9 EFFECTS GO DEEPER

A final trend of note at NAMM was what might be termed the ‘deep’ effect pedal – a new generation of massively powerful pedals that hold months of sonic exploration inside their small enclosures. One of our favourites was the Empress Effects Echo System Delay (£459) [11], which conjures up captivatingly original soundscapes and ambiences. How? Well, you can run two stereo delay engines at once on this pedal, in series, parallel or mono left-and-right configuration, selecting from more than 25 modes, from ‘Delay & Reverb’ and ‘Tape’ to ‘Reverse’ voices and more. Over at the Chase Bliss Audio stand we found the Brothers Analogue Gain Stage Pedal ($349). This intriguing pedal has two channels, each loaded with both fuzz and overdrive circuits that have contrasting clipping characteristics, with hundreds of possible tones to explore.