Whenever you go to buy a pedal nowadays, there's always the age-old question of whether you'd be happier with an analog or digital circuit. After exploring the analog vs. delay debate with regard to delay pedals, Reverb's resident expert Andy Martin is back in the studio to compare analog and digital chorus pedals.
Analog circuits carry the longstanding label of being inherently "warm" to the sterility of their "bright" digital counterparts. But as you can hear Andy prove in the very first moments of this video, that claim is not only reductive, it's also just incorrect. Digital circuitry has grown tremendously over the past several years and is now not only capable of convincingly delivering the warmth of analog, but also brings a whole list of feature advantages in some cases.
Check out the video above to hear Andy break down what really makes a chorus work—how the signal is generated in each type of circuit—and compare a slew of analog pedals (including the Boss CE-1, Boss CE-2W, and ThorpyFX Deep Oggin) to a parade of digital counterparts (including the Caroline Somersault, Boss MD-200, and more). Do you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
Analog:
Digital: