Gamechanger Audio’s Auto Series pedals have been blowing minds and baffling sensibilities since they were released earlier this year. The innovative, tech-savvy company put together the three pedals for the series — a delay, reverb, and chorus — to operate in tandem or independently. Either way, they shatter users’ notions of how far the boundaries of traditional effects can be pushed, pulled, stretched, and transmogrified.
In short, each pedal in the series features a unique set of modulation characteristics and a built-in patch bay that allows players to connect settings and components in various ways to create complex and ever-evolving soundscapes. Of the three, FretBuzz chose the Auto Chorus as the most wonderfully experimental (but only by a smidgen). While the Auto Chorus is fully capable of overlapping traditional sound waves to create shimmering, shiny undulations that rival the quality of choruses by other boutique manufacturers, it can do much more — so much, in fact, that it can be utterly unrecognizable as a chorus.
On a basic level, the pedal can be used as a chorus, and tangentially as a flanger, ring modulator, and tremolo. With a bit of tweaking, knob-twiddling, and creative cable placement, the Auto Chorus can produce an even wider range of sounds, including subtle thickening, aggressive flanging, and, throbbing, quavering cacophony that sounds like nothing else.
The pedal features three modes: CHORUS, ENSEMBLE, and FLANGER.
CHORUS is a classic simple chorus effect that mixes the dry sound with a delayed and pitch-shifted signal. For a pure vibrato effect, set the LEVEL knob mode to MIX, set the LEVEL knob completely clockwise, and set the FEEDBACK knob completely counter-clockwise.
ENSEMBLE is a more lush version of the chorus. This algorithm mixes the dry signal with three slightly offset and pitch-shifted signals. This ensures that in the higher DEPTH setting, the internal modulation rate remains less audible than in the CHORUS algorithm, and can be used to create wild waves of sound; beware: seasickness may occur.
FLANGE shortens the delay of the chorus effect to achieve that jet-engine sound flangers are known for. But rejigger the knobs a bit and the signals clash, creating crazy vortexes of noise. Stack it with a distortion pedal to engender even more chaos.
In addition to the three chorus modes, the Auto Chorus features RATE, DEPTH, FEEDBACK, MIX, and LEVEL knobs. These control the shape and tone of the effect, and allow the unit to range from a pleasing quiver to disorienting noise that sounds like a short-circuiting synthesizer.
RATE controls the speed of the effect, adjusting the modulation range from 0 Hz to 819.16 Hz. When turned completely counter-clockwise, the pedal stops modulating the delay line and the effect is stuck on a static delay time controlled by the DEPTH knob. When the RATE is set to 0, the DEPTH knob allows you to dial in various comb-filtering sounds.
DEPTH sets the amount of desired modulation. The minimum counterclockwise setting is for no modulation, so the wet signal creates a constant short delay (since CHORUS and FLANGER are delay-based effects). This means that even if the modulation depth is zero, you can still use the FEEDBACK control to shape the sound.
FEEDBACK controls the parameters of sound. A high settings introduces a metallic resonant character that is dependent on the selected algorithm. The maximum setting pushes the effect into an infinite feedback loop. Mission control, we have liftoff.
MIX adjusts the sound setting from totally dry to completely wet.
LEVEL dictates the output level of the effect.
Be sure to comb through the instruction manual or an instructional video to discover these additional features:
TRACK TEMPO: Push and hold both footswitches at the same time. The pedal uses its dynamic tracking capabilities to determine the tempo of strumming and sets the RATE parameter value accordingly.
The MODULATION SHAPE switch offers three distinct modulation shapes: SAW, SINE, and RAMP. Describing the sonic characteristics and topology is beyond our understanding; just fiddle around and hold on for dear life, and the effect wobbles, shudders, pitches, and screeches with delight.
As anyone who has taken a look at the ultra-modern space-aged Auto Series effects has noticed, the pedals sort of resemble avant-garde moon buggies crossed with racecars without wheels. And that doesn’t factor in the patch bays and wires, which allow players to radically alter the settings of the unit to create stranger, more sinister, and dissonant configurations that were never intended for a chorus pedal. It takes a little experimenting to figure out how the patch bay works, how to create the otherworldly sounds you seek, and how the signals for the wires can be crossed and integrated into other Auto Series pedals in ways that practically reinvent the sonic spectrum, but patience yields bountiful rewards.
Players who just want to emulate Rush, The Police, and those watery, undistorted Metallica ballad tones might be better off with a simple tried-and-true chorus pedal. But sonic adventurers and thrill seekers searching for a lot more will grin in dumbstruck euphoria as they tinker with the multitude of configurations on the Gamechanger Audio Auto Chorus.
