Old Blood Noise Endeavors Old Blood Noise Beam Splitter V2

The Old Blood Noise Beam Splitter V2 is a stereo distortion pedal from Old Blood Noise Endeavors that takes one signal and makes three copies of it, running three different overdrive voices and sending two of them through delay lines¹. Where a normal drive pedal stacks gain in series, the Beam Splitter splits a mono input into three parallel analog drive paths and routes two of them through independent delay lines, which widens the sound into stereo imaging rather than simply adding more gain². Old Blood Noise Endeavors released the V2 in August 2026 as a rework of the original Beam Splitter, which launched in 2023 at $229³⁴.

Three parallel drives, two through delay lines

The core idea is signal splitting. The pedal takes your mono input, splits it into three parallel analog drive paths, and routes two of them through independent delay lines². Each of the three drive sections has its own character: Guitar Pedal X describes Drive I as a hard clipping distortion that carries the core gain sound³. The original Beam Splitter's three voices were a Transistor Overdrive, a Soft-clipping Distortion and a Hard-clipping Distortion, plus a chorus and a double tracker in the delay side of the circuit².

Because two of the three paths arrive slightly later than the third, the combined output spreads across the stereo field instead of sitting in one place. The delay lines offer up to 211ms of delay time on the V2², where the original topped out at 125ms⁵. A dedicated Delay Select toggle lets you choose precisely which two of the three drives are routed through the delay lines².

The output stage is where the pedal gets unusual. It can be kept in parallel mono, spread out in stereo, or further split into three outputs, which Old Blood Noise Endeavors calls "trereo"¹. Guitar Pedal X reads the maker's "Further Adventures in Trereo" billing as triphonic, meaning three outputs, one per gain section³. On the original, gearnews described the same routing choice as a summed parallel mono signal from one output or three separate splits⁴.

The controls

Each of the three drive sections has independent Gain, Volume and Tone controls²³. The delay side has its own parameter set:

Deviate is the character control of the pair. Delicious Audio describes it as introducing subtle, random timing fluctuations for natural chorus and movement², which mimics the way real doubled parts never land perfectly on top of each other.

Beyond the knobs, the V2 adds expression control over every knob and MIDI control over everything in the pedal¹. The original had a single expression jack that only controlled the Deviate knob², so the V2 opens the whole surface to external control. The pedal also carries three user-assignable footswitches for on-the-fly dynamics³, and onboard storage for three presets, expandable to 127 via MIDI².

Changes from the original Beam Splitter

The original Beam Splitter, released in 2023 at $229⁴⁵, had one footswitch³. The V2 comes with three, and Guitar Pedal X found the result much more granular and dynamic than the original, allowing a player to ramp things up and down on the fly³. Delicious Audio reports that Old Blood Noise Endeavors completely revoiced the third drive for a wider gain range, lowered the overall noise floor, and overhauled the architecture into a full digital control setup².

The power requirement changed too. The original ran on a 9V DC center negative 2.1mm jack supply capable of 150mA²⁶; the V2 requires the same connector and polarity but a supply capable of 350mA¹. The price moved from $229 in 2023⁴⁵ to $379 at the V2 launch¹³.

The V2 comes in four color options, Cool, Warm, Shadow and Ikey Likey, with artwork by Dustin Charles¹. It is made in the USA³ and, as of Guitar Pedal X's August 2026 report, should be widely in distribution³.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions