Vongon Polyphrase (aka Time Travel with Delay Pedals)

In this video I’ll dive into the Vongon Polyphrase stereo delay & looper pedal, talk about how it works, and share some demos & sound experiments using Polyphrase to process synthesizer, trumpet, and voice. I’ll start with a tour and overview of the pedal, and talk about how I approach using delays in my music-making as tools for exploring sonic time travel (inspired by Time Lag Accumulation, Frippertronics, and tape looping). Finally, I’ll share some demos of Polyphrase in combination with other pedals using its built-in FX loop, and some examples using external MIDI control.
Buy a Polyphrase here (affiliate links help out my channel-thank you!):
link.perfectcircuit.com/t/v1/...
Curious to learn about modular synthesis? Join my free “intro to synthesis” mini course here (no gear required):
www.soundandsynthesis.com/fir...
Join my Patreon community for behind-the-scenes content, unreleased music, and extended tutorials:
/ sarahbellereid
TIMESTAMPS:
1:37 Polyphrase Overview
6:36 Using Delay for Time Travel
10:43 Polyphrase + Effects Loop
15:49 Polyphrase + MIDI Control

[@adamwieczorek7701]

Thanks for new worlds of sound❤️

[@donnydarko7624]

I straight up felt like you were channeling Miles Davis a few times with the whiplash from recalling listening to B**ches Brew. That album is so important to music history too.

[@phaeded0ut]

Gorgeous demo of this incredible stereo delay, thank you for posting this!

[@thomashoffend4299]

Wow, the feedback loop with the Ultrasheer and the Tensor was super-cool! Haha, that is over $1200 worth of pedals!

[@squeaky.servos]

i dont think enough is said about your skill on the trumpet. the example at 21:56 was so moving, your control of tone and dynamics is captivating. thank you for sharing your sounds and knowledge with us!

[@sarahbellereid]

Thank you! 💙

[@LeonTodd]

The sound on sound trumpet part of this demo was phenomenal.

[@alexfletcher9915]

Really appreciate your take on the Polyphrase!

[@Valerioooramp]

Your channel is gold ❤️

[@georgecarr9577]

Absolutely awesome. The trumpet and vocal demonstrations blew me away. I have never heard your singing voice, also awesome.

[@basementlyle]

Wow that midi section is so awesome! Very cool demo as always.😍

[@sarahbellereid]

Thank you!

[@davidkristian6606]

I just got the Polyphrase, so naturally, I sought out your review first, as they always cover the features I want/need to know about, and are quite informative in general. Thanks!

[@sarahbellereid]

Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful!

[@benlawrence4096]

This is a very helpful video. What a pedal! I've liked and subscribed.

[@JKevinWolfe]

What's interesting about the Polyphrase is that it's so much easier to use than it is to explain. Thank you for the easily-digestible, in-depth explanation. It was very helpful when mine arrived. It's also refreshing to hear it used on an instrument other than guitar and synth.

[@alairlibreinsfreie5785]

once more one of your videos had a inspirational kick-butt effect on me... no time to write more than "thanks", because i have to start my studio-computer and start trying right now...

[@ryanhursh6322]

Damn… amazing pedal and incredible demo

[@saifeek]

Great demo, now I'm GAS-ing for the polyphrase! Love the Ultrasheer so not surprised that this one is another keeper.

[@sandercliquet1007]

Their Paragraphs filter is also amazing!

[@XxXHardcoreshredderxXXxxxxxxxx]

What does that do tho I don't really get it​@@sandercliquet1007

[@GillamtheGreatest]

you made a trumpet sound like a CS-80, and then went crazy with it. that was really cool

[@donnydarko7624]

Yeah I caught a little bit of Vangelis' Blade runner score in there also.

[@karmatosed7211]

Oh man, I’m still learning my Empress Zoia and you go and make me want this thing. Well, I’ll use ur link when I do get me one. Gj on the content I thought the editing was done really well here. =]

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

✨ wow ✨

[@brumd]

Again, your sound examples are amazing; it always looks so simple when *you* do it. But ok, that's why I signed up for your LSS course, haha. Anyway, this inspires me to put some more devotion to getting the hang of my Empress Zoia, which - in theory, with lots of patience - should be capable of getting similar results. Or very different results. But in the end that doesn't matter. :)

[@sarahbellereid]

thank you!! you will definitely learn a LOT in LSS -- and I'll share all my go-to techniques :) I also wanted to share this video I made with the ZOIA in case you hadn't seen it yet: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l32um32kgZZpiZI -- you can definitely do some similar things!

[@brumd]

@@sarahbellereid Yes, I have seen your video on the Zoia and I was particularly impressed by this patch were you layered 2 sequncers with different step lengths. I tried to recreate that but I got stuck, basically because of my lack of knowledge/experience with many of the modules, and while the Zoia is very flexible, it's very easy to lose oversight to what you are programming, and I am pretty sure this will go better if I increase my level of knowledge of modular patching in general. And yes, I already had quite a bit of progress (at least on VCV rack).

[@electrosonicnebula]

Gorgeous vid, Vongon is incredible, and so are those other pedals i never heard about. Guessing the fourth valve on the trumpet adds low range?

[@mikegeary8056]

I bet you would really like the Harvestman Tyme Safari mk-2. It shares some similarities to this pedal. It can be a delay, looper, mangler, and glitch engine.

[@literallyanythingelse]

just recently getting back into home recording, manically following loads of gear- and noise-related YT channels. this is the best. by a wide margin. oh, and: request to review something by orgeldream!

[@fadplastic]

Those percussive delays at 20:00 channel some noise organic IDMish Aphex Twin Druqs era sounds.

[@amaurygroc2386]

Hello, this is a fantastic video, thank you! I love the musicality and passion of your demonstration, which strikes a good balance of showing the delay in details while showing practical musical uses. I also love your conceptual time machine ideas :) I have a question: the dry signal is buffered right? There is no analog pass-through dry signal like Audiothingies' Doctor A (which is lovely for other reasons)? If so, do you know how large is the latency? That's a thing that I find problematic with Eventide pedals - otherwise lovely - when used directly at the output of rhythmic instruments.

[@amaurygroc2386]

Thank you for an in depth description and sharing artistic considerations and personal passion. One thing: the affiliate link doesn't work for me (I'm in Europe, so I wouldn't use it, but still). I get a 404 page.

[@temporoboto]

💙

[@chambre466]

cool

[@mychaelsoltero9579]

Hey Sarah Belle Reid! I’m a bit new to synthesis and MIDI in particular so I was wondering how you were assigning the CC data from your Explorer into your polyphrase. I.e. how are you able to select a particular polyphrase parameter to be controlled by the Explorer?

[@marzbitenhaussen]

Your trumpet playing reminded me a bit to the works of the master Toshinori Kondo hope you heard of him otherwise check it out he was a great trumpet player that used effects similar to your examples

[@Bruceanddenise]

Sounds like Epcot Center!

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

Awesome, thank you! I guess MIDI-CC resolution will not be precise enough to repitch the delayed sounds precisely to other notes (for example sing an G note and repitch the delay to the lower C and continue. Though G and C or better 2 : 1,5 might still even work)? Maybe they could even add CV in for the parameters in the next version? Awesome pedal though! Just like the other ones as well.

[@donnydarko7624]

I'm sure it's possible with eurorack, but I think it would lose that really loose analog randomness feeling that it captures so well.

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

@@donnydarko7624 What does the one have to do with the other? Quite simply NOTHING.

[@donnydarko7624]

@@Waldemar_la_Tendresse there's 12 notes in western culture. But that's not the case in nature, so locking to a note would cause audible stepping

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

@@donnydarko7624 If there is a possibility of assigning a pitch to a specific 12-tone note, that doesn't necessarily mean that this has to happen exclusively.

[@donnydarko7624]

@@Waldemar_la_Tendresse I've considered that I still think pitch quantizing would almost assuredly lead to losing a lot of what makes the pedal sound so analog. Wow and flutter, and at least a certain amount of pitch drift are a large part of achieving a passable emulation of analog delay

[@60SecondsofSomaCosmos]

Don’t know why it’s taken KZbin’s algorithms so long to make me aware of your videos. The music theory and musicianship you bring sets the above the rest. Are you aware of the Soma Cosmos? It’s based on Frippatronics/time of accumulation - seems like it would be right up your street!

[@bassimprovjams3772]

You’re getting some traction I guess got scammers using your account to tell us we won 😂

[@sarahbellereid]

Thanks to everyone who notified me of those spam comments - they've been deleted/reported and hopefully resolved! :)

[@bassimprovjams3772]

@@sarahbellereid absolutely!!😊

[@billwesley]

Native Americans thought natural echo delay points between cliffs to be sacred

[@chinmeysway]

There’s still native Americans just FYI

[@billwesley]

@@chinmeysway nothing in the statement to sugggest otherwise about Native Americans but nice trolling, however most of those sacred sites are now shopping malls and the Native Americans whom played music there are now on reservations far from where they once were.

[@DRPDMusic]

I think your Instagram is hacked. Came here to say this as I had no means to reach you.

[@sarahbellereid]

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention! Really appreciate it! If you happen to see anything else weird, please let me know!

[@corticallarvae]

Holographic tape delay... not holophonics..