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WychElm Effects Dharma Drive

Working in your own studio with other artists can lead to great gear discoveries. I was turned onto the Dharma Drive from WychElm Effects by a band I was engineering due to its unique graphics, and stumbled on one of the best drive pedals I've tried in a while.... Click on the title for more

WychElm Effects Dharma Drive

Test Video Tag

Open Video Open Video Packed with features, the Dept 10 Dual Drive is an expanded, dual overdrive circuit plus USB interface featuring an ECC83 Triode Valve driving 2 voices per channel, for a total of 3 crunch/overdrive voices alongside the clean channel. ... Click on the title for more

Test Video Tag

Roland Synths at the Brooklyn Synth Expo 2015

This past weekend we took some videos of our Brooklyn Synth Expo, here's what Roland had going on! ... Click on the title for more

Roland Synths at the Brooklyn Synth Expo 2015

New Toys at the NYC Synth Expo 2015

The second NYC Synth Expo will be hosted this weekend at Williamsburg's Main Drag Music, and it will be a unique opportunity for many synth geeks to check out some brand new gear by big and small manufacturers. Here's a quick list of the new products you'll be able to try:... Click on the title for more

New Toys at the NYC Synth Expo 2015

New Pedals: EHX K9 Electric Piano Machine

Venerable New York City pedal manufacturer Electro-Harmonix takes their third foray into the world of keyboard simulation pedals with the release of the Key9. Similar in concept to the previous B9 and C9 offerings, this stompbox offers 9 presets emulating some of the most revered piano and keyboard sounds in music history.... Click on the title for more

New Pedals: EHX K9 Electric Piano Machine

New Pedals: SFG Music Supply’s Howlerr

British Columbia's SFG Music Supply may be new to the boutique effect pedal scene, but their debut stompbox is a unique and great-sounding overdrive – the Howlerr. A unit with versatile application, the Howlerr boasts a design based around a solitary transistor amplifier fed into the clipping section of the pedal. Said clipping section consists of a trio of germanium diodes and a single silicon diode to provide asymmetrical clipping. What sets this type of clipping apart is that it is more like the kind found in tube amplifiers; “natural” and “smooth”.... Click on the title for more

New Pedals: SFG Music Supply’s Howlerr

New Pedals: MBS Effects Parallel Universe Routing + Mixer pedal

From MBS Effects out of Buenos Aires, Argentina comes a truly innovative design - the Parallel Universe. This unique pedal provides a variety of signal routing and blending options, offering rig routing choices that before might have only been daydreams. At its core, it is a mixer that allows you to mix your dry signal with whatever you have in the effects loop of the pedal in a parallel fashion. But the Parallel Universe is so much more than just that - it can be used as a true bypass loop, active mixer, mute switch, and signal driver.... Click on the title for more

New Pedals: MBS Effects Parallel Universe Routing + Mixer pedal

New Pedals: Greer Amps Black Tiger Delay Device

With the exception of their tremolo, Athens, Georgia's Greer Amps has been focusing on producing great sounding distortion pedals. They recently announced their first delay pedal – the Black Tiger Delay Device, which marries analog and digital, and prides itself of its smooth and very natural decay. It is designed to sound every bit as warm as the great analog delays of yesteryear, but with some modern updates.... Click on the title for more

New Pedals: Greer Amps Black Tiger Delay Device

Boutique Pedal Manufacturers: TomKat Pedals

There aren't many pedal manufacturers in Brooklyn (the cost of housing certainly doesn't attract small businesses), but at our recent Stompbox Exhibit we had the chance to familiarize with a really interesting boutique one, called Tomkat Pedals. The company seems dedicated to rei-imagining classic fuzz circuits and incorporating some more modern modifications to them. Their newest design is the Bender fuzz, their take on the venerable Sola Tonebender Mk II (considered by many one of the very first guitar pedals).... Click on the title for more

Boutique Pedal Manufacturers: TomKat Pedals

Dead Leaf Echo about pedals, guitars and set ups

Shoegazer is the only musical genre that derives its name from something related to stompboxes: its sound is marked by guitars (and also vocals) so heavily processed to require the use of several pedals during the live setting, which invariably forces musicians to pay a lot of attention to them: that's what they are "gazing" at in most cases, it ain't their pretty shoes. LG and his band Dead Leaf Echo have been gazing at these inspiring, colorful boxes for quite some time now, working in the meantime with producer John Fryer (Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode) and opening for the likes of Psychedelic Furs, A Place To Bury Strangers and legendary British '90s shoegazers Chapterhouse. We thought musicians into the genre would be interested in knowing more about the band's "footware."
... Click on the title for more

Dead Leaf Echo about pedals, guitars and set ups

Featured Pedal: Vick Audio R-Comp

Many legendary pedals were created under the Ross brand, and their designs are still relevant and beloved by both gearheads and studio guys alike. One of their most famous was a compressor, simply called the “R-Comp,” which Gilbert, Arizona's manufacturer Vick Audio managed to recreate faithfully.... Click on the title for more

Featured Pedal: Vick Audio R-Comp

New Pedals: Mr. Black Ambience Echoverb

Mr. Black, out of the great northwest, has been designing cutting-edge guitar pedals for a while now. Their latest innovation comes in the form of the Ambience Echoverb, born from the perfect marriage of a multi-tap delay and reverb. The Ambience falls somewhere between a delay, a reverb, and a modulation pedal capabale of conjuring up great ambient Edge-inspired sounds and equally at home on leads and rhythms.... Click on the title for more

New Pedals: Mr. Black Ambience Echoverb