GFI System Unleashes the Duophony Ultimate Advanced Parallel Blender with Touch-Screen Control and LFO Blend Modulation
GFI never does anything by half measures - and so we have the most feature-rich and innovative Signal Blender pedal currently on the market - they’ve definitely thrown the kitchen sink at this project.
Up until this time TheGigRig Wetter Box was my favourite parallel blender - certainly more pedalboard-friendly in its compact dimension - but it doesn’t quite come close enough to the expansive feature set of the Duophony - even though the Wetter Box is very compelling in its own right.
There aren’t that many controls on the Duophony - but they each have multiple functions. In essence you have 2 of GFI’s Push / Press-Hold / Twist and Press-Twist knobs - which each deliver an extended depth of functions :
- Gain Y + Y On/Off + Global Settings | Gain X + X On/Off + Options
Next you have a circular Touch-Pad / Blender-Control - which has a Mode button at its base - this controls among the things :
- Mix Control - Loop X <|> Loop Y
- Left & Right Channels
- Dry Level Control
- Speed & Depth Control
You then finally have dual footswitches which activate each X and Y / A and B Loop Channels - across 16 Presets, composed of 8 x Banks of A & B channel options.
DUOPHONY MAIN OPERATING MODES
The Duophony has 3 Principal Blending Modes :
- XY Mix
- Y Plus [X]
- X Plus [Y]
You then have 2 x Routing Options - Parallel / Series
And can adjust the Phase of the X Channel - Normal / Inverted
Finally we have a setting for - Trails : Off / On
MODULATION ENGINE
One of the kitchen sink elements or possibly even kitchen sync! elements is the presence of an LFO Blending Modulator - which can add Bounce, Movement and aspects of Tremolo to your X/Y Channel / Loop inputs.
The Modulation Engine has the following features :
- 8 x LFO Shapes - Sine, Triangle, Exponential, Sawtooth, Reverse Sawtooth, Square, Pulse 1, Pulse 2
- 2 x Modes - Normal (centered) or Panning
- 7 x subdivisions - Whole, Half, Quarter, Dotted 8th, Eighth, Triplet, and Sixteenth
- Hz or BPM display modes
- Tempo can be set via the onboard touch-slider, tap-tempo or MIDI clock
The Panning Mode is really cool as it bounces the signal of each channel from Left to Right continuously - and the other one in the opposite direction - so they are bouncing between Left and Right outputs.
FEATURES
- True stereo on all signal paths (inputs, outputs, & FX loops) [TRS Stereo]
- Parallel or Series routing modes
- 3 Parallel Blend Modes : XY Mix, Y Plus [X], and X Plus [Y]
- 16 Presets
- Fully adjustable dry signal level
- Phase invert function on loop X
- Individual gain control for each loop
- Bypass function with or without trails
- Expression pedal and Aux switches control input
- MIDI input (Mini TRS Jack)
- Full-featured modulation engine
SPECIFICATIONS
- Input impedances : 1 MOhm
- Output impedances : 500 Ohm
- Current draw : ~165mA
- Input / Sends / Returns jacks : 1/4 inch TRS
- Output jacks : 1/4 inch TS
- Expression / Aux input jack: 1/4 inch TRS
- MIDI Input connector: 1/8 inch TRS
- USB connector : Type C
- Dimension : 12 (L) x 12 (W) x 5.5 (H) cm
- Power requirement : 9VDC / 165mA, negative-center plug
- Dimension : 12(L)x7.2(W)x5.5(H)cm
- RRP / MAPP : $299 / £299
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Duphony is about as compact as it can be for everything that is covers. It's a gorgeous looking pedal, but I'm not always a fan of touch-screen controllers like this - I much prefer physical sliders and rotary dials - per my DJ'ing days. Touch-screen controllers of this nature are never 100% reliable, and can glitch out every now and again.
I'm still torn as to whether I should get this at this size and £299 price outlay or the smaller TheGigRig's Compact Wetter Box at £189 - that does most everything you would want a parallel blender to do, while it doesn't have the bells and whistles and lightshow of the new contender.
This is obviously specially designed for experimental players - but it does take up significant real estate on the board - and you have to be creative with your A/B / X/Y choices to make full and proper use of this.
I still really like it, and am considering whether I would ever put it to its full use- enough to warrant the investment. I will still likely get a Wetter Box at some stage - as it's much easier to fit in to the chain - while for now the Duophony has to hold status as a 'nice-to-have'. If I have a eureka moment and discover that the Duophony is exactly what I need - then for sure that will be on the board in short order. I really love the fact that it has a TRS Stereo input option - I just wish that existed for its Synesthesia Multi-Modulator sibling - which I own, but don't use as much as I should because of it's limited stereo versatility (stereo out only).
There's definitely a trend these days for TRS inputs and outputs - see the Chase Bliss Gen Loss II, and recent Strymon Cloudburst for contemporary examples - shame that the Synesthesia came out before that trend happened,
GFI's Rosie Filter pedal is still on my wishlist, and we've all been waiting for a while now for a format update on GFI's flagship pedal - the Specular Tempus. Actually I note that it is officially discontinued now - so surely a new MKII Specular Tempus is imminent! Or perhaps GFI is designing its own H90 contender - that would certainly be exciting to witness!
Hopefully this Duophony is an indicator of further exciting development to come from GFI System!
Note that Andertons has the Duophony as a special order item - they've decided not to default-order it for whatever reasons - much like they did with Spaceman's recent Redstone Germanium Overdrive - which I had to custom order from them at the time. Not sure what any of that indicates? I'm just glad that there is plenty of innovation still coming down the line!
DEMOS
