gear giveaway

Production Corner – the “Old Telephone” Effect

The “vintage telephone effect” on vocals has been in vogue, in particular in lo-fi and electronic music, since Beck’s debut album came out in 1994. Although the market is saturated with “lo-fi” plug ins, all you need to recreate this trick is some EQ, compression and distortion. Compress the vocal…Click on the title for more

Production Corner – the “Old Telephone” Effect

Review: Way Huge Red Llama MkII

Way Huge’s Red Llama MkII is a simple pedal that does one thing awesomely well: highly musical overdrive/distortion. While the name implies a redesign, it’s more of a second coming. The Red Llama (street $120) is a reissue of what became a highly sought-after pedal after it disappeared in 1999,…Click on the title for more

Review: Way Huge Red Llama MkII

Review: Electro Harmonix Talking Machine

The Electro Harmonix Talking Machine (street $220) is, at its heart, an envelope filter. Like many of EHX’s new offerings, though, it pushes the boundaries of everything before it, adding tremendous versatility—and not a little complexity—to the traditional auto wah. The Talking Machine makes seven vowel sounds plus EHX’s signature…Click on the title for more

Review: Electro Harmonix Talking Machine

DIY Pedal Review: Mod Kits DIY Persuader

The Persuader from MOD Kits DIY (available at modkitsdiy.com for about $65) is a U-build-it, starved plate, 12ax7 distortion box kit. It arrives as a collection of parts to be assembled into a powder-coated purple, pre-drilled Hammond-style cast-aluminum box. A 16 page assembly manual identifies all the included components, and…Click on the title for more

DIY Pedal Review: Mod Kits DIY Persuader

Empty Test Page

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Empty Test Page

Lucius and the Recording Process

Lucius' Gear: Korg Microsampler ” Jess’ mini keyboard is actually a sampler, the Korg Microsampler. It plays samples from the record, she can play key bass on it, sometimes it has drum loops, new samples we have made… “ It's rare to see a band mature as fast as Lucius did. Started…Click on the title for more

Lucius and the Recording Process

Moog Music, Google celebrate Bob Moog’s 78th Birthday

The way we associate facial tissues with Kleenex, MP3 players with the iPod, and search engines with Google, is the way the name Moog relates to electronic synthesizers. May 23rd, 2012 marks the 78th birthday of the late Bob Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer and an innovator of electronic music.…Click on the title for more

Moog Music, Google celebrate Bob Moog’s 78th Birthday

Palmer Root Pedals Review

The Palmer Root Effects line of guitar and bass stomp boxes are manufactured by Palmer Musical Instruments. Palmer is a German company, also well known for their line of heavy duty pro audio tools, including DI’s, components and stage gear. From Native Instruments to Neumann, Steinberger to eMagic (before Apple bought…Click on the title for more

Palmer Root Pedals Review

Review: Diamond Bass Comp

Our staff bassist Ron Guensche received a Diamond Pedals Bass Compressors a few days ago and it sounds like he had fun testing it. This is a pedal that brings to bass players the high-grade optical compression previously only available to guitarists in their Compressor pedal. Read the full review…Click on the title for more

Review: Diamond Bass Comp

Pedal Review: T-Rex HOBO Drive

The T-Rex HOBO DRIVE is one of the best sounding, most flexible distortion pedals I’ve ever come across. That said, calling this pedal a distortion pedal is a little misleading; it’s less a distortion pedal, and more of a preamp. Manufactured in Denmark and assembled in Taiwan, the HOBO DRIVE (yes,…Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: T-Rex HOBO Drive

Pedal Review: EHX Analogizer

Despite the vast amounts of music recoded on computers, tablets, and phones, the allure of analog recording persists. In recent years there has been a proliferation of audio processors that attempt to emulate the qualities of vintage recordings. In this vein, Electro Harmonix's Analogizer is a versatile and compact pedal…Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: EHX Analogizer

Emma Electronics Reezafratzitz – Pedal Review

If the crazily named Reezafratzitz distortion pedal from Denmark’s Emma Electronics (street $245) has a dual personality, both of them are nasty. But for lovers of saturated distortion, the pedal’s double-trouble approach to fuzzing up sound waves offers musical, usable tones. The magic in the box is the Reezafratzitz’s “Bias”…Click on the title for more

Emma Electronics Reezafratzitz – Pedal Review