Ring modulators are either really loved or really disliked, I’ve come to find out. I’m up for anything experimental that pushes the boundaries of what music can do, but some folks seem to think these pedals just make noise. The Dr. Scientist Phreak Ring Modulator aims to squash that theory, giving us a fun, playful effects unit that, while it CAN make weird noises, can also sound musical and add a spin onto any track or...
Read More
Today’s pedal is both brand new and not…if that can make any sense. The now-resurrected and much-revered Octave Clang from Death By Audio is BACK, bringing its unique sound along with some new improvements and sonic options to the table. As usual, this DBA unit isn’t for everyone, but it should be, ’cause it is WICKED AWESOME… In the decade since it disappeared, Death By Audio revisited the original Clang...
Read More
We’re taking a glance at our second effects unit from ALABS Audio today, and are really excited about all that this brand is capable of. The Orbital Pitch Shifter is a stereo digital pedal, offering 9 high-quality modulation effects. These include vibe, chorus, multi-chorus, phaser, filter, rotary, flanger, tremolo, and ring. Lots to get into here, let’s jump right in and see what this green gem is all about… Grab a...
Read More
Today’s pedal is not one that your casual musician will get, or like, or want to have anything to do with, and that makes it all the more rad. The mad scientists at Industrialectric have been conjuring up crazy experimental gear for years, and the 567-M Modulation Machine keeps that streak alive and well. Lots of knob-twisting, ear-piercing and general sonic confusion give you a slight idea about what this pedal is capable...
Read More
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday season, and that your 2023 is already off to a great start. We’re going to get off to a great start here at Pedal of the Day as well, bringing you some dynamic effects units to start off the year. Recently released, the Moog Moogerfooger Effects Plug-ins are faithful recreations of the classic, big box Moogerfooger effect lineup, which has been discontinued for...
Read More
The fine folks over at Eventide have been big supporters of Pedal of the Day for years now – we’ve reviewed just about every one of their modern pedals, and have been lucky enough to be included in their last several new release days as well. Today, we’re doing it once again, and with possibly their biggest, most grandiose effects unit to date. The H90 Harmonizer® takes everything that we all love about the...
Read More
Well, it’s that time again, time to journey down the sonic rabbit hole that comes from all creations made by Pladask Elektrisk. Today’s wild machine, the Feber Amplitude/Phase Modulator, is an exploration of the intersection of single sideband modulation, ring modulation, phasing and tremolo. Blips, beeps, sweeps, creeps and more pour our of this gorgeous effect, blowing all you thought you knew about sound right out of...
Read More
(This article comes from our friends at GuitarTricks.com – check out their site for tons of guitar-related tips and tricks!!) What Are Modulating Guitar Pedals? By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer What is Modulation Modulation is simply changing or moving the original guitar signal. Most electric guitars have control built into them. The cheaper guitars mostly just allow tone and volume control, while...
Read More
(This article comes from our friends at GuitarTricks.com – check out their site for tons of guitar-related tips and tricks!!) A Practical Look at Guitar Pedals By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer Guitar pedals are an incredible way to sculpt the final sound from your guitar, they provide amazing effects at just the push of a button. In some cases they are even necessary to get the right sound for a particular...
Read More
Somewhat recently, we were able to check out the Valeton GP-100VT, a nice multi-effects pedal that squished a lot of tones into a fairly small enclosure. Well, Valeton has had a quick turnaround beefing up this concept, and we’re proud to help release the GP-200 Multi-Effects Processor today. This new-gen HD modeling multi-effects processor declares an unprecedented upgrade in order to bring you a better sonic experience –...
Read More
If there’s anything we love around here, it’s when a pedal goes beyond all the usually, normal boundaries. Today’s featured effect, the Intensive Care Audio VENA CAVA FILTER Distortion v.1 takes this concept to new heights, combining filter, distortion and ring modulation into one out-of-this-world machine. Lots of options and lots to discover – you all ready? Let’s Get Weird. The VENA CAVA FILTER is a...
Read More
On last week’s Flamma Friday, we looked at the FS05 Modulation pedal…today, we’re gonna shrink that effect down, without losing any of those incredible sounds. The FC05 Mini Modulation pedal crams elements of chorus, flanger, phaser and more into its bright, shiny green box, with differing controls for each of its 11 effect types. Housed in a sturdy, durable metal shell, this tiny multi-effect creates larger than...
