Pathways

SLAP: Sometimes all you need is just a little extra movement, a little extra sense of space. Slap, or “slapback echo” has been used for over half a century in this context on vocals, guitar, and the like. The SLAP engine is pre-tuned to evoke slapback delay, which is traditionally thought of as in the 90–120ms range. REV TIME in this case controls the length of the feedback tail, rather than the space between repeats.

ECHO: Since Pathways’ signal architecture is capable of short delays, we included one in the form of ECHO, which contains up to 288ms of delay time; nearly identical to early BBD units of the 1970s. ECHO and SLAP are the only engines with surficial “delay time” adjustment: Press the ALT button, then turn REV TIME left or right to achieve shorter
delay times. ECHO is already tuned to its maximum possible delay time (roughly 288 milliseconds)

SPRING: Without SPRING reverb, there would be no Pathways. The “True Spring” reverb engine on the Ventris was our inspiration for the spin-off True Spring pedal, which was the inspiration for Pathways. SPRING is a classic, neutral-toned, medium-length spring reverb sound. Enjoy lush, '60s amp tones or get wet 'n' wild in surfy territory.

TANK: For pedaling on that low E string using the bridge pickup, we selected our “drippiest” reverb engine to fill the TANK slot. Evoke classic surf rock, bright and reactive reverb tones with TANK, our Fender 6G15-based reverb, first introduced on the True Spring* TANK captures the unmistakable effect of the tube driven outboard spring
tanks of the 60s. The sound of reverb tanks like the classic Fender 6G15 are characterized by their “drippy” attack and animated trail. This original two spring design produces a bouncing, delay like sound inseparable from the early days of surf rock and spaghetti western soundtracks.

ROOM reverb is a dark and dense reverb that evokes the characteristics of playing in a small to medium-sized room* Similarly to Spring reverb-but in a much subtler way-Room reverb utilizes a short pre-delay and a small amount of diffusion to accurately reproduce the complicated sonic interaction that comes from playing an instrument through a sound source in a room: walls, floor, ceiling, dampening-all of these attributes are considered when developing the ROOM sound.

PLATE: In the 60s and 70s, a large, expansive sheet of metal known as a “Plate” began being used to create lush, resonant, and very diffuse reverb sounds in the studio, for something distinctly different from the primitive (springs and real rooms & spaces) offerings of the times. Pathways’ PLATE engine is an all-new, ground-up emulation of all the major sonic characteristics (metallic, smooth/diffuse, dense, resonant) of a typical Plate sound.

HALL reverb is the longest, most spacious, and most diffuse reverb you’ll find on Pathways. Loosely based on a Lexicon Large Hall algorithm, HALL reverb is often thought of as “the sound of the 80s”, it was simply the go-to reverb tech used across many genres of music and on many instruments of the time, and can be heard pretty much everywhere.

The base architecture of the HALL reverb was modeled for the “1701” chipset with long
delay memory used on our Ventris Reverb and shared across all devices on that platform. The Pathways platform is built on a different chip altogether: the “1446”, which while containing more instruction space, does not contain the hardware for an additional memory chip like the 1701. This means that HALL needed a complete overhaul to be retrofit for the 1446 architecture that Pathways utilizes. It was a stringent undertaking that we feel was worth the ambition.

To combine with any of the time based effects, Pathways offers three discrete Tremolo
types: three different ways of modulating amplitude (output) by waveform, each with their own vibe and character.

HARMONIC tremolo recreates the unique circuit included in some Fender “Brownface” amps made between 1959 and 1963, which alternately modulated the levels of bass and treble frequencies in the audio signal^ The result is a very pleasing and complex tremolo that has characteristics reminiscent of a phaser or uni-vibe.

OPTICAL tremolo (a.k.a. “Photocell Tremolo”) is the effect found in many combo amps of the 1960s. This version of tremolo relies upon a neon light bulb and a light dependent resistor called an "optocoupler". An LFO controls the brightness of the neon light, which is picked up by the resistor, and translated to output gain. The non-symmetrical aspects of the light and the optocoupler give the tremolo a distinct choppy character, due to its quick ramp up in volume and more gradual decline.

BIAS tremolo is an approach to tremolo that involves using an LFO to modulate the bias voltage of the tubes in an amplifier. This essentially pushes the tubes in and out of saturation. The result is a smooth amplitude modulation with a mild overdrive created by the tube saturation.