EarthQuaker Devices' Aurelius is a smart Tri-Voice Digital Chorus, Vibrato and Rotary Pedal with 6 Presets onboard

EQD already has a great chorus in its range - courtesy of the 6-knob Sea Machine Super Chorus - which is particularly strong on shaping the modulation for a really intense and wobbly deep sea ocean of a Chorus. While I guess much of the innovation with the Aurelius is in its smart 6 x onboard Presets. 

The controls here aren’t quite so expansive as the Sea Machine’s 6 knobs, but Aurelius’s 4 knobs and 2 switches are equally cleverly employed - and you get to save all your favourite modulation sweet-spots on 6 user-definable presets.

Controls - Width (LFO Amplitude / Pitch Modulation), Rate (LFO Speed), Mode : Vibrato / Chorus / Rotary, Balance (Wet/Dry Balance Mostly), Preset : Scroll / Select / Save, Preset : 1-6.

Most of the pedal is fairly self-explanatory and typical of its genre - while the Width and Balance controls need some further explanation.

The Width control essentially adjusts the amplitude of the LFO that controls the pitch modulation. For the Rotary Mode -  Lower settings accentuate the lower ’woofer’ frequencies and higher settings accentuate the upper ’horn’ frequencies.

The Balance control is a little more complex as it impacts differently for each of the 3 Modes :

• For Vibrato Mode - When the Balance control is turned fully clockwise, the dry signal is removed and the effect becomes a Pitch Vibrato
• For Chorus Mode - the Balance control adjusts the level of the modulated signal - Turn clockwise for a more pronounced effect!
• For Rotary Mode - the Balance control adjusts the lower end profile of the affected signal - Turn clockwise for a more pronounced and pulsing sub frequency effect

We’ve come to expect a certain lev of high quality from Jamie Stillman’s outfit - while this is not quite as expansive as the last significant EQD Modulation device update -  the Pyramids Stereo Flanger - while the Aurelius does keep to the compact enclosure format - with of course EQD’s proprietary soft-touch Flexi-Switch footswitch, and modern top-mounted jacks.

This is a digital emulation of these 3 modulation effects - so most similar to Alexander Pedals’ Sugarcube - while that is Stereo, has 4 modes, but only 4 Presets onboard.

And of course we have this year’s two heavy-hitters in the Jackson Audio New Wave and Beetronics Seabee Harmochorus - both of which are somewhat more expansive and contain further innovations.

Chorus aficionados can be a little finicky about wanting their choruses to be Analog BBD - so it will be interesting to see what traction the Aurelius gains. 

The Aurelius is priced at $199 | €259 | £225 and equivalent - so pretty standard boutique pedal price. Available of course at leading International dealers very imminently.

For my own preferences I don’t think you can adequately deliver a Rotary Speaker effect without stereo - it just doesn’t have the same ambience impact without the full spatial immersion. It’s obviously at a different / lower price point that the New Wave and Seabee - so it should perform fairly strongly against those two pricer ones. 

My own Chorus Capsule collection is over 20 pedals now - with only 5 of those being Digital / DSP, while 13 of mine are Stereo Output, and of those 7 are full-Stereo.

It would be great to hear which are your own favourite Chorus pedals - and which of the recent 4 if any you are considering acquiring.

FEATURES : 

• Tri-voice Chorus/Vibrato/Rotary Speaker Emulation effects pedal Inspired by the vintage 1970s CE-1 Chorus Ensemble pedal and the 1940s Leslie rotating baffle speaker system
• 3 effects modes :
  • V - traditional chorus/vibrato effect with triangle LFO modulating a short delay line
  • C - blend of chorus and flanger with more warmth and slower rates and a sine wave LFO
  • R – Rotary Chorus effect modeled after the sound of a Leslie speaker cabinet - combines both amplitude and frequency modulation for a doppler effect
• 2 modes of operation :
  • Live Mode – Green LED-  pedal will operate exactly where the controls are set, any changes will have no effect on the presets unless saved
  • Preset Mode - red LED - recalls stored settings for each control, actual control settings will be ignored
    6 easily user-editable and accessible preset slots
• Silent soft-touch relais-based switching with True Bypass
• Flexi-Switch Technology for latching and momentary operation
• EXP jack expression pedal or Voltage control pedal control over any parameter
• All-analog dry signal path and digital effect signal path
• Made in Akron, Ohio, USA
• Powered by regular 9 V DC PSU [-] 2.1 mm, with 75 mA current draw
• Map / RRP : $199 | €259 | £225