I'm gonna say right off the bat that I'm not a pedal/stompbox collector, but I'm totally digging this Vongon delay. First off, it's beautifully built and cased in a solid walnut enclosure that looks more like a nice piece of furniture than a pedal, plus the knobs and sliders feel Buchla-esque to me. Sure, you can put this on the floor, but it's more likely that you'll want it on your desktop. This digital delay is inspired by the early digital delays from the 1970s, like the classic Lexicon Prime Time. That particular delay is still in demand and used by artists and producers such as Daniel Lanois [Tape Op #37, #127] as a performance-based effect. Vintage units go for $3,000 and up these days, and good luck getting them repaired if and when they have issues. Polyphrase is a well-designed and much more affordable alternative to vintage delays that adds both reliability and greater functionality without sacrificing the sound or usability of the vintage units.
When I interviewed Emily A. Sprague for this issue of Tape Op, she mentioned that Polyphrase was one of the main building blocks of her studio and performance setup. I was intrigued, so I reached out to the Vongon folks to ask about a review unit. One of the things that turns me off to a lot of newer pedals is the cryptic, mysterious, and vague labeling that has become popular with a lot of gear in the modular and pedal world. Some of this gear seems to imply that if you don't know what it does, you may not be cool enough to use it. I just don't have time for that. My studio hosts lots of freelance engineers and artists, and I've noticed that gear that people don't easily understand is gear that doesn't get used. On the opposite end, Polyphrase is clearly labeled in legible, etched white type on a black aluminum panel, with straightforward descriptions for each knob, slider, and button. There are no knobs labeled “sonic rainbow wheat sifter” here.
Power is via a standard 9V 200 mA guitar pedal power supply, and the stereo I/O is on 1/4-inch unbalanced jacks that will handle instrument or line-level signals. The mono input feeds both outputs for sweet mono-to-stereo effects. Polyphrase has two different delay modes: Dual Stereo mode, in which each delay line is separate, and Ping Pong mode, in which each side feeds back to the opposite side. The delay time is variable from 5 milliseconds all the way up to 22 seconds (!), so the delay can do anything from subtle chorusing to full-blown looping and anything in between. There is a master Time knob and two sliders for the left and right delay lines, so you can set up cool stereo ping pong and chorus effects. There is a built-in LFO for modulation and a Repeats knob that controls feedback up to 110 percent! The Tone control is a bipolar EQ in the feedback circuit that either cuts bottom or top end when turned left or right from its default center position. A Trig switch can be used to set the delay time via tap tempo or as an infinite "freeze" to create loops.
All of this control makes this a versatile performance effect. By tweaking the delay times, feedback, and tone, you can get a constantly changing dynamic effect going, similar to dub-style effects done with tape delays and analog bucket brigade devices. With this in mind, the desktop form factor makes a lot of sense and is more useful than a rack-mount unit might be. Sure, you could use this as a "set and forget" type delay, but the real power under its hood is as a performance effect.
I'm also impressed with how deep this unit is. Beyond the basics discussed above, Polyphrase also has a MIDI input that can be used to store presets, control parameters via MIDI CC commands, and sync the delays to a MIDI clock. There's also a clever external processing mode on the feedback path that turns the right side I/O into send and return jacks. But more than anything else, this delay is fun and sounds amazing! I've used it as a tracking effect with synths and guitars, as well as on a send/return from Ableton Live while mixing, and it has proven versatile and easy to use. With the interactive Time, Tone, and Repeats controls, you can create all sorts of weird, glitchy, decaying effects that modulate and change throughout a track. Whether you're channeling Radiohead or Steve Reich [Tape Op #15], this box will quickly send anyone into new sonic spaces. In this sense, it definitely blurs the line between an effect and an instrument. Highly recommended.