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Pedal Reviews: EHX Crying Tone Wah Pedal

The Wah pedal has long been a staple in rock, funk, r & b and many other styles of music. The concept of the Wah was created by accident by an electrical engineer in the mid 60's who was commissioned to redesign a tube amp as a solid state for mass production. The original bread-boarded circuit was installed in a volume pedal's casing. That's why I always welcome "happy accidents" when they occur in the world of music or recording. You never know when you are going to accidentally create something that lives on for decades. Electro-Harmonix is a company that has been pioneering guitar pedals for years, and they have recently decided to put a modern swing on the wah pedal with the Crying Tone, a member of their new Next Step line.
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Pedal Reviews: EHX Crying Tone Wah Pedal

Over 200 pedals on display at The Deli’s 2012 Stomp Box Exhibit in Brooklyn – OCTOBER 19-20

Above, a selection of the distortion pedals on display at our Stomp Box Exhibit 2012 (click on the image to read the descriptions). Visitors will be able to test all the pedals in the headphones.

More info HERE
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Over 200 pedals on display at The Deli’s 2012 Stomp Box Exhibit in Brooklyn – OCTOBER 19-20

Pedal Review: T-Rex Roommate Junior

Most Digital Reverb Stomp Boxes attempt to recreate the authentic sounds of the classic Spring Reverb, but then provide other options utilizing the convenience and diversity of digital modeling. The reverb pedal on my bench today is called the Roommate Junior by T-Rex of Denmark, and it’s based on the original T-Rex Room Mate reverb pedal, featuring the same controls and reverb modes, but not the tube – which makes it pricier.
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Pedal Review: T-Rex Roommate Junior

The Jangly Guitar Sound of the ‘80s

The ‘80s weren’t just about electronic music, ya know? That decade also produced some of the most influential indie pop bands of all times – for example: The Smiths. At the time, the band’s guitarist Johnny Marr was regarded as highly as Morrissey for his inventive parts, but also for a sound which was as simple as it was unique - which made The Smiths the jangly band par excellence.... Click on the title for more

The Jangly Guitar Sound of the ‘80s

Pedal Review: Pigtronix Fat Drive

In a world where you can’t swing a guitar without knocking 10 Tubescreamer clones off the shelf, new entrants to the oversaturated overdrive market had better have something new to say. Pigtronix’s new Fat Drive (street $140) accomplishes this by exploiting what some might perceive as a weakness in Fender-style guitars—it adds girth to thin-sounding single coil pickups.... Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: Pigtronix Fat Drive

Production Corner: Fun with Arpeggiators

Arpeggiators are one of the most fun and "ancient" electronic music tools, and consist in editable algorithms that play the notes of a chord following a regular sequenced pattern. Like anything trendy in the 80s, arpeggiators are coming back in the early aughts with a vengeance. If you are not into their mechanical "feel", you can try and use them to build textural background, using more than one of them in different stereo placements, or as random "melody generators", if you slow them down a lot.... Click on the title for more

Production Corner: Fun with Arpeggiators

Level up with these 8 bit guitar pedals

Hearing the term '8 bit audio' probably makes you think of old school arcade games or vintage Nintendo titles, but converting higher quality audio to 8 bits is an effect that can be used to achieve a variety of sounds - including some very cool guitar tones. Reducing the bit depth of a digital audio signal can create sonic artifacts, noise, and distortion that especially affect the overtones of the original audio. While this can certainly produce glitchy, lo-fi, computerized game boy sounds, it can also create crunchy fuzz tones and a wide range of distortion effects. Here's a selection of pedals that use or approximate the sound of 8 bit audio to create their own unique sonic character.... Click on the title for more

Level up with these 8 bit guitar pedals

Pedal video review: Palmer Kaputt Octaver

Our legendary contributor Chris Cannon reviewed the Palmer Kaputt Octaver for us - but he did in in a video - check it out!... Click on the title for more

Pedal video review: Palmer Kaputt Octaver

Famous Guitar Tones: the Twang

In the mid-50s, great guitar innovators like Duane Eddy (pictured) started playing lead riffs drenched in tremolo and echo in the lower registers of the guitar, creating the bass-y sound that since then has become synonymous with “twang.”... Click on the title for more

Famous Guitar Tones: the Twang

Snowmine and the recording process

Like many contemporary Brooklyn based indie rock artists, Snowmine (featured on the cover of the summer 2012 issue of our sister site/publication The Deli) is very interested in the creative possibilities offered by the recording studio, but the results we hear on record showcase a band that masters the production process like few others. We took the time to ask them a few questions about their recording habits. - Read Paolo De Gregorio's Q&A with Snowmine here.... Click on the title for more

Snowmine and the recording process

Pedal Review: VFE Distortion3

The VFE Distortion3 houses three classic low-to-medium gain distortions in one small tweakable enclosure. enclosure. This pedal simulates the MXR Distortion+ made famous by Randie Rhoads as well as the DOD 250 and MXR MicroAmp. While all of these classic 70’s and 80’s pedals have the same basic circuit, the Distortion3 allows the user to toggle... ... Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: VFE Distortion3

Pedal Review: TC Electronic Spark Booster

At first glance the TC Electronic Spark Booster looks like it may function as a very vanilla clean boost pedal. Fortunately TC put some bells and whistles into this pedal that make it really fun to play and especially fun to record with. I tested it out while recording an artist that I work with named Jordan Cooper while tracking guitars for his upcoming full length album at The Buddy Project Recording Studio. ... Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: TC Electronic Spark Booster