Made in collaboration with John Snyder at Electronic Audio Experiments, Big Time is a new stereo hybrid delay unit that blends the best of those analog input/output stages in old-school digital delay units with a highly controllable digital delay effect. Chase Bliss describes its sound as "the anything-is-possible of digital; the everything-sounds-good of analog." After spending some time with it, I enthusiastically agree.
Big Time is a handsome, chunky, desktop-friendly unit in Chase Bliss' "Automatone" format, with six motorized, automatable faders dominating the front face. The form factor of the Automatone pedals resembles classic desktop remote for effects units like the Lexicon 224 or 480L. The controls here are clear, the interface is intuitive, and the faders beg to be "performed." While there are shift-button functions and under-the-hood customizations available, Big Time doesn't offer the dipswitch options found on the smaller pedals in Chase Bliss' range. That makes sense considering the range of expression available on the front face – everything is pretty much right at your fingertips.
The analog preamps on this device are really special, and they interact with an analog limiter within the delay's feedback loop in a very musical way. The I/O is 32-bit, 48 kHz and can be toggled to a special 12-bit mode for an extra early-'80s vibe. There are options for balanced or unbalanced I/O, as well as mono-in, stereo-out configs. There are full-size MIDI DIN connectors, as well as expression/CV and aux switch inputs for external control. You can set up to ten presets via the footswitches or up to 127 via MIDI.
You're going to want MIDI with Big Time, IMO; the control it offers includes internal or external clocking, fader automation, and much more – there's a separate MIDI manual cataloging the extensive CC and PC commands available. Every single thing the pedal does can be addressed via MIDI, and I found Big Time to be easily controllable in all the DAWs I tested, as well as with external controllers like Melbourne Instruments' Roto-Control. I do look forward to someone smarter than me building a bespoke Max for Live device for Ableton Live that'll make this control schema a snap to port over to devices like the Push 3 standalone [Tape Op #157], but that's for another day. For now, I'm content to run a MIDI cable and watch the motorized faders move in sync with my DAW tempo.
Speaking of: the Color, Time, and Feedback faders were regularly abused throughout my testing, as they interact with the Voicing and State buttons in unique and endlessly compelling ways. Voicing toggles between four fixed filter sets (independently of the Tilt EQ fader) that are meant to evoke hardware characteristics and give a general tonal signature to the output stage. State is more dynamic, as each of the four options toggled there directly impacts the internal limiter stage and the character of the preamps (driven by the Color fader). The tone of each State is distinct, and changing States is generally not a subtle modification, which is preferred in this context. A shift-fader function (Texture) adjusts the intensity and sensitivity of each State, further adding tone-shaping possibilities. Between these controls alone, there are near-infinite combinations for tones: everything from clean, cold, and metallic to saturated, crunchy, and mangled. When combined with options like the +12 dB preamp boost or the Tilt EQ and crossover adjustments, there is an indulgence of colors in the paintbox here.
One of the distinct features available is the option to constrain the delay taps to musical intervals via a Scale toggle. With Scale turned off, Big Time's echoes react to time parameter changes, similar to other delay units, with a smoothly pitched transition between points A and B. With Scale toggled to Chromatic, Oct+4+5, or Octave, Big Time moves in steps that are tuned to those intervals to create harmonized pitches, so the jump from A to B can be an octave, with a 4th and a 5th, etc. This is somewhat similar to the approach Chase Bliss took with its revered Thermae delay, in that you can use internal or external modulation to create melodic sequences from your delay taps. Big Time allows for this via the Motion parameter, which can be activated with Scale turned off to build chorus- or flange-style movement; with Scale turned on, you can use the Motion parameter as a kind of sequencer, stepping through the intervals you've selected at a rate you select relative to the Time (or clock) speed. This is all a little like "dancing about architecture," however, so I'd encourage you to check out Chase Bliss' excellent videos on Big Time to hear how this works in a musical or mixing context – Motion + Scale can be wild or subtle, and I found it always inspiring as a songwriting or composition tool. When combined with Cluster (which adds additionally modulated delay taps, based around which Mode you've selected) and the always-surprising, appropriately named "#!&%" State, you have a textural stereo soundscape that is nothing like any delay you've ever heard. The product manual is also killer: Big Time comes with a printed, 47-page Chase Bliss Field Guide, which is top-shelf stuff, as are all of their learning materials.
This unit now runs on a dedicated send patch in my bay and sits just to the left of the mix position at my desk – it's not going anywhere. It's easily the most flexible and deeply creative delay I have, and (recency bias aside) I find myself reaching for it when mixing or writing more than even my beloved Roland RE-501 Space Echo. For me, that's (ahem) a big deal.