Introducing: Big Time
Our biggest pedal, available now
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “what’s the most impractical way to make a delay in 2026,” I’m pretty sure we’ve found the answer.
It’s Big Time.
This project has been kind of an open secret for years. It’s a hybrid analog/digital echo that revisits the mixed-up circuitry found in rackmount delays from the early 80s, and it was made in collaboration with our good friend John Snyder from Electronic Audio Experiments. It’s by far the most ambitious and foolish thing we’ve ever done.
I’ll tell you all about it below.
It’s available for preorder now.
Why did we do this?
Big Time is not a practical pedal to make in 2026, but I think that’s what makes it good, and worth it.
This style of digital/analog hybrid delay is extremely rare, and there’s a good reason for that:
It’s not necessary
It’s really hard
When the rackmount delays that inspired Big Time were being made in the early 80s, there was no other choice. The digital technology of the time was very basic, so analog parts were used to make up for those shortcomings. The mixture of analog and digital circuitry was strictly functional. But once those units got out into the wild, musicians discovered that something magical would happen when you overworked them and pushed them too far.
So we asked ourselves:
What would happen if we revisited that kind of circuit design but did it on purpose? What can you get by leaning all the way in and pushing that kind of hybrid circuitry to its extremes?
That’s what Big Time is.
There was a whole lot of faith that went into this pedal, because we had to do the hard (and time-consuming) parts before we could really hear it. We genuinely did years of work basically just hoping it would be worth it.
The reason we took that leap is because of John Snyder. I imagine most of you are familiar with John’s work at Electronic Audio Experiments, he is one of our industry’s true experts at analog engineering, and specifically at designing dirt. John made both the preamp and clipping limiter inside of Big Time, and gave me the confidence that all of this would amount to something special.
(I was still worried, of course).
Anyway, we’re here now, and I think it was worth every moment.
I’ll get a bit more specific about the pedal below, but here’s a look at the journey:
About the pedal
Big Time is a digital delay with two distinct stages of analog coloration, all in true stereo. It includes an analog preamp at the very front of the circuit, and a limiter in the feedback path of the delay.
It’s a portable slice of that mythical era of early 80s rack echoes, but Big Time is not a nostalgic pedal. The point is not to recreate a certain vintage vibe (though you can), but to really dive into the unique abilities made possible by this hybrid analog/digital approach.
Imagine taking a long, stable echo, then running it through a misbiased limiter that slowly eats it. With each repeat the echoes change a little (or a lot), taking on a more analog character. You can make a saturated wall of sound that replicates early reverb technology, or build a melting double-tracking chorus, or create Thermae-style echo sequences. It’s like a free-flowing multi-effect that lets you transition from place to place seamlessly, bending time however you please without interruption.
The digital side lets you do whatever you want, and the analog side makes it all sound good and very, very big. All of this is also true stereo, meaning each channel actually has its own dedicated analog preamp and limiter.
It’s a lot of stuff.
It’s a bit hard to explain, but easy to get lost in.
The walkthrough video should help paint a picture:
Details
Big Time is available to preorder now.
We’re currently in the late stages of beta testing, working through the sneaky bugs, and I expect we’ll be able to start shipping within the month of June (in the order received, as usual).
We did send out a few near-finished units for demos, so take a look on YouTube if you want to hear a bit more of what it can do.
Also – sneaky footnote – CXM 1978 is back in stock as of right now. If you’ve been waiting for one you’ll know it’s been unavailable for a little bit.
I think I covered the important stuff, but just send an email if you have any other questions: help@chasebliss.com.
Hope you like it, hope you live large.
Thank you.