Updated Nov. 2, 2021 | by Paolo De Gregorio

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The time has come for our monthly recap of the best new pedals released last month (in this case, October 2021), organized in gain and non-gain lists. Previous monthly editions can be found here.

October 2021 was a great month, with all sorts of exciting new effect designs seeing the light of day. We organized them according to buzz-worthiness in the two lists below.

As usual, mouseover or first tap on the thumbnails will open a description of the pedal, while a click or a second tap will open a video of the pedal.

Best New Non-Gain Pedals released in October 2021

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$299 | Twice as wide as V1, this multi-mode arcade game-inspired pedal packs a ton of new features, including a stereo path, a mini-sequencer, and an LCD screen to help you make sense of it all. The modes aree Stretch (glitchy delay/reverse), Air (grainy reverb), Ring (ring mod), Clube (digital fuzz with filter), Freq (weird frequency filter) and Wave (Time based modulator).
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
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Electro-Harmonix Intelligent Harmony Machine
$241.50 | A 2-mode harmonizer: Intelligent Harmony (monophonic) produces one- or two-part harmonies according to the selected scale and interval (from the 17 presets). Poly Override mode (polyphonic) produces intervals specified through the Interval Select knob.
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Eventide Tricerachorus
$249 | A markedly '80s chorus with 3 modes: Chorus, Vibrato, and Chorale (inspired by rackmount Tri-chorus unit). 3 chorus voices (Left, Center and Right) for extra-lush effects. The momentary footswitch Swirl triggers psychedelic flanging, phasing and Univibe-style swells. Midi/USB connectivity, Line Level In, Alt Function on all knobs and Presets round up the features.
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Valco Five-O
$379 | a pedal made for Surf Rock blending Drive, Tremolo and Reverb, each with its own footswitch. The Drive offers the classic “brown sound” tone. The Tremolo is based on the Fulltone SupaTrem circuit with 4 LFO options. The Reverb is of the spring kind but with an added ‘plate’ option, with a Pre knob that lets you route the Reverb section to the front of the chain.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
795529272
All-Pedal Macrodose
$325 | a striking attempt at delivering the ultimate envelope filter pedal. It can produce auto-wah with selectable waveforms, sample/hold functions, step filter, random sample/hold, and even a pixelated filter function. You can pick from 9 envelope shapes (which can be modified by several modifiers), 3 filters (Low, High and Band-pass) and control every aspect of the effect via 6 knobs and two footswitch.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Cooper FX Exp Gen + Signal Path Selector
$189+199 | Two creative MIDI tools: Exp-Gen is a multi-mode expression controller with 4 outs and 4 modes (Trigger, Latch, Automatic, and Tap). The Signal Path Selector is a chain multi-tool, and lets you: reconfigure the order of your pedals, blend independent loops with your dry signal, invert phase and set up AB or ABY configurations.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Electro-Harmonix Nano Deluxe Memory Man
$203 | A delay with modulation offering delay times from 30mS up to 550mS. It streamlines the classic Memory Man Deluxe circuit through a simple layout with six knobs. The modulation section is controllable via a Depth and Rate knob, while an internal switch turns Tails on and off.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
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death by audio Speed Tripper
$299 | a limited edition optical phaser placed in the feedback path of a delay circuit, which causes the repeats to “bend in and out of phase with one another, giving filtered, morphing swells that sound beyond psychedelic.” An internal Blend trim pot sets the balance between wet and dry signal.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
1656850438
Malekko Polyamorator Delay
$189 | An harmonizing/arpeggiating echo with 3 tunable delays (up to one octave up/down in chromatic intervals). Each delay's volume can be set independently. Delay Time changes the time for each delay exponentially, while the Regen knob controls the number of repeats.  The alternate controls for these two knobs are Sample size, and Wet/Dry mix.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
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Catalinbread Topanga Burnside
$219 | A limited edition that adds a tremolo knob to the Topanga, a highly regarded Fender amp-style spring reverb. Unlike the amp units, the mix control allows for 0 to 100% wetness, while the volume knob lets you either compensate for the loss of clean signal that normally happens when adding reverb, or apply some clean boost when the pedal is on.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
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Fuzzrocious Electric Ocean
$189 | A Roland AP-7-inspired fuzz+phaser with some of the most popular features of the original. It features separate volumes for the two effects, and a toggle switch that allows reversing their order. The left footswitch lets you can alternate between two different phaser speeds, while the fuzz can be turned off through a toggle on the top.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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TWA Triskelion 3
$229 | a midrange booster with adjustable gain and low cut switch based on the vintage Systech Harmonic Energizer used by the likes of Frank Zappa, Greg Lake, Joe Walsh and other 70’s icons. Acting as a cocked wah pedal with an adjustable peak and a ton of gain, it can push different frequencies with a variable bell curve, just like a parametric mic EQ with adjustable Q.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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SolidGoldFx Supa Funk
$189 | A fully analog, dual, automatic Envelope Filter with a modern twist. The Color knob blends in a second low-pass filter for throaty filter sweeps, while the Direction toggle selectsforward or reverse sweeps. The Depth, Frequency and Attack controls fine-tune the way the envelope responds to your performance.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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MXR Deep Phase
$129 | inspired by the sound of the Small Stone by EHX (the main competitor to the MXR's Pahse 90) it produces a bright effect with a pronounced swoosh, scooped midrange, and a dynamic, voice-like response to attack.” It sports knobs for Speed and Feedback (aka intensity), and two modes: stock mode is 4 stages (smoother sounding) while mode II doubles that to 8 stages for a more textured effect.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
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Drybell Vibe Machine
$319 | V3 retains the layout and functions of V2, but features a new fix in the opto-setting system: while V2 modulates a small mid-frequency range of your signal, V3 applies the modulation without changing the EQ, with wider modulation and more depth, with a slight difference in the intensity’s character. 6 side trimmers allow you to tweak the circuit to your liking.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Mattoverse Just A Phase
$189 | a rather simple phaser with Tap Tempo that puts at your disposal eight LFO modes, including some unconventional ones like random square and slopes, ramp etc, in a compact case. The other two knobs deal with depth and rate duties.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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LPD Offset Delay
$225 | a high-quality 4-knob digital delay with Tap Tempo. The controls are exactly what you may expect, but there is a trick up the Offset's sleeve: when Tap Tempo is engaged by pressing twice on the right footswitch at the desired tempo, the Time knob becomes a Divisions control offering 8th-note triplet, 8th-note, dotted 8th-note, and quarter-note.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

