Algebraic!
In June of 1959, Walt Disney Productions released an animated featurette, Donald in Mathmagic Land.
(Bear with us.)
In the short film, Donald Duck explores a mysterious world, appearing to exist at an intersection of Disney fantasy and the natural wonders of real-world mathematics. Throughout the film, Donald learns the math behind sports, nature, architecture, and music. Music, math, magic, where have we heard this before?
Now, this is no pop culture rumor mill and it's certainly no confirmation for any real remake, but if there's any artist we would recruit for a film about music, math, and magic, we've got one in mind.
Yvette Young. Musical virtuoso, visual artist, Rolling Stone "Top 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" alumnus. As one of the Internet Age's most influential string-slingers, Young has cultivated a mode of music all her own. You might see this manifest through her numerous releases as the leader of the math rock outfit Covet, her prolific profile across the internet as a maestro of tapping and open tunings, or just her messing around with effect pedals.
As a scholar of effects as well as rock guitar, Young can commonly be seen sporting a motherboard of drives, delays, modulators, and noisemakers at her feet on stages across the world. This mastery of effects has brought her far and wide and today brings her for a collaboration rendezvous with Walrus Audio. Math, music, magic, it's all here. This is the Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer.
Shop the Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer
Ethereal, Etcetera
Introducing the Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer
The Walrus Audio crew are no strangers and no slouches to and in the realms of ethereal musicmaking. In the event you're looking for any additional reading on the subject, just turn to their Lore Reverse Soundscape Generator, their Fable Granular Soundscape Generator, Sloer Stereo Ambient Reverb, or Fundamental Series Ambient Reverb. Walrus Audio is clearly experienced in modes of ambience, dreaminess, haziness, and the technicolor worlds those sonic qualities can foster.
When it comes to ambient-concerning genres like dream pop, shoegaze, slowcore, there can be a question of where to start. It's no secret that the professional and deeply dedicated can end up relying on larger orchestrations of pedals. You know the type – "Here's where the guitar comes in, into hall reverb, then the digital delay, then the analog delay, then the stereo chorus, then the flanger, then the second digital delay..." – you know the type. Part of what the Qi Etherealizer accomplishes is in the streamlining and lowering of entry barriers to the intricate and lush soundscapes musicians like Young are known for while aspiring to inspire her kinds of processes and creativity in Qi players.
At the onset, the Qi Etherealizer is an all-in-one dreamscape generator designed to translate Young's kaleidoscopic artistic frame into an easily workable interface and flow. Specializing as a vessel through which a guitar signal may bloom into mystical, musical matrixes, the Qi Etherealizer has quite a bit talk about, so let's get into it.
Adventures in Technicolor
Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer Controls
The Qi Etherealizer is, understandably, a bit to take in at square one. Across its faceplate, you've got twelve knobs, three footswitches, and a world of sounds to explore across four (count 'em, four) effects. The multi-effect setup of the Qi Etherealizer works to consolidate these individual effect experiences into one unit for optimized mixing and melding of these sounds.
Global Effects and Controls
Starting at the left most column of controls, we have our Mix and Reverb settings. To better understand the Qi Etherealizer, let's take a step back for a second.
Baking is a Science, Cooking is an ArtThis Walrus creation is at its core a multi-effect, however, it functions like a cauldron of sounds where your top row of controls can roll in doses of your individual effects from pinches to dashes to handfuls to buckets. Part of what makes the Qi Etherealizer so engaging is its ability to accurately quantify your individual effects into the overall sum. You want your delay to play the starring role in the mix with the reverb offering a supporting atmosphere? Well, the Etherealizer makes it simple to build your own recipe of effects through its dials, making it an incredibly responsive and interactive experience.
One other thing we should get out right at the top here is the Qi Etherealizer's series and parallel routing capabilities. The pedal's two-way Flow switch, located below the first column of dials, can swap between two signal flow options – series and parallel. On the Series option, the four effects of the Etherealizer will flow into each other from right to left, as you would experience on any other series of effects. Because of this, the Etherealizer's effects will affect one another as they cascade from one to the next.
