Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...
Every day can't be a sunny one – and why would you want it to be? You don't know what you got 'til it's gone. What's that old saying? "You can't appreciate a sunny day without a little rain," or something like that, right? Maybe it's our tristate summer storms this season stirring these thoughts in our heads, but it's true. It's all about that balance.
Raining on our parade in the very best way, today we're talking about one of the modern effect world's most acclaimed "one-and-dones." Would it be inappropriate to call it a "one-hit-wonder?" Yes, if you're looking to make a derogatory out of "Take On Me" or "99 Luftballoons." If you're looking to latch on to the latter half of that title and describe such '80s staples as "wonderful," then we're right there with you.
This is the Normal Devices Decay Cascade Layering Reverb Distorter.
Shop the Normal Devices Decay Cascade
The New Normal
Introducing the Normal Devices Decay Cascade Layering Reverb Distorter
For Ontario's Normal Devices, a creative philosophy can be boiled down to three simple words: "Very specific effects." Perhaps understandably so with their one premier pedal, Normal Devices keeps it all neat, clean, and unambiguous. Normal Devices' mission statement addresses their pedal's design specificity towards determined sonic outcomes, with a side effect of reduced existential dread. The brand operates in what they call, "the boundary between what can and cannot be controlled," focusing on "the precise design of imprecise behaviors."
What does that all "mean" though? In short, it means that the Decay Cascade is a powerful pedal with a clean and intentional design*. The clean and intentional design in question makes it wonderfully simple to operate and noticeably quick to get on to its powerful, musical tones. The Decay Cascade is Normal Devices' "one-and-done" in more ways than one. As of writing, it is the brand's sole pedal. Though also as of writing, it is a true "one-and-done" pedal to drop on your board and fire up a symphony of stormy reverb and distortion tones big enough to serve as your standalone ambient or noisemaking engine. Let's talk about it.
Sorry to spoil it
Cascade in Full
Normal Devices Decay Cascade Layering Reverb Distorter Design and Controls
The Normal Devices Decay Cascade is a sleek, clean reverb and distortion pedal with two three-way switches and six control dials. One of these switches covers the pedal's multi-mode effect design with three positions of three different effect types. Let's start there.
Normal Devices Decay Cascade Reverb Effects
The Decay Cascade's primary effect palette leans into the lo-fi persuasion. Hazy, cloudy, noisy, and occasionally warbly and warped, the pedal's effects center themselves around unabashedly discordant textures. Three different reverb modes fire up three different musical paths that put players in the fast lane in each instance.
- Hall – The topmost setting of the Decay Cascade's Mode switch produces a dark and slow hall-style reverb with sulking movement.
- Spring – The middle setting of the pedal produces a full, billowing, bright and splashy spring-style reverb with vivacious texture.
- Lofi – The bottom setting of the pedal produces a bucket brigade-driven delay that knocks around and stirs up wonky resonations.
From these three modes, the Decay Cascade stirs up enormously expressive lo-fi reverb and distortion tones big enough to serve as your sole shoegazing engine. The controls on the pedal are then divided between its digital reverb and analog gain stages. Working fairly intuitively, this is what we've got, in order of the signal flow from the pedal's clean reverb into its distorted reverb:
- Decay – The length of your reverb trails. Clockwise for more, counterclockwise for less.
- Level – The presence of your reverb in the mix. Clockwise for more, counter for less.
- Drive – The gain of your analog distortion circuit. Clockwise for more, counter for less.
- Sag – The voltage sag of your analog distortion. Clockwise for a more starved distortion, counter for less.
- Mix – The effect blend between the pedal's first "clean" reverb mix and its second "distorted" reverb mix.
- Amp – A three-way '60s-style analog preamp circuit control. On the upmost position, the preamp features a neutral amplification mix. On the middle, the preamp is hit with a high-gain boost with a low pass filter for a fuller yet considered mix. On the bottom position, the preamp features a high-gain boost with no filter, resulting in an enormous jump in volume.
Moving downstream, the Decay Cascade offers plenty of angles of attack to shape its effects in expressive, interesting ways. The Decay Cascade's massive digital reverberating powers and authentic analog amplification charms double up in a truly unique fashion sure to please soundscapers, ambient artists, noise rockers, and shoegazers alike.
Cascade Parade
Normal Devices Decay Cascade Layering Reverb Distorter Tones
With the Decay Cascade's fairly simple setup, we're off to the races with vivid effect power in either holster and the classic puzzle of where to begin. Between the pedal's digital reverbs full of personality and its analog gain stages packed with muscle, the Decay Cascade not only sets off strong but sets off fast. Let's talk about some of the directions the Decay Cascade is raring to "Roadrunner" off into like a lo-fi Looney Tune.
Ten-Car Stormcloud PileupWhat's probably most known about the Decay Cascade is its pension for big, stormy reverbs and enormous analog distorted muscle. Stir up an immense squall of hall reverb and punch it up equally with a forceful distortion and you've got a harrowing windstorm crashing into itself on a temperamental cold front – like Niagara Falls scrubbed backwards and forwards on a film reel.
Interdimensional TV StaticLeaning into more of its lo-fi sensibilities, the Decay Cascade excels in peculiar haziness with a CRT-like warmth. Rolling back on its reverb and starving its distortion slightly moves the Decay Cascade toward smoother, if buzzy, ambient audio haze like a disconnected ray tube reaching over from the Twilight Zone.
Circuit City Summer BlackoutOn a similar note, something that shouldn't be glossed over when talking about the Decay Cascade is how powerful and expressive its analog distortions can be. Maybe roll back the pedal's reverbs and focus on its distorted character by working its Drive and Sag controls to put its drives front-and-center. The Decay Cascade supplies a certified dying battery-style fuzz gate bordering on something glitchy and not-all-there – only made more expressive with the expansive, resonating powers of reverb.
Bashful Mountain GiantThe pedal's more lo-fi tendencies come to life on its third Mode toggle position. With its true bucket brigade-style warble bordering on detuning in some instances, the Decay Cascade can produce massive reverberating trails twinged with charming, characteristic, lo-fi sweetness and sadness. The Decay Cascade is a gentle giant, if anything.
Normal Devices Decay Cascade Reverb Final Thoughts
It's actually fairly often around here we're faced with a pedal getting love from the shoegazers of the world. The Decay Cascade certainly checks the two boxes most commonly prescribed to the genre – reverb and distortion. As a "shoegaze machine," you'd be hard pressed to find a better representation of a pedal so clean and streamlined for the clear intent of causing a ruckus. If a one-and-done reverberator and distorter with more than enough juice behind each effect to get the job done sounds like your kind of pedal, then Normal Devices' "very specific effects" ethos is very specifically for you.
Beyond the offset aficionados and forever "loveless" in the room, the Decay Cascade exhibits some true horsepower with its masterful mix of digital and analog. Normal Devices' premier pedal fully embodies a powerful, effective mix of classic effect tones for something to offer players looking for an effect definitively different but familiar in its composition and streamlined in its control. The Decay Cascade has the oomph behind it to drive your whole noise rock rig forward along with the brain for more cerebral knob twisting. This balance presents a unique effect experience at very least worth a try, should you ever cross its path.
Is the Decay Cascade a "one-hit wonder?" Perhaps, if only for that we're obsessively wondering what a hypothetical follow-up could be.
