New Gear Review: Attack Decay by Electro-Harmonix
Electro-Harmonix revives and revamps the Attack Decay, a lauded effects stompbox produced for only a brief time in the early 1980s.
In the world of pedals, it’s not uncommon for existing designs to cross-pollenate, be recycled, and re-influence new generations. Today, the reissuing of an older pedal is no longer a big deal. But when that pedal offers a very rare, very sought-after effect, things become a little bit more interesting.
Such is the case with the Attack Decay ‘Tape Reverse Simulator’, a pedal that Electro-Harmonix premiered at this year’s NAMM conference. However, unlike a few of the other designs debuted at the annual music gathering, the Attack Decay is actually a slight update of a much older pedal bearing the same name that the Long Island City-based manufacturer produced for a very limited time, between 1980 and 1981.
Features
Like its forefather, the name of the pedal is a bit misleading. The Attack Decay can do much more than shape volume envelopes, which is its primary billed purpose. With dials for both attack and decay time, a plethora of bowed instrument sounds, volume swells, and indeed, backwards tape sounds are possible with nothing more than the pedal and an electric guitar.
This pedal also has an overall volume knob, as well as a knob for setting the sensitivity of the envelope trigger; higher settings mean that quieter sounds will still trigger the pedal. Shortening the decay time also allows for the production of banjo or shamisen-like sounds, which are surprisingly convincing paired with the built-in fuzz.
Yes, the Attack Decay—just like the original—also has a built-in fuzz circuit. Here it’s named ‘Harmonix’, with knobs for volume, tone, and gain. Harmonix is activated via the left footswitch, which also serves to cycle through three presets (and a ‘Live mode’) when held down for two seconds. Saving a preset is incredibly simple as well—simply press and hold one of the buttons for two seconds.
Unsurprisingly, the overtones and overdrive introduced by Harmonix will boost your signal’s volume considerably, so having a separate volume control is incredibly handy. While it’d be easy to see this fuzz as an add-on, the saturation it produces is rich, deep, and flexible, and allows much more harmonic variation to come from the pedal. By cranking Harmonix with a setting using a long attack and decay, you are able to conjure about Haight-Ashbury levels of swirl in seconds.
Attack Decay works in two modes that handle envelope retriggering slightly differently. When in Mono mode, each note triggers the envelope settings individually, cutting off the sound of the previous note. Despite being called Mono mode, chords do work here, albeit with all the notes sharing one envelope.
In Poly mode, as you’ve probably guessed, each note gets its own envelope regardless of what other notes are present, allowing the Attack Decay to process chords and arpeggios and churn out a lovely shimmer. Electro-Harmonix has said that Poly mode comes from similar functionality in the HOG2, and some digital ‘bubbles’ can sometimes be heard when the input of the pedal is fighting to detect the pitch of the incoming audio. These can combine with the fuzz circuit to produce some pretty unique sounds.
There are a few other secondary modes that allow for even more sonic mayhem. One of the most fun is the Continuous Envelope mode. When in this mode, the envelope automatically cycles back to the attack shape after the decay cycle finishes, which means the pedal can be used as a tremolo effect, albeit one with individual control over the rise and fall times of the cycle. So much is possible in this mode that it almost feels like using another pedal, and when combined with Harmonix, the variation of results multiply exponentially. Slowly, the Attack Decay reveals itself as less of an envelope pedal and more of a sonic trickster with several personalities.
An internal compressor is built into the circuit, though this can be turned off or left on, with the setting being saved with each preset. There is also an effects loop on the Attack Decay, which allows you to process the signal with any effects of your choice before it reaches the volume envelope, while still using the dry signal to trigger the effect.
Using the effects loop really opens up the sonic possibilities of the Attack Decay. For example, putting a delay pedal into the effects send and return throws the Attack Decay’s swells into repeats, even though the envelope is only being triggered by the dry sound input.
If that’s not enough, every single knob on the Attack Decay can be controlled by an expression pedal or CV input, meaning the pedal could be integrated into a modular setup or a tabletop hardware rig. Furthermore, the Attack Decay can also be configured so that external clocks can work as a trigger source, providing regularly timed envelope triggers. If using the pedal simply for distortion via the Harmonix circuit, the send jack can be used as the main output.
In Use
There are so many things that the Attack Decay can do that testing it is an intensive affair. The first thing to note is that it’s worth taking a minute to dial in the sensitivity knob just right so that your notes are triggering the envelope controls at all dynamic levels. In Poly mode, Electro-Harmonix suggests that the best results will come if you use either the attack or decay knob, leaving the other set in an off position. However, some of the digital artifacts that can result if both are used might be exactly the kind of detritus you’re looking for. If you’re familiar with any of the pitch artifacts of pedals like the Boss PS-3, you know what to expect.
In Mono mode, attack and decay curves can be changed and chosen independently, with the choice of parabolic, linear, and S-curve options. These choices are really felt given that the max time for both attack and decay is 8 seconds! It’s also worth noting that the Poly mode envelope times are in different knob positions than in Mono mode, so flipping between two modes might take a bit of adjusting.
Once you are familiar with the various things the Attack Decay can do, the sounds within this pedal are quite astounding. The Harmonix control turns this seemingly innocent modulator into a roaring fuzz pedal, with CV control no less. That is worth the price of admission alone. And using the pedal in Continuous Envelope mode, with an expression pedal mapped to either envelope, mixed with some Harmonix, puts you in very swampy blues territory that would take several other pedals to recreate. And of course, it’s possible to use the Attack Decay in more typical volume pedal situations as well. Once set up, it works terrifically to get those smooth volume pedal swoops that Roy Buchanan was known for.
To Be Critical
There is so much at hand that, as mentioned, it takes a bit to figure out all of the sonic potential of the Attack Decay. Whether or not it holds up to the sonics that the old version is valued for is hard to say and largely irrelevant, given the improvements in this new version.
One thing I did note was that it’s slightly difficult to set the threshold at an appropriate level when used in a more complicated signal chain. It really matters where the pedal is placed in your chain, as any significant changes in volume are going to alter how it reacts. Electro-Harmonix suggests that it works best early in the chain of effects, and that was what I found as well.
Summing it Up
While there are other envelope pedals on the market, including a model by Pigtronix that is quite impressive, none of them come with the sonic boldness and subtle depth of the Attack Decay pedal.
Some of its functionality is similar in concept to EHX pedals like the HOG2 and Super-Ego, each of which has their own fan base, but the Attack Decay is going to find its own set of users who want to turn their guitars into huge, psychedelic pools of sound—all for $125. And given the CV connectivity power of the Attack Decay, it comes highly recommended as a studio tool for a wide array of uses as well. It hardly matters that the pedal is a reissue; Electro-Harmonix’s Attack Decay is a winner.
Leo Maymind is a producer, DJ, and writer living in Los Angeles, CA. He is obsessed with sound, and you can reach him at lmaymind@gmail.com.
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