Chase Bliss Big Time Automatone

The Chase Bliss Big Time is a delay pedal in the company's Automatone format: the fader-and-button enclosure Chase Bliss uses for its larger designs, built, in the maker's words, "to stand up to the studio and the road." It was announced on 30 April 2026 and developed in collaboration with John Snyder of Electronic Audio Experiments, with deliveries starting around June 2026 as a general release rather than a limited run¹².

Chase Bliss describes the circuit as "a digital delay with two distinct stages of analog coloration, all in true stereo," and as "a hybrid analog/digital echo that revisits the mixed-up circuitry found in rackmount delays from the early 80s"³. In practice that means the delay engine is digital, while a stereo analog preamp sits at the input and an analog compressor/limiter sits in the feedback path, so each repeat can be pushed into analog character¹.

How the sound is built: analog stages around a digital delay

The design puts the analog circuitry where it colors the signal most. A stereo analog preamp sits at the input stage, before the digital delay, and a limiter sits in the feedback path of the delay itself³⁴. Pedal of the Day's reviewer explained how the limiter comes into play: "When COLOR or FEEDBACK (or both) are turned up, your signal will begin to bump into it," adding analog character to each repeat, with the exact behavior set by the STATE button⁴.

Guitar Pedal X characterized the result as "a largely digital delay with stereo analog preamp and compressor/limiter sections," and noted the design lineage: "There's obviously bits of Tonal Recall and Thermae in here (albeit not the BBDs!)"¹. The pedal also offers 32-bit and 12-bit modes, letting players drop the delay engine's resolution for a looser, more vintage digital texture⁵.

The controls and modes

The front panel follows the Automatone layout: six faders, five buttons and two footswitches⁶. The buttons switch between modes and modulation levels, with the rightmost SHIFT button opening a second settings level⁶.

The Mode control selects the delay range¹:

• Mod: 3 to 46ms, for chorus, flanger and vibrato territory¹
• Short: 46 to 736ms, covering slapback and double tracking¹
• Long: 736ms to 12.2s¹
• Loop: variable, turning the pedal into a stereo looper¹

Chase Bliss says the Mode knob lets you "turn Big Time into whatever you need, from a modulation-builder to a full-blown stereo looper"². Modulation is handled by four Motion modes, Off, Sine, Square and Envelope⁷, and the pedal can also produce oscillation sounds for self-generating textures⁵. The two footswitches are a Tempo switch that doubles for presets and Loop Play/Record, and a Bypass switch that doubles for Hold/Alt and Loop Stop¹.

Power and connections

The Big Time runs on 9V DC center negative at roughly 1A (1000mA)¹². That current draw rules out a battery and means it needs a proper high-current output on a power supply rather than a shared daisy chain.

Connections are full stereo: L In (Mono) and R In on the input side, L Out and R Out on the output side, plus MIDI In and MIDI Out/Thru, an AUX connection and an EXP jack for an expression pedal¹. MIDI handles Clock, PC and CC messages, and the pedal can also be controlled with CV, expression and external footswitches².

Designed with EAE's John Snyder

The Big Time is a collaboration between Chase Bliss and John Snyder of Electronic Audio Experiments, a maker known in the pedal world for its own designs³⁴. Chase Bliss calls Snyder "our good friend" and says the pedal "was made in collaboration with" him³. Delicious Audio's review notes the pedal was designed with Snyder alongside Chase Bliss's own Joel Korte⁷.

What reviewers said

Reviews were impressed by the capability, with reservations about price and ease of use¹⁶⁵.

• Guitar Pedal X called it "a very impressive beast though with lots of weird and wonderful outputs," while noting it is "not necessarily the easiest to set up" and suggesting the format could do with a screen¹.
• Gearnews pointed at the price: "Anyone familiar with Chase Bliss's Automatone pedals knows they're already at the top of the pedal price scale. The Chase Bliss Big Time takes it a step further, and at €1,099, it's their most expensive effects pedal to date!"⁶
• Pedal of the Day was enthusiastic about the sound: "the sonic prowess from these two great companies really shines from the moment you plug this thing in," adding that with true stereo "there's not a lot this thing can't do"⁴.
• Delicious Audio summed it up bluntly as the "Most expensive Chase Bliss ever"⁷.

That question framed That Pedal Show's demo, which worked through the pedal's normal delay duties alongside its wilder territory, including the 32-bit and 12-bit modes, the Tilt EQ slider, saving presets to different slots, and oscillation sounds⁵.

Videos

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Questions