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Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal - Black

Multi-FX Guitar Pedal with 6 Programs and Mod, Verb, Delay, Time, Mix, Distortion, and Parallel/Series Controls - Black
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Item ID: SoftFocusDlx
Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal - Black
Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal - Black
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Soft Focus Deluxe Shoegaze Multi-effects Pedal with EBS Patch Cables

Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal with Power Supply and Cable - Black
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Product Image - This Item - Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal - Black
Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal - Black
$305.99
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Link to Gator Cableworks Backline Series Instrument Cable - 10 foot
$14.99
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Link to Gator GTR-PWR-1 Slim 9V 1700Ma DC Power Supply
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The Definitive Suite of Authentic Shoegaze Sounds

The Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe revamps the brand's popular Soft Focus concept of a shoegaze multi-effects device, providing a springboard for players to lace up and dive instantly into game-changing, space-saving swirls of celestial sound. The Deluxe contains the original's reverb, chorus, and shimmer features (each inspired by rackmount hardware that fueled shoegaze classics, such as Slowdive's Souvlaki) and dramatically expands them with delay for ultra-lush time-based enhancement and distortion for maelstroms of texture. Plus, there's room to add a tap tempo switch or expression pedal for more control. Furthermore, six program variations on the Soft Focus patch expand tone options with the ability to highlight aspects of the reverb, chorus, distortion, shimmer, or delay — after all, no two shoegaze players ever sound exactly alike! Want angelic soundscapes and battered symphonic swirls at the touch of a button? This dynamic pedal from Sweetwater has you covered!

Related Videos: Soft Focus Deluxe Multi-effects Pedal - Black

Honey, they shrunk the shoegaze!

The Soft Focus concept is simple yet highly ambitious: deliver monumental walls of shoegaze sound with a single pedal. The Soft Focus Deluxe's tiny form factor fully realizes this concept with all-encompassing effects, including wide-ranging delay options and footswitchable distortion. Players are bound to save on pedalboard space with built-in distortion, which lets them freely devote their other dirt pedals to different needs. You can rapidly toggle between sweet, relatively clean symphonic tones and swirls of gnashing, hard-clipped atmospherics pummeled by distortion. This distortion is tuned for shoegaze and complements other Soft Focus sections with boosted volume and crunchy presence that varies depending on where the controls are set. Best of all, the distortion's Series/Parallel toggle brings a welcome layer of precise control to driven sounds. In Parallel mode, the distorted signal replaces your dry signal (where the Mix knob is concerned), unlocking precise blends of articulate distortion and the main channel's atmospherics.

Extraordinary patch additions

Joining the original Soft Focus patch are five program variations that push the reverb, modulation, octave, and delay to extreme dimensions. Explore everything from heightened octave emphasis to near-infinite reverb decays!

  • Program 1: The classic Soft Focus patch — reverb, slight shimmer, chorus-like modulation, and smooth compression
  • Program 2: Expanded reverb capabilities with cavernous sound and the potential for near-infinite decays
  • Program 3: Doubled modulation with a second chorus and a higher modulation ceiling for extra warble
  • Program 4: Boosts the Soft Focus patch's octave overtones for greater lush symphonics
  • Program 5: Augments the octave up using a major third, with altered octave functions handled via adjustments of the Delay knob
  • Program 6: Adds delay mix expression control to the standard Soft Focus patch for sudden time warps and dramatic sudden twists of sonic space

Fix your gaze on these extra perks

Players can alter and expand the Soft Focus Deluxe's sound and behavior at multiple points. Connecting an 18-volt power supply expands the pedal's headroom — an especially valuable feature for those who favor loud cleans and smoother shoegaze tones. Next, the Parallel/Series toggle lets you merge or separate distorted signals with radically different results in each position. Lastly, a rear-panel jack allows expression pedal and tap tempo connections (Catalinbread recommends its Tap Tempo pedal for tap control). The expression controller maps to the pedal's delay time, except in Program 6, where it adjusts the delay's mix level to empower dramatic fades of repeating sound.

Catalinbread Soft Focus Deluxe Features:

  • Expands Catalinbread's acclaimed original Soft Focus pedal with a more comprehensive suite of shoegaze FX
  • Chorus, shimmer, and reverb FX based on a famous patch used by '90s shoegaze bands, such as Slowdive
  • 6-mode program selector unlocks reverb, modulation, octave, and delay variations ranging from subtle to dramatic
  • Delay and footswitchable distortion round out this truly comprehensive deluxe shoegaze pedal's tools
  • Hard-clipped distortion circuit is carefully tuned for shoegaze and offers series/parallel switching for precise tone adjustments
  • Expression pedal and tap tempo switch compatibility fuels seamless control that translates well to live performance
  • Can be powered at 18V for greater headroom

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Tech Specs

  • Pedal Type: Reverb
  • Analog/Digital: Digital
  • Inputs: 1 x 1/4"
  • Outputs: 1 x 1/4"
  • Other I/O: 1 x 1/4" (Tap/expression)
  • Bypass Switching: Buffered Bypass (trails mode)
  • Power Source: 9-18V DC power supply (sold separately)
  • Manufacturer Part Number: Soft Focus Deluxe

