An early snapshot in the life of a StingRay. These body blanks have been carefully selected and await time in an oven for de-moisturizing before a CNC machine gives them their shape.
Darkglass Electronics, a global leader in high-end bass amplification and effects, proudly announces the release of Entropia, a groundbreaking multiband compression and distortion plugin designed exclusively for the Anagram platform.
Inspired by the concept of entropy, the natural progression from order to disorder, Entropia empowers musicians and producers to deconstruct and reshape sound with surgical precision. Featuring three fully independent bands (low, mid, and high), Entropia offers unparalleled control over tone sculpting, enabling users to bend, break, and rebuild their sonic landscape.
“With Entropia, we open a new door,” said Marcos Barilatti, Director Manager at Darkglass Electronics. “This plugin marks a pivotal step toward a new generation of modular tools for the Anagram platform. It expands the creative possibilities of what Anagram can achieve.”
Entropia introduces a powerful new feature called Templates, expertly curated presets that serve as intuitive starting points for tone creation. These templates allow users to explore the plugin’s full potential with ease, making it accessible to both seasoned professionals and curious newcomers. Unlike traditional distortion plugins that overwhelm the signal, Entropia offers a refined approach to sonic chaos. It’s not just compression and distortion, it’s the artful distribution of entropy, giving users the ability to shape sound with intention and clarity