Malekko Heavy Industry Malekko Polyamorator

The Malekko Polyamorator is a compact digital pedal from Portland's Malekko Heavy Industry that combines three functions in one box: a harmonizer, a delay and an arpeggio. It runs three delay stages in sequence, and each stage can be harmonized independently, so a single note can come back as a shifting chord or a rising and falling arpeggio rather than a simple repeat. Delicious Audio, which covered the pedal when it surfaced in January 2022, described it as "a compact digital harmonizer/delay/arpeggio pedal featuring three stages of harmonizing and delay."¹

The pedal is also a signature design. It was built for Peter Holmström, the guitarist known for The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport, Rebel Drones and Radis Noir.¹

A harmonizing, arpeggiating delay with three stages

The Polyamorator's effect is three stages played sequentially, which is what makes it an arpeggiating delay: instead of every repeat sounding the same, the repeats cycle through the three stages in turn. Each stage has its own harmonizing interval and its own volume, so the three voices can be set as a chord, spread across octaves, or muted entirely to leave a conventional delay.¹

The three stages also have different delay time ceilings:

The Delay Time knob changes the time for each delay exponentially, so the three stages scale together as the knob turns.¹

The controls: six knobs across two pages

The pedal looks unassuming in its compact box, with a six-knob layout, but five of the six knobs have a double function across two pages. To toggle between pages, you hold the stomp switch for one second, and the main LED flashes to indicate that page 2 editing is active.¹

On page 1, the controls cover delay time, delay regen amount, and the harmonizing interval for each of the three stages. On page 2, they cover sample size, wet/dry mix, and the volume for each of the three stages.¹

The Regen knob, also called feedback, controls the number of repeats from one to infinite, and its page 2 alternate is the Sample Size control. The Mix control sets the balance from 100% dry to 100% wet.¹

Peter Holmström's signature pedal

The Polyamorator is a signature pedal for Peter Holmström, whose bands include The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport, Rebel Drones and Radis Noir. Delicious Audio announced it in January 2022 and added it to its roundup of creative delay pedals, inviting readers to "hear the otherworldly sounds of the Malekko Polyamorator in the videos below."¹

For players comparing it with other pedals in Malekko Heavy Industry's range, the Polyamorator stands out as a signature pedal for Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport, Rebel Drones and Radis Noir), hosted in a compact box with a six-knob layout that the maker itself describes as looking quite unassuming.¹

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