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Reviews

2.8

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Dreamy Ambience… Now with Distortion!
Catalinbread's FX40 Soft Focus is a very specific effect pedal aimed at replicating the ambience heard on an early 1990's UK band's recordings (guess who) with some tweak-ability. The FX40 Soft Focus Deluxe changes the controls a bit and adds some new features: six (6) program variations, delay, a "tap" and expression pedal input, and a high-gain distortion that runs either in series before the "Soft Focus" effect or parallel to blend effects.
The physical dimensions are wider, taller, and not as long as the original pedal.
The "SYMPH" knob from the original is gone. The "SYMPH" mix is tied to the "mod" depth to maintain a sweet spot between the two parameters. Increase the modulation (tailored chorus) depth and an octave effect increases in relation.
The "VOL" knob is gone in favor of the distortion ("DST LVL").
The new program ("PRGM") knob dials in one of six variations from the standard behavior of the original FX40 Soft Focus to increased reverb tails, modulation voice, shimmer, and expression control of input volume.
Two new knobs ("DLY" and "TIME") control an added delay effect.
The "DST LVL" knob, separate distortion footswitch, and parallel / series switch are my personally favorite additions to this pedal. Understand this distortion is at fixed gain and volume to complement the Soft Focus effect either in the front end (series) or concurrent (parallel). It is high and tight like a Marine's haircut! The "DST LVL" knob blends this effect in. Thusly, there is no break-up when turned completely clockwise. The distortion may be used on its own which is cool for leads or any other reason to use a high-gain op-amp distortion, but probably not for power chord crunch. It is really dialed-in for sweetness!
Like other Catalinbread pedals, at least the ones I use, FX40 Soft Focus deluxe accepts up to 18v power supply for boost and increased headroom; another boon for distortion.
The "MIX", "MOD", and "VERB" knobs are basically the same functions as the original Soft Focus pedal in program one (1) except: "MIX" and distortion when parallel mode is engaged, and "MOD" with absence of the original "SYMPH" parameter knob.
The added distortion circuit was the selling point for me since I already owned the original FX40 Soft Focus. I like the deluxe edition for use with double pick-ups; particularly in the bridge position.
My only ding on this pedal is the specific nature of the effect. Granted, the deluxe edition has a lot more to offer than its predecessor.
However, the pedal delivers the dreamy ambience associated with Shoegaze rock of bygone decades...
focused to those sweet spots...
Now, with Distortion!
by Sweetwater Customer on
Not worth the price of admission

Bought this a year ago and returned it immediately. For what it can do, it wasn't worth the price of admission at the time for me. No 9V power supply for a $ plus boutique pedal was such a joke. At the time I bought a $ Behringer Octave Divider and it included a 9v power supply. Go figure.


Although it sounds good and has great features that is all on a small pedal. Reverb, mod, Delay, Octave up, distortion. Its a pedal I wish I could have convinced myself to keep but my Headrush Prime and Keeley Loomer covered all my reverb needs.


For a nearly $ pedal, it should offer more than it already does like Stereo in/outs, 9v Power supply, Reverse Reverb mode, Distortion volume/gain knobs and volume knob for Reverb. But for $ it is fine as is.

by MB from NEW YORK, NY on
Music background: Guitarist 16 Years
Enormous Disappointment
I'll start by saying that the standard Catalinbread Soft Focus might be my favorite pedal of all time, definitely top 2. I'm sad to say that this Deluxe version was so disappointing I'll probably end up selling it, but I'm going to keep giving it a chance for a while.

First, when it was announced, I was INCREDIBLY bummed that they didn't take this opportunity to provide a stereo option. It boggles my mind that they wouldn't do this with an incredible ambient pedal, and I'd been dreaming of a deluxe version with a stereo out. However, it's a deluxe version of my desert island pedal, so I still had to buy one.

The "distortion," in my opinion, is appalling. It's really more of a shrill, low to maybe medium gain overdrive with absolutely no EQ, just volume. You get to turn an ice-pick bright, unusable sound up and down and that's it. Obviously there's no room left for an EQ with everything else this pedal has going on, so I feel this feature was completely unnecessary and should not have been included. Stick to the point of this pedal, which is ethereal ambiance, and let us use our own dirt.

The delay is just ok, but the settings that integrate it with the actual Soft Focus stuff are pretty nice. I was doing just fine with my own delays though, and I don't find myself using those settings much. The delay controls also prevent the pedal from providing all of the Soft Focus controls, so I can't get the same sounds from this as my standard SF pedal. Another feature that I ultimately feel was not necessary to include. Catalinbread should have stuck to the reasoning they used when they decided not to include a delay on the standard SF; the original unit's delay was mediocre and not worth including, and so is this one.

The few settings that accentuate the actual Soft Focus sounds are beautiful, and the only reason I didn't immediately return this pedal.

One thing that really bugs me about all this is that Catalinbread's Deluxe Belle Epoch and Deluxe Dirty Little Secret are truly deluxe versions of those pedals - they take the original pedals, expand upon them, and are awesome. The DBE is still a tape delay, and the DDLS is still a Marshall in a box. They didn't add a fuzz to the former and a ring mod to the latter or anything like that. It's insane that the Deluxe Soft Focus has to have all the actual SF stuff shoved aside for other completely different effects that don't need to be there at all. If Catalinbread had made a deluxe version centered around what the Soft Focus actually is, and not tried to cram in other, unnecessary effects, this would have been one of the greatest pedals of all time. Instead, it's a below-average multi-effects pedal that happens to have some really great ambient reverb available on some settings.

There were so many incredible possibilities with a Deluxe Soft Focus, and this thing took advantage of maybe one or two of them. PLEASE try again Catalinbread; I hate this pedal, but I still love you.
by CC from Ohio on
See also: Chorus, Catalinbread, Catalinbread Reverb & Delay Pedals, Catalinbread Chorus Pedals, Catalinbread Multi-effects Pedals