Hey {{first_name|there}},
Rich Bischoff says it plainly in his new Stratus review: "I am not a huge AI proponent." So we were curious what he'd make of a pedal that builds effects from a sentence.
One rig, built from scratch
Rich clears a preset in the Chaos Audio app and starts over: a Friedman NAM amp capture, one of the built-in overdrives, the Mariner delay, then the Casino reverb. Once it's dialed in, his take is "crazy good usable tones."
Then one sentence for FX Builder
To finish, he types "1960s spring reverb from a Fender amp" into AI FX Builder, lets it generate, and installs it on the pedal. His verdict after playing through it: "It sounds pretty dang freaking good."
He's honest about the tradeoffs too. He found the controls on his new reverb a little odd, and he estimates Stratus handles two or three NAM captures before it hits its CPU limit. For him, it shines as one great amp sound on a board with real pedals, or a handful of strong presets.
Full disclosure: we sent Rich this Stratus for free, but the opinions are his own.
Want to try the same thing?
Stratus is $299 with free U.S. shipping. It includes 25+ built-in effects, up to 3 NAM A2 blocks with 800k+ free amp and pedal models, and 30 AI builds a month.
Prefer an amp? Nimbus runs the same FX Builder effects. Website reservations are $599, with delivery estimated for late February 2027.
Got a one-sentence effect idea? Hit reply. We read them!
Landon
Chaos Audio
