Discomfort Designs Iceland Spar

Discomfort Designs Iceland Spar

Dual Looper and Sequencer Pedal

Iceland Spar is a pair of loopers that work mostly independently of each other, but share a common entropy. They both will record overdubs infinitely, and once you clear their buffers the loop is gone forever.

Drift: This controls the ‘always on’ onboard modulated reverb effect. There is no footswitch to control this parameter, turn CCW to remove completely.

Refract: Causes recorded loops to degrade and breakdown over time. Turning fully counter-clock wise, loops will remain in original condition. Pushing further clockwise will cause decay to occur more quickly. Unbend will undo the damage done by the Refract parameter, restoring loops to original condition.

Loop Controls: To capture a morsel in the temporal prism record a loop, tap the Loop 1 or 2 footswitch once to begin recording. Tap again to stop recording. To stop and clear the loop, hold the footswitch for two seconds. Gone forever. Bye bye.

Mix: These controls will allow independent volume settings for each loop.

Looper 1:

Dry/Wet switch allows Loop 1 to be recorded without the onboard drift effect, letting the loop to sit cleanly beneath signal passing over the top. Loop 1 Modes knob: Loops will playback at 100%, 50%, a harmonized fifth, and 200%. Clockwise from the noon position will be forward playback, and counter-clock wise will be reverse playback.

Looper 2

Seq/Chop switch: This will select either sequenced playback or chopped playback for Loop 2. In sequenced mode the recorded loop will cycle between 50%, 100%, and 200% playback modes. In chopped mode the recorded loop will be divided into the selected number of portions and played back in random order. Loop 2 Modes knob: In sequenced mode, this will control the speed of sequence cycling. In chopped mode, this will select the number of sections the loop is divided into. For longer loops, more sections yields more interesting results. ‘R’ indicates and randomly selected number, and ‘E’ will use Euclidian logic to select the number of divisions. Normal/Plus switch: This will take Loop 2 to the next level. In sequenced mode, the playback will be reversed. In chopped mode, the sections will be played back either at 50%, 100%, 200%, or 400% speed, chosen randomly.

Wild stuff.

Indeed.

Main Features

• Dual Looper Pedal
• Three distinct Modulation modes: Tremolo, Phaser and U-Vibe
• Tap Tempo
• Selectable Mono or Stereo (via TRS) inputs and outputs
• Selectable True or Buffered Bypass modes
• Metal Enclosure
• Includes 4 x Integrated fold-out Mounty-P Mounting Plates
• Powered by (opt.) 9 V DC PSU
  • (centre -, 2.1mm, ~ 100 mA current draw, not included)