Chase Bliss Lossy

The Chase Bliss Lossy is a digital lo-fi pedal that takes the techniques used to compress sound into an mp3 or a video call and lets you control them in real time, using their mistakes and artifacts as musical textures¹. Instead of the usual bit-crusher approach of simply chopping resolution, it uses spectral processing, the same family of techniques behind lossy audio codecs, to degrade the signal in ways that sound like broken digital media rather than plain aliasing¹.

The pedal is a collaboration with Goodhertz, and it is a pedal version of the Goodhertz Lossy plugin. Chase Bliss's demo player Knobs called the plugin his favorite effect, and the pedal edition adds a few new modes and features, including a built-in limiter¹. Devin Kerr, Goodhertz's engineer, is the engineer behind the project¹.

What Lossy does to your sound

Where a conventional bit-crusher reduces bit depth and sample rate, Lossy works from the same ideas as mp3 and video-call compression: it splits the signal apart and throws information away selectively, so the artifacts you hear are the swirly, underwater, glitchy ones of bad streaming rather than the harsh stair-steps of sample reduction¹. Gearnews describes the basic idea as based on bit and sample reduction, but Guitar Pedal X characterizes the result as "a uniquely kind of 80's take on Lo-Fi signal modulation - essentially a softer take on Bitcrushing to a degree - with far more granularity and parameter control"³⁴.

The pedal offers three different kinds of loss, each with a distinct response and sound, which Chase Bliss describes as producing "Submerged sparkles, feathery plunks, shifting digital clouds, and much, much more."² There is also a spectral freeze ability that Chase Bliss calls "really a whole effect in itself", holding the spectral content of a moment¹.

The two packet modes are where the character gets rougher. Activated, they randomly interrupt the signal, the way a scratched CD blanks out or a bad mobile connection drops words³. Delicious Audio groups Lossy among lo-fi pedals in the digital-artifacts family⁵.

The controls

The front panel keeps the immediate options to a few knobs and a toggle, with the deeper settings on dip switches⁶.

The first footswitch bypasses or engages the effect and also activates the onboard noise gate⁷. MusicRadar notes that the manual tells you where best to start out from, useful on a pedal this deep⁷.

Guitar.com's reviewer Jason Mays found evocative territory quickly: "I set the Mode control to 'phase jitter' and the Packet to repeat and I was instantly greeted with a sound akin to Jonny Greenwood being channelled through dial-up modem."⁶

The dip switches

Like other Chase Bliss pedals, Lossy carries the trademark rack of dip switches on the top of the enclosure⁶. Guitar Pedal X counts 16 dip switches on the rear, covering:

• Filter Slope: 6dB / 24dB / 96dB
• Packets: Repeat / Clean / Loss
• Mode / Weighting: Inverse / Standard / Phase Jitter⁴

These switches set the character of the degradation at a level the knobs do not reach, letting you pick which flavor of loss the Loss knob then controls⁶³.

Lossy versus the Goodhertz plugin

The plugin, which Gearnews calls one of the most versatile lo-fi bit-crusher plugins around, is the source material³. The pedal is not a straight port: Chase Bliss says it captures the plugin in a portable package with performance enhancements and refined algorithms, and Knobs notes "It's got a few new modes, a few new features, more than a few refinements"¹. The built-in limiter is one addition the plugin does not have². For a player, the practical difference is that the pedal runs in a live signal chain, takes expression control and MIDI, and saves two presets².

Power, connections and control

Lossy needs 9V DC center negative and draws around 400 mA².

Connections are stereo, with expression control over the parameters, MIDI program change and control change for remote switching and control, and two onboard presets². Chase Bliss provides MIDI support at midi@chasebliss.com⁸.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the pedal in December 2023 and rated it 9 out of 10, calling it "An inspirational and musical lo-fi pedal that takes the essence of the original and makes it a consciously guitar-centric device."⁶ The review priced it at $399 in the US and €469 in Europe at the time⁶. Guitar Pedal X named it among the best new modulation and utility pedals of 2023, highlighting the Goodhertz collaboration⁴.

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