Parting: Emily Hopkins and OBNE Debut Creative Chaos
Creative fun chaos in a stompbox!
5,0 / 5,0 | 
In a collaboration that merges classical elegance with avant-garde signal processing, renowned harpist Emily Hopkins has teamed up with the boutique engineers at Old Blood Noise Endeavors (OBNE) to release Parting.
Parting
Parting is a sophisticated stereo effects processor designed to transform standard instruments into evolving, glitch-laden soundscapes. Exactly what you would expect from OBNE and Emily Hopkins, so expect some fun creativity with this new stompbox.
Dissolve
The architectural centerpiece of the pedal is the Dissolve control, a knob that shapes the audio’s fundamental character.
Rotating the control to the left crushes the signal into digital rubble through aggressive sample-rate reduction, while turning it to the right sends the audio backward through time via increasingly lo-fi reverse clocks.
Lush & Glitchy!
This central engine is flanked by a dual-sided architecture: lush modulations on the left and a delightfully unpredictable glitch-delay on the right that can be diffused into a shimmering reverb wash.
Glitch & Chance
The Glitch and Chance parameters allow the device to independently double or halve clock speeds and trigger delays at random intervals, ensuring that no two performances are identical. Perfect for adding some chaos to the performance.
This unpredictability is tempered by a comprehensive suite of Alt controls that allow users to fine-tune LFO subdivisions, stereo modulation spread, and output volume.
Despite its complex digital heart, the device maintains an analog dry-through path to preserve the integrity of the original instrument’s tone. Players can toggle between tremolo and vibrato, and between low-pass and high-pass filtering. It certainly looks like a lot of fun to play with, and I’m sure I could lose days in the studio playing with this unit.
Control
It features full stereo input and output, expression pedal compatibility, and MIDI integration for external tempo syncing and preset management. Making it a useful tool for adding some chaos and fun, yet still with modern control and ease of use, in terms of integration into music-making systems.
Verdict
Hopkins and OBNE have created a tool that encourages discovery, ranging from subtle vibrato to shattered, octave-jumping textures. I’m loving the demos, and I can see this being a lot of fun to play with.
They are available in green, grey (stone), or purple finishes. Aesthetically, it looks great, and the colours and the main graphic look good on all three versions.
Price & Availability
The official price is $329, and we will update you as soon as they are available at Thomann.
More Information
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