I was a touch critical about the HX One - possibly overly so - as it’s really decent for what it delivers and how. While I could not be more effusively positive about this new POD Express!
For anyone starting out in guitar effects - you get everything you need in one smart little box - with intuitive and mostly surfaced control (vs Noise Gate).
If I was thinking of buying in my very first guitar effect pedal - then I don’t think I could do better than this. It contains 7 Amp & Cab ...
We’re steadily seeing the Boss 20-Series pedals being replaced now, and the VE-20 is the latest to get a very significant upgrade. The new VE-22 moves things on pretty massively and completely revamps and enhances the form factor, switches, knobs and overall control interface - with 3 core switches now in place of the former 2 - and really smart dedicated controls for each of the core functions - all served by a highly visibly and usable LED screen.
If you’re a singer or vocal performer of ...
The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!
Joel obviously dropped a number of clues as to what Chase Bliss’s new pedal would be - and most guessed it was some kind of Lo-Fi / Fidelity Reducing - Filter / Compressor / Bitcrusher type of thing. While typically ’Bitcrushing’ is associated with the extreme 8bit style of effect which typically creates harder, harsher and more brittle artefacts - while the Lossy is a much more expansive, refined and nuanced affair.
Goodhertz describe their own source Lossy Plugin as the "infinitely ...
We’ve had the Gold Sparkle Fuzzly Bear, Luminous Glow-in-the-dark Queequeg, and Lilac Edition Moai Maea 4-Level Analog Octaver, and now unique Purple Guardian of the Wurm - further details below.
Every distinct one-off pedal will be signed by KMA’s founder Enrico Preuss, and will have the winner’s name UV printed on the backplate. NOTE that these special pedals will NOT be made available for sale - ever! So they really will be unique One-Off single items.
As before :
To take part in the ...
Another busy month - doubly busy as I was working on the new website and commercial plans for the most part on top of the normal hectic schedule. Inevitably there are a few pedals that get moved into October - as I just ran out of time - still plenty of coverage. October is going to be incredibly hectic as I’m expecting a lot of incoming pedals - so a lot of review work to complete and a couple more sizeable projects.
I feel the website launch went mostly very well and was universally well ...
Boss shakes up the Noise Gate Pedal market with its revolutionary Multi Dimensional Processing - which scans all incoming frequencies and smartly filters out noisier artefacts right across the frequency spectrum. It’s entirely unique in its approach, and thus can not only deliver a ’cleaner’ sound, it also has a lot more nuance in how you dial it in, and how you refine the clamping action, and the impact of that Noise Gate Clamp. You can kind of think of it as a highly intelligent comb style of...
Sua Devices has its roots in the landscape, culture and language of the Basque Country. Where circuit engineer and designer Andoni Conde is based in the capital of that region - Bilbao.
Sua means fire in the Basque language, and Aker is a shortened form of the Basque word Akerbeltz - meaning literally ’black goat’ - a sort of embodiment of satan in Basque lore. The various symbols on the enclosure are created by Bilbao local tattoo artist @the____cold and are various icon-like renderings of...
So IK Multimedia / AmpliTube has at last released a pedal hardware version of its highly celebrated ToneX Modelling Software - thereby issuing a challenge to Kemper, Fractal Audio, Helix and everything else that it out there. Of course most of those other devices are infused with Multi-FX - some with very extensive Effects Libraries, while this ToneX pedal has simply 5 Stereo Reverbs (from the X-Space), a Compressor, Noise-Gate and 3-Band Parametric EQ beyond its Modelling abilities.
The ...
^ 2022 Final Arrangement - December
So the time has come again to to the final reckoning of the layout and composition of this year’s ultimate pedal chain arrangement. I’ve introduced a new ’⚓’ symbol into the visual - which indicates those Slots / Pedals that are unchanged from last year’s Class of 2021 arrangement. That element really is testament to how much has changed between years. It’s also indicative of how much I love those particular pedals - and pretty much find them ...