Best Stompboxes of 2018 according to Dennis Kayzer

It digitally manipulates an analog signal path created by 4 re-issued versions of the bucket-brigade delay chips. This creates the ability to change delay time in interesting intervals which allows for innumerable harmonizing options. Intervals can be sequenced through automatically, or triggered manually. It can also be used as a more standard analog delay with modulation.

A creative stereo flanger with 8 modes, tap tempo, tap subdivision via the Rate & Tap mini-toggle, a multifunction Modify control, positive and negative Feedback, and a variable Mix control that lets you set the volume of the effect relative to your dry signal. It also lets you save five user-definable presets.

$349 | A feature-rich reverb with a “World” channel designed by Keeley that houses Hall, Plate, and Spring algorithms, and an edgier “Dark” channel designed by Cooper FX. The channels can be routed in 33 ways, creating a varied palette of reverb ranging from subtle, tasteful, and lush all the way to broken video cassette, glitch shimmer, and infinite freeze. Tweakers will enjoy the sonic options delivered by the 16 DIP switches on the back case, and the routing and expression pedal options are a nice extra.

An Octave Up/Down effect with built-in Fuzz and an under-the-hood Echo with lots of creative features. Pressing both footswitches at once gives you access to new controls to edit the Echo settings, transforming the Fuzz, Speed and Pitch knobs into Time, Wet/Dry and Repeats.

$299 - The Red Panda Tensor gives you live reverse and tape stop effects, pitch shifting, time stretching and hold functions you can combine in creative ways. Slow down, speed up and rewind in real time. Stretch or compress time with no pitch change. Loop, overdub, and randomly slice phrases up to 4.8 seconds.

Generates original sounding effects from flanging Three modes: Detune (shimmering pitch shift), Resonate (highly resonant multiflange), and Echo (reverb-like delay) Tilt footswitch momentarily maximizes Rate or Shift controls.

$199 - Four customized reverb settings, including Hall, Plate, Lo-Fi and Sonar, which features high and low octaves that can be blended to taste with the original signal. In addition to three levels of modulation, a Dampen knob suppresses high frequencies and an X control adjusts algorithm specific parameters. The Sustain switch momentarily increases reverb time to near infinite when pressed. Trails/No Trails modes.

$199 - A compact delay with tap tempo offering four different delay modes: Magnetic, Analog, Digital, and Lo-Fi. Tap tempo, subdivision, alternate functions for each knob and Midi/USB/CV connectivity round up the features.

$ 199 | an 11-mode analog phaser pedal offering plenty of classic and non-traditional tones, including tremolo + phaser effects, Cross-modulation, two Step sequencing modes and two Envelop modes. It uses a variety of LFO waves in the various modes. The four regular knobs control Rate, Depth, Color (resonance or portamento depending on the mode), and the mode-dependent Offset knob.

$189 - DOWNER combines the power of wavefolding or saturation, pitch shifting down to one octave, and both high-pass and low-pass filters all in one compact package with just 6 knobs. The PREAMP drives the Wavefolding or Saturation from subtle to extreme. The BLEND control adjusts the Dry/Octave balance from 100% Dry to 100% Octave. the High-pass and Low-pass filters allow for sculpting the perfect tone.

$250 - A very warm, PT2399-based sounding modulated echo with a 1000ms delay and tons of features (like modulation with variable speed and effects loop), accessible through five knobs and four toggle switches. The second switch is for the Warp feature, which sends the repeats ramping up to self-oscillation for ambient textures and spatial soundscapes.

$193 - Subverting a pedal routing commonplace, the Reverb X places an overdrive and a gate AFTER a reverb, rather than before. Both effects only affect the reverb sound, not the clean signal. The results are very intriguing, in particular when operated with the Igor expression controller to momentarily trigger the gate open. There are two reverb modes (bright and dark).

$225 - Captures microsamples, or grains, of your signal and stores them in a buffer for manipulation and mangling. Define the sample length, shift the pitch of the grains, move forward and backward through them, or hold them for as long as you want by pressing the switch. Serious sci-fi sounds.

$229 | A painstakingly encyclopedic take on the Tube Screamer clone that offers (reportedly) exact replicas of nine rare, classic, and must-have tube screamers from over 41 years of green overdrive history - and the usual three knobs to tweak them. "Is it analog?" we hear you ask. Yes, it is! The company goes as far as saying: "When you plug into the Bonsai, you're playing through the exact same circuitry as the original pedals."

A complete workstation style stereo delay in a compact pedal. Features dozen different engines with individually changeable parameters. Tap tempo, dual mode, tail modes, Midi, effects loop and exp out round up the features.