Best New Gain Pedals released in October 2021

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JHS Pedals PackRat
$249 | Based on the innovative multi-mode format of the TS-inspired Bonsai, PackRat is a tribute to the 40+ years of RAT distortion evolution through 9 voices accurately replicating various RAT models and RAT-inspired pedals, including JHS's popular but now discontinued mod. Basically, it's 9 RATS inside one compact case.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
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Walrus Audio Iron Horse V3
$199 | A warm, classic sounding RAT-style pedal based on the LM308 chip but offering a broader palette thanks to a clipping knob which blends the character of two diodes: Silicon (left position) for more compressed tones and LED (right) for more dynamic ones. The other controls will behave differently depending on the position of the clipping knob, for a wide range of sonic possibilities.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
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Blackstar Dept 10 Line
$299 | A three-pedal/USB interface line with a real tube including two dual gain pedal (Drive and Distortion) and a Boost. The dual pedals offer 2 stackable voices per channel, from clean to high-gain, with separate footswitches. A 3-way EQ section does the tone sculpting, while the ISF knob gives the final sound a more American or British character. XLR out and Cab simulator facilitate direct recording.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
1160192170
Fjord Fuzz Berserk
$249 | a circuit inspired by the Tone Bender and the Fuzz Face. A set of 4 internal trim pots (Impedance, Output, Bias + Led Trim) interact with 5 main knobs (Gain, Thickness, Volume) and 2 push buttons (Impedance and Output Fix) for deep sonic palette. The Output Fix button engages two Space/Echo-style preamp gain stages for extra volume, while Thickness acts as a Low Pass Filter.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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API TranZformer GTR
$280 | Based on a Proprietary API 2510 OpAmp and featuring an API output transformer, the GTR offers up to 40dBs of Output volume to feed to your amp and +/-15dB of EQ at the crucial frequencies of 200Hz, 1.5kHz and 5kHz, with the latter featuring options for peak of high-shelf EQ. A toggle switch lets you choose between clean boost and overdrive mode.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
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Crazy Tube Circuit Golden Ratio Phi V2
$249 | A compact compressor with 3 modes: FET for gain reduction with distinctive color and fast response (plus some saturation). OTA for a heavier compression/limiting that catches fast transients (perfect for a funk guitar). OPTO for classic LA2A-style copmpression, with a musical (but slower) attack and release that sound natural even at extreme settings.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2362468152
free the tone CRUNCHY CHIME CC-1B
$400+ | a versatile high-end clean boost pedal with separate Bass and Treble knobs and two Modes that selects the boost/cut frequency range of the BASS control. This configuration also allows it to act as a mid booster when both Bass and Treble knobs are turned down. A proprietary circuit prevents degradation of the instrument’s tone even when the effect is turned off.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Mask Audio Cascader Fuzz
$175 | a collaborative pedal with YouTuber collector//emitter, this is an aggressive dual fuzz combining a smoother fuzz and a low-gain gated one to conjure dense yet tight results. The left footswitch activates the 2nd fuzz circuit (beginning of the chain), with extreme results. The YUH toggle delivers gated and open voicing, for more or less compression.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Whimsey Machines The Great Fantabulizing Whatsitdo
$199 (preorder) | a quirky "Recursive Octave Fuzz.” The Wonderment knob sets the intensity of the effect. The other unnamed rotary switch is a Distortion Mode knob (modes are called “Fundamentals” by the builder). Each fundamental delivers slight tone variations on the classic octave fuzz classic.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Wilson This Is The Art
$155 | a pedal dedicated "mid-scooped" metal guitarists. Notwithstanding its rebellious DNA, it cleans up nicely at lower gain setting, to deliver sweet overdrive tones. A Mod toggle unleashes more headroom and volume, while the Shape knob allows you to fine-tune the amount of scooped mids – dialing it back will deliver a more open tube amp sound.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
918560280
Acorn Amps TMA-1
$199 | a four-stage transistor circuit that, quite uniquely, lets you select the clipping options for two of those stages (the second and third), for a total of 9 combinations. When added to the sculpting options granted by the Tone knob, thes often radically different sounding voices make the Acorn TMA-1 a very flexible and multi-faceted fuzz pedal.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
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Fowl Sounds Backstabber 2.0
$175 | A tight and responsive RAT-style distortion designed for bass but that works well with guitar as well. It has two dirt channels Blend knob to mix them. Each channel has a drive and a Lo-Pass filter, providing different distortion characters. A 3-way toggle that delivers red led clipping, Zener clipping or white LED. A Blend knob allows reintegrating part of the dry signal,.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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This is it for now, see you in a month!

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