CHARLIE FOXTROT

CHARLIE FOXTROT DIGITAL BUFFER/GRANULAR PEDAL

Barley touched with velcro on back. Works and sounds great.

$189.00 New 

Charlie Foxtrot Digital Buffer/Granular Pedal Signature For Peter Holmström

Charlie Foxtrot is a digital buffer/granular pedal with both auto-capture and manual-capture of the input signal. Playback and capture can be manipulated through several parameters: The six knobs control the size of the buffer, duration of repeats, pitch mode, threshold, mix, and preamp level. Any combination of Size, Duration, Pitch Mode, and Trigger Threshold settings, both positive and negative sweep can be controlled with an expression pedal or through CV input.

Charlie Foxtrot Features include:

• Buffer/Grain Size – Adjustable or random buffer/grain size from approximately 200ms to 600ms
• Duration – Adjustable or random repeat duration from approx. 100ms to 10 sec.
• Four different Pitch Modes & Random – “Stutter” (no pitch modulation), “Up” (pitch is modulated in the up direction with a randomized speed and amount of modulation, “Down” (pitch is modulated in the down direction with a randomized speed and amount of modulation, “Both” (pitch is modulated in both up and down directions with a randomized speed and amount of modulation) and “Random” (this mode selects between the first four modes at random, but biased toward Stutter)
• Threshold – Set the threshold for auto-capture of input data. All the way CW is manual trigger mode. With the knob all the way CCW, input will continuously capture at the end of each duration.
• Mix – Set the mix from 100% dry to 100% wet.
• Preamp Level – Attenuate or amplify input signal. Unity is at approx. 12 o’clock.

Charlie Foxtrot is a signature pedal for Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport, Rebel Drones and Radis Noir)

In this age of 24/7 overdrive-pedal unveilings, it’s rare to encounter a new pedal that’s altogether removed from the stompbox pack. Something of a cross between a sampler/looper, a delay, and a pitch shifter, Charlie Foxtrot almost defies categorization. Yet its beautifully bizarre sounds can also work peaceably with your go-to sonic palette.

Adapting to Charlie can be slow going despite the straightforward intent suggested by each knob—(sample) size, (sample) duration, pitch mode (stutter, up, down, up-and-down, or random), preamp level, mix, and trigger threshold. But that’s because the sounds are extremely unique and the knobs have such wide range. Once you grasp how the controls interact, Charlie avails textures ranging from subtly warped pitch hiccups haunting your riffs in the background to schizophrenic rants parroting bastardized versions of your licks in rambling 10-second loops. Even cooler, you can control all parameters except preamp and mix (in any combination) via expression pedal. Indeed, Charlie delivers the sort of delicious dementedness you can typically attain only through complicated digital gear, but in a functional format even numbskulls can grok.

Test gear: Eastwood Sidejack DLX Baritone, Jaguar HC50, Catalinbread Topanga, Subdecay Super Spring Theory

Malekko Heavy Industry is a truly cutting edge Portland based company that manufactures both pedals and modular synths – they are such skilled engineers that none other than Roland asked them to create their Aira Series 500 line for Eurorack (chief engineer Josh Holley recounts how all that unfolded in this interview).

Gearphoria recently reviewed their https://malekkoheavyindustry.com/product/charliefoxtrot/granular delay, check it out!

When dealing with unusual effects, I always eventually say something like, “This pedal is not for everyone.” When it comes to the Malekko Charlie Foxtrot, I figured I should just start with this statement. Usually, what I mean by this is two things: one, I’m letting you know that you should look a little more closely at it. A lot of players just seem to want to be able to plug a pedal in and go, and if a pedal is a little off the beaten path, they just write it off as no good. I always encourage you to use your own ears and not just take someone’s word for what’s good or not, but that means you’re going to have to tweak some knobs and maybe read a user manual. Secondly, I’m trying to challenge you a bit, because I don’t care what kind of music you play, there’s probably room for you to do something more unique than what you’re doing – and that goes for me too. – Read the full review by Wade Burden on Volume 6, #1 issue of Gearphoria.

Here’s a selection of video demos for this pedal:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgXVF6ctyS8?feature=oembed] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uj0-OQhRkQ?feature=oembed] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6RMeh486hg?feature=oembed]