Two of the Best Looking Pedals of 2021 have landed - The All-Pedal Macrodose Envelope Filter and Black Arts Toneworks Priestess Fuzz / Distortion
In my opinion the above two were the best looking pedals of last year - honourable mentions also for Fuzzrocious’s Electric Ocean. And they don’t just look the part - they’re also among the most formidable of their respective genres. The looks plus the extended feature sets make both of those a delight to deploy.
Both have been featured on the site before - but those pictures did not do them full justice - and I felt I had to do my own pictures - while even those improved versions don’t adequately capture the beauty of the gilding on the Priestess.
The Priestess arrived mid-way through January, while the Macrodose just made it into that selection by the skin of its death so to speak - arriving on the afternoon of the last day of last month. Both pedals went straight into the chain - and have been firm favourites from first encounter. Each has stunning tones and textures to match its gorgeous aesthetics. I’ve often said that the best of these stompboxes were like Fabergé jewel boxes - and never more true than in this instance. I know how much effort goes into these finishes - and each is rather a bargain at the given price.
I had been promised a coupon from All-Pedal - but got short of patience in the end - and bought one in their sort of January sale - which was just about a sufficient savings for me - while of course some of that was clawed back in further customs charges.
In any case I’m absolutely delighted to own both, and the two will for sure be a long-tern feature of the pedal-chain - as I’ve already said - two of the finest in their respective categories!
Last time I checked there were also surprising amounts of the special limited Gilt Vintage Copper Edition still to be had - which is so the one to have. The black and purple version just doesn’t come close to the splendour of that original colourway. Mine of course came from good friend Joe Light / Joe’s Pedals! While the Macrodose was acquired direct from the All-Pedal Reverb.com Store.
All-Pedal Macrodose Envelope Filter - $325
Controls - Warp (LFO Shape / Speed), Frequency, Resonance, Depth, Blend, Volume, Shape (11 Options : Analog Envelope / LFO Shapes / Special Step Envelope) and Mode (11 Options across Pixelated, Triggered, Manual, and Slow / Medium / Fast type), Filter Options : Low Pass / Band Pass / High Pass. Dual-footswitches - including Bypass and Tap-Tempo with Hold/Freeze!
As I mentioned at the time of release - the Macrodose is an enhanced version of the Subdecay Prometheus DLX developed in cooperation with Mr Subdecay himself Brian Marshall. Who added Volume and Blend controls to his classic Prometheus effect. Obviously All-Pedal have done a fantastic job on the graphics and aesthetics to make this and all-round significant improvement to the already formidable Prometheus DLX - which I also have!
This is for sure one of the very best Envelope Filter Pedals out there with an incredible roster of filter algorithms onboard - including Autowah, Envelope Filter, Step Filter, Random Sample/Hold Filter, even a Pixelated Envelope Filter.
Beyond the 2 new Volume and Blend controls - the Macrodose has pretty much the exact same functionality as the Prometheus DLX, with 11 Waveform Shapes as such :
- ANALOG ENVELOPE [forward & reverse]
- STEP FILTER [tap tempo step filter based on 7 LFO shapes]
- TRIGGER LFO [tap to trigger one LFO cycle]
- MANUAL LFO [manually control LFO speed]
- WARP LFO [tap tempo LFO speed with wave shape warp]
- PIXILATED ENVELOPE [sample/hold envelope control]
- ENVELOPE TRIGGER [envelope triggers LFO]
- SPECIAL ENVELOPE (Up) –> LFO MANUAL [envelope drives LFO speed. Fixed sensitivity]
- SPECIAL ENVELOPE (Down) –> LFO [envelope drives LFO speed. Variable sensitivity]
And a variety of 11 Playback Modes :
- PIXELATED [Step] : 1x | 2x | 3x | 4x
- TRIGGER [LFO]
- MANUAL [LFO]
- SLOW [Warp LFO] : 1/8 | 1/4
- MEDIUM [Warp LFO] : 1/2 | 1x
- FAST [Warp LFO] : 2x
Macrodose Key Features & Specs
- Analog Filter with Digital Controls, Blend and Volume
- MOSFET Power Protection - optimised for 9V, but can take 18V also
- Active Volume Control - for complementing and compensating for the powerful Blend control
- Blend Control - proprietary clean boost circuit for panning between Dry and Wet Signal
- 11 Basic Shapes - Analog Envelope, Step Filter, Trigger LFO, Manual LFO, Warp LFO, Pixelated Envelope, Special Envelope into LFO w/ fixed Sensitivity, and Special Envelope into LFO w/ variable Sensitivity
- Mode Modfiers - Pixelated, Trigger, Manual, Slow, Medium, Fast
- Expression Input - Can be used with any non-envelope functions - dependent on Shape and Mode
- Tap-Tempo and Hold Footswitch
- True Bypass Footswitch
- Input Impedance 260K
- Current Draw - 60mA @ 9C DC [-]
- RRP - $325
Black Arts Toneworks Priestess Multi-Muff Fuzz / Distortion - $189
Controls - Tone, Mids, Clip 1 : Supa Tonebender / Silicon, Clip 2 : Pharaoh / Silicon, Fuzz and Volume.
Black Arts Toneworks (BAT) describes this as an Analogy of its Muff-style circuits - covering a variety of its classic pedals including the Pharaoh and (BAT)LSTR. This is for sure a sort of 'Greatest Hits of Muff' all-in-one - with a quite exceptional core timbre and tonality. It has incredible warmth and nuance - in particular with the two Silicon Clipping toggles set to off.
The Tone Stack employed is the Violet Ram’s Head variety, and the Fuzz knob allows you to crank the circuit through 4 Gain Stages as follows :
- 1. Pharaoh
- 2. Green Russian
- 3. NYC Pi Reissue with Creamy Dreamer Mod
- 4. High Gain (BAT)LSTR
You exercise further gain-structure control via Clip 1 and Clip 2 : 2-way toggle switches which add Silicon Diodes in the Down/On position, while when those switches are Up/Off they render Supa Tonebender and Pharoah flavours respectively.
The Mids are perfectly honed to give you everything from ultra scooped to Mids-pushed - covering off Vintage and Modern applications. I really like most of my Muffs to have some kind of Mids control, so this is perfect for my preferences - and in fact the topology here is really quite similar to BAT’s LSTR variety (minus the toggles obviously).
This is an exceptional pedal in every way really - and that Limited Copper/ Gold Foil Edition - is just breathtakingly awesome!
Priestess Key Features & Specs
- Multi-Muff / Multi-Gain-Stage Fuzz based on classic BAT circuits - Anthology
- 4 core incremental Gain-Stages : Pharaoh | Green Russian | NYC PI Reissue with Creamy Dreamer Mod 4 | High Gain (BAT)LSTR
- Ram's Head style Tone-Stack
- Dual EQ Controls - Tone (High/Low) and Mids (Scooped/Pushed)
- 2 x Silicon Clipping Switches
- Power Supply : standard 2.1mm 9V DC [-]
- Current Draw : <5mA
- True Bypass Footswitch
- RRP - $189.99 Standard Black / Purple Edition, $214.99 Limited Antique Copper Gold Foil Edition