Read More
Flamma Fridays rolls along here at Pedal of the Day, and we’re headed down another new path this week. The FS05 Multi Modulation pedal crams elements of chorus, flanger, phaser and more into its bright, shiny yellow box, with differing controls for each of its 11 effect types. Presets, stereo connections and more make this box come alive, and seamlessly meld with your current setup. The 11 different modulation effect types on...
Read More
We certainly love three-knob overdrives and one-knob phasers and non-too-complex delay pedals here, but what really peaks our interest are the bizarre, the weird, the unique, the intriguing. Today’s pedal encompasses all of these qualities, taking your instrument’s signal and completely annihilating it, to points beyond recognition. The TMA-1 Jupiter: and Beyond the Infinite from Discomfort Designs is a ring...
Read More
We’ve been waiting patiently to get a shot at today’s pedal after seeing the developments and progress being done on social media. The Zander Circuitry Junipero Aqueous Modulator takes 8 different modulation effects, stuffs them into a nice, big enclosure and gives you a TON of options as to how to use them. These classic sounds can sound as vintage or modern as you’d like, and there’s a lot to cover here, so...
Read More
If you can’t have fun with a multi-modulation pedal, you’re doing something wrong, plain and simple. If that modulation pedal gives you EIGHTEEN different effects, tap tempo capabilities, STEREO in and out connectivity and costs less than 100 bucks, you’re definitely doing something RIGHT. The Joyo R-09 Dual Channel Stereo Modulation pedal gives us all of these things, all in a 2-footswitch pedal that is the perfect...
Read More
Multi-effects pedals are always fun, and today’s incarnation has more than the usual auditory offerings for all of us to enjoy. The Cooper FX Arcades Delay Reverb LOFI Pitch Multi-Effect uses a different digital card to conjure up press for each of these genres, giving you access to EIGHT programs per card. As far as our usual demos go, we couldn’t justify trying to cram 32 different sounds into just ONE DEMO, so we did...
Read More
Certain pedals leave you with your jaw dropped, unable to put them into any real specific kind of category, and that’s always been fun for us here at Pedal of the Day. Today’s pedal, the Ibanez SS20 Session-Man II Delay Distortion, does just that, presenting itself with a no-holds-barred attitude, and making some of the wildest sounds we’ve heard come out of a pedal before. Not your ordinary Delay or Distortion...
Read More
While we haven’t ever ventured TOO far into the world of multi-effects processors, we did get a chance to check out the Ampero from Hotone Audio almost exactly a year ago today, and were extremely impressed by how well it performed. Cramming a ton of amps, cabinet and effects into one unit has got to be tricky for any company, and to do it as well and for such an affordable price point was a stroke of genius. Today, we’re...
Read More
Ring modulators have been often intriguing, sometimes frustrating effects that, if nothing else, always take you on a musical journey of some kind, whether you want them to or not. When you start mixing in fuzz, tremolo, gates and synths with a ring mod, it all really hits the fan, and your brain must adjust accordingly. Today’s pedal is a true face melter, a device of such force and sheer power that it was, at times, difficult...
Read More
Let’s be honest: ring modulators are just not for everyone. However, for those of us that love innovation, chaotic noise and aggressively distorted sounds, you can’t go wrong when in this genre of effects. The original Gonkulator from DOD was released in the 90’s, and has become somewhat of a cultish, sought-after pedal, which usually leads to becoming overpriced and difficult to obtain. Luckily, for a little while...
Read More
Today’s pedal is an awesomely odd one to approach, as it is really 10 pedals in one. The Console from ELTA Music uses a series of interchangeable sound cartridges, each with its own set of three modes, to produce a wide array of tones and auditory revelations that will alter your approach to creating music. We are going to review and demo all 10 of these cartridges eventually, and the next one is our series is the String Ringer...
Read More
Let’s face it: Ring Modulators are not for everyone. They’re quirky, weird, loud, uncontrollable and will sometimes do damage to your other gear. Which are all reasons why we love ’em here at Pedal of the Day, and why we were wicked excited about today’s featured pedal arriving in the mail. The Optical Ring V2 is a complete ring modulation and fuzz system, wrapped in a giant enclosure to let everyone know you...
Read More
It’s Day Two of our “Deadbeat Week” here at Pedal of the Day, and brings with it the first of three “Station” effects pedals we’re going to check out. Modulation is always a good time, no matter what type of rig you have or what music you play, so cramming 11 unique modulating effects into one pedal sounds like a pretty rad idea to us. The Modulation Station combines Tremolo, Vibrato, Chorus,...
