Plug-in to the potential

Like a great man once said, "I have a dream..." 

Ever since I fell deeply in love with Chase Bliss Audio's collaboration with Goodhertz on the Lossy pedal, I have begun imagining other effects that might be taken out of the box and into a smaller box.

Here are some of those ideas based on taking the VSTs and AUs that I often use and whispering at a shooting star to put a wish into the universe and see if anything manifests.

While I've only got ten digits to keep track of these brainfarts, let's start a tally. 

10.

Let's begin where there's already been a lot of work undertaken and that is Universal Audio's massive undertaking to bring their audio-modelling expertise into the small enclosures of guitar pedals.

They already have brought a range of effects and amp emulations to market, but what about something as simple as their Verve Machines adding saturation in stereo?

I would use the fattening potential of these colours on a variety of instruments, particularly synthesisers and drum machines.

 

9. 

While UA have brought nice reverbs to their range, I am hoping that someone is throwing lots of money at Sean Costello.

His Valhalla-branded reverbs are so beautiful and, aside from Walrus Audio's Sloer pedal, I can't think of too many that bring some of that Shimmer-style lusciousness outside of a Lexicon.

 

8.

As bitcrushing is an area where I feel there's huge scope for development in guitar pedals, one name I push forward is Sonic Charge's Bitspeak. 

Sure, Permut8 might be an even more engaging option with MIDI or even the Synplant synth, but I really want to crush my bits with a Speak&Spell-esque interface.

7.

Since Sinevibes are already making effects for Korg's platform, maybe it isn't such a leap for them to expand more into hardware and their Reactive effect is one that's been great at really pushing an instrument or sample to become something else. 

6.

A delay that I think brings a new sound to a world populated with echoes is the Delay Cat by Red Timbre Audio.

Aside from their decision to use Comic Sans font, it is really exciting to play with "concatenation synthesis techniques" to arrive at surprising results. 

5.

Ohmforce's Frohmage isn't one that I use so much recently, but I feel it would add a lot of character and could have a very tasty design too.

There's a module for their Ohmicide distortion, which was always a lot nastier than I wanted and preferred Predatohm for delay, so the French developers are clearly already moving in the direction of packaging their tasty sounds.

 

4.

George Yohng's W1 Limiter is one of my favourites and gets slapped onto lots of my channels, so I feel it would be a very useful addition to the pedalboard.

Maybe it's too transparent for most people but I love being able to put it into a spot and never notice it again.

 

3.

Dada Life's Sausage Fattener is a design worthy of a pedal enclosure.

Or a T-shirt, I feel like that little angry phallic-like banger is ready for more fame.

He could be the first plug-in to spawn an animated series!

 

2.

Okay, seriously, I don't know where to begin with Airwindows.

There are just too many possibilities and, while I can't have them all, I think there's a gaping hole in the pedal market for more channel strip-style effects like the JHS Colour Box. 

 

1.

Here is one of my favourite effects of all time, the Ableton Live Beat Repeat.

I'm old enough to remember when this was the Coldcutter and it should be a no-brainer since the grandfathers of remixing have already kinda put their stealthy toes into the hardware market with the Zen Delay made by Erica Synths.