Right off the heels of MixTape, introducing Retrograde Orbit. It is our very first guitar pedal which implements the delay found on our WaveBoy Eurorack module. While the core delay is basically the same, Retrograde Orbit has a simplified method of control and a few tweaks. It has 5 knobs: Drive (DRV), Dry/Wet (MIX), Speed (SP), Size (SZ), and Feedback (FB). The foot switch is a true-bypass switch.
Drive is the basically volume though allows for driving the input into op-amp saturation. Dry/Wet is as it sounds – a way to mix the delay to taste from no delay to full delay. A note on this – current versions of Retrograde Orbit have a “feature” where setting the mix to full wet still preserves the initial sound, only that sound is coming from the delay circuit. This allows you to sample-crush the input along with the delay. Speed controls the sampling rate. Size controls the size of the delay’s ring buffer (it’s “memory” in other words). Finally, feedback is the amount of feedback of the delay back into the signal. It is able to do near infinite delays and can also go into full cacophonous feedback noise. But it can also be used as just a normal feedback.
Some of these knobs may sound a bit unconventional as compared to a “normal” delay. This is because Retrograde Orbit isn’t exactly normal. Just like the WaveBoy, it uses a variable sampling rate. This combined with the ring buffer is what makes things interesting, and is why the pedal is named as it is.
The speed and size knobs both contribute to the delay’s time but do so in difference ways. A faster speed means a faster delay, and a slower speed means a slower delay. But, the slower the delay, the slower the sampling rate. This means long delays will become noticeably sample crushed and allows for beautiful textures in the delay.
If you would rather have a more hi-fi sound, you can crank the speed up. But waht if you still want a long delay? That is where the size knob comes in. Size sets how big the delay’s ring buffer is. The bigger the size, the longer the delay.
Retrograde Orbit isn’t available just yet but I hope to make it available soon! I have asked a few guiartists I know to test out some of the prototypes to get some feedback and see what they think. I will likely make it available initially with a 3D printed enclosure, but if there is enough interest I am looking into a fully metal enclosure with nicer graphics and art. I have also put thought into a sort of XL version which will have some fancy features like chorus (LFO), stereo, perhaps an expression pedal input, etc.
I’ve been wanting to make this thing for quite some time so I’m super glad I am finally able to share it out to the world. I hope folks consider giving this a go if you like delays but want something a little different!
