Malekko Heavy Industries

Malekko heavy industries started with a dissolving band, some inspiration, and a kitchen table. "The joke was the website made us seem huge, with pictures of semi's with the Malekko logo when there was only two of us, I soldered every pedal on my kitchen table" explains co-founder Josh Henley from Portland, OR where the company has grown into an 8 person operation with a vast network of players and fans. Malekko is known for original, affordable pedals and synth modules that earn their place in you soundbox. Josh says Malekko is about usability, not impressing your friends with 100 features you'll never touch: "We're not here to make trophies, we're here to make pedals players can use and enjoy." Malekko have cut a unique path with innovative ideas like the Omicron series, 8 no frills mini-pedals that build your signal for up without undercutting your wallet. Working to keep their pedals as useable as they are affordable, it's easy to understand why Malekko has earned a reputation for serving the needs of the working musician.

Ekko 616

650 ms of analogue delay. Count them, love them, rejoice in them. The Ekko 616 has straightforward controls that give you a wide range of sounds. Use the Time, Mix, and Regen knobs to slapback or blast off and engage the Mod controls to give your sound a whole new personality of chorusing and vibrato. Specially voiced repeats allow a larger bandwidth to pass than most traditional analogue delays, giving you a stronger signal out of the pedal. An internal gain knob allows you to customize the E616 to your setup to avoid volume drops or boosts when engaging.

Review: Audio Damage Phosphor

Phosphor is a polyphonic software synthesizer plug-in modeled on the alphaSyntauri hardware synthesizer. While making it Audio Damage took special care in recreating the original synthesis process and then added on a little more to make it more versatile for modern musicians. When I first opened Phosphor up I was surprised by it’s relative simplicity of it’s interface. Most software synths hide most of their features in sub-menus but Phosphor puts it all on the screen in a nice little green and grey box. Two oscillator/envelope sections modeled on the alphaSyntauri sit on top of two independent delays with built in filtering and cross-feedback. To the right of all this is the LFO’s, which can be used to affect multiple parameters. If all the technical talk scares you fret not, the Phosphor comes with 80+ pre-sets I found really actually usable and inspiring. The pads and leads really stand out, but the bass presets seemed a little limited. The manual, available for free on the AD website, actually turned out to be easy reading and indispensable when I started creating my own sounds. Overall, Phosphor is by far the best digital synth under $100 I’ve ever encountered, and puts many pricier units to shame.

$59 at www.AudioDamage.com

Monster Plug-ins: Audio Damage

There the world is replete with companies making ‘utility’ plug-ins, emulating hardware to give digital mixing a more old-school feel. Audio Damage is not one of them. Audio Damage makes effects and instruments unique to the digital environment, helping artists create new and unique sounds that stand out from the pack of producers using Logic and Ableton pre-sets. Their effects catalogue ranges from the beat chopping Replicant and multi-FX Discord 3 (which are pretty crazy in their own right) to more experimental plug-ins like the Automaton, using buffer effects driven by a cellular automata sequencer. Their instruments are no less creative, including the Phosphor polysynth and the Axon drum synth. “We design plug-ins we’d like to have” says co-founder Chris Randall, “We get a wacky idea (e.g. driving an FM percussion synth with an artificial neural network sequencer), research to see if it’s been done, and figure out how to do it.” All that, and AD products come with a no questions asked money back guarantee. What more could you ask for?
www.audiodamage.com/

Endangered Audio

Endangered Audio
Asheville, N.C.

Endangered Audio builds module and stomp box effects for studios and touring
artists. EA gear is known for unique sound and dependability, using only through-
hole components soldered in shop at Smashing Guitars in downtown Asheville.
Todd Kelley started the company in Dec. 2008 to release the Gristleizer, an
updated version of Roy Gwinn’s module used in Throbbing Gristle. Taking
audio input and using an LFO to effect the amplitude or a filter on the signal, the
Gristleizer can do everything from subtle tremolo to complete signal destruction.
Their most recent pedal, the AD4096 is a unique analog delay that is currently
used by Baroness, Band of Horses, U.S. Christmas, and Emeralds.
http://www.smashingguitarsasheville.com/

AD4096 Analog Delay
Beyond Delay
$375

The AD4096 goes above and beyond other delays with its Wet/Dry stereo out,
Expand, and Infinity switches. The Expand switch turns the depth to 100%,
causing run-away self-oscillating feedback for as long as you hold it down. The
Infinity switch introduces a hold function that repeats forever, but not quite like a
loop pedal. Instead of layering signal on signal indefinitely, the Infinite wet signal
takes on the color of whatever’s being played. The Aux out can be switched
between wet and dry, splitting your signal into two separate channels.100%
analog circuitry provides up to 300ms of uniquely colored delay with adjustable
delay, echo, and depth settings. From recreating classic delay sounds to creating
unique sonic creations, the versatility of the AD4096 can’t be denied.

Blackout Effectors

Blackout Effectors
Asheville, N.C

“Built by us, for us … but available to you”

Kyle Tompkins started Blackout Effectors in his Vancouver kitchen in 2008, modding, fixing, and building the occasional pedal with a cheap soldering iron. “Really,” he say, “I should have been playing guitar instead of fooling around. It was an awesome kitchen though.” In 2009 he quit his day job and relocated to Asheville, N.C. to focus on Blackout full time. Skip to 2011 and Blackout Effectors is producing 40+ handmade pedals a week that ride with bands from Band of Horses to Baroness and The Black Angels. With the experience accumlated over the past several years, Kyle is sticking true to his vision of what Blackout Pedals need to be, even if that means he ends up scrapping the majority of new circuit designs because they won’t fit the Blackout mold. “We’re only going to release the coolest of the cool stuff and in the Blackout world no one gets to decide what is cool besides us.”

http://www.blackouteffectors.com/

Blackout Effectors Mantra Overdrive
True Grit
$175

Whether you’re looking for that classic overdriven sound or want to turn your speaker into Satan’s mouthpiece, you need a Mantra. Amp-like circuit architecture gives you maximum control of your overdriven sound while the Mantra’s multiple gain stages give you endless amounts of clean-up with your guitar’s volume knob. It switches between rock and blues as easily as it switches between low output single coils and hot potato humbuckers. From fingerpicked phrases to windmill finishes, this pedal conjures a classic sound that’s all your own, a Mantra you’ll play over and over again.