It's not all about the music. There are a lot of pro companies out there making synths and pedals but only a fresh few put in the extra effort and couple sonically good ideas with designs that look awesome. Here's my top 10.
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This is a great offering from Death By Audio. Not only does it look cool, but the design also matches the concept. The Robot is an effects box with an old school pitch-shifting chip harvested from robot toys up in its guts. Add some heavy distortion and you're ready. It took me a while to notice that the box actually looks like a robot, with the "robot" and "human" knobs for eyes. Great design; minimal graphics on the switches. Did I mention it sounds nuts? And of course, a video.
Price: $420
Crude? Yeah. Metasonix seems to get all their boxes designed by Dave Lovelace, the guy who created Retarded Animal Babies. This thing destroys any audio you feed it (one.mp3, two.mp3, three.mp3). I'm not a fan of Lovelace, but look at that design. Bold yellows and great use of color. Those massive vacuum tubes should be the center of attention. What's that toilet paper gonna do donkey, man. Come on.
Price: $899
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Truly Beautiful Disaster is a dual fuzz- and loop-box created by Effector 13. I'm a fan of hand-painted designs, and these guys really pull it off. Great composition and use of space. I like the atom bomb idea even if it is a little obvious to put on a fuzz pedal. That ambient light sensor on the headlamp is a nice touch. Check out this video of TBD in action.
Price: $225
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From the guys at Make Noise. This thing is confusing and it has every right to be that way. The Woggle Bug is a random voltage generator, which basically means if you plug anything into it, it's going to fight for some control. That's OK. I'm not even sure where to plug anything in anyway. Cool design; noise boxes shouldn't have everything spelled out for you. Check out the Woggle Bug in action.
Price: $270
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You don't see too many pedals like this. It kind of makes you want to check in on Mid-Fi Electronics and see how they're doing. If fuzz boxes could cry I think this one would bawl. Simple and effective design. The stamps are a great touch and the colors are solid. It kind of looks like something you'd find in a gutter on a rainy day.
Price: $175
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Monome is an awesome idea and way too expensive. It's an interface that connects to your computer and uses MaxMSP to do basically anything a grid with that many buttons could ever dream of doing. MaxMSP is a great program that's almost like a scripting language for music. It's bare-bones and has limitless potential. Just like Monome. It's also a lot of fun to watch. Here's a video of Los Angeles musician Daedelus putting on a live show with this beast.
Price: No. Try eBay. Monome makes a set amount of units and they sell out on their site ridiculously fast.
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Here's another synth interface module from Make Noise. The Format Jumbler is a 5 channel system that melts and multiplies. It looks good and it makes you want to plug everything in everywhere. At least it comes with a manual that tells you what's going on.
Price: $115
Little Boy Blue is an excellently crafted piece of machinery brought to you by Flower Electronics. This thing is so sleek and patchable. The colors are great and it's so elegantly simple it's almost scary to hear these sounds coming out of it.
Price: $429
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Man this pedal makes me want to go outside. Created by Dr. Scientist, this thing will control your loops like a pro. It sounds like an analog delay, which is warm enough already. Throw in some bright sun-baked flowers in a garden and you've got a great looking pedal. Sunny Day Delay's design fits with its sonic concept and you know what, I'm over dark designs. Here's a video of SDD in another skin.
Price: $250
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The Synth Mangler looks mean. Here's another fuzz machine from Effector 13. You might get hurt if you use this thing. Excellent use of colors. The best part about Synth Mangler is you get to high five him whenever you want to turn it on. Dude has no problems in the world, all he wants to do is mangle your music.
Price: $315
Comments
anyone who created something as vulgar as retarded animal babies shouldn't ever work again.
LoL
Mary i think your outside the in click on that one.
lol you dont understand at all. lolololol
thank you mary i agree. he should be physically hurt or shot out of a cannon
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