The Modutility roundup combines Modulation, Utility and Pitch type pedals - it also includes Multi-FX and Multi-Modulation pedals of course. Some years this selection is relatively sparse - while this year it’s totally chock-a-block! In fact it was a struggle to whittle the Longlist down - and inevitably some pedals I wanted to feature did not make the cut - including the Endorphin.es Ghost Pedal Multi-FX and Subdecay Prometheus 3 Dual Super Filter.
I still feel that this selection of 26 is...
It’s somewhat interesting that with every new Leap Series release we’re getting diminishing returns on the pedal graphics. Where the #1 Space Force looked great, the Rewind was still kind of on point, and the Luminous Phase-shifter cooly wavy and glowing - for the Dynaflanger we get a tiny 4 bar strip of colour - what!
Everything else is as before - the cool little screen and 4 variable parameter knobs, 32 Presets, TRS Stereo in, Multijack action and Footswitch Ramping. A really elegant and...
So this is the second of this series - where the first was more about the uniqueness of the enclosure shape - more structural really - covering the overall form factor. While this edition is more about ’Trade Dress’ or the Memorability of the Aesthetics - style of graphics, consistency of theme, and consistency of control topology - doing something in a consistently measurable way that makes that pedal instantly recognisable from afar as belonging to a certain single brand.
So this one is ...
To many commentators - ’2023’ has sort of been the ’Year of Chorus’ so far - while overall I’m not sure there have been enough releases to fully justify the label. While at the same time my own collection of compact chorus pedals has reached a very decent 21. I also have the larger format ThorpyFX Deep Oggin, and recent TC Electronic SCF reissue. So really not short of options for that style of Modulation!
This year has seen a number of recent additions - including most recently the ...
I’ve said it before - Alexander are definitely on a roll with their Leap Series - which started off so strong with the Space Force Reverb, and just keeps getting better and better with first the Rewind Delay, and now the Luminous Phaseshifter.
Each of those pedals has an identical control topology based around a smart - yet compact LCD display which displays up to 4 Parameters per Algorithm at a time - but where you can actually scroll through 3 screens of settings per algorithm - and then ...
As I’ve just done all the category overviews / best of genre rundowns - you can refer to those for all the individual pedal details - most have full reviews on this site too - here I will simply lay down the longlist - and explain why I picked those top 3 here - so just the details for the 3 overall winners!
I normally try to single out around 40 each year in the final overview - but it also depends on how many can fit the ’jigsaw’ of the visual.
There were 4 pedals in the full longlist...
So this is the first selection here where I only own a handful of the candidates - it’s easier to say what is in the reference collection than out :
Of those the Gen Loss II ...
Hot on the heels of the Leap Series 8-Mode Space Force Stereo Reverb Workstation, we get the equivalent ’Rewind’ Delay Workstation execution - featuring 2 more Modes / Algorithms for a total of 10. And including both of my Reverse and Lo-Fi Delay favourites - where alas the Space Force was missing a Reverse Reverb. So you can’t combine the two to do a sort of Walrus Audio Lore kinda thing which is a somewhat something of a pity.
The Space Force Reverb was certainly impressive - being the ...
DSP Pedal Pioneers Alexander Pedals had 3 series of pedals until today - Standard, Neo and Venture in ascending order of development. The recent BB-size Venture Series pedals - Syntax Error 2 and Fever Pitch introduced a cool in-context LCD Display to make it easier to control said pedals.
In essence - on the Venture Series you have several screens of parameters - which you can scroll through and edit 4 key parameters at a time via the corresponding 4 main control knobs. You have a further ...
NOTE - this article is too large (108 videos) to work properly on Mobile devices - make sure you view on Desktop or Laptop!
This is my largest ever article - and it will unlikely be repeated in this fashion - as this takes so long to compile - and the 108 Pedals / Videos included just take a little too long to load up on the screen. In any case it’s a pretty exhaustive run-down in rough order of preference of my favourite Compact Enclosure Pedals of Each Type.
For a few here there are ...