New Pedals in the Class of 2025 Pedal-Chain Snapshot = 41

[OCTOBER]  = 9

[NOVEMBER] = 6

[MARCH] = 5

[SEPTEMBER] = 5

[AUGUST] = 4

[JANUARY] = 3

[FEBRUARY]  = 3

[APRIL] = 2

[JUNE] = 2

[MAY] = 1

[JULY] = 1

[A-Z by Brand]

1. Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
2. Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
3. Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
4. Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker

In many ways this is the most straightforward category with singular award nominees - GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.

It’s the second smallest category after Distortions - and the one where I own the least number of pedals in proportion to the whole - just 10 out of these 26.

The order pretty much set itself - with the Cornerstone Nucleo being the clear winner from the start. I’m so impressed with every aspect of that pedal - it’s a perfect Trifecta of Design, Feaures and Playability - pretty ...

What we have here is a killer Trifecta of potent shoegazer-enhanced compact editions - where two of them are fully Stereo capable.

Conventional wisdom would decree the order of : Treble Overload > Moonbeam Phaser > Dream Station.

While for shoegazer optimisation you need to reverse the order and put the reverb at the front of the chain - as several demoers have done below. I quite like Ian Pritchard’s setup too - with the Dream Station in the middle, and Thee Treble Overlaod in front! ...

Set up by 2 former Gamechanger Audio alumni - Toms Lazdovskis and Matiss Tazans - with a Team steeped in Darkglass Electronics / Neural DSP and Marshall.

The pedigree and provenance is pretty clear here, and Menha.Works have understandably come up with an ulra modern killer aesthetic for heir very unique new Monk Echo + Reverb. The Monk Echo is inspired by  Baltic Choirs and Mystical Spiritual Spaces.

Apart from the gorgeous design here, the Monk Echo has a unique Human Formant Voicing ...

The Mood is Chase Bliss’s most perennially popular and celebrated bestseller - by far and away the most sold Chase Bliss pedal to date.

It also happens to have had the most different special and limited edition artworks - and I’ve selected 4 each of those for the Mood I and Mood II - I’m sure I’ve probably overlooked 1 or 2 variants - while hopefully I’ve covered all he best looking ones!

Up until now the Light Bright edition was my favourite - while I feel that may have been pipped by the new ...

DBA has rolled out a really cool stretched out, endless, and cavernous stereo reverberator here - making use of TRS ports, and with 3 increasingly intense Modes onboard.

It’s a fairly simple pedal in many ways - but super smart too with its dual footswitches, and Low Pass Filter. It’s perfect for those who want to deliver a ’Big’ reverb sound in Stereo - in the most straightforward of manners. And the Modes and 2nd Footswitch throw in some useful variations.

External Controls - Dry>Wet Mix...

I’m a little late to this one - in fact too late - as not many of these were made - and seemingly they’re all sold out now. These were priced at just $150 and were available direct from Hungry Robot. $150 is really exceptional value for a pedal which consists of 2 different Reverbs, 2 Chorus Modes, a Low Pass Filter, and a Distortion - and features Dual Footswitches too!

Controls - Hollow (Low Pass Filter), Bloom (Long Decay Pad Reverb), Layer (Octave Up + Down Reverb), Chorale (2-Mode ...

I believe this is the 4th in OBNE’s Square Stereo Series - following on from the Dark Start, Black Fountain, and Bathing Liminal pedals. As it says in the title - it combines two of OBNE’s ambient pedals - the Sunlight and Procession - here enhanced with further features and granulary, of course with full Stereo signal now, and onboard presets. This Sunlight has 10 controls :

Controls - Dry, Dynamics, Decay, Feedback, Rate : 1/4 | 1/3 | 1/2 | 1x | 2x | 3x | 4x, Depth, Shape : Tape / ...

So this is a really interesting experiment by Alexander Pedals in channelling Modulated Reverb elements into a sort of synthesizer format. Synthesizers are mostly composed of Oscillators and Filters - where Alexander has deployed Modulated Reverb to similar ends.

You get really interesting Ghostly Synthy Reverb Textures - rendered in stereo - for an exceedingly ethereal sci-fi kind of experience!

Controls - Decay, Space, Blend, Level, Sense (Off CCW), Swell : Filter / Post / Pre, Rate, ...