I have always liked the look of the Walrus Audio Mako Series of MI Multi-Modulator, D1 Delay, R1 Reverb and ASC1 Amp Cab and Sim. And feel that these latest changes have really propelled some of these to the top of their respective categories - particularly in terms of Compact Enclosure Editions!

The new control interface is actually remarkably simple and intuitive - the knobs above each of the 3 screen segments allow you to click through different ’pages’ or screen of options - where you ...

The colour and moniker of this new Diamond Pedals Delay accurately describes its relationship to the legacy smoother more classic Memory Lane mainstay. The controls and core functions are identical across the two pedals - it’s just the 3 core modes that are different. The Memory lane is more traditionally inspired with Modern, Warm and Vintage Modes, where the Dark Cloud has vintage inspired Tape, and then the more unusual / modern Harmonic and Reverse voicings.

I mostly use tape-style ...

On first seeing this striking pedal you get instant Chase Bliss vibes - while this is an entirely new incredibly creative sort of glitchy circuit which Microlooper-style records its input into a buffer - where 9 x ’Playback Operators’ grab snippets from a 15 second Buffer and randomly play those back at different speeds and in different vector directions. The randomisation hits once per second where the 5 Playback Operator types get fired off randomly - i.e. some are played, some are not, and ...

I always get pangs of sorrow when a pedal brand retires for one reason or another. Late last year Luca Romanelli announced that he was pulling the plug on his Mastro Valvola pedal brand - which at times I have referred to as ’The Strymon of Italy’.

There are so many complications and complexities with pedal-building in general - chip sets and key components increasingly harder to source, and numerous challenges with logistics and red tape. It’s a wonder more of these don’t go to the wire. ...

Following on from his smart stereo Cortado Reverb, by friend Benno has conjured up a quite superb Tape Style Delay - packed with some exceptionally smart features.

You get 4 different styles of delay, including a handy Dual Tape, and the powerful Playback Direction toggle-switch allows you to engage the Delay in Reverse, Forward, or both together in parallel - which is a little reminiscent of the Chase Bliss Reverse Mode C.

In my visual I’ve incorporated the secondary settings / ...

The ALABS Audio Pedals were so successful over the Christmas / New Year period - that they were sold out for a while. So I thought it prudent to pause the action until ALABS were back in sync with the demand.

The TimeSlip is my second-favourite of the quartet and shares Cetus’s perfect mix of algorithms - mixing up classic and more traditional flavours with some more intriguing and unusual modern and futuristics ones. I really love this pedal in particular for superb sweep of algorithms - ...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!

So we featured 120 pedals across the 5 Genre categories this year - as you’ve witnessed over the last 5 days, and those have been whittled and distilled down to these 27 Magnificent and Exceedingly Flavoursome candidates.

Picking out the very best of those is obviously a slightly subjective exercise while based on a series of exacting criteria - including innovation, versatility, practicality, variability, playability, quality of manufacture, quality of output and sheer enjoyment.

Here ...

And so to the final category - where competition is extremely fierce this year. No doubt some of your favourites will have missed the cut here - but hopefully this selection is fully representative of the best of the year. Obvious I lean more towards immersive stereo effects - mono doesn’t really do it for me so much - while there is a smattering of mono pedals in here too. Price, format, versatility and practicality - everything counts!

Of the 23 featured in the selection - I own around ...