Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Eventide reboots its Single-Core H9 Harmonizer Multi-Effects Processor now in fully MAX Gen 2 Edition with all 74 of Eventide's Algorithms
So this new H9 is essentially a fully-loaded Single Core variant of the H90. The larger H90 predecessor allows you to deploy 2 x Stereo Effects simultaneously - and hence is referred to as a Dual-Core Multi-Effects Processor. Where the new Gen 2 H9 has all the same key features and functions as the H90 - but can only deploy a single Stereo Effect at a time - hence Single-Core.
The original unit had a cool looking but pretty useless onboard interface - which was mostly saved by the Bluetooth...
Meris Evolves and Super-Sizes its Bitcrusher / Sequencer / Texturizer - now the Ottobit X Modular Degradation and Texture Engine / Workstation
I’m a little late with this as Meris held back the press release until launch - so I was only provided with the details at the same time as everyone else - which is really rather unusual. I had a number of other projects already on the go - and so I’m a couple days late with this!
As always - each Meris device delivers way beyond its specific core category, its Enzo X for instance is almost as much a multi-modulator as it is a synth - and here we have lots of extras thrown into the mix - ...
2026 May Pedal-Chain Update - Episode V - Giga-Hoard Modulated Fuzz'n'Drive Board
May has been a little bit of strange month - lots of delays really, and waiting for pedals to land.
As inevitably happens most months - much was delayed this month, and I was unable to complete some of the larger articles - they will need to wait until next month, there’s certainly lots of projects in progress. Where new and imminent arrivals kind of scuppered several intended projects - hopefully they can be completed in June.
The first event I’m attending this month is tomorrow - as a micropub ...
My Gamechanger Audio RECODER Spectral Morphing Workstation has landed - a really interesting digital phrase recorder, modulator, modifier and looper!
WHAT is the RECODER?
’A SPECTRAL MORPHING WORKSTATION’
- a signal cross-pollinator
- a dynamic filter
- a moving audio prism
- a ghostly vocoder
- a formant resonator
- a granular echo creator
- a sound-imprint machine
Bastl Instruments reinvents the Kalimba as an evolved multi-mode Synthesizer
This has been all over social media as of late, and I do generally enjoy the Kalimba format - I use mine quite a lot with my Boss RC-600 Loop Station - it’s a great instrument for looping and tweaking on-the-fly. And I had long considered the £275 Lottie Canto Colour Palette take on the Kalimba - which adds 8 effects to the core Kalimba - mine just has the output jack - which works very nicely with my wireless system. While Bastl Instruments’ take is a whole other category. Essentially the ...
Has the Full MIDI and Bluetooth App-enabled Tonex One+ come too late for me?
I own 3 ToneX Ones to date, actually possibly 4 even, and while I always managed to get pretty decent tones out of them - they were also a source of significant frustration for me.
I had gotten used to the onboard control topology which can get complex as you have secondary and tertiary controls on every knob and switch! - you can read about that in my ’Satch Tonex One Edition Pedal Overview’ - where I dive into the tiniest of details. So the pedal is pretty decent, while it was always ...
Chase Bliss rolls out another interesting variant of its Automatone Auto-Slider Format - the Big Time Hybrid Echo / Delay - in collaboration with EAE's John Snyder
There were all kinds of weird rumours going around before the launch of this pedal - I though it was more likely to be a sympathetic resonance modulator / filter style thing - where there are filters here - but used rather to define the different delay voicings.
This is mostly a digital device, I’m not 100% clear on the inflection of ’Hybrid’ in respect to Delay here - as there are no specific analog / BBD delay-line components that I’m aware of. This is very much a sibling to the CXM 1978 ...
Isn'tses brilliantly combines creative sound generation with electronic arts and design for its series of Experimental Mini Art Synthesisers
At the recent inaugural Birmingham Noise Maker Market Show, one of the highlights for me was London-based Isn’tses - namely duo Lisa McKendrick and Tim Drage - who perform highly stylised experimental electronic music with colourful visuals and costumes to match - including Mexican Lucha Libre animal masks.
They make their own instruments too - including this superbly themed quartet / quadfecta of mini noise-maker Art-Synths featured here. Each of those has a highly evocative theme and a ...
Japan's Bananana Effects have finally released the intriguing near-zero-latency Quimera Polyphonic Synthesizer / Sound Designer
While obviously a DSP / digital product - the Quimera (Chimera!) has very analog sensibilities in terms of how you build up those sounds - in the most elemental synthesis component fashion - Oscillators and LFO’s, Resonant Filters, Modifiers and FX. This is for proper synthesizer aficionados who want to bring minimal latency synthesis to their guitar, bass or vocals.
This is in the ballpark of the flagship Boss SY-1000 and Meris Enzo X Synthesizer pedals - which also have a component ...
The 'King of Tremolos' - the Intrepid Audio Crossflow is now available at Pedal Jungle in the UK
I have come across the Crossflow Modulating Stereo Tremolo & Expression Controller a few time now. Reinforced by my friend Henry Kaiser - who pointed out that this was a recent enhanced take on the Diffractor Soundings Arboretum Tremolo.
The Arboretum has 9 x Knobs, 3 x Toggle-switched, and 3 x Footswitches, compared to the Crossflow’s 7 x Knobs, 6 x multi-function push-buttons, and 3 x Footswitches also. The Crossflow has a little more to it, looks a little cleaner with its control ...
