The Red House Electronics Heat Wave Tremolo is a tremolo pedal, the effect that rhythmically varies a note's volume for the pulsing sound heard on countless records. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio described it as "An analog-optical tremolo pedal that expands on the technology found in vintage amplifiers. By utilizing digital control"1. In other words, the audio path is analog and optical, the approach used in vintage amp tremolo circuits, while digital circuitry handles the timing and control side.
It is a tremolo pedal aimed at players who want amp-style tremolo with modern timing conveniences, built by a small maker based in Troy, Ohio1.
What it does
The Heat Wave's audio path is analog-optical, the design family found in vintage amplifier tremolo circuits, with digital control managing the effect's behavior1. It runs two modes, tap and ramp, and those modes are global to the pedal1.
- Tap mode: tap tempo functionality with four available subdivisions, so the pulse can lock to quarter notes, or to divisions of the beat1
- Ramp mode: the pedal's second mode, global alongside tap1
Tap tempo with subdivisions is the practical draw here: a player can set the tremolo's speed by tapping in time with a song and choose how the pulses sit against the beat, which is harder to arrange on a vintage amp or a simple speed-and-depth pedal1.
Design and switching
The pedal uses true bypass soft touch switching, so the effect is removed from the signal path entirely when off, with a soft touch footswitch rather than a heavy click switch1. All of this is loaded into a pedalboard-friendly enclosure, sized to sit alongside other pedals on a crowded board1.
Videos
Eric Merrow
Sean Gibson
JJ Tanis
Sources (1)
- Red House Electronics, Delicious Audio, 2017-12-12
