RED PANDA
RASTER
REVIEW BY DAVID A. EVANS
STREET PRICE $249.00
The Red Panda effects
company has, like the
fictional martial arts master
Shifu in Kung Fu Panda,
deployed its wisdom for
good ends. The company’s
new Raster delay pedal
provides, in a simple
package, a surprising
array of pitch-shifted
de lay sounds. It can create
anything from chorus and
flange effects, to even
more exotic pitch-shifted
“shimmer trails” that echo
an inputted note—enough
to turn the head of even the
most jaded of tone hounds.
The Raster features two
master modes, each of
which is triggered by their
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GEAR REVIEW
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respective foot switches.
The first mode, delay, is a
clean effect that ranges
from 20 to 750 milliseconds
of delay. In this mode, the
user can select a curious
“reverse” effect using one
of the two toggle switches.
Otherwise, the same toggle
switch will give the standard
delay without any backward
sounds. The delay itself is
admirably clean, and lacks
the often-derided “sterility”
of digital delay pedals.
The second master mode,
Shift, allows for a whole set
of unusual and fun delay
and pitch-bending effect
combinations. An admirable,
shimmering chorus can be
Red Panda Raster
dialed in with minimal delay
(around 20ms, but more will
also work), and the Shift
knob backed off just a bit
from around noon, the
zero-shift position.
Even a simple pitch-shift,
which the Raster pulled
off, was charming. Perhaps
the most enchanting of the
Raster’s effects was
a simple, cascading pitchshift. When a chord is
slowly arpeggiated, the
Raster transforms what
would have been a simple
chord into a more complex
and moody one.