London’s Intensive Care Audio is one of the most interesting emerging boutique makers of the new decade, and the Fideleater, just released in a more compact version, is their take on the lo-fi modulation chorus/delay.
This is primarily a chorus with selectable LFO (you can pick from 8 waveforms) and a few unusual controls. As expected, Depth will set the intensity of the LFO and Freq its speed, while the second footswitch will deal with Tap Tempo duties.
Things get more intriguing on the right side of the control panel: the Contract toggle switch “opens or closes a feedback path within the delay path” delivering a luscious warbling in the open position.
The Untie switch, on the other hand, extends the effect’s delay time to deliver echo sounds rather than chorus ones, with the side effect of intensifying the modulation. This creates some really interesting psychedelic modulated delays.
The useful Dry/Wet control removes the clean signal when turned to the right, progressively transforming the chorus in a vibrato by removing the chorusing effect.
It’s quite amazing how many different effects you can get from this pedal.
We added the Intensive Care Fideleater V1 to our article about the best Chorus pedals – check out the videos of it below.
Here are videos of the previous version.
1. What FIDELEATER is, and what is it used for:
The FIDELEATER is a lo-fi chorus/vibrato/delay pedal for the treatment of Bland Guitar Syndrome and Excessive Aural Dryness. Used regularly it can provide effective relief from these, and other music and instrumentation related conditions.
All Intensive Care Audio pedals are built in London, England, using high quality components and featuring soft touch, relay based trued bypass. There are two soft touch footswitches, the left is BYPASS and the right is TAP TEMPO
The FIDELEATER features 6 controls, there are therefore a range of available remedies.
WAVE FUNCTION: An 8 position rotary switch allows you to select 1 of 8 available LFO waveforms. From left to right these are;
Random Slopes, Random Steps, Sweep, Sine, Triangle, Square, Ramp Down, Ramp Up.
DEPTH: Sets the depth of the LFO. In certain settings, having the depth control above 12 o’clock can cause serious glitching, this is normal and you should continue with the course of treatment.
FREQ: Sets the frequency (speed) of the LFO. The speed (and waveform) of the LFO is indicated by the LED underneath the FREQ control.
DRY/WET: Sets the amount of dry signal which is mixed in. With the control fully CCW the pedal operates as a chorus. Turning this control CW gradually removes the dry signal and you are left with just the modulated signal, creating a vibrato effect.
CONTRACT: The contract switch opens or closes a feedback path within the delay path. When open, the repeats create a luscious warbling.
UNTIE: The untie switch extends the delay time so that the pedal operates something more like a delay than a chorus. The modulation is intensified because of this and creates another world of glitchy digital weirdness.
2. What you need to know before using the FIDELEATER:
Do not use:
-If you are allergic to unorthodox sounds
-If you have high levels of normality in your blood
-If you have the habit of accidentally plugging in the wrong power supply (Use only high quality 9v centre negative power supplies)
-If you play with aggressive or temperamental drummers.
How to take the FIDELEATER:
The dose needed to treat guitar effect deficiency will depend on how low your levels of guitar effect are. Your doctor will advise you on
the length of time to use the FIDELEATER.
For adults this is usually 1-2 hours, twice a day. Using pedals after meals is recommended to avoid dizziness.
If you forget to use the FIDELEATER, use it as soon as possible and continue to use it as normal.
DO NOT take a double dose to make up for a forgotten dose as this can cause irreversible MIND BENDING (Mindbendinitis)
3. Possible Side Effects:
Like all medicine, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.
Serious side effects:
-Involuntary time signature changes
-Nausea and or vomiting
-Anxiety
-Difficulty passing riffs
-Thinking you are better at your instrument than you actually are
-Looking down your nose at other peoples gear
Supply using only 9v centre negative supply.
Current Draw: 70mA
