SFUMATO
( sfoo · MAH · toh )
EDGES THAT NEVER QUITE COMMIT
A liminal delay that dissolves between echo, phaser, and reverb.
CAESURA · v0.1.4 · Sfum
IThe Idea
Sfumato is the painter's term; Leonardo's trick of letting tones melt into one another so no line is ever hard, no edge ever sharp. This effect refuses edges too. At its core is a delay, but feed it through more STAGES of all-pass blur and it stops being an echo: it smears into a phaser, then into a reverb-like wash where the repeats have lost their outlines entirely. MOTION keeps the whole thing breathing, moving the pitch of the tail so it never sits still, and the MOTION switch sets how it moves. Stamp FREEZE and the wash holds forever while you play clean across it. It is the space between three effects, holding none of them; soft-focus sound.
IIThe Controls
- TIME
- Central echo time.
- STAGES
- Amount of blur. Few stages = clean delay or phaser; many = a reverb-like wash.
- FEEDBACK
- Tail length. Saturated and clamped below runaway.
- FILTER
- Tone of the wash; darker below noon, brighter above.
- MOTION
- Intensity of the internal movement: rate, depth, and pitch wobble of the tail. The MOTION switch picks its character.
- MIX
- Wet amount over your dry signal.
IIISwitches & Footswitches
- MOTION (toggle)
- Shape of the movement. SINE = smooth vibrato/chorus; RANDOM = tape wow and flutter; ENV = pitch that tracks how hard you play.
- DIMENSION (toggle)
- Stereo width of the wash. MONO, STEREO (the decorrelated default), or WIDE.
- FREEZE (footswitch)
- Holds the current wash indefinitely so you can play clean over it. Tap again to release.
- BYPASS (footswitch)
- True dry passthrough.
IVStart Here
Clean Echo
STAGES low, FEEDBACK mid, MOTION switch SINE
A clear delay before the blur sets in.
Tape Wash
STAGES high, MOTION up, switch RANDOM
A smeared wash with drunken tape wow.
Breathing Verb
STAGES high, FEEDBACK high, MOTION mid, switch ENV
An edgeless wash whose pitch swells with your picking.
Frozen Choir
Any wash, then stamp FREEZE
Holds the wash forever; solo clean over the top.