The Catalinbread Soft Focus pedal puts lush, atmospheric shoegaze tones at your feet. Drawing inspiration from the Yamaha FX500's legendary Soft Focus patch, this pedal is designed to be an always-on ambient tone machine. With its adjustable plate reverb, chorus modulation and octave effects, the Soft Focus offers extensive sound-shaping options without complex menus or presets. Guitarists and bassists alike will find inspiration in the pedal's intuitive controls and rich sonic palette.

Shape Your Sound With Fully Adjustable Effects

At the heart of the Soft Focus is a studio-quality plate reverb with adjustable decay time, letting you dial in anything from a subtle sheen to cavernous depths. A multi-voiced chorus adds organic movement and texture to the reverberated signal. For even more tonal complexity, an octave effect mixes in upper harmonics to open up the reverb. The Mod control adjusts the chorus rate, while the Symphony knob blends in the octave layer. A wet/dry Mix knob balances your dry instrument tone with the ambience. With the Soft Focus's flexible sound-shaping options, you can craft reverbs unique to your music.

Achieve Your Ideal Wet/Dry Balance

While the original Yamaha effect was wet only, the Soft Focus gives you a dedicated mix knob to dial in your perfect blend of dry guitar and ambient reverb. This makes it easy to maintain clarity and articulation, even when the reverb is deep and lush. The mix control essentially functions as a shoegaze knob, letting you slide from crisp chords to waves of bliss.

Intuitive Controls Tailored to the Shoegaze Sound

The Soft Focus is thoughtfully designed to give you sounds that fit the shoegaze vibe. Controls like "Symph" and "Mod" make it immediately clear how to achieve lush, layered textures. And everything responds smoothly so small tweaks have a musical impact on your tone. Whether you want to set it and forget it or actively sculpt your sound in real time, the Soft Focus puts breathtaking shoegaze ambience at your feet.

Enhance Both Guitar and Bass

While designed with shoegaze guitarists in mind, the Soft Focus offers something for bassists too. Its powerful ambience and octave layering can add new dimensions to bass tones for atmospheric or psychedelic styles. And the pedal's high-headroom design means your low end stays tight and defined. Whether you play shimmering chords or grooving bass lines, the Soft Focus pedal brings out your creative side.

An Inspired Take on the Legendary Yamaha FX500 Soft Focus Patch

While not an exact recreation, the Soft Focus aims to capture the spirit and vibe of the FX500's famous patch. Catalinbread compared it extensively to the real thing, keeping what worked and improving what didn't. The result is a pedal that delivers instant shoegaze ambience, without the drawbacks of the original hardware unit. Just plug in and you've got classic guitar sounds reminiscent of bands like Slowdive, Ride and My Bloody Valentine.