Chase Bliss MOOD | mkI vs mkII

Well, I put this off for a long time. The MOOD has been a long-time favorite of mine, and when the mkII came out, I was pretty excited.
When pedal companies release a new version of a pedal, I always experience a mixture of excitement and annoyance. I'm excited to find out about the changes, and I'm annoyed that I now feel like I have to buy the new version, or I will be "missing out." I know this feeling isn't really rational or even healthy, but it's my honest reaction.
I felt quite different when the MOOD mkII was announced... mainly because I will always love the mkI and will totally use both MOOD pedals in my setup. I'm happy to report that the mkII is a wonderful pedal... and it did not make me feel worse about the mkI.
Apparently if you put your face in the thumbnail, the KZbin algorithm gets happy. Since I don't really like my face very much these days, I'm letting the beautiful Sophie be the face of my channel.
---| CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 Intro
01:39 What is the MOOD?
02:19 Mix knob
02:38 Clock knob
03:23 Left footswitch
04:34 Wet channel toggle
05:06 Reverb mkI
07:43 Reverb mkII
08:52 Clock interaction with Reverb
12:12 Delay mkI
14:49 Delay mkII
16:29 What the hell is Slip?
17:23 Slip mkI
19:32 Slip mkII
20:24 Micro-Looper
22:13 What the hell is Env?
22:57 Env mkIh
26:05 Env mkII
27:11 Tape mode
27:40 Tape mkI
31:20 Tape mkII
32:44 What the hell is Stretch?
33:25 Stretch mkI
34:15 Stretch mkII
37:33 Routing toggle
39:11 Presets
41:08 Clock again!
42:28 Conclusion
---| GEAR USED IN THIS VIDEO
Nobels ODR-1
TC Electronic Ditto Looper
EHX Tri Parallel Mixer
Chase Bliss MOOD mkI
Chase Bliss MOOD mkII
Strymon Iridium
Reverend Descent Guitar
---| FOLLOW ME
KZbin: bit.ly/3hmh6os
Instagram: bit.ly/3ldyhuG
---| ABOUT ME
Hi everyone, I’m Aaron. I’m the lead guitarist and composer in All Fires For Love. I love writing music and geeking out about guitar pedals. I’m still quite new at releasing content on KZbin, but I’m really excited about the channel. Thanks so much for watching… I hope you enjoy the videos.

[@sbyvamt]

This is the best video I've seen on explaining the MOOD, regardless of version. I'd love a deeper dive on the mood in general. Thanks for this.

[@AaronRusch]

Noted! And thanks for watching!

[@KeithB2Thee]

Thanks for breaking it down in such a poignant way. Very comprehensive overview!

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you!!

[@noveltycrusade]

Man i so love the mk2, the stereo spread alone ❤❤

[@chiefbucknell]

As a Mood MKII owner, I don’t personally need a video on ramping, hidden features, or MIDI, but as a fan of your channel, I would appreciate you doing another video that explores “bonus” features!

[@johnduval482]

Yes we want the deep dive LOL. . .yea i know it’s a butt ton of work and wouldn’t blame you for not doing it but your videos are so freaking informative and tend to emphasize the actually musicality of the pedals. Thanks for all your hard work. Love you vids.

[@AaronRusch]

Thanks John! I will consider it, these pedals are so deep, I really should have broken this up!

[@royalslone1285]

Wow, thank you, this was amazing! Really well done. Glad I found your demos.

[@AaronRusch]

Awesome, thank you!

[@wintermute101]

Great video Aaron! Exactly what I’ve been wanting to see/hear! 👌

[@MikkelGrumBovin]

I finally Subbed- ive seen a couple of youre video´s and your thoroughness , hard work , and meticules walktroughs is worth many more subs -

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you so much for saying that, comments like this keep me going :)

[@peterbinder978]

hello , great video :-) i want to mention one thing where the mark 1 is better for me - you can assign the left footswitch as a momentary switch for the effect side or for the looper side. I am using it for the effect side set up to "slip - one octave higher - revers " just to activate the pedal for one phrase or lets say four notes in a longer guitar run , or just randomly step in - step out during playing guitar. This is a godly sound , very lively , i love it . Unfortunately the mark 2 does not have the momentary switch option. I know it has the freeze function instead, but its not the same . Anyway , both are great pedals , enjoy the music :-) Peter

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you for sharing that, I'm going to have to try that out! And thank you for watching!

[@DarrylMcGee]

Great video, very thorough and informative. Thank you!

[@AaronRusch]

I'm glad it was helpful. Thank you very much for watching!

[@worthmoremusic]

Great pedal demo, thanks.....Love Chass Bliss pedals AND the kitty bed !

[@AaronRusch]

Thanks for watching!

[@jackduxbury1632]

Legend ✊ Thank you 🙏

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you for watching!!

[@jesselough]

Love how close you got the mkii stretch at the end of the comparison on that microloop. I’m gonna try that now

[@DreamArtScientists]

Great demo and cool pedal!

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you!!!

[@tigermosquitorecords]

Dude. You make the best reviews out there. Thank you so much As a simple question. Do you find this stretch time feature in mkI more inspiring or better than the drolo itself?.. Ta.

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you for the kind words! To answer your question: yes, absolutely. The time stretch on the Mki is just special to me-it's one of my favorite effects of all time.

[@williamduckworth3972]

5:54 did you just play Iroh's "Leaves From the Vine"!? Do you want us to cry while watching this extremely informative video?