Read More
When a pedal describes itself as a Phaser, our interest is automatically peaked. Now, not everyone loves the phaser effect, for whatever reason, but then a pedal comes along that changes the game, and could possibly make a whole slew of haters into converts after they hear it in action. That pedal has arrived today, folks: the Arctic Wolf from Dogmatek Effects Pedals is a twin modulator phaser, but is also a ring modulator, tremolo,...
Read More
While we don’t often do many bass pedal reviews (sorry, guys), we’ve got a pedal today that guitarists AND fans of the low end will appreciate and marvel in. Based on the famed Akai Deep Impact SB-1 Bass Synth, the Future Impact I is also a bass synthesizer pedal, offering more options and parameter controls than the the Akai, but all the while staying true to the sounds it has become famous for creating. Ready to take a...
Read More
Speaking of crazy pedals….no, for real, today’s featured pedal is a real nut, and one we attempted to fully embrace. The Heliotrope is a harmonic pixelator from Catalinbread, and if you’re not sure what that is, neither are we. Still. However, it is a must-have box for all musical experimenters, and one that we had an absolute blast trying to decipher. Basically, a Harmonic Pixelator is Catalinbread’s way of...
Read More
Ring modulators are a love or hate kind of pedal, in our experience (we happen to fall into the former category here at POTD), but it would be hard to find anyone that wouldn’t like to sit down and play with today’s featured piece of gear. Randy’s Revenge (where do these guys come up with these awesome names?) is a ring mod, for sure, but also boasts elements of tremolo, vibrato, fuzz and more, all inside a...
Read More
Sometimes, we at Pedal of the Day discover a pedal that is so fun, has so many options and expands our current version of musical enlightenment that it’s hard to play anything else for a while. Today’s featured pedal is exactly along those lines: genre-bending, hard-to-define and definitely in-your-face, the BitQuest Multi-Effect is a site to behold, and a pleasure to hear. From our neighbors to the north, Dr. Scientist,...
Read More
Multi-effects pedals can be tricky to write reviews about, as there is so much going on, and so many different options to choose from that it makes it hard to narrow the writing down and focus on a few things to discuss in detail. Such is the case with today’s featured pedal, the M5 Stompbox Modeler from Line 6 – and if the regular functionality of this pedal wasn’t overwhelming enough, this model has been modded by...
Read More
Continuing this week’s unscheduled jump into the pool filled with the freakiest pedals we could find, we came across an effect that can strike fear into the hearts of many players just by its very mention: the Ring Modulator. While each ring mod is definitely it’s own beast, there’s something special about today’s featured pedal from Way Huge Electronics that really takes your breath away. Let’s take a...
Read More
Day Three of “Moog Week” is upon us, and this one is a mammoth. The beauty of ring modulators is that they are unpredictable at best. Especially when you’ve got one like today’s pedal, the MF-102 Ring Mod from Moog – this thing has got so many controls and such big ranges on each, it’s easy to get blissfully lost in a sonic wash that overtakes your amp, ears and anything else that might be within...
Read More
Our featured pedal today possesses two qualities we love in a good piece of musical gear: small size and simple controls. Measuring 2″ x 2″, it would be pretty hard to find a pedal smaller, anywhere really, much less one that holds so much life inside. With the size and only one lone stomp switch, the Purple Octave Octopus Octave Up from Henretta Engineering might just be the perfect compliment to your pedalboard, and one...
Read More
Troctave. Just say it once or twice – it sounds like something interesting, right? That’s because it is. This is the first (and only) Troctave I know of, and it combines 2 great effects into one unique and rare stompbox, capable of both smooth and choppy tremolo vibes, as well as an entirely new realm of sonic exploration, the likes of which few of us have seen. The controls, although unlabeled, were fairly easy to figure...
Read More
All-in-one pedals can be great, and they can be terrible, as anyone who has ever tried a few out can attest to. The good ones, though, when they’re good, they are GOOOOD. Where to begin with a pedal like this, with so many options, tones, squeaks, sound and delights? With a long-standing reputation of making some of the finest musical gear around, the folks at Eventide have one-upped even themselves at this point, and released...
Read More
Wow. Where to begin with this guy? First off, Dwarfcraft Devices make pedals that make noise, and I mean that in the best possible way. Their little metal enclosures are no for the weak-hearted, or those who are looking to preserve their pristine hearing ability. They are good at what they do, and a shining example of that is the incredible Hax Ring Modulator. A true sonically experimental beast, the Hax conjures up a multitude of...
Read More
