The 10 Pedal Challenge - Mini and Large Enclosure Varieties

This one took the most deliberation as I could not carry across any of the main ones. Also double-tracking usually requires stereo output - with a delay time of around 30ms, and the two voicing detuned from each other by a few cents. For delays of 30ms or less the human brain perceives those as single tones, while above that interval you process the second offset sound as an echo. My main TCE Mimiq gives me up to 3 Dubs or voicings - while most Double Trackers consist of only 2. With mono pedals it's all simulation really - and I feel that with the EHX Rerun that I have enough controls there to get something going on that device. The Mini Mimiq tends to be reviewed fairly poorly - while any mini / mono doubler is going to be very far removed from the proper stereo experience.

Pretty much every pedal here required a separate consideration - there were some more obvious ones - like most of the gain ones - I kind of knew I would be using the 2 Becos FX ones, the Decibelics Reverend V2, and Pigtronix Micro Distortion - very early on. Also the Fortin Mini Zuul was pretty much a shoe-in.

For the Harmonics slot was kind of caught in two minds between the Analog.Man Mini Beano Boost, and the Menatone Mini Simeplexity - I could have gone with either solution there, while there's nothing out there currently which replicates the Thorpy Heavy Water in Mini enclosure.

For the Multi-Modulation, Multi-Delay and Multi-Reverb pedals - I was pretty sure I would be going with Mooer - where the only decision of note in the end was deciding between the A7 and R7 - the A7 has my key staple Plate Reverb, but overall more interesting spacey algorithms than the more traditional R7 variety - so I went with the A7 therefore!

Here follow the individual details of each :

Controls -  Active Tilt-EQ, Boost (+20dB), Cut Lows, Cut Mids, Cut Highs, Mid Sweep (360Hz at -3dB to 720 Hz at -9dB).

My favourite Mini Boost of all time - this is the perfect stand-in for the JA Prism - as I use that very subtly - and the Solo Boost Master has the perfect complement of controls to fulfil what early shaping and warm-up role!

Only a relatively few of these were made before the line was discontinued - meaning that no official demos exist of this pedal. I missed out at the time of release, but managed to snag one of the very rare second-hand ones - offered to me by a loyal reader of this blog - to which I'm eternally grateful - as this is the best ever mini boost!

Controls - Boost (+18dB), Tone / Range : Mids / Treble / Lows.

This slot ended up being between the Beano Boost and the Menatone Simplexity Preamp Mini. I was in two minds as to which one to go for - it really was a flip-the-coin situation for it to land on the Beano - it could just as easily have been the Simplexity - both being Germanium Transistor type units! The core function of this slot is to add plenty of harmonics and enhanced texture - but minimal gain!

Controls - Gain, Tone, Clip - Classic (Symmetrical), Asymmetrical, LED, Deep (Bass Boost), Dry Active Tilt-EQ, Wet>Dry Mix.

Actually a really potent TS808 style drive at its core - but the extra Clipping options, Bass Boost and Smart EQ - turn it into a sort of Mini Multi-Drive! Super potent and always sounds great!

Controls - Gain, Level, Tone, Mode : I Crunch / II Overdrive / III Distortion / F Forbidden Fuzz, Dip 1 : Stock Si / LED Clipping, Dip 2 : Bass Boost On/Off, Remote switch and cable to separately activate F Forbidden Fuzz Mode.

Absolute killer multi-gain pedal - which covers all the main foot groups with aplomb - one of my very favourite gain pedals - where I like it with LED Clipping and Bass Boost applied by default!

It's still very early days for this second edition - and so we've still to see an official demo, I've had to use a V1 demo here - just imagine the new one is around 10-20% better sounding!

Controls - Gain, Volume, Drive, Fuzz Shape x 6, Series/Parallel button.
 
Fuzz Shape - No Filter | Mid Bump (808) | Low Pass (Carlos) | Mid Scoop (Muff) | Low Pass (Bass!).

Super smart multi-gain pedal with smart parallel option gain stacking as well as series - delivers 6 excellent voicings!

Controls - Threshold, Side-switch = decrease Threshold range.

The best of the mini Noise Gates as far as I'm aware - offering solutions for 2CM, 3CM and 4CM routing arrangements.

Controls - Speed, Depth, Variable Ctrl, Modes : Chorus / Flange / Trem / Phase / Vibra / Rotary / Liquid / Auto-Wah / Stutter / Ring Mod / Low Bit, Series/Parallel switch.

