four knobs, in Catalinbread's standard enclosure⁴. Guitar.com's beginner pedal guide called it "a simple enough pedal for beginners to use, with just the four knobs to get your head around"⁶. Here is what each one does, per the maker and the launch coverage:

The Mix control is worth a closer look because of how the eight-voice architecture behaves at its extremes. Catalinbread says that maxed, it "imparts some interesting pitch vibrato tones due to its eight-voice architecture," and that rolled back fully it gives a dry signal, the same as what you put in¹. Delicious Audio similarly describes the mix control as "capable of producing subtle pitch vibrato"². So while the Wake is not a dedicated vibrato pedal, full-wet Mix settings push it into pitch-wobble territory.

Power, bypass and price

The Wake runs on 9V or 18V DC from a pedalboard power supply, according to MusicRadar's review⁴. One detail to know before it goes on a board: the bypass mode is set inside the enclosure. Gearnews reports the pedal has an internal DIP switch on the circuit board that can be switched between buffered and true bypass⁵, so you choose once, with the back off, rather than toggling from outside.

What reviewers made of it

Early coverage was consistent about the pedal's character. Guitar Pedal X framed it as a genuinely different take on chorus rather than another retro clone³. Gearnews highlighted the sub-octave as the distinguishing feature, praising the combined sound as deep, lush and very full, and the octave tracking as flawless on chords⁵. MusicRadar noted the familiar Catalinbread enclosure and the four-knob layout, and confirmed it was available at launch⁴.

A year on, the Wake was still drawing notice. Guitar.com's June 2026 beginner pedal guide included it, with the guide's correspondent describing it as "the perfect tonal thickener for lush, atmospheric sounds"⁶. And in Guitar Pedal X's December 2025 roundup of the year's best new modulation and pitch pedals, the Wake appeared as the "DreamPop 8-Voice Chorus + Sub Octave" at $199⁷.

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