Starting with chorus, the signal will then flow into delay, granular, then reverb, resulting in a colorful concoction of sounds by the end of the chain. This effect experience can be altered when swapped over to the Parallel option. In this option, the four effects are not flowed in sequence and are rather segmented individually and separated from your input signal. Where this lands you is in a control mode where your effects are more individually prominent due to their separation and your dry guitar signal can be introduced to taste.
Between these two routing modes, there are definite differences in tonal output. On Series, the Qi Etherealizer naturally sums the effects together as they function like a traditional pedal chain. This creates a more melded mix of effects with the possibility for interesting effect interactions. On Parallel, the pedal offers more precise control over each effect as they do not affect one another. This can serve you well in the event you're looking to hear each effect on its own "layer" of output and make each stand out on their own. There are no wrong answers here and nothing you can't undo, so try both modes, if you're curious.
Reverb
The other element to consider in your global effect interface is the reverb effect. Split across a Tone and Space knob, Qi's reverb effect is a quick way to color the pedal from the get-go. The reverb's Space knob controls the size and depth of the reverb effect, where the effect ranges from shallow splashes to deep chasms. This control is accompanied by the Tone knob which acts as a synth-style resonant low-pass filter cutoff. Dulling or accentuating the voice of the reverb, this control dials in that added element of control to establish your baseline reverb sound. Overall, the Qi's reverb effect leans into the more dreamlike persuasion of reverb – sweeter than your usual springs or halls.
A Map, a String, a Light
Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer Effects
Alright, so get down to business. The Qi Etherealizer features three more ambient-leaning effects. Onboard, we have a multi-voiced chorus, a multi-division delay, and a multi-mode granular effect. Let's go in order of signal flow, shall we?
Chorus
Starting out simply, we have probably the most straightforward effect on the Qi. When listening to Yvette Young's music, you're sure to hear a modulator or two, twisting and sweetening a signal in most irresistible fashion. The chorus can switch between two modes via its dedicated two-way switch. Onboard, we have a Tri chorus and a Stereo chorus.
The Qi's Tri chorus offers up a multi-dimensional experience that evokes a more complex, lush, and modern modulation. Three separate modulated voices combine in this mode for that lo-fi kind of sound to result in more wobbles and warbles. The pedal's Stereo chorus throws back to more classic modulation tones – closer reeled in, more vintage-minded, your classic blue stompbox-type chorus. Whichever mode you choose, it's sure to light up your signal like a morphing, bubbling lava lamp.
"I hope that it will inspire people to be excited to have colors and textures to play with. I think this is going to be a wonderful tool for people to create ambient sounds and add interest to their playing!" - Yvette Young
Delay
You like how you sound, why not hear it again? And again? The Qi Etherealizer's delay effect drops in as a digital delay with crisp glimmers of repeats populating your signal. This delay offers traditional Time and Feedback controls for quick utilization. Onboard, the Qi Etherealizer's digital delay can produce a delay with up to two seconds of delay time, suggesting the sweeping soundscapes possible from the Etherealizer.
While the digital delay can operate fairly traditionally, Walrus went ahead to build in a couple added features for customization and interactivity. The Qi Etherealizer features a three-way push control switch that swaps the delays between three different subdivisions – quarter, eighth, and dotted eighth. These three choices give players a choice at interesting cadences through which delays can dance. However you like your delay rhythms, Walrus has you covered.
Alright, we see your eyes darting back and forth to that footswitch. The Qi Etherealizer does in fact feature a dedicated tap tempo/oscillation footswitch. While you're likely to find a tap tempo footswitch on delay pedals these days, the oscillation switch is sure to make you sweat*. Dial up your delay intervals, crank up the repeats, pick a couple notes, hold down the oscillation footswitch, and buckle up. The oscillation footswitch when held down will ramp up the Feedback level and launch your delay trails headfirst at the speed of light into Doctor Who time tunnel string theory territory.
You gotta make some noise every now and again, am I right?
Granular
Now, would it be inappropriate to call this effect "the showstopper" of the Qi Etherealizer? No, probably not. Granular effects are notably not as prolific in pedals as delays and choruses. You're way more likely to run into a delay pedal or a chorus than a granular, and because of this, you can understand why we're getting antsy to get to this part. So, let's get to it.
