I’ve always used Maude at guitar level (or via a guitar-line level interface) so not sure about line level; can easily check for you though and report back.
As others have said here it is definitely dark. No doubt about that. The tone control has more of an effect on shaping the repeats and character of oscillation than it does at brightening things up.
But that is the joy of BBD delays in my opinion. Also, if you don’t cut the high frequencies enough you get all the horrid clock noise.
This also works well in a synth/eurorack type context (where sound sources, unless filtered, typically have a lot of bass and treble content).
The Maude also has a send/return loop on the same jack as the CV (so you can’t have CV and the loop). This is something I’ve not played with properly yet but plan to (could be really interesting with a pitch shifter for a BBD ‘shimmer’ effect).
The compressor and random modulation give the Maude a character and tonality that I have not heard in any other delay pedal (or indeed plugin). It’s unique and embraces all the idiosyncrasies of BBD’s, rather than trying to perfect them. It works as well as a processing box (with delay set at minimum and mix at full) as it does a delay. Almost the audio equivalent of a ‘vintage filter’ effect you get on photo apps.
I think I’ve effused about it before on here, but there is really nothing else like it as far as I’m aware.
