The new Chase Bliss Habit delay pedal landed. We read the manual, plugged it in and we really liked it. We sold out of our initial stock but secured a few more. This is a growing collection of our first experiments and thoughts on this extremely interesting new take on what can be done with “delay”.
Their new branding is also great, and we’ve always liked what Joel and his merry band of designers and builders in Akron do. But if we’re honest neither the Blooper nor the much-loved Mood ever really hit the spot for us (hence the lack of demos of them on our social media). But this most definitely has. And you can forget “marketing”: we’d sell out of our limited stock of these even if we never made a video; this is a celebration of something new and ingenious that we think many people – perhaps even other jaded*, seen-it-all effects freaks like us – will have a lot of fun with.
*we’re not really jaded (much), but it’s a fact that many new effects don’t really bring anything truly “new” to the table (either that or they just don’t sound that good), and we can find ourselves becoming weary of the lack of real innovation.
The two part video below features our very own Dec and Joel going through some of the settings and showing both it’s versatility as a “normal” delay, and then getting into the deep memory features. Below those are Tony’s first experiments with the Habit in the order they were posted as he delved deeper and deeper into the world of echoes…
[NOTE: to hear the demos below click on the image to go through to the video.]
A new echo guitar pedal from Chase Bliss?
Called Habit you say?
Here’s the obligatory Soundgas 808 demo. We think Tony rather likes this one…
‘Wizard Jazz’
The bit where Tony discovers that the new Chase Bliss Habit pedal also does Eventide H910 impressions…
If Aphex Twin made guitar pedals…
Pedal concrète / compact electronic music studio.
The Chase Bliss Habit does not just do delays, looping, glitching, filtering , harmonising, pitch shifting, etc, but it also records and overdubs your music to build a 3 minute piece which you can then manipulate/mess with.
It’s easy, thanks to the clear and concise guide – so easy that even I was up and away within a very short time.
What you are hearing is entirely inside the Habit. I manually triggered a handful of samples from my S2400* to build the first three minute bed, then overdubbed another pass. Then came the fun part – that you see here – twisting and warping the resulting track using the onboard effects.
The possibilities of this little yellow box are mind blowing: it’s the most fun I’ve had with a pedal that I can remember.
(And did I mention how easy it is? I admit that I never got very far with either Blooper or Mood🤯, but the Habit Field Guide booklet gently guides you without ever seeming like a drag).
Bravo Chase Bliss🔥🙏
We still have a handful left in stock, but they won’t be around for long. Link in bio…
*bass sample is a single note from the incredible Arp2600 multi sample set from Samples From Mars.
Habit Song Collector Live Jam
Tonight I explored the Chase Bliss Habit’s Collector feature – using it as a musical sketch pad as well as processor.
After a minute’s set up ( this was live) there’s an hour deep in the jungle – heavy on the Amen break – followed by 30 mins or so of more ambient noodling allowing the sounds collected in the Habit to evolve and breathe.
Dawless 3 piece: Isla S2400; Suiko Poetry Trainer; Chase Bliss Habit.
The Habit is something of a revelation: Chase Bliss have crammed an awful lot into this pedal: it’s super creative, very playable and generates lots of surprises and happy accidents. Certainly not just another guitar/delay pedal.
(Warning: this one is a 1 hour 42 minute excursion. You may want to get a drink and some snacks before you start…)
More videos to come.
We sold out of our initial Habit stock but if you want one then the good news is we managed to secure a few more just before Chase Bliss ran out.