"I want people to think about their melodies and how they can start to sound a little less guitar-y and a little more magical!" - Yvette Young
A pretty large part of what makes the Qi Etherealizer so impressive is its onboard granular effect. Grain, an effect somewhere in the ether of delay and reverb, is a lesser-seen, less conventional effect to find in a pedal. Granular effects work to produce a cloud of sound "grains" behind your playing. The effect, produced by creating webs of tiny recorded samples of your playing, makes for an incredibly unique sonic profile with which to create. Walrus loaded two distinct grain modes into the Etherealizer, just in case one simply wasn't enough.
The first granular mode is Grain Cloud. From this mode, we get essentially what it sounds like. The grain effect on Grain Cloud is cultivated by triggering small, random samples from your playing. Where this lands is in a web of charming, glitchy textures perfect for our ambient canvas. Alongside the granular's X dial, this web of samples can be compressed or expanded by lengthening or shortening the time between grains.
On the effect's other mode, Phrase Sample, the grain effect is triggered rhythmically from your playing. The Etherealizer will detect initial peaks in playing and generate grains in response for a more intentional and controllable effect. For this mode, the X knob will control the tempo of the sample playback, syncing the playback with the Qi delay effect's time setting when zeroed out. This configuration is sure to bring you to map out new, musical, mathematical conclusions.
This Time, with Feeling!To pull even more musical rabbits out of your hat, the Qi Etherealizer features five playback modes that dictate different ways the grain samples playback. Onboard, we have normal speed, double speed and one octave up, half speed and one octave down, reverse, and random – a randomized combination of the four other modes. There are many ways to tilt your lens and play with grains in relation to these playback modes and the two effect modes. Play confidently and embrace the chaos!
We've got one more consideration for the grain effect: the Freeze footswitch. In case you just can't get enough of the granular modes, Walrus built in a footswitch dedicated to holding granular moments in time. This compounded interactivity allows for deeper control of what might seem to be one of the more unwieldy effects on the Etherealizer. Meant to inspire more active interaction with the Qi Etherealizer, the Freeze footswitch captures moments before they've passed. After all, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone*.
"They paved paradise, put up a parking lot..."
Audible Alchemy
Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer Connections
So, let's start bringing this all home with some of the nuts and bolts of the pedal. The Qi Etherealizer comes with a pair of mono/stereo inputs and outputs. Through these connections, the pedal can be run in either mono or stereo for however complex or streamlined your rig may be. The Etherealizer makes for a quick addition to any board due to its standard nine volt power requirement. Whether you're looking to build a new board and have this as its brain (or heart) or wiggle it into an existing setup, the Qi's top-mounted jacks simplify the process.
While discussing connectivity, we can't go on without mentioning the Qi Etherealizer's MIDI functions. Two eighth-inch TRS Type A MIDI jacks line the top of the pedal for smooth integration into your MIDI-enabled, time-based effect rigs. These connections are sure to serve you well when dealing with your digital delay and granular effects, where syncing it all up to a MIDI clock can produce truly robust and fulfilling sonic formulas. Digital integration is offered additionally on this pedal with a USB-C connection to support future firmware updates.
Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer Final Thoughts
We've talked about quite a few things today, but what have we learned and what does it all mean?
For Yvette Young, her fans, and the type of musicality and creativity she champions, the Qi Etherealizer is sure to make quite the splash. If you're partial to her brand of dreamy, complex, algebraic rock, you're sure to find something to connect with on this pedal. However, it's not all mathematics, you know. The Qi Etherealizer certainly delivers on its namesake as a one-stop-shop for atmosphere, haze, dreaminess, and eureka moments. Balancing qualities as a delightfully powerful, devil-may-care soundscape generator and an intricate and responsive interface for numbers-based sonic celestials, the Qi Etherealizer succeeds on both fronts.
At the end of Donald in Mathmagic Land, Donald encounters an endless hallway lined with locked doors. These doors, the doors to the future, can be unlocked through, as he excitedly deduces, mathematics. His newfound appreciation for the magic of mathematics inspires him as the short comes to a close.
We've got to feel a little bit like Donald Duck here, don't we?
