Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer - Black

The Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer (pronounced “chee ethereal-izer”), a collaborative creation with Yvette Young, is a multi- effects pedal that combines Chorus, Delay, Granular effects, and, of course, Reverb, into a creative playground for atmospheric exploration.

Known for her innovative and explorative fingerstyle playing technique, love of guitar pedals, and leadership of the math rock band Covet, the Qi reflects her approach to creating lush, evolving soundscapes. Named after the vital life energy that flows through all living things, the Qi is designed to deliver rich textures, expansive atmospheres, and dynamic layers. By blending Yvette’s artistic vision with cutting-edge design, the Qi opens the door to immersive, otherworldly sounds.

“I hope that it will inspire people to be excited to have colors and textures to play with. I think this is going to be a wonderful tool for people to create ambient sounds and add interest to their playing! …I want people to think about their melodies and how they can start to sound a little less guitar-y and more…magical!” YY

The Qi allows you to mix and match the chorus, delay, and grain and run in series or parallel to create your own inspiring universe of possibility in a stereo field. With the ability to save presets and bypass the chorus, delay, and grain controls, you can quickly and instantly change settings by simultaneously pressing the Bypass and Freeze stomp switches. Go from a traditional chorus with a little bit of delay, or go all in and let the Qi take over with unexplainable washes of glitchy and lush ambiance. Whatever your style is, the Qi will give it a new life.

Global Controls

• Space Knob: Space adds a delightfully charming reverb to your affected signal. Use this knob to modify the mix and decay of the reverb. Go from smaller room sounds to a huge, diffused ambient reverb at maximum settings. It’s lush and complimentary, and adding it in with the other effects will put you squarely in dreamscape territory.
• Tone Knob: The Tone parameter controls the cutoff of a synth-style resonant low pass filter, allowing you to shape the tone of the effect output.
• Series and Parallel: In series, effects will feed into each other in the order of Chorus > Delay > Grain > Output.
• In parallel, all of the effect outputs on Chorus, Delay, and Grain are summed together and do not feed into each other. The top row of knobs will act as level controls, and the user can control the level of each effect.
• The Mix/Dry parameter controls the mix of wet and dry signal in series mode and dry level in parallel mode.

Grain Controls

The featured Grain effect features two ‘flavors’ of operation:

• Grain Cloud: This mode triggers small samples (grains) randomly from your playing, which gives you unpredictable, yet charming glitchy texture for your sound. The X knob controls the length of time between grains, so you can go from dense clusters to sparse accents.
• Phrase Sample: This mode triggers grains rhythmically from your playing. Initial peaks in your playing are detected and grains are played back starting at these peaks, creating a rhythmic and intentional effect. The X knob controls the tempo at which the samples will be played back. Turning the X knob to the minimum position will sync the Phrase Sample time to the Delay time so that repeated grains are in time with the Delay repeats.

The Grain effect also features 5 playback modes that dictate different ways the grain samples are projected.

• x1: Normal
• x2: Double-speed and +1 octave
• x.5: Half-speed and -1 octave
• REV: Reverse playback
• RNDM: Randomized combination of the previous four modes.

Delay Controls

The delay effect is a full, clean digital delay that offers repeats for up to two seconds. Use the time knob to control the time between delays as well as the feedback knob to control the amount of delays. The TAP/OSC switch on the bottom right of the pedal can also be used to control the delay effect via tap tempo, or when held down will ramp up the feedback and cause the delay to oscillate.

Subdivisions

Delay trails can be projected in three subdivision modes:

• Quarter Note
• Dotted Eighth Note
• Eighth Note

Chorus Controls

The Chorus effect offers two modes:

• Tri Chorus: A multi-dimensional chorus favorite. Lush, complex, modulated sounds combining three voices for a full, vibrant sound.
• Stereo Chorus: This mode is a classic chorus effect but with the modulation of the chorus being offset 180 degrees to the right channel to achieve the stereo width effect.

Other Features

• Three on-board presets (red, green, blue) plus a live mode (white).
• TRS MIDI ⅛” in and thru ports for MIDI control.
• USB-C port included for future firmware updates.
• Momentary Grain Freeze
• Momentary Grain + Max Reverb Freeze

Specs

• The Qi Etherealizer comes in a Terracotta finish featuring original artwork by Yvette Young OR a matte black finish with cream ink.
• 2x 1/4” Unbalanced Input Jacks (Stereo Left and Right)
• 2x 1/4” Unbalanced Left Output Jacks (Stereo Left and Right)
• Output Impedance - 220 Ohm
• Frequency Response - 20Hz to 20KHz
• 1/8” TRS MIDI In Type A
• 1/8” TRS MIDI Thru Type A
• DC (9v 300mA), Center Negative
• Exact Size of the die-cast enclosure (with knobs) is 5.83” x 4.87” x 2.30”
• Power requirements are 9VDC, center negative (300mA minimum).
• The use of an isolated power supply is recommended for powering all Walrus Audio pedals.
• Daisy chain power supplies are not recommended.
• Power supply not included.