Bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The House of Love, Curve, Ride, Slowdive and Chapterhouse and their blurred and blown-out reverberated tones are having a massive impact of nearly every genre of music today. Whether you make the connection or not, these sounds are now slathered all over dance music, indie-rock, post-rock, pop and even modern metal – as well as the recent revival of shoegaze itself.

FX builders have gotten hip to this resurgence of more ambient-minded players. So much so that features that were unexpectedly exploited on early FX units – mostly reverb – are now commonplace parameters.

One parameter that saw a lot of action back in the day was the reverb mix. While normally reserved for creating a sensible and balanced mix between wet and dry signals, dialing in a 100% wet reverb sound could create a shifting bed of synth-like washes that basically turned guitars into nothing more than simple tone generators.

Well, the Neunaber Wet Mono Reverb certainly lives up to its namesake by taking this mix feature and seemingly centering an entire pedal around it. While we quickly discovered the Neunaber is infinitely capable of so much more than gobs of ambient bliss, we always ended up going back to that addictive depth knob and pegging it to max.

Sound-wise, the Wet’s 100% full-on reverb is lush, sparkly and downright beautiful. Even with a wall of atmospherics cascading through your rig, picking dynamics are still skillfully retained – which is remarkable for a pedal that unapologetically engulfs your sound. There is also no apparent volume loss when taking the pedal into these extremes (a problem that plagues almost every stomp box with a mix feature). The near endless decay of the Neunaber has subtle hints of the classic Alesis Quadraverb plate setting, but without all the noise and hiss (not to mention a gazillion menu screens!). That said, there is nothing copycat or retro sounding about the Neunaber, it has a modern sound all its own… think of a perfectly fluid mix of a Hall and Plate reverb.

The Wet’s two knobs might seem limiting at first, but the unit’s multi-faceted sound is so well-developed that finding that perfect depth of color is accomplished very quicky and very easily. There is a ton of interaction to be had between these well-placed depth and mix knobs; small tweaks yield a wide and wonderful range of results.  What I was expecting while twiddling these controls – more or less – was uh, more or less of the same sound albeit in different amounts. This couldn’t be further from the truth as there seems to be some kind of magical morphing taking place deep within the digital algorithms of the device.

Backing off the mix and increasing the depth knob yields very convincing small room-type sounds that are super tight and totally worthy of something you’d hear coming out of Sun Studios back in the day. I’m talking about the actual room and not Scotty Moore’s reverb tones, you’ll need to look elsewhere for those springy-sproingy sounds. Keep increasing the mix and slowly backing off the depth can create a hi-fi hall vibe that could sit nicely in just about any studio or stage mix. It’s ultra smooth and slick without being sterile – think of 80s or 90s studio reverbs but with a TON of soul.

The Neunaber Wet Mono Reverb is really at the forefront of a new generation of digital devices that sound so amazing that the whole analog vs. digital argument seems tired and pointless. With a pedal like this, it’s less about the circuitry inside and more about the cool sounds that make their way to your amp.

Right off the launch pad, we noticed the massive amounts of boost the Saturn V had on tap: 18db to be exact. Combine that with the gain knob and you’re dealing with nearly 35db of combined volume! Those looking for an absolutely pure, uncolored clean boost might want to go elsewhere, because the Saturn V oozes with personality. How much of that personality you want to surface depends – to a huge extent – on your pickups and volume settings. With the Saturn’s gain backed off and the boost at 50%, single coils barely bubble with a bit of passive-aggressiveness while humbuckers easily cross over the clean line and start getting tough and testy. Nothing terribly aggressive or downright nasty, but you definitely get the sense that an underlying well of pent-up grit is ready and waiting for your next power chord. It’s like that shy kid that you never want to mess with because he might go from a friendly high five to a punch-in-the-face in a matter of moments.

Speaking of power chords, the Saturn makes them absolutely sparkle. The top end can be energetic and edgy but never shrill or slashing. There is a ton of harmonic content going on here that magically captures that late 60s open chord craziness of bands like The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Animals. The overall tone is warm, rich and surprisingly punchy with a touch of treble tearing through the mix for a balanced blend of clean and discernible dirt.

Giving the gain knob a little goose is where the situation starts to get very interesting. Hints of grit start to creep into the mix along with a very open and pronounced valve-like roar. It’s almost as though the bass, mids and treble expand and widen to let elements of overdrive, distortion and fuzz creep through. The transition into this rockin’ realm sounds natural with no unusual artifacts introduced. This is where the Saturn starts getting very selective about pickup position and overall guitar volume. With enough experimentation, you will also find the V molding and shaping your normally predictable amp sounds into something very schizophrenic. Our little 1×12 solid state Roland Jazz Chorus actually began to sound very Vox-like, while the old Blackface Princeton took on some very Marshall-esque glassiness. Very weird, very welcomed and very rewarding – IF you spend enough time tweaking. I can see a ton of timid bedroom – or retired – amps being call back into action by the Harmonic Booster.

I can also see many fans in their respective Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz camps finding something to appreciate here. Overdrive nuts will find the unit’s crispiness a welcome tonal treat after years of stomping hazy mid-range heavy screamers, distortion lovers will dig the dynamics after dealing with compressed and dimensionally challenged DS-type boxes and fuzz nuts will love something that is less squirrelly but with all that recognizable woolyness. While there is a noticeable nod to 1960s treble boosters going on here, the Saturn V’s scope can cover a wide range of genres and bygone eras. Aside from the bands mentioned above, I was able to mimic everything from the chord-heavy crunch of Oasis to the sludgy stoner buzz of Queens of the Stone Age. Pretty cool!

I have to admit that the Spaceman line initially caught my attention on looks alone. Shallow, I know, but that cool, clean, classic Apollo-era space age imagery is indelibly imprinted on my brain after being glued to the TV for many of those historic launches – not to mention the countless grade school “space age” book reports that followed. It’s glaringly obvious that a ton of time and thought went into creating the design-savvy elements that make up the Saturn V. One glance at the lovely polished housing, the unique vinyl etched face plate, large jeweled LED, hand-stamped/screened serial plate and the slick and shiny control knobs leaves little doubt that there is whole lot of passion – if not a full-blown obsession – behind the Spaceman gear.

As expected this same incredible attention to detail carries over into the impeccable interior of the unit. Not a single thing is out of place. The mirrored circuit board looks lovely and the mini constellation of etched stars scattered about are a nice touch. The stellar soldering work and the neat and tidy wiring is worthy of a NASA clean room inspection. Did I mention the super small silk-screened planet (Saturn of course!) and stars on the 9-Volt battery clip? The internal mount for it? Right on!

The word “boutique” has been bandied about quite freely in gear circles the past 20 years. Sadly, the term has almost become blurred and abused to the point of being utterly meaningless. The Spaceman line sets a new, and very high, bar for what that word actually means. Not only does the Saturn V sound incredible, but its expert craftsmanship and impeccable design border on high art.

It’s a rare and wonderful thing when a pedal can be velcro’d to your pedal board for a gig one night and then plugged into a pricey recording console as a top-notch piece of outboard gear the next. This might seem to good to be true, but the RM58 Limiter isn’t your normal pedal and Roger Mayer isn’t your normal gear-maker.

Most effects nuts are well aware of Roger’s history in hand-crafting some of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary stompboxes, but few know that his groundbreaking studio gear has left a lasting sonic stamp on many influential records. Not only was the original rack mount two channel RM58 used for tracking in most of the major studios of those days (Record Plant, Hit Factory, Electric Lady and A&R Studios), it was also used to master hit records at many of the major labels.

The new Roger Mayer RM58 Limiter pedal is a revamped – and obviously rehoused – single channel version of the original rack-mount stereo RM58. Staying true to the vintage unit’s look and feel, the pedal has that same subtle utilitarian layout and clean understated graphics. It’s ultra-easy on the eyes in a cool, classic 1960s NASA kind of way. The VU meter is the real standout here and its highly visible placement in the upper left corner aids in dialing up the right sound quickly and efficiently. Why more dynamic pedals aren’t all over this VU thing is beyond me.

Along with a single stomp switch and accompanying on/off LED, the RM58 has a staggered set of four well-placed chicken head control knobs that tackle the standard compressor/limiter duties of Attack, Threshold, Release and Output. The Attack and Release knobs click noticeably through six well-voiced settings that adapted admirably to anything we could push through the box. I’ll admit that anything with set parameters usually makes me cringe but never – at any time – did I feel like I was being limited (no pun intended) or held back here. In fact, it made the job of focusing on getting a great tone that much easier. Roger has obviously taken years of studio experience to come up with real world parameters that work, and work very quickly. The Threshold has a very wide and responsive range and the powerful Output section more than made up for any gain reduction we threw at it. When pushed past unity gain, the RM58 has more than enough headroom to make this a terrific booster for driving amps into overdriven bliss or giving any signal that extra kick in the pants.

With so much well-deserved hype – and hefty collector prices – surrounding the hard-to-find original, this pedal version has a lot to live up to. I’m happy to report that the new RM58 is nothing short of amazing in terms of sound and versatility.

Plugging a Fender Telecaster into -10dBV side of the RM and running out to an old Fender Princeton delivered up some of the best spankin’ country-esque tones I’ve ever pulled out of this already capable rig. It’s hard to top the time-tested tonal combo of a Tele into a Blackface Fender, but the RM58 somehow added that extra bit of sparkle and delightful definition that every clean player is constantly chasing. A super sharp attack (setting one) and fast release (setting one or two) is downright perfect for those Nashville-guys trying to capture that classic chicken-picking thing. I’m sure Rockabillies, Jazzers and Indie Rock strummers will find something to love in this range with a little Threshold tinkering. For even more relaxed tones – both picked and strummed – we flicked the Attack and Release knobs into the 3, 4 and 5 presets and found plenty of smooth punch, added thickness and dimensional richness.

For more rock tones, I grabbed a humbucker-equipped Gibson ES-335, an old Marshall Guv’Nor overdrive pedal, and plugged into a British-inspired tube amp. Placing the RM58 before the Guv’nor really harnessed and focused the crunch. There is an in-your-face quality that this limiter imparts on your sound that makes everything in your chain feel – and sound – way heavier. The low end tightens without becoming wooly. Basically the bass frequencies never engulf your sound, they just rise enough to make everything sound more natural and balanced. Same goes for the mid and top end; it’s there, but never to the level of imbalance or wild exaggeration. Placing the RM58 after the distortion yielded a smoother sound that was cool but a little too tame for my tastes. Swapping out the Guv’nor for other classic – and soon-to-be classic – dirt boxes like the Ibanez TS-9, Boss DS-1, Banzai Cold Fusion and the Devi Ever- FX Shoegazer all yielded amazing results.

Busting out a Jazz-type lawsuit-era bass guitar and plugging into the RM58 impressed us just as much. Whatever style of low end love we pushed through the RM58, it always enhanced the tone while presenting a welcome and solid punch. As expected, it delivered more definition while never taking away any musicality.

Hooking up the RM58 into the studio environment is where the unit’s relatively hefty price tag starts to make more sense. The +4dVB input and output connections make for worry-free interfacing and the ample headroom ensures plenty of signal strength makes its way into your recording medium of choice.

My choice, along with most others these days, is digital; and to be more specific: Cubase, Ableton Live or Logic. With the RM58 hooked up and dialed in, I found that the struggle to get a slamming hot signal into the digital realm was over. Now, I love software compression and limiter plugins and have used them to great effect in the past, but strapping them onto channel post-tracking has always been a constant battle and/or time-consuming challenge, especially if you want – and need – that up-front-and-center sound.

LIke a ton of would-be engineers, I’ve always ended up resorting to a very heavy hand on the EQ knobs in order to push sounds to the edge of the speaker, when all I really needed to do was to tame my dynamics right from the get-go with an outboard limiter on the front end. Not only were my peaks and valleys easier to manage with the RM58 at the initial tracking stage, but I found that when it came time for mixing, placing instruments in the stereo spectrum was a breeze. After a few months of recording with the RM58, I actually relied less and less on EQ because I knew what I was printing to “tape” right from the start. Spending less time “fixing it in the mix” is liberating. Mixing became less and less of a chore. This not only translated into a better finished product (and way less ear fatigue), but I actually had a blast doing it. And that’s really what it’s all about isn’t it?

So, what did I run through the RM58 in the studio? Just about everything! Let’s see: Kick drums, snare drums, vocals of all kinds, guitars (of course), bass, percussion, synths and keys. All logged some time on the RM58 and all of them were better because of it.

This might seem like an over-the-top gush of a review, but that’s only because it is. I absolutely love this thing. My only valid complaint with the Roger Mayer RM58, is that I don’t have two of them. Whether you are rocking under the bright lights onstage or huddled in a darkened studio twiddling knobs, the RM58 is a wonderfully valuable and incredibly capable device.

A very collectible sampling/looper pedal from the late 80s. As with all the PDS series of pedals, two separate footswitches perform bypass and repeat/sampling functions. It’s a simple process: step on the right pedal to engage the delay and then step on the left pedal to allow the delay to repeat continuously. This is lo-fi looping at it’s finest. Timing a perfect loop is fairly tricky since there is no indication of when the loop is closing, but a little practice cures that. The PDS also allows you to pitch-shift your loops with a simple turn of the delay knob. This is an amazing way to create all sorts of insane textures. Unfortunately, it’s a feature sadly lacking in newer releases like the Digitech JamMan and Boss Loop Station. Soundwise, the PDS’s 12-bit resolution has a very warm analog-like quality that you just can’t find in any modern delays.

Let’s all admit it, sometimes it’s hard to get excited about picking up pedals that are strictly utilitarian in nature. You know, your noise gates, A/B switchers, true-bypass boxes, tuners, volume pedals and the like. Sure they get the job done or make life onstage a little easier, but they hardly elicit the heart-pumping response of buying a new overdrive, delay, reverb or other effect that makes a marked difference in your tone and/or playing style.

This pedal might seem like a just another bread and butter-type noise gate and true-bypass loop deal, but I guarantee that if you spend a little time delving into the Loop Gate’s subtle – and not so subtle – features you’ll discover a device that can not only silence your rig, but also multiply, and maybe even unlock, the expressive power of your existing pedals.

Upon first glance, you’ll notice the Loop Gate has an ample amount of jacks, knobs and mini-toggles for such a small footprint. All of these are related to the unit’s noise gate, send/return loop, buffer and chop (aka tremolo) features. The right stomp switch takes care of on/off duties for the unit itself while the left switch engages the noise gate (or tremolo depending on the setting). The two outer knobs handle the release and sensitivity settings for the noise gate – the release doubles and a rate knob in chop mode. A middle knob places you in either gate or mix modes. Two mini-toggles click between gate and chop mode and the buffer or no buffer options, respectively.

Given the over-the-top nature of most of the Zvex line, the Loop Gate is certainly meant to be taken to extremes by combining any number of these onboard features, but before we get into the wild let’s look at the mild.

By simply plugging into the in and out jacks, you can use the Loop Gate as a stand-alone noise gate. We placed a handful of overdrives (Zoom PD-01 Power Drive and Monte Allums-modded Boss SD-1), distortions (Zoom Hyper Drive & Marshall Guv’Nor), and Fuzz (Devi Ever: FX Shoe Gazer and God Zilla) in line before the Loop Gate. All these dirt pedals introduced various levels of hiss, noise, or all out feedback when engaged, but Loop Gate managed and effectively silenced them all while still maintaining any and all musicality. The Sensitivity knob is flexible and easy to dial in while the Release knob allowed for extreme signal clamping or long ultra smooth – mix console quality – fade-outs. Any glitches or unwanted artifacts were caused by user error because the Loop Gate did its job without fail. Once word gets out on how good the noise gate on this is, I’m sure you’ll see plenty of pedals – or even rack units – being sold and replaced with the Loop Gate. Yeah, it’s that good.

With the same simple in/out routing as above, we switched over to the Chop mode. This introduces a harsh Vox-like tremolo into the circuit. It’s definitely pronounced and far from subtle, but it sounds fantastic. As mentioned, the Release knob now switches over to rate duties. Counterclockwise settings are fast and clockwise settings are slow. The useable range really rests in the 7-10 o’clock range. Past that, and you get into snail’s pace chops. That might work for some, but I would have like to have seen the rate settings go even faster (we are talking ring-mod gurgles) to something less glacial. That said, it’s a thoughtful addition that will no doubt be put to good use.

As a standard bypass loop pedal, the Loop Gate allows you to keep those noisy pedals out of your signal chain until they need to be called into action using the send and return jacks. Those with the knack for creative pedalboard planning and clever signal routing will love the ability to gang pedals together in the loop for effortless sonic changes without tons of tap-dancing. Opening up the release and sensitivity knobs to their max settings will make the Loop Gate behave much like any ol’ true-bypass loop-type pedal.

Now that we’ve broken down each of the individual features of the Loop Gate, it’s time to start combining all these elements for new and exciting twists and turns.

The beauty of placing a noise gate at the tail-end of the send and return loop is that you can manage – or completely tame -  unwieldy, unruly or maxed-out pedals in new and highly expressive ways. With a Devi Ever: FX Shoegazer (with both channels pegged) in the loop and the gate settings set tight, we were able to “play” an otherwise squealing pedal with all the finesse of a first chair violinist. Next, we swapped out the Shoe Gazer with a Boss PS-2 Pitch-Shifter/Delay dimed to a runaway feedback spaceship sound and were able to create short synth-like bursts of staccato’d chaos. Our favorite “insert” was an older Alesis Wedge desktop reverb set for 60 seconds of 100% wet plate ‘verb. What would normally turn into a cascading wall of undulating drone was given a new sonic lease on life via a sharp attack and a smooth realistic fade – from shapeless to sensible with a few quick knob turns – pretty amazing!

Speaking of amazing, every one of these pedals sounded incredible with the Chop mode activated. The pulse of the tremolo was very lively and organic with even the most subtle playing dynamics and harmonics peaking and pumping though the waveform.

The mix mode allows for some cool cross-fading between active or oscillating elements in the loop and your dry guitar signal. For best results you will need something like a sample playing in the loop, an oscillating fuzz or a runaway delay. This allows you to switch between what is “playing” in the loop and your regular guitar-based on volume or picking dynamics. Switching between the two sounds requires a nice mix of fine-tuned settings and guitar skill, but the result is unusual and unique.

Another cool trick and effect lurking in the Loop Gate is the ability to create envelope follower-type sounds by leaving the send empty while plugging a patch cord into the return jack and leaving the other end of the cord dangling. Your initial picking attack is sucked up quickly, followed by silence and then a slow fade-in while your dry guitar fades out. It’s very similar to the sound you’ll hear in reverse reverbs set to 100% – albeit with the reverb. Best example would be a strange version of the old Boss SG-1 Slow Gear (minus the bloated vintage price tag of course!). There are plenty of other routing possibilities and side-chaining scenarios that can be exploited with the Loop Gate, but this reviewer will leave those experiments to others for now.

The Loop Gate is real winner and totally worth the asking price – even if you just need a no-nonsense noise gate! The fact that you also have access to a ton of creative routing and sonic possibilities is really just an added bonus. I can honestly see the Loop Gate breathing new life into long-forgotten and unused pedals that you may have stashed away in dusty drawers and dark closets. Brush those guys off and spend a few hours discovering how fun experimenting with effects can be again. For those that need some new twists for their current rigs, the Loop Gate’s small footprint, cool feature set and endless tweakability is something all guitar geeks can appreciate.