Fjord Fuzz Loke Tape Echo

If you think that Fjord Fuzz‘s pedals look all the same and they are all fuzz pedals – “because it’s in the name!” – you are at once quite right and quite wrong, although the Norwegian company sure makes a LOT of fuzzes! Enter the Fjord Fuzz Loke, a very interesting reel-to-reel style delay pedal.

Named after the Norse god of mischief, this stompbox is the first digital effect by Fjord Fuzz, and represents a very unique approach to the tape echo pedal format. Its concept stems from the idea to create a device that can produce not just echo, but all the effects engineers could create using reel-to-reel tapes, including various types of modulation, saturation, lo-fi degradation, reverb-like effects, etc.

The footswitches:

• The right footswitch is your regular on/off
• The Left footswitch is very important because it facilitates the creation of various effects, switching between two time ranges:
  0-100 ms for modulation/lo-fi sounds
  0-400 ms for regular echo sounds

The knobs:

• The two bigger knobs at the top control Feedback and Delay time – the latter can also be controlled via an Expression In.
• The two smaller knobs on the left side are for Wet and Dry – these are basically two separate channels with separate preamps. They can both overdrive and, while the dry channel is very clean, the wet side has a tape echo color to it, being a little warmer and less bright.
• The two smaller knobs on the right side are for Modulation speed and Depth

From the interplay between the two channels, the delay and the modulation section, you can get a wide palette of effects, as you can hear in the videos below.

Fjord Fuzz Loke Tape Echo, Builder’s Notes

virtual reel-to-reel tape deck
a study in short delay times and the interplay of moving signals

Loke was the god of mischief.

In Norse mythology, he was the embodiment of duality, the interaction between opposing forces upon
a single individual, the struggle between intuition and honour, good and bad, society and nature.

LOKE gives you two almost identical signals.
Each one has enough output to drive your preamp into overdrive.
One of the signals has a slight tape tint to it and can be shifted in time by either 0-100mS or 0-400mS.
You can quickly switch between delay modes via the secondary foot switch and the expression
control gives you the option of warping the time parameter with hands-free operation.
We also added a very exciting random LFO using the least-significant-bits method of calculation,
as well as a sort of servo control for the delay time operation.

All of this together offers you the full suite of exciting effects found on old school reel-to-reel tape gear,
but perhaps even more intriguing, it lets you dwell within the spaces left between the classic staples
of recording tricks and discover new and wonderful textures, never heard before.

Want that old Beatles-style tape flange trick where your producer holds his thumb against the tape?
Here it is!

Want lofi warped vinyl textures to your clean signal?
LOKE will do that too.

Want beautiful flanger, chorus or vibrato, but don’t want to be locked to a set LFO?
With the random LFO there’s no need for syncing.

Distorted tape delays? Yes. Artificial stereo-widening double tracking? That too.

Faux reverb? Definitely. Percussive, authentic-sounding tape echo with machine errors?
Yes.

Distant, haunting whale calls for your ambient outfit or full wet delay for your recording rig?
LOKE is your friend.

Dig into a whole new world of expressive, time based effects and discover brand new textures and moods in the spaces between them with LOKE.

Have fun! Be safe!