[@AaronRusch]

Wow, you have a keen ear! I wish I could say I intended to play that, but it was entirely accidental

[@williamduckworth3972]

@@AaronRusch Years of couch and tv ear training led to this moment

[@cmath8577]

Wow. As someone said..Best Video on Mood regardless of version. I learned so much because I have a Mk. 1 and have no clue. ..which is part of the fun...@ 31 min talking about clock quality...An optional filter would be nice if you didn't want as much aliasing with even lower clock rate to achieve even longer tape capture. I know they have Blooper but I want to change pitch and speed and reverse like tape or the old EH 16 second delay which used a reticon filter chip to mask the aliasing. You get super long layers and lengths and the time is controlled by the adjustable sample rate but a filter is introduced and it sounds very much like tape, Unfortunately no longer made

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you for watching! Also, I didn't even know that EH 16 pedal existed, thank you for bringing that to my attention... I wonder if EH will ever re-release it?

[@richarddelossantos3147]

awesome video!

[@AaronRusch]

Thanks!

[@ThePedalboardOrchestra]

Thanks for the great work 🙌👏👏👏👏 For me the best demo of the Mood, and on top of this you even do a comparison of Mk1 and Mk2. That is awesome! 👍👍 I decided that I would not keep both of them, so I already sold my Mk1 and look for a good deal for a Mk2. So long I have enough other glitch and modulation pedals to create a ton of sounds. The Mood Mk2 is absolutely a stunning pedal. I think if I could have only one pedal, it would be the Mood Mk2, I would definitely prefer it to a Microcosm. Mood offers such a variety of sounds.

[@AaronRusch]

Thanks for the kind words! If I wasn't layering them, I would likely keep only the mkII... it's such a creative pedal, and for some reason, it always sparks ideas for me. Right now, I have both on my songwriting board, but for gigging, I'd definitely just bring the mkII. I still don't have a microcosm, and I've just never pulled the trigger on one because they are so big, and with the Ct5, the MOOD on my board, I think I'm good.

[@ThePedalboardOrchestra]

@@AaronRusch Mood is a lot more inspirational. Microcosm is more based on presets, Mood on developing your own creativity. I might sell Microcosm in the end.

[@tompoynton]

@@ThePedalboardOrchestraI’ve just bought a Microcosm to complement my Mood mk II and can say they sound wonderful together, especially Mood into Microcosm. Also the Microcosm isn’t that big!

[@yvesarques]

Hi Aaron, Thanks for this great comparasion. What a work! I couldn't find yet the time to watch it entirely, but I'd already have a question for you. I still don't have any mood pedal and wanna get one, especially for going into experimental sounds, and I'm quite interested in some upgrades of the mark 2 (like the smooth clock, freeeze or reversible stretch), but I'm afraid that the better sound quality of the mark 2 may be too "clean" for me. So my question is: does the "classic" mode on the mark 2 allow you to go into dirty distortions of the sound like the mark 1? Or how is it different? Thank you!

[@AaronRusch]

Hi Yves! Hmm, this is a tricky question. I recently threw the new firmware on my MkII and played around with it. The MkII Classic stretch mode is closer to the MkI... but it's not the same. I don't think it's as good. That being said, the MKII does have that hidden control "tone knob" as well. And Classic mode brings back the noisy clock, the degrading loops, etc., to make it nice and dirty. The MkII can definitely get messy and dark and dirty. In my opinion, the main thing the MKI really offers over the MKII is that very special Stretch mode... and for all I know, a future firmware update will solve that issue. I hope that helps!

[@JaymeSilverstein]

I own both and I’m keeping both. It I do like the sound but of mood 1 better.

[@AaronRusch]

Me too, the MOOD 1 just special to me :) Thanks for watching!

[@patrickr6505]

I have a Mark I and Mark 2 on my pedalboard and to be honest I hardly ever use the Mark 1 anymore...Its amazing,esp in stereo, hidden features ..I understand what you are talking about on the stretch mode though..But thats only one thing I can live without..the amount of things the 2 has over the Mood 1 is overwhelming including Overdubbing, Filter,Fade, Random Waveforms, Level Balance,Sync, Smooth clock,and more...

[@AaronRusch]

I'm 100 percent with you on this. The mkII is an insane improvement over the first version. I don't think I fully appreciated how much of an upgrade it was until I shot this video, to be honest. Thanks for watching!

[@patrickr6505]

@@AaronRusch No worries..Your fine..I enjoyed it...

[@Gibson1976uk]

Glad I read this! Just ordered a MK2 from Chase Bliss! 15 percent off Black Friday deal :) couldn’t help it

[@patrickr6505]

Joel has said recently on a forum that they may be doing something with the Stretch mode on Mk 2 through a firmware update...

[@AaronRusch]

This is very exciting news! My MkI is getting nervous.

[@iosifkalpaktsoglou2045]

I could justify buying the mk2 if I owned all of the other chase bliss pedals, every cooper one, every drolo one etc....as far as my next investment is definitely the tasty chips electronics integral dual convolver

[@AaronRusch]

Thank you for bringing this pedal to my attention! I didn't know about it, and it is certainly intriguing. Sigh, I'm going to need a bigger board.

[@iosifkalpaktsoglou2045]

@@AaronRusch I was sure you would find it intriguing. I m on the waiting list for the November batch. Can't wait.

[@JoseLopez-wj7kc]

Dive… Deep… As far as is possible