Link Removed
Here's a letter / review I wrote for Toneczar about a month after having recieved the pedal, with some updates that I've added now I've had it longer. It's a lot luvvie, but you'll have to deal with that! Here we go:
Ive had my Halophaze for a while now and Ive put it through its paces. Ive spent a lot of time by myself getting to know the pedal and what it can do, I also spent more than a few hours playing with it with a guitarist buddy. I have taken Halophaze along to several full band practices and used it on a few different gigs. I feel that I know the pedal very well.
Firstly, Id like to say that the customer service experience with you from first getting on your waiting list to the shipping of the order has been flawless. Your replies to my questions have always been timely, considered and accurate. Ive dealt with a lot of companies in the music gear world and none have treated me better than you.
The packaging that Halophaze arrived in is beautiful. I especially like the manila document envelope, hand named and written check list. The pedal is very aesthetically pleasing. It is obvious that you have made a lot of effort in the external design of your pedals (I especially like the buffed / chamfered corners). The form allows great functionality, and great looks too. The foot switches feel sturdy, and the pots have a nice articulation. The fit and finish of the unit is excellent. The user docs are comprehensive and also concise and considered. A pet hate of mine is badly constructed user documentation, Halophazes is excellent. The quick start guide and sample settings are especially useful to the first time user. Ive had a sneaky peak inside my Halophaze and although I have no technical background it appears to this layman to follow the neat/intelligent construction of the rest of the unit.
When anyone first sees Halophaze their first comment is normally thats a lot of knobs for a phaser but after only a few minutes it becomes apparent that although there are many user defined controls: They are intelligently placed and labelled and this allows intuitive use of the pedal from the outset, and reduces the possibility for confusion.
These points are important but academic when compared to the sound of the unit.
Width This control appears to me to be quite subtle. I generally set it at about 3 to gain the widest sweep without the super crazy sounds. Those crazy phase-sproing sounds are now contained within the last quarter of the Halophazes width turn. I find that just a small turn of this control past 3 oclock can create some really unique sounds.
Ramp This control must be the piece-de-la-resistance of the Halophaze. My favourite way to use this control is to set Halophaze on speed two with a very high rate, and a very low rate on Speed 1 and quickly stomp the ramp switch to create a psychedelic slowing down sound. Coupling the Ramp function with delay (my favourite Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay) creates a really spaced out bubbling mess.
Speed Using a larger knob on this control allows very subtle fine tuning of the phase speed, and also convenient manipulation with my big toe / Toneczar expression pedal. The width of speed is as wide as any phaser Ive ever used and more importantly musical throughout the whole spectrum from insanely fast to doom/sludge slow.
Blend Why dont more phasers have this control? As a bass player I always like to mix some of my original signal back in with the effected tone here I have separate controls for blend on both speeds.
Volume This control pretty much does what it says on the tin. Ive just used it to balance the level of the Halophaze with unity gain within the gain structure of my other pedals. Sometimes I use this control to add a little boost to really make the phase stand out. Theres not really much to be said about a volume control...
Feedback For me this is probably the most powerful control in terms of shaping the sound of the phase sweep. When Ive been using it live I either use it central, fully clockwise or fully anti-clockwise. When Ive done a few recordings the ability to finely tune the sound of the pedal is very useful. Ful negative and full postivie feedback create some really funky enveloping sounds.
(Now replaced by Plus Mode Mod: Phase switch Since I dont bi-amp Ive not used this. It is obviously a useful function.)
2 mode switches I dont have the technical background to talk about these in terms other than which configuration I like best which is one up and one down and I like it very much, I find both set to vibe a little shrill, and I find both set to phase a little undefined.
Plus Mode Mod: This update adds further phase stages to Halophase creating more of a Block-logo chunky phaser sound. Its alot less delicate than the stock setup, but sometimes thats exactly what you want. It also takes away some of the swooshing that can happen in the normal mode.
I started powering Halophase with a Wallwart, but a condition of a pedal being on my board is that I can power it from either my Pedal Power II or my Diago Powerstation. I only ever want to: take it from the roadcase, plug a guitar cable in, plug a cable to the amp in, and plug one power supply in. If I pedal messes this up, it's a no-go for me. I spoke with Ed about this and he told me about a mod / power solution he can do the PP2. I sent it to him, and he increased the mA output of all 8 outputs to 185mA. He also supplied me with 2 cables that take up 4 outlets of the PP2, but can power 4 Toneczar pedals at 18V (so I can power my Toneczar Dove and Openhaus, and another pedal at 18V with them too). The mod to the PP2 was $100, and IIRC the costs for the double 18V cables was $25/each.
In short (as is my desire), I love the Halophase and I think it's going to be recogised as one of the the definitive phase circuits in the future.
Here's a letter / review I wrote for Toneczar about a month after having recieved the pedal, with some updates that I've added now I've had it longer. It's a lot luvvie, but you'll have to deal with that! Here we go:
Ive had my Halophaze for a while now and Ive put it through its paces. Ive spent a lot of time by myself getting to know the pedal and what it can do, I also spent more than a few hours playing with it with a guitarist buddy. I have taken Halophaze along to several full band practices and used it on a few different gigs. I feel that I know the pedal very well.
Firstly, Id like to say that the customer service experience with you from first getting on your waiting list to the shipping of the order has been flawless. Your replies to my questions have always been timely, considered and accurate. Ive dealt with a lot of companies in the music gear world and none have treated me better than you.
The packaging that Halophaze arrived in is beautiful. I especially like the manila document envelope, hand named and written check list. The pedal is very aesthetically pleasing. It is obvious that you have made a lot of effort in the external design of your pedals (I especially like the buffed / chamfered corners). The form allows great functionality, and great looks too. The foot switches feel sturdy, and the pots have a nice articulation. The fit and finish of the unit is excellent. The user docs are comprehensive and also concise and considered. A pet hate of mine is badly constructed user documentation, Halophazes is excellent. The quick start guide and sample settings are especially useful to the first time user. Ive had a sneaky peak inside my Halophaze and although I have no technical background it appears to this layman to follow the neat/intelligent construction of the rest of the unit.
When anyone first sees Halophaze their first comment is normally thats a lot of knobs for a phaser but after only a few minutes it becomes apparent that although there are many user defined controls: They are intelligently placed and labelled and this allows intuitive use of the pedal from the outset, and reduces the possibility for confusion.
These points are important but academic when compared to the sound of the unit.
Width This control appears to me to be quite subtle. I generally set it at about 3 to gain the widest sweep without the super crazy sounds. Those crazy phase-sproing sounds are now contained within the last quarter of the Halophazes width turn. I find that just a small turn of this control past 3 oclock can create some really unique sounds.
Ramp This control must be the piece-de-la-resistance of the Halophaze. My favourite way to use this control is to set Halophaze on speed two with a very high rate, and a very low rate on Speed 1 and quickly stomp the ramp switch to create a psychedelic slowing down sound. Coupling the Ramp function with delay (my favourite Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay) creates a really spaced out bubbling mess.
Speed Using a larger knob on this control allows very subtle fine tuning of the phase speed, and also convenient manipulation with my big toe / Toneczar expression pedal. The width of speed is as wide as any phaser Ive ever used and more importantly musical throughout the whole spectrum from insanely fast to doom/sludge slow.
Blend Why dont more phasers have this control? As a bass player I always like to mix some of my original signal back in with the effected tone here I have separate controls for blend on both speeds.
Volume This control pretty much does what it says on the tin. Ive just used it to balance the level of the Halophaze with unity gain within the gain structure of my other pedals. Sometimes I use this control to add a little boost to really make the phase stand out. Theres not really much to be said about a volume control...
Feedback For me this is probably the most powerful control in terms of shaping the sound of the phase sweep. When Ive been using it live I either use it central, fully clockwise or fully anti-clockwise. When Ive done a few recordings the ability to finely tune the sound of the pedal is very useful. Ful negative and full postivie feedback create some really funky enveloping sounds.
(Now replaced by Plus Mode Mod: Phase switch Since I dont bi-amp Ive not used this. It is obviously a useful function.)
2 mode switches I dont have the technical background to talk about these in terms other than which configuration I like best which is one up and one down and I like it very much, I find both set to vibe a little shrill, and I find both set to phase a little undefined.
Plus Mode Mod: This update adds further phase stages to Halophase creating more of a Block-logo chunky phaser sound. Its alot less delicate than the stock setup, but sometimes thats exactly what you want. It also takes away some of the swooshing that can happen in the normal mode.
I started powering Halophase with a Wallwart, but a condition of a pedal being on my board is that I can power it from either my Pedal Power II or my Diago Powerstation. I only ever want to: take it from the roadcase, plug a guitar cable in, plug a cable to the amp in, and plug one power supply in. If I pedal messes this up, it's a no-go for me. I spoke with Ed about this and he told me about a mod / power solution he can do the PP2. I sent it to him, and he increased the mA output of all 8 outputs to 185mA. He also supplied me with 2 cables that take up 4 outlets of the PP2, but can power 4 Toneczar pedals at 18V (so I can power my Toneczar Dove and Openhaus, and another pedal at 18V with them too). The mod to the PP2 was $100, and IIRC the costs for the double 18V cables was $25/each.
In short (as is my desire), I love the Halophase and I think it's going to be recogised as one of the the definitive phase circuits in the future.
)
