Red Panda Raster Delay

It’s not really fair to classify the new Red Panda Raster Delay as just a delay pedal. The Raster is actually more of a Leatherman type multi-tool effect, as it not only has all your standard digital delay needs covered (up to 750 ms and three delay modes for standard, continuous, and reverse delay), but it also has both a built in pitch shifter and phase shifter.

This means that in addition to the delay effects (or on a standalone basis), you can dial up chorus effects, fattened up harmonized tones (octave up and octave down), detuned synth emulations (fourth down to minor third up), and ring modulations. One interesting trick with this pedal is you can apply a harmonized tone to the repeat but not the original note played in the delay, which adds a powerful and surprising feeling the overall tone.

The Raster looks like it is fully capable of being a great standalone delay, but the differentiating capability is that it brings the pitch and phase-shifting capability on to your board in a one-stop shop. The coolest part is the pitch shift functionality has an independent switch so you can easily use both the clean delay and the pitch shifting separately. The only downside is that the pitch shift switch takes the spot where your tap tempo switch would be on some other delays, so that’s a bit of give and take, but nevertheless this pedal wields some phenomenal sounds.

The Raster runs $249 retail and is born and raised in Detroit. – Ryan Dembinski