Top 20 videos last week (January 12-18)

1. TARS DLX - Technical Demo (by Collision Devices)
2. This Mini Effects Pedal Fits Anywhere! ? Olinthus Cicada (by Olinthus)
3. Behringer 69 Vibe - Unboxing - Teardown - Demo (by Reeves Electro)
4. BOSS VG-800 V-Guitar Processor | Take Your Performances Beyond Reality (by Boss)
5. Introducing the Walrus Audio Canvas Rehearsal (by Walrus Audio)
6. Behringer 69 Vibe demo. Authentic Univibe on a budget? (by TheToneshack)
7. SansAmp GT2 into IR's - Brendan Mac's Tone Test Clip #2 #shorts #shortvideo (by BMC Guitar Effects)
8. Colorsound Organ Wah Swell (by Popp Effects)
9. Pull Focus #shorts #raingerfx #pullfocus #reverbpedal #fuzzpedal #choruspedal #guitarpedals (by Rainger FX)
10. Clean has a hidden mode (by Chase Bliss Audio)
11. Massive Stereo Ambience with the Walrus Qi Etherealizer | Secret Weapons (by Marc Johnston)
12. How a company makes an effect pedal (by Emily Hopkins)
13. The Metal Zone by Boss. Don?t knock it before you try it.? (by Stomp bOx Talk)
14. AC128 Arbitrary Fuzz (germanium) - Dazatronyx Australia (by Dazatronyx)
15. You're SLEEPING on the Charlie Brown... (by JHS Pedals)
16. #ibanez Modern Fusion MF5 smooth and very creamy #overdrive (by Jacques)
17. Catalinbread Airstrip - Discrete Console Preamp (by AndyDemos)
18. Head to Head Overdrive Pedal Test - Donner vs JOYO (by Gear Guruz)
19. 1968 King VOX Wah [Restoration] #wahpedal #jimihendrix #shorts (by John Seventy)
20. KMA Machines: ENDGAME - SHADOW EDITION (limited to 200 worldwide) (by KMA Audio Machines)

Overviews of the previous weeks: https://www.effectsdatabase.com/video/weekly

11 new effects

1. Boss VG-800 - V-Guitar Processor
2. Catalinbread Airstrip - CB-Range Discrete Console Pre
3. Horizon Devices Compressor
4. Horizon Devices Flux Echo
5. Music-Son DL-1 Delay
6. Pigtronix Cosmosis I - Stereo Ambient Reverb with Morphing
7. Secret EFX Secret-2 - Dynamic Overdrive
8. Secret EFX Soul Pressure - Compressor
9. Vox V863-CA Custom Auto Wah Wah
10. Walrus Audio Canvas Rehearsal
11. Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer

1 new article

1. Last week's top 20 videos (2025, week 02)

Overviews of the previous weeks: https://www.effectsdatabase.com/updates/weekly

20 years ago I started a little site called "DiscoFreq's Envelope Filter site" as there were no overviews listing more than 20 envelope filters. After the envelope filters, I added other types of filters (including synth modules), then octavers, ring modulators, vocoders, talkboxes, fuzz pedals, phasers, flangers,... until I decided to add ALL pedals, including the hundreds and hundreds of distortion and overdrive pedals.
From the beginning, it was very important to me to include all the small builders. There was a small "wave" of new builders (after the "boutique pioneers" from the 90s) and a lot of those new companies at first only had a presence on eBay and forums like Harmony-Central.

A lot of those early brands disappeared and many of the "big" brands now didn't even exist yet. I've seen several other "waves" of pedal builders since (the next one was in 2007-2008, "helped" by the financial crisis at the time, a lot of Musikmesse (RIP) and NAMM shows and a lot of other changes (YouTube didn't exist in 2003).

I can't really make a big celebration of this anniversary right now as the last few years I had to slow down (divorce, moving a few times, evening course,...) and focus on keeping the site running, adding the new videos,... I did see the new brands and pedals and added many hundreds of each in a queue, but I couldn't keep up adding them.
I'd like to catch up again soon and finally give the site a big overhaul as well (there were previous attempts, but no results...).

I always had lots of plans and ideas, some of which have since been done by others like a similar site about synth modules, a system to "switch" pedals on/off in audio demos (working prototype for about 10 years),...
As I did it all on my own and in my spare time with very limited resources, I didn't really manage to add everything I want/wanted. I had lots of work just to keep it running and growing in the existing format, so I'm still interested in help from others, this really should be a community effort.
Help is very welcome with content, development (also for a related Raspberry Pi idea I have for years!) and sponsorships/advertisers (currently carrying a big part of the costs myself).

That way I hope we can add many more years to this site and celebrate the next big birthday

Cheers!

Bart / DiscoFreq

Soundmit is the international trade fair specialized in electronic musical instruments and new audio technologies that takes place annually in Turin. The event, with a history of eight ever-growing editions, hosted exhibitors from 11 countries in 2018, welcoming over 800 visitors and 170 operators in the field in the two days of the event. It has obtained the patronage of the Italian Trade Agency (www.ice.it), the Polytechnic of Turin, the Polytechnic of Milan, the University of Rome Tor Vergata, the DAMS of the University of Turin and ARDUINO.

25 companies (24 manufacturers and 1 shop) donated a pedal (or more than 1) to auction, including some unique custom versions!

The auctions are HERE.

First impression

I bought the BIAS distortion a couple of months ago because this unit seemed to cover most of my overdrive and most of all: distortion needs.

Intrigued by the hardware+software combo that allows users to store more than enough presets in many different flavors of distortion, I decided to invest. The unit isn't cheap but this baby could replace my complete drive section. It isn't small either but way more handy than having a bunch of cables and pedals all wired together. The ability to edit the presets in an interface that didn't make me throw up was a refreshing experience for a change.

I found out that trying to copy/paste a whole bunch of pedals to a programmable distortion pedal is a cool concept but the platform is just as useful for people like me, who don't care about sounding like guitarist X or band Y. I want to build my own sounds and I'm glad I can.

This is not your typical multi-effect pedal where you build a chain with a distortion, delay, reverb, chorus etc. from a list and you turn the knobs.

You only get to do the drive/distortion part but you can you in so much detail! Start from a preset and get to work in the different stages. You can add up to two EQ's between the stages you like to shape even more in-between. It's interesting to hear how rolling off or boosting frequencies makes the next stage respond completely different. The interface of the software is fun to work with and might seem a bit "fluffy" to hardcore techies but don't be fooled by looks; editing the chain will keep you tweaking that certain preset to what you like.

Nice touch, you can provide the face plate of your virtual pedal with custom artwork you can import.

The unit offers 2 banks with 10 presets each. Most of them have names on the physical unit but that doesn't matter, you can put anything you like in there.

You assign virtual pedals to the hardware pedal simply by a drag-and-drop in the software. On the hardware pedal you can easily decide which pedals you want under the 3 preset slots that can be accessed with the footswitches.

Caroline Guitar Company was founded in 2010 by guitarist Philippe Herndon. He first started modding pedals and later on decided to start a pedal business. From then on, everything Caroline Guitar Company released were original circuits and unique pedals, targeted towards guitarists in search of exciting sounds. Every Caroline pedal is handmade at their small batch distortery in Columbia, South Carolina. Currently, the range consists of the Haymaker overdrive, the Olympia fuzz, the Icarus booster, the Wave Cannon and Cannonball distortions, the Météore reverb and last but not least the Kilobyte Lo-Fi digital delay. Development of the Kilobyte was crowdfunded and the pedal was already released in 2013. So without further delay, here’s my Kilobyte review.

The Looks

Some Kilobytes are black some are light blue or grey and there also is a retro 64 style Kilobyte design.

The one I got from Bart is black with gold lettering, In and mono Out and a 9V DC plug on the front panel, black MXR style knobs with clear white markers with enigmatic icons next to the controls. The controls are Level, Attack, Sum and Clock and Tacos, a small minipot in the middle for modulation. The original Kilobyte had this pot hidden on the inside. There are two footswitches, on the right is a momentary switch that engages the Havoc mode and on the left, there is a true bypass On/Off switch.