I’m going to start this month’s roundup with a couple of conundrums that I’m still kind of wrestling with.

Firstly about my old friends at Sinvertek, whom I can’t but think that they might have jumped the shark with their latest release. It’s another spin off of the Scream Honey line - the 4th or 5th in that series. Mr Wu seems to introduce tiny improvements each year, and every other year we get a price rise too. On this occasion the offering is two pedals - supposedly both slightly different ...

A while back, this project actually started off as a custom edition of the Nocturnal Ambient Multi-FX, where it soon developed into entirely its own thing, while it does retain some certain vestiges of the original.

You still get a core Cathedral style Shimmer Reverb, while the newer pedal’s variant is slightly different, and with just 3 controls for that section - Diffusion, Filter and FX Level, in place of the Reverb, Shimmer, Blend, Colour and Filter controls of the original.

Both ...

There’s a reason why the above background is purple - for it indicates the provenance of this particular pedal - which is sort of based on Tom Majeski’s long discontinued Cooper FX Outward pedal - where the ONWARD extrapolates and expands on the Envelope-based sampling prowess of that device.

This is one of the simplest Chase Bliss pedals to deconstruct / decipher - while as always there are some smart hidden options and secret modes to be found here.

In effect this is a Dynamic ...

Joel obviously dropped a number of clues as to what Chase Bliss’s new pedal would be - and most guessed it was some kind of Lo-Fi / Fidelity Reducing - Filter / Compressor / Bitcrusher type of thing. While typically ’Bitcrushing’ is associated with the extreme 8bit style of effect which typically creates harder, harsher and more brittle artefacts - while the Lossy is a much more expansive, refined and nuanced affair.

Goodhertz describe their own source Lossy Plugin as the "infinitely ...

I’ve obviously featured the Pico POG previously as the first in this particular series / range to be released - where we now have 9 fully formed candidates - 7 mini editions of EHX Classics - and 2 brand new formats - the Rerun Tape Delay, and Triboro Overdrive + Distortion + Fuzz pedal - all DSP types.

These are somewhat streamlined in feature sets mostly compared to their Nano / Compact equivalent forebears - while some here actually have a little more to them - including the Pitch Fork, ...

I loved the concept of the original Infinite Sample Sustainer - basically a significantly evolved version of that classic freeze / pad effect (a la EHX Freeze etc.) - which is essentially a short loop on continuous repeat. The Infinite Sample Sustainer has a smarter and fuller sounding algorithm which plays back the sample simultaneously forwards and reverse - to produce a wider and more enriched soundstage.

The 3 Main Controls are the same - Decay (Layer Sustain), Level (Output Level), ...

Another healthy selection - Modutility covering Modulation, Pitch and Utility pedal categories - for one of the strongest selection to date. Some of the pedals here are truly stellar, and I have a little over half here already in the collection.

I’m unlikely to ever get all the pedals featured here, but there are several already earmarked for acquisition in 2023 - with the Eventide H90 at the top of that list.

The ones I don’t yet own, or may never own even - include :

• Chase Bliss

The first thing that has to be said here is that this is not in any way one of the more typical Reverse Delays or Reverbs. This is rather a pure Reverse Playback pedal which samples your input and flips it around before output!

Controls - Mix : Dry > Wet, Volume, Clock Slider : Sample Rate and Length, Speed : Playback Speed.

Mix lets you introduce some of your Dry signal back into the mix for further signal balance, and Volume is of course the level of output.

The Variable Clock ...

TCE’s new Infinite Sample Sustainer essentially fades in layers of sustained samples over the top of each other. It catches snapshots of your input and allows you to set the Freeze / Sustain Level via Decay, as well as the Pace of Fade-ins. You can choose number of layers that get swapped around - from a single over-written one to two, three, and infinite layers. You also have 3 customisable TonePrints for even more nuanced effect, and a built in Reverb voicing - which you select via the Dry/...