Timeshifting with Thermae

 
 
 
 
 

posted by Joel Korte

 

Hello! I want to talk about Thermae a little bit.

Not because we’re discontinuing it or anything, but the opposite. We finally have some.

If you’ve tried to buy a Thermae over the past few years you probably noticed it was kinda difficult. Thermae is our hardest pedal to make, and we’ve always had trouble keeping it in stock (I’ll explain a bit about that below). And even though it’s been around for almost 5 years now a lot of you are still really interested in it. 

So I thought it would be nice to revisit it a little bit and:

  1. Tell you we have some if you’ve been trying to get one.

  2. Give you some new ideas and inspiration if it’s already got.

I’m going to write about my feelings now, but if you don’t want to read them this video wraps them up pretty neatly:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Joel’s feelings

Thermae has always been a bit different from our other pedals. It was the first real weirdo, but it’s still an analog design. It was kind of a bridge between those early analog days and the wilder digital stuff we make now. It was the furthest I felt I could go in the analog domain.

The control scheme is more like a synthesizer than a pedal and turning it on for the first time is just flabbergasting (in a fun way). It’s like a musical partner—it helps you write melodies, or generate new rhythms.

To be honest it probably would have just been a one-time detour if nobody was into it. But you were into it, and are into it, and that longevity is so, so meaningful for Chase Bliss. For many reasons.

It tells me and the whole team that the things we’re making everyday are actually making a difference in someone’s music. The hype is long gone and there’s something weirdly wholesome and fulfilling about that.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Getting more out of Thermae

Okay feelings are done now. 

Thoughts and ideas. 

If you haven’t explored it already, Thermae was the first of our older pedals to get the Field Guide treatment. Click here to check it out.

I’m 100% sure a flip through it will give you a new perspective on Thermae, even if you’ve had it for years. If you’re more of a physical person we’re selling these in the merch store now (and all Thermae orders going forward include a copy).

A few highlights:

  • Bizarre sound effects generated by the delay chip (pg.36)

  • Sequences that continuously evolve (pg.46)

  • Impossibly long & degraded analog delay (pg.36)

Thermae is also getting a Max for Live plugin later this week. It will let you sync and control your Thermae from within an Ableton project. We’re just wrapping up the final details and getting support materials together.

(Here’s a bit of background info on the whole MIDI Controller thing. It’s about Generation Loss MKII version but the concept is the same).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Making Thermae

I thought this would also be a cool time to share a bit of behind-the-scenes on how we make things. This is why it takes so dang long to make Thermae. It’s also part of what makes Thermae special. A lot of care goes into each one.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bye bye

Thanks for liking this.

There would probably be no MOOD without Thermae, maybe no Automatone either. Definitely no Habit. It opened the door for all the weird stuff we’re doing now and ultimately that’s because you like it.

So thanks, hopefully you find some inspiration this week.

Explore Thermae.