The Lo-Fi Delay is a compact yet feature-packed delay by Australian manufacturer MI Audio. Check out this video of by Brett Kingman and learn more about it at the bottom of this post or here.
A lot of careful design has gone into what goes around the PT chip to give modulation like no other pedal. There is control over the filtering of the delay signal that really gives a new perspective with a flick of the switch, and also the input and output of the pedal carefully honed to give you the control of the best signal-to-noise ratio.
The controls are:
- TIME – delay time up to a max of 600ms.
- REPEATS – go from short, slapback to self-oscillation. The LO-PASS/HI-PASS switch also affects how quickly the pedal will self-oscillate.
- RATE and DEPTH – these control the LFO modulation on the repeats. The RATE goes from super slow to throbbingly fast with a smooth taper for all speeds in between. The Depth also goes from zero at minimum for unmodulated delay, to super warble at maximum. There are some cool octave skipping sounds to be had in square wave mode.
- SQUARE/TRIANGLE WAVE – this switch selects the waveform of the LFO modulating the delay signal. Triangle wave at low rate and depth can give you classic chorus sounds, whilst square wave can give choppy, tremolo sounds, even pseudo pitch-shifting effects.
- LO/HI-PASS MODE – this switch controls the filtering of the delay line. The LO-PASS mode gives dark, analog repeats while the HI-PASS gives clarity to the top-end for shimmering modulation and self-oscillation. Using the LO-PASS mode “smears” the repeats together whilst the HI-PASS mode gives more defined repeats. The production will probably have a 3 position switch for three levels of filtering
- TRAILS ON/OFF – the trails switch allows the control of the trails continuing or cutting off once the pedal is turned off. This is extremely useful to not “cut-off” long delay lines allowing them to naturally decay if switched off mid-trail. Using trails on also allows you to play an atmospheric sound or oscillation, switch the pedal off and play over the top of it, acting almost like a short looper.
- LEVEL – this controls the LEVEL of wet, delay signal whilst having the dry signal constant. This is NOT a mix control.
- INPUT – this controls the INPUT gain of the signal hitting the circuit. This is provided to give you the best signal-to-noise ratio depending on what pickup/guitar/boosters you have in line. Start by setting the INPUT until it clips, then slightly back it off. Raise the LEVEL to taste and you have the clearest signal possible with the lowest floor noise. A bonus is that the INPUT gain can be set to max, and distort your delay line and keep the dry signal clean. This is perfect for stacking with other pedals and the overdrive channel of your amp.
