Chase Bliss teams up with Goodhertz for the Lossy pedal, which recreates Y2K-styled audio degradation
Lossy brings the nostalgia of the “nasty and beautiful mistakes” that occur when digital audio is compromised.
Credit: Chase Bliss
Chase Bliss has released a wonderfully pink new stompbox called Lossy in collaboration with Goodhertz. The pedal captures the weird imperfections and degradation that occurs when digital audio is compromised.
Lossy was originally a plugin by Goodhertz and has now been adapted as a pedal with new features. It also hosts advanced connectivity and customisation options including MIDI, CV and Expression control, presets, and internal modulation of all its knobs.
The Y2K-inspired Lossy provides the “nasty and beautiful mistakes” that happen when digital audio is shrunk or transferred. The examples that Chase Bliss provides of this are music streamed on a 56k modem, an MP3 ripped from a CD-R, or a viral video from 2007 played through a mobile phone.
Though developed off the back of the plugin, the pedal version is by no means the same. Lossy has three modes – Standard, Phase Jitter and Inverse. These are joined by two Packets that bring randomised motions and blemishes to your output.
Filter and Frequency controls on the left-hand side of the pedal work in partnership with a Slope toggle that adjusts the tone of the effect. There’s also a Spectral Freeze ability, as well as a Global control knob which affects the intensity of all sounds from Lossy, and a general Reverb knob.
Check out the videos below for a closer look at all of the features that Lossy has to offer:
Chase Bliss also teamed up with Empress Effects for the Reverse Mode C pedal earlier this year. The “multidirectional delay” paid tribute to a mode on the Empress Superdelay, released in 2008.
As Chase Bliss says, with Lossy “every day can be Y2K.” Lossy is available now for $399, and you’ll also get 50 percent off the plugin version with your purchase. Find out more or order directly from Chase Bliss.