And here we have the GRAND FINAL- with all 36 Award Winners from the Group Stages - across all 5 categories!

The first two places have kind of been obvious for a while, where the 3rd / BRONZE position was actually the hardest to decide on - it was between the eventual recipient - the Tubesteader Gainlord, Boss’s XS-100 Poly Shifter, Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields and Gamechanger’s Motor Synth - all of whom would have been worthy runners-up - while in the end I went for the one that overall ...

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 ...

Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

At its core this is a PT2399 modulated delay - which is operating well beyond its core abilities - and thus delivering those cool quirky flavours at the edges of its normal output. Empty Head’s Nic has really pushed the envelope here to create a unique character delay with a deformed downward pitch effect - which sounds like you’ve been gripped by gravity - for that falling feeling.

Nic has described tis pedal as "A study in using the dynamics of your input / pick attack to self modulate ...

Catalinbread has made its 80ms-800ms Belle Epoch more potent and more versatile. It has an additional 3-way Program Toggle-switch, and you can now use the Footswitch for Tap Tempo - similar to the Boss way of doing that.

Catalinbread’s Belle Epoch is one of the best known compact takes of the Echoplex EP-3 and has long been an essential delay for many players - obviously with Mono output - so not as useful for my own rig - but fabulous for Mono rigs.

Old Controls - Echo Sustain, ...

This was a strange one for me - not that JHS and Jack White collaborated on a Mic Delay - with Mic Preamp and Balanced XLR Out. But the fact that the vast majority of demos use this as a standard stompbox / pedalboard delay. If I were Black Mountain - who just recently had the Jack White Roto Echo Delay out - in their shoes I would be a little peeved.

As the JHS one - which is principally designed for Jack WHite’s Microphone - is more being promoted as a general delay - in direct ...

The Splinter Twin reminds me a touch of the Fjord Fuzz Loke, and Spaceman Effects Meridian - but with quite a few more bells and whistles, and variations onboard.

I simply just watched Ryan Burke’s video - and got instantly smitten, This to my mind is one of he most unusual Delay Line Modulators / Manipulators I’ve seen to date. Cosmodio talks of the Splinter Twin as being a Time Modulator - and Time is obviously the most significant control on the pedal!

"The Splinter Twin Time ...