Chase Bliss Big Time

The Chase Bliss Big Time is an analog and digital echo in the company's Automatone format, the slider-based enclosure Chase Bliss says it built "to stand up to the studio and the road"¹. Chase Bliss describes it as delivering "modulation, echoes, ambience, loops and more, bursting with character," with "the everything-sounds-good of analog, the anything-is-possible of digital"¹. It was made with John Snyder at Electronic Audio Experiments¹.

The circuit revisits a specific era: the mixed-up circuitry of rackmount delays from the early 80s, where advanced analog engineering was used to prop up crude digital systems¹. In the Big Time that means a mostly digital delay core, running at 32 bit, 48kHz, with two analog stages around it: a stereo analog preamp at the input and a stereo analog limiter within the delay's feedback loop¹².

A hybrid analog and digital stereo echo

Guitar Pedal X characterizes the Big Time as "mostly a digital device," with the analog parts being the stereo preamp and the stereo compressor/limiter sections². Pedal of the Day frames the same architecture as two separate sources of analog coloration: the preamp at the front of the circuit and a clipping limiter in the feedback loop³.

The delay runs in true stereo, usable in mono, stereo, or mono to stereo, with either balanced or unbalanced signals¹. Gearnews counts two stereo inputs and two outputs⁴. Chase Bliss says the enclosure, which it calls the Fadershield, is built to stand up to the studio and the road¹.

What that adds up to in practice, in Pedal of the Day's words:

The controls

The Automatone format puts the main parameters on faders rather than knobs. Chase Bliss documents the Color, Cluster, Scale and State controls on its product page, and Guitar Pedal X lists the full fader set with its secondary functions¹².

The Scale control is where the pitch tricks live. Delicious Audio notes it "does pitch and timing tricks, Thermae fans, take note, including Chromatic, Oct+4+5, and Octave"⁵.

Beyond the faders, Big Time can be controlled with MIDI (IN, with Clock, PC and CC), CV, expression, and external footswitches¹². It stores 10 presets internally and 127 via MIDI¹. That Pedal Show's demo shows presets being saved to different slots, with factory examples including Preset 1, Preset 2 Dual Head and Preset 3 Slapback⁶.

The Mode knob changes what the pedal is: Chase Bliss says it can turn Big Time "into whatever you need, from a modulation-builder to a full-blown stereo looper"¹. That Pedal Show covers the Looper as one of the pedal's main sections⁶.

The limiter States

The State knob governs the analog limiter sitting in the feedback loop, and how it sounds depends on which of the four States is selected via the State button¹³. Delicious Audio lists them⁵:

• Digital: clean limiting
• Compressed: controlled sag
• Saturated: accumulating clipping
• #!&%: misbiased, unstable and unpredictable

Chase Bliss sums up the range as "everything from smooth compression to crumbling bias"¹. That Pedal Show devotes a segment of its demo to the Limiter states⁶.

Power and connections

Big Time runs on 9V DC, center negative, drawing about 1A (1000mA)¹².

Connections include MIDI, AUX, EXP and 9V DC, plus the stereo L and R inputs and outputs⁴².

Designed with John Snyder of EAE

Chase Bliss credits the Big Time as "made with John Snyder at Electronic Audio Experiments"¹. The collaboration is described in the press as a joint development between Chase Bliss and EAE's John Snyder²⁶, and That Pedal Show bills it simply as the "Chase Bliss / EAE Big Time Digital Analogue Delay"⁶.

What reviewers said

Reactions were largely positive, with reservations about setup and price.

Pedal of the Day found the collaboration itself was the story: "the sonic prowess from these two great companies really shines from the moment you plug this thing in," and called it true stereo with "not a lot this thing can't do"³.

Guitar Pedal X called it "a very impressive beast" with a smart feature set, but added that it is not necessarily the easiest to set up, and that the format could do with a screen².

Delicious Audio took the price head on, arguing Chase Bliss and EAE "have built something that actually justifies the price tag," and that it is not another digital delay with fancy marketing⁵. That Pedal Show framed the same question from the player's side, asking why you would choose "something so capable & expensive"⁶.

Gearnews noted the price makes it Chase Bliss's most expensive effects pedal to date, at €1,099, and that as always you can only order via the website⁴.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions