22 Seconds of Delay Time & MIDI! Vongon Polyphrase | Secret Weapons

I’m not sure we have any other builder doing a better job of marrying the modern to the vintage than we do in Vongon. The Ultrasheer was a wonderful approach to the Lexicon 224’s Plate reverb and the inclusion of a stereo random waveform vibrato really offered up something new and creative to the sound. Vongon is back at it with the Polyphrase; a digital delay boasting 22 seconds of delay time, true stereo routing, and endless SOS looping capabilities. This MIDI capable delay is based on the Lexicon Prime Time from the 70’s and has all the vibe of it’s predecessor. Lets dig in and see how the Polyphrase is great for everything from massive, wide sound scapes all the way down to faux double tracking to make your rhythm guitars feel huge.
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Guitars Used;
1973 Fender Mustang
Bunting Melody Queen T
Jennings Voyager Deluxe
Signal Path:
Browne Amplification Carbon
Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword
UA Ruby
Vongon Polyphrase
Valhalla Vintage Reverb
Timecodes:
00:00 Intro Song
03:57 Review
09:38 Sound Samples
Recorded in Universal Audio LUNA
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[@MatthewHyatt]

Vongon is touching on the deeper possibilities of modular while still retaining an easy-to-fiddle pedal format and I love it.

[@KunchangLeeMusic]

Dang vongon is killing it - aesthetics and vibe on point -

[@markjohnstonofficial]

Dude. Completely agree. And the look is unparalleled.

[@mralgebro]

Best jams on the internet! At 2:50 my soul was soaring. ❤

[@alexfletcher9915]

The exploration of the longer delay time applications here is great!

[@bassimprovjams3772]

I sure needed this today! Thank you Mark! Kinda feeling like this jam sounds

[@medardfischer]

What an incredible intro tune! Absolutely beautiful. Thanks Mark!

[@funkyfurballs1078]

Love that intro! Pedal sounds amazing and I like having the selectable times.

[@SeriousPoo]

Fantastic demo. This is effectively the sister unit to the Ultrasheer, together they make for some truly wonderful shoegaze effects.

[@Maxu88]

Man... your intro pieces are so good.

[@markjohnstonofficial]

Ah thank you. Definitely my favorite part about doing this.

[@ThePedalboardOrchestra]

another great demo; could listen to that intro in a loop 🙏👏👏

[@subatomicwarp]

That opening track is soo smooth sounding. Love it!

[@nataskunas]

one of the best delay pedals I've seen in a long while

[@theliftedindex]

Well dang, that last little bit when you opened up to the long delay times might have just sold me.

[@sons7429]

Your best demo yet 👏👏👏👏

[@mikemorrisonmusic]

Your intro pieces are incredible!

[@stevefoltz3431]

Thanks for the great review!

[@HondoFelder]

Loved the intro track! Cool video brotha.

[@caesarsheadache]

Great demo Cheers 👏 🔥🤘

[@geha6596]

You are the best! Thank you for all your perfect reviews! Breaks my bank tho, but…. :)

[@scottjennings2942]

The editors note had me in stitches haha

[@JustinKosler]

Very nice demo as always Mark, but you did misrepresent the depth control throughout the whole video. Noon is no modulation. Counterclockwise increases depth of sine wave, and clockwise increases depth of random waveform. You had the pedal modulating at the max sine wave depth for most of the video. At the slowest rate and tone set to noon it is still pretty subtle.

[@brennanmcnally]

Would love to see you review the Vongon Paragraphs! I just got it and am dipping my toes in all that it can do, but always love seeing what you get out of pedals.

[@geha6596]

Such a great video! Thanks! One question tho, if in sync the signal is more prominent on the right channel, do you know why?

[@benjaminrmac9171]

Great video! Did you experiment with the midi implementation at all? Clock sync, presets and so on?

[@thereedbutcher]

Great demo, as always, thanks! I just wanted to point out that the modulation DEPTH knob is designed to have no effect at noon and adding a sine wave counterclockwise or a random wave clockwise.

[@joshuanedzweckas9668]

You have a lot of knowledge on pedals. How did you get started in it all? Do you have an electrical background, or is there something I could reference to understand all the components and how other pedals sit in line with other pedals. If there are any books preferably. Thanks for all the great content.

[@markjohnstonofficial]

I started simple, albeit in a round about way. I had a pod xtlive super early on and just never learned how to really make the most of it. Ended up selling it and just getting a simple set up; started with an overdrive (Keeley modded 808), a volume pedal, a delay (boss dd7), and a reverb (tc hall of fame). I really just kind of built from there. Got a strong handle on what I had, started to add / subtract pieces that I felt like would get me to whatever sound I wanted to figure out next. It was honestly awhile before I made it to stuff like the hologram and Meris stuff. Started nice and easy and built.

[@sons7429]

That one initial riff you always play in the sound samples part reminds me of the Verizon hold music. 🌋

[@markjohnstonofficial]

I have at&t

[@sons7429]

@@markjohnstonofficial haha

[@MasterMuffin88]

Do you know if the delay is short enough to use this as a vibrato pedal, as well?

[@daviddowling8015]

I think you’ve misunderstood the depth control. Fully counterclockwise isn’t minimum depth. Noon is. Fully counterclockwise is maximum sine wave depth. Fully clockwise is is maximum random modulation. But it sounds great everywhere. Def my fave pedal of the year/recent memory.

[@monosources]

Vongon bullseye again.

[@jamescovan8853]

You missed an opportunity by not using the stereo in. Could you imagine different delays or reverb, or even two phasers in front of that thing? Madness.

[@Giovy-Perez]

aesthetic Secret Weapon

[@inanesilence]

But, you are not showing midi capabilities...

[@inanesilence]

@@jayandgem if you write midi in the header title yes.

[@Relayer6a]

I think most digital pedals sound like crap. Not because they're digital, but just poor overall tone. This pedal sounds real good. It doesn't have any of the typical "digital ear bleed" effect. LOL