GFI System Unleashes the Duophony Ultimate Advanced Parallel Blender with Touch-Screen Control and LFO Blend Modulation

Feb 9, 202308:00 by

Stefan Karlsson

Blender and MixerGFI SystemModulationTremoloUtility+-

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!