Funnily enough the Mooer and Flame multi-modulators have all the same algorithms in control - where the Mooer is in a sightly smaller enclosure. Gives you full coverage of the various Modulation food groups!

Controls - Blend, 3 x Flutter, Delay Time (8ms - 3000ms), Saturation, Feedback, Double Tap Footswitch to set Tap Tempo.

So this is in the Double Tracker slot - which as mentioned is night impossibly to simulate in mono. Generally for double-tracking you have a stereo signal with delay at 30ms, and the two left and right channel voicings slightly detuned from each other by a few cents. The TCE Mini Mimiq is supposedly no good - not that any mono pedal really is - but with the controls here - and applying a little flutter and the right wet-mix - I think I can just about fake it here - even though just to the tiniest degree!

Controls - Tweak 1, Mix, Tweak 2, Time, Save/Modes : Tape / Liquid / Rainbow / Galaxy / Movers / Low Bit / 150 sec Looper, Feedback, Hold for Tap Tempo.

Really cool Mini Multi-Delay pedal with lots of interesting spacey options!

Controls - X variable, Mix, Chaos, Decay, Save/Modes : Plate / Hall / Warp / Shake / Crush / Shimmer / Dream, Tone, Hold for Infinite / Freeze.

One of 2 Mooer Reverbs in the 7 series - with a slightly more unusual / spacey selection compared to the more vanilla R7. Very much the perfect companion effect for the Moeer D7 and Mod Factory MKII.

As before - we have 4 essential pedals carried over in the mix - the Jackson Audio Prism, ThorpyFX Heavy Water, Boss NS-2 Alchemy-Modded Noise Gate, and TC Electronic Mimiq Stereo Doubler - all those have been covered in the previous original Compact edition rundown, and we don't need to re-tread that familiar territory again here.

As per the Mid-Size arrangement here were are really only concerned with the 6 larger pedals that are different. One of my readers - Dan suggested I use the Mr Black Doubler here - but I really love my Mimiq - I still feel that's fairly unique - even though there is the Mr Black one, the KMA Machines Endgame, and indeed Strymon Deco - my Mimiq will always be the first choice for that slot - there's a reason I call it 'Fairy Dust!'.

All the larger size pedals are shoe-ins really - the Chase Bliss Automatone Preamp MKII is probably still my favourite pedal execution of all time! That and the 2 Kernom units were always going to feature heavily!

Same goes for the Eventide H90 - another definite shoe-in.

Which means that the heavy pondering was left for the Delay and Reverb slots - the Reverb one in particular - as noted. The Empress EchoSystem has long been my favourite all-rounder Delay Workstation - and I've not encountered anything that will shake me away from that. I of course love my Boss DM-101 too - which is my current mainstay - but I have to route that on my current board in an inoptimal position because of its Mono-In, Stereo-Out nature. For this particular board - it made ultimate sense to go with the EchoSystem.

I've already explained my rationale for the BigSky MX - while a number of my favourites could have gone in on that slot.

I obviously have had all those Large pedals for a while - bar the BigSky MX - which is a recent addition. While for the Mini Board - I would still need to add more than half of those options! Where I only own the 2 Becos FX ones, the Reverend V2, and Micro Disnortion! I don't really have much call for an all Mini board - but it's important to take a pulse check every now and again to check where that technology is at - its state of the art as such!

Here follow the individual details for the 6 different Large format pedals :

Controls -  Electricity (±Octave / Harmonics / Ring Mod Adjust), Mood (Character/Nature/Flavour/Texture), Volume, Post Tone, Pre Tone, Fuzz (Gain / Saturation), Preset Footswitch (Hold for 2 seconds to save favourite), On / Off Footswitch, Midi In / Out, and Expression ports on rear.

One of my all-time favourite Multi-Fuzz pedals - this can pretty much get you into every Fuzz territory - whether classic, modern, futuristic or otherworldly. Really clever control topology - where all the controls are highly interactive and each one render a different character - amazing fuzz pedal - for the proper fans of that genre!

Controls - Volume, Treble, Mids, Freq, Bass, Gain, Jump : Off / 0 / 5, Mids : Off / Pre / Post, Q : Wide / Moderate / Narrow, Diode : Off / Silicon / Germanium, Fuzz : Off / Open / Gated, Bypass (Save) Footswitch, Preset (Bank) Footswitch.

The combination of form factor, functionality and output quality probably makes this my favourite effects pedal of all time. A little vintage Bang and Olufsen in its styling - just a wonderful multi-gain pedal every which way - and supremely magical and easy to deploy!

Controls - Mid, Mood (Clipping Style), Volume (up to +30V @ Max), Post-Clipping Tone, Pre-Clipping Tone, Drive, Preset Footswitch, On/Off Footswitch.

A fantastic engineering achievement - with the ingenious 'Mood' control delivery a progressively more aggressive clipping output, with variable either way symmetrical clipping. Super versatile and sounds amazing - like its Moho sibling, needs a MIDI controller to get the most out of it!

Controls - Select Program / Playlist / Bank [hold], Perform / HotKnob, Programs + Routing (System when pressed together), Quick Parameter Knobs 1-3, Presets + Parameters (Tempo when pressed together), [P] Active / On Footswitch, [A] Bank Down Footswitch, [B] Bank Up Footswitch.

Probably the greatest Multi-FX pedal made to date - in the richness and intricacy of its algorithms. This is a solid workhorse in all the different directions, while I'm using this mostly as a Multi-Modulator.

Where it includes the following modulation flavours - Chorus, EvenVibe Uni-Vibe, Flanger, Armadillo Harmonic Tremolo, Instant Flanger, Instant Phaser, ModFilter, Phaser, Q-Wah, Resonator, Ring Mod, Rotary, TremoloPan, TriceraChorus, Undulator, Vibrato.

Controls - Key Modes / Categories : Digital | Tape | Analog | Multi | Mod | Filter | Ambient | Delay + Reverb | Reverse | Stutter | Lo-Fi | Whisky, Engines : Single | Dual Parallel | Dual Serial | Left / Right, Delay Time | Ratio, Mix (wet/dry), Output (level), Feedback (decay), Tone, Thing 1 variable param, Thing 2 variable param, Tap Tempo Footswitch, Shift Button (+engines = order | +mode = solo active engine | +knob/s = assign to expression pedal | +tap = global/delay time source | +scroll = save preset), Preset Scroll Footswitch, Bypass Footswitch.

A magnificent multi-mode dual-engine stereo Delay Workstation with too many algorithms to mention them in full here - still my favourite delay pedal after all this time, while it could really do with a small screen / control-strip - just to list the different Thing 1 and Thing 2 variable parameters if nothing else - otherwise you need to keep the manual handy!

Controls - Key Mode / Category / Type : Room | Hall | Chamber | Plate | Spring | Impulse (Its) | Cloud | Shimmer | Bloom | Chorale | Magneto | Nonlinear (Push for Dual 1<>2, Hold to Save), Value Rotary (Push for Param, Hold for Back, Long Hold for Global Settings), Decay, Pre-Delay, Tone, Mod, Param 1, Param 2, Mix, Footswitch A, A+B = Bank Down, Footswitch B, Footswitch B+C = Bank Up, Footswitch C / Infinite / Freeze.

Includes following algorithms - Room : Studio / Club, Hall : Concert / Arena, Chamber : Neutral / Clear / Smooth / Crisp / Deep, Plate : Small / Large, Spring : 1 / 2 / 3, Impulse (Load or configure your own IRs), Cloud : Ensemble / Diffusion, Shimmer : Shift 1 and Shift with up to 28 different intervals and across MX and Classic voicings, Bloom, Chorale : Sort of Formant Reverb with 7 Vowel Sounds, and Tenor or Baritone pitch ranges, Magneto : 6 Head Multi-Tap Tape Delay, Nonlinear : Swoosh / Reverse / Ramp / Gate / Gauss / Bounce Generators.

Hugely capable Dual Effect Reverb Workstation with superb control interface, and improved ease of use. I was in two minds here as to which of my big box reverbs to go for - as I have so many great ones - it was mostly between this and the Empress Reverb in the end - where this one had that Dual Engine thing which the Empress Reverb still lacs (while its EchoSystem sibling has it!). On balance across all the criteria I just thought the BigSky MX was overall the most satisfying big box reverb in its day-to-day use - and it has some incredible industry-leading algorithms onboard. Its predecessor certainly set the pace for the last decade, and this one carries that legacy forward into the next one!