Berserker Electronics Aquanaut Review

“Analog voicing” in digital delays typically refers to approximations of the foggy, frayed echoes created by a chain of analog bucket brigade devices. Digital devices aspiring to analog-ness usually accomplish this with little EQ tweaks elsewhere in the chain. And it sounds cool when done right.Austin, Texas’ Berserker Electronics employs a multi-pronged approach to generating analog warmth from their very inexpensive, well-made, USA-built Aquanaut. To start, designer James Millican uses analog filtering at the input and output—inspired in part by the analog Way Huge Aqua-Puss and Boss DM-2. And for generating the repeats, he employs the PT2399 chip, an inexpensive and abundant digital unit originally conceived for karaoke machines that also drives delay devices like the EarthQuaker Space Spiral, Death By Audio Echo Dream 2, Caroline Kilobyte, and others categorized and marketed under the “vintage” and “lo-fi” umbrellas. This formula really works in the Aquanaut, adding an appealing analog-like toastiness that, apart from the absence of clock noise, could fool experienced analog delay users.Deftly Walking the Digital DivideThe few limitations in the Aquanaut design have little bearing in basic delay applications. If you use oscillation effects at high mix and repeat levels, however, you might find the Aquanaut’s controls feel a little uptight compared to true BBD effects. Some users might like this less twitchy and temperamental feel. But it’s likely everyone can appreciate the generously proportioned and easy-to-manipulate blend and delay knobs, which facilitate hands-on Nigel Godrich flying-saucer-liftoff effects, Jimmy Page Echoplex manglings, and other outer-limits oscillation-based sounds.“The Aquanaut responds to dirty, distorted tones in the same visceral, haunted way a BBD device does.”As for the repeats, they’re warm and contoured at the edges, with a little more capacity for midrange detail than the Supa-Puss and Carbon Copy I used for comparison. That said, there is haze aplenty. By pushing the PT2399 beyond its usual 300ms maximum repeat time spec, Millican introduced some distortion to the repeats. The analog input stage filtering, meanwhile, removes some of the high frequencies in that distortion. There’s also a diode limiter before the delay chip. This recipe adds a lot of the ambience—some might call it signal pollution—that makes real bucket brigade echoes sound so hazily mysterious and immersive. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hear slightly more of this ambience in the repeats of a Supa-Puss and Carbon Copy. But the Aquanaut’s version is pleasing and practical in other ways. And like my real BBD echoes, the Aquanaut responds to dirty, distorted tones in the same visceral, haunted way a BBD device does—rounding off edgy harmonic peaks and adding a very open compression that allows plenty of room for aggressive picking dynamics.The VerdictAt $129, the Aquanaut is just $20 less than the genuine bucket brigade MXR Carbon Copy and the same price as digital delays like the TC Flashback, which features a less dimensional “analog” simulation. Yet it’s a high-quality pedal, and the compromises inherent to this kind of design are executed in a way that doesn’t require many sacrifices in sound, quality, or value. James Millican and Berserker pulled off a nice balancing act here—assimilating virtues from great, straight-ahead BBDs without the clock noise, and with a little extra headroom and midrange fidelity that dovetails beautifully with drive, distortion, and fuzz.