Normal Devices | Decay Cascade | Lo-Fi Layering Reverb & Distortion / Overdrive

Blend reverb and cascading analog amplification stages to create complex and abrasive textures. Expanding on the idea of running reverb into distortion, the Decay Cascade can produce lo-fi subtlety or slabs of disintegrated noise. Or both.

Dial in reverb ranging from a light bounce to saturated drones, with a maximum decay time of about 20 seconds. The reverb mix is sent to a versatile drive circuit with a voltage sag gate for extra deterioration. Combine dry, reverb, and distorted reverb layers into your desired textural mix. This then passes through a preamp stage inspired by 1960s test amplifiers that can add another boost of raw gain and crackling gated tails, with an optional low pass filter. Add a little dust and murk, or create the sound of amp death. Thankfully, there is a volume control.

Make sounds like:

• Layers of distorted and clean reverb
• Tastefully gritty lo-fi echo
• Spitty, dying battery overdrive or fuzz
• A 78 record found buried in the woods
• "Something’s not right"
• Harsh-ambient signal obliteration

Especially suited for broken sounds with gated and dusty reverb artifacts. The drive, preamp and sag settings are quite interactive, with plenty of options for fine-tuning.

Controls

• MODE  Reverb models:
  • Hall with slow pitch drift. Dark and woozy.
  • Spring with very long decay. Bright, full, and textural.
  • Lofi bucket brigade echo. Primitive and bouncy.
• LEVEL Set a reverb balance between 100% wet and dry signal.
• DECAY Set the reverb time from a short reflection to long drones.
• DRIVE A distortion channel that the reverb mix goes through in series before being mixed in parallel. Ranges from light overdrive to high gain.
• SAG Voltage starve the distortion circuit to produce a gated fuzz effect.
• MIX Create a layered mix of the original clean/reverb mix and the drive channel.
• AMP  Preamp setting (top to bottom)
  • Neutral amplification stage.
  • High gain boost with a low pass filter. Very loud and murky with gated “dust” trails.
  • High gain boost with no filter. Extremely loud and harsh with gated “dust” trails. 
• Volume. Output. Loudness. Unquiet.

Specifications

• 145mm x 120mm x 56mm
• 1/4" TS mono audio input and output
• Requires 9V power from a centre-negative 2.1mm jack
• 60mA current draw
• No battery compartment.