Introducing Parting: OBNE and Emily Hopkins' Glitch Delay & Reverb Collaboration
Old Blood Noise Endeavors has teamed up with experimental harpist Emily Hopkins to introduce Parting, a boundary-pushing glitch delay and reverb modulation device designed for adventurous musicians. Built around signal crushing, reverse effects, and chance-based manipulation, Parting blends delay, reverb, and modulation into an unpredictable yet musical sound design tool.
From fractured rhythms to smeared ambient textures, this collaborative pedal invites guitarists, harpists, synth players, and producers to explore evolving soundscapes driven by randomness and creative interaction.
Who Is Parting For
Parting is an OBNE pedal designed for musicians and sound designers who see effects as instruments rather than simple tone enhancers. It's ideal for experimental guitarists, ambient and post-rock players, and artists exploring glitch, noise, and textural music.
Thanks to its wide dynamic range and non-traditional response, Parting also shines with harp, synthesizers, drum machines, and studio setups. Players who enjoy unpredictability, generative effects, and discovering new sounds through hands-on interaction will feel right at home with this guitar pedal.
Concept & Inspiration
The OBNE Parting was born from a close creative collaboration between Old Blood Noise Endeavors and experimental harpist Emily Hopkins, whose work often blends extended techniques, unconventional effects, and generative textures. The pedal draws inspiration from glitch processing, signal crushing, reverse playback, and ambient sound design, embracing imperfections and randomness as musical elements.
Rather than aiming for pristine repeats or predictable modulation, Parting is designed to fracture, bend, and recontextualize incoming audio, encouraging players to let go of control and discover evolving soundscapes shaped by chance and interaction.
Core Sound Engine
At the heart of the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Parting is a central control that defines the pedal's identity, pushing the signal into crushed, fragmented textures or flipping it entirely into reverse. This single knob acts as the main point of transformation, dramatically reshaping dynamics, transients, and timing.
As the signal is broken apart, every other section of the pedal responds to these changes, creating complex interactions between modulation, delay, and reverb. The result is a sound engine that feels less like a traditional effects chain and more like a living system, where subtle adjustments can lead to entirely new and unexpected sonic outcomes.
Modulation Section
The modulation section of Parting adds movement and instability to the crushed signal, with selectable types of modulation that range from subtle motion to dramatic pitch and amplitude frequency shifts. Controlled by the knobs on the left side of the pedal, this section can gently animate textures or push them further into warped, glitch-like territory.
As modulation interacts with the core sound engine, timing and depth are influenced by Parting's internal randomness, ensuring that patterns rarely repeat the same way twice. This makes modulation feel organic and evolving, ideal for creating constantly shifting drones, pulses, and fractured rhythms.
Delay, Glitch & Reverb Section
On the right side of Parting, delay and reverb controls introduce chance-based and envelope-controlled glitch processing that reacts dynamically to your playing. The delay can stutter, smear, or fragment incoming notes, with unpredictable timing shifts that add a distinctly broken, digital character.
As the effect is pushed further, these repeats can be blurred into a lush, unstable reverb, transforming sharp glitches into expansive ambient washes. This section excels at turning simple phrases into evolving textures, where echoes dissolve, regenerate, and drift in unexpected ways.
Randomness & Interaction
Randomness is a core design element of Parting, shaping how every section responds to your playing. Internal, chance-based clock changes continuously alter timing relationships between modulation, delay, and reverb, preventing static or perfectly repeating patterns. These subtle shifts introduce variation, instability, and surprise without feeling chaotic or unusable.
Because each control influences multiple parts of the signal path, small adjustments can dramatically change the outcome, encouraging hands-on exploration. The result is an interactive instrument that rewards experimentation, where Parting feels less programmed and more like a collaborator in the creative process.
Conclusion
Parting is less a traditional effects pedal and more a creative instrument built for exploration. Through its blend of glitch processing, signal crushing, modulation, and chance-based delay and reverb, Old Blood Noise Endeavors and Emily Hopkins have created a device that thrives on unpredictability. For musicians seeking evolving textures and generative sound design, Parting offers a unique and inspiring approach to effects.
The OBNE Parting is now available on DeathCloud.