Catalinbread Soft Focus

Catlinbread FX40 Soft Focus Reverb

The Yamaha FX500's Soft Focus patch was used by many early shoegaze bands in the 90s, most notably Slowdive on Souvlaki. The Catalinbread Soft Focus has its roots in this patch and is meant to be an instant shoegaze knob while fixing the most glaring problems of the original unit. The original unit had a very plug-and-play approach, offering no mix control, an inferior preamp and a ghastly, sound-sucking bypass signal.

At its core, the Soft Focus is a heavily modified plate reverb with adjustable time, which is then split into three paths. One path contains a 'symphonic' chorus modulator, another a well-equipped octaver mixed in with the reverb, and the third path leaves the reverb untouched. The Mod knob controls the speed of the chorus on the first path, and the Symphony knob controls the level of the octave on the second path. All controls are linked to the sound of the reverb, allowing the user to discover and fine-tune a wide range of sounds.

Our Soft Focus is not an exact replica, but has been extensively compared to our own FX500. The difference is that the Soft Focus patch contains a fairly generic digital delay with a fixed delay time. We found that retaining this feature was a little too taxing on the patch's memory, so we'll leave this addition to you and your favorite delay.

• Plate Reverb
• Controls: Smph, Mod, Verb, Mix, Volume
• True Bypass
• Power consumption: 9-18V DC minus internal
• Made in USA

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