Positive Grid BIAS Delay

The Positive Grid BIAS Delay is a delay and reverb pedal announced in March 2017 by Positive Grid, the maker of the BIAS Amp and BIAS FX amp processors¹. MusicRadar described it at launch as "the world's first cross-platform delay pedal," a hardware unit that integrates with desktop and iPad software². It was priced at $349 and scheduled to reach stores worldwide in Spring 2017³.

What sets it apart from a conventional delay stompbox is the hybrid approach. The pedal works standalone on a board, but it also connects to the BIAS Pedal software so players can design delay and reverb sounds on a computer or iPad, then load them back onto the hardware. Gearnews described it as a follow-on from the company's hybrid of hardware and software, as used in the BIAS Distortion pedal and the BIAS Head amps⁴.

Delay and reverb modes with two banks of ten presets

The BIAS Delay covers a wide range of vintage and contemporary time-based effects. Positive Grid's announcement lists eight delay types plus reverb¹:

Presets live in two banks of ten each on the hardware pedal, and players can design sounds in the software and transfer them back into those banks¹. Three favorite presets can each be assigned to one of the pedal's built-in footswitches for instant recall¹. The same two-bank, twenty-preset structure appeared earlier on the BIAS Distortion, which stored up to 20 presets via an A/B bank system⁵, and later on the BIAS Modulation⁵⁶⁷.

Footswitches, tap tempo and the tap time switch

Tap tempo gets its own footswitch, so guitarists can enter bpm delay times directly with their feet¹². A three-way tap time switch adjusts between quarter, dotted-eighth and eighth-note triplet tap times, which sets the subdivision the tapped tempo produces².

Positive Grid also emphasized build quality in the announcement, describing a rugged, all-metal chassis with what it called "bombproof knobs, switches and jacks"¹.

Power, USB, MIDI and stereo connections

The rear panel carries a 9V DC power-input jack, and the Micro USB port can power the pedal as well¹. That USB port is also the link to the BIAS Pedal desktop software and iOS app, used for deep customization, offline preset storage, remote control and access to ToneCloud, Positive Grid's preset-sharing platform¹⁶.

For control beyond the footswitches:

• An Expression Pedal input on a ¼" TRS jack provides real-time control of any parameter¹.
• Separate MIDI In and Thru connectors let MIDI Program Change messages switch presets and MIDI CC messages adjust key parameter values¹.
• The pedal syncs with other BIAS pedals using MIDI Clock, locking the tempo of all time-based effects across Positive Grid's integrated pedal system¹.

The separate ¼" unbalanced (tip-sleeve) instrument input and line output jacks for left and right channels provide mono or wide stereo sound¹, which gives the Ping Pong mode somewhere to go.

Built on the BIAS Distortion and BIAS Head approach

The BIAS Delay was not Positive Grid's first pedal. The BIAS Distortion, announced in 2016, let players design and modify custom distortion pedals in software, from input volume to distortion stages, gain control and pre and post EQ⁸, then load their collections of distortion, fuzz and overdrive models onto the hardware⁸. It carried four footswitches, rear-panel jacks for input, output and expression pedal, MIDI in/out, and USB or 9V power supply operation⁸⁵. The BIAS Delay applies the same hardware-plus-software idea to time-based effects, and the BIAS Modulation that followed at Musikmesse 2017 completed the family, slotting into the existing BIAS pedal format with what Gearnews called "strong echoes of previous releases Distortion and Delay"⁹.

What reviewers said

Gearnews reviewed the BIAS Delay around its announcement and took a measured view of the concept⁴:

The same reviewer found it flexible but a tad bland overall, at an RRP of $349⁴. It is a verdict worth weighing against the pedal's flexibility: the reviewer's reservation was about the sound and value as much as the feature set.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions