I got the red panda raster 2 in yesterday and it's pretty amazing. I'll start by saying I'm not big on glitchy/pitch shifty stuff, so if you are then this is probably EVEN MORE for you than for me, but what I found in this box was a lot of stuff not covered in demos.
It can do a pretty damn good phaser, flanger, chorus (and trem too), and the reverse delay is very good.
Where it gets wild is that it's actually two delays in one, and you can offset all the controls for the second delay (and second mod/shift stuff). Along with series/parallel/ping pong modes for these two delays (that also come out in mono, not just for stereo) takes it to the next level, alongside all the previous effects like flanger and chorus but with a dual delay setting.
Just the simple thing of using the delays in series then making the one delay slightly faster/slower than the other and you get these shearing echoes. Wanna modulate it further? Just have one be modulated slightly faster/slower than the other, or deeper or shallower.
So far I've found that dialing them in pretty close to each other so that I always know what's going on but the second delay always adds this extra dimension to the sound is
The oscillations are damn good and the filter in the fx loop does a good job of taking this sound several places, although it's not a highly resonant filter or anything. It's basically variable lowpass, normal digital delay, highpass and then bandpass.
What I like about the oscillations here, and what seems to be an issue with some other delays, is that the oscillations aren't (in most settings) FAR louder than the input signal.
A lot of other delays have this thing where if your input signal isn't loud enough and it goes into oscillation there's no way your input signal can compete, and so you end up with just a pitchy squeal until you turn it off or turn feedback down.
This can usually be fixed by having a loud as fuck input signal so the headroom always gives way for your input, but it's hard to get those clean swashes.
With this one in most settings you can cut through and get your signal in there, despite it full on oscillating, which is great.
Interface wise it looks pretty damn busy on first glance, but breaking it down is quite easy.
You've got your standard mix-delay-feedback.
You've got your standard mod depth and rate (and waveform button)
You've got the Shift knob, which does pitch shifting/flanging/phasing.
Beyond that is the switch that decides whether the delay goes:
*forwards w/ the Shift in the feedback loop,
*forwards w/ the Shift outside the feedback loop (so only shifted once),
*reverse w/ the Shift in the feedback loop.
The "shift" mode is wayyy improved upon from the raster 1, where it's now a full on pitch shifter, phaser and flanger.
It's also got switches for each of the stomps: Momentary and latching for both stomps, then tap tempo for the shift stomp and a mode for the on/off that allows the pedal to record while it's bypassed, so when you turn it on it's got your echoes all ready for ya.
The latching and the extra tap tempo are great additions, I've often wished my delays had trails and momentary switches to throw notes in there then keep playing with the echoes going.
Personally I'll be running this in between two dirt pedals because I always find that digital delays need that extra character to them, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary with this one. With the filters and offsetting some of the params for the dual delays you can get quite smeary and filtery characteristics. I just love that shoegaze vibe of dirt post delay.
I still have a love for PT2399 and analog delays but I feel like this is peak digital delay before taking the step into something like a strymon timeline, eventide timefactor or empress superdelay or whatever else is out there.
The fact that despite the switches this feels quite modeless is a huge positive for me. Sure, there are different settings, but it always feels like you are changing the same delay with different variations, not like you're choosing different modes.
Cons for me personally are the looks and the size. I dig the particle 2 look, it looks like something from Portal, but I think I'm gonna have this etched. We all know blue is the delay color (just like flanger is purple).
Sizewise it could've been slightly bigger, but honestly it's not an issue. I was afraid I'd step on these small switches near the stomps but they're small enough to sit below the stomp switches.
I think this is a pedal where if it had a slightly larger enclosure and the graphics were taken to the next level it'd sell like crazy.
Unfortunately now there's just lots of pitch shift/reverse demos on youtube and people who want that rainbow machine sound are gonna go for this, which is a shame because it does a lot more.
tl;dr it's good check it out. I might do a demo that shows stuff the other demos didn't really hit on.
