In recent years, the pedal output of Portland’s Malekko Heavy Industry has become somewhat spotty – and arguably underpromoted – but their new releases never cease to intrigue. We just stumbled upon the video of the Polyamorator, their new, three stage harmonizing/arpeggiating delay, which is a signature pedal for The Dandy Warhols’ Peter Holmström.
Hosted in a compact box, this pedal looks quite unassuming with its 6-knob layout. In reality, it’s a mine of creative options, thanks in large part to its “two-page” function, which allows each control to have a double function for 5 of the 6 knobs (to toggle between pages, hold the stomp for 1 second – the main LED will flash to indicate that you are editing page 2.).
The top three knobs control the three delays’ pitch (page 1) and volume (page 2), with the pitch-shifting span being from one octave up to one octave down, in chromatic increments. Each one of these has a different maximum delay time: Stage One 670ms, Stage Two 1.340ms and Stage Three 2.000ms.
The Delay Time changes the time for each delay exponentially, while the Regen (aka feedback) knob controls the number of repeats (from one to infinite). The alternate controls for these two knobs in Page 2 are Sample sSze, and Wet/Dry mix.
Hear the otherworldly sounds of the Malekko Polyamorator in the videos below. We added it to our article about the best creative delay pedals.
[Wanna get this baby and be supportive? Buy it through our Perfect Circuit affiliate programs – at no extra cost.]
POLYAMORATOR is a compact digital harmonizer/delay/arpeggio pedal featuring three stages of harmonizing and delay with two pages for control adjustment. Five of the six knobs change function depending on the page: Page 1 has controls for delay time, delay regen amount, stage one harmonizing, stage two harmonizing, stage three harmonizing. Page 2 has controls for sample size, wet/dry mix, stage one volume, stage two-volume, stage three-volume. The effect is three stages sequentially (arpeggio). The TIME adjustment changes the delay time for each stage exponentially. Each stage of harmonizing offers up to one octave up or down, in chromatic increments. TAP tempo input also works with external clock. Any combination of Size, Time, Regen, Wet/Dry Mix, Stage One Volume, Stage Two Volume, Stage Three Volume, Stage One Harmonizing, Stage Two Harmonizing, and Stage Three Harmonizing settings, both positive and negative sweep can be controlled with an expression pedal or through CV input.
Polyamorator Features include:
– Delay Time – Stage One 670ms max
– Stage Two 1.340ms max
– Stage Three 2.000ms max
– Harmonizing: Range is one octave up or down in chromatic increments
– Size: This determines the amount of audio captured for harmonizing and delaying
– Delay Regen: one repeat to full feedback
– Mix: Set the mix from 100% dry to 100% wet.
– Volume per stage
– Preamp Level – Attenuate or amplify input signal. Unity is at approx. 10 o’clock.Polyamorator is a signature pedal for Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols, Pete
International Airport, Rebel Drones and Radis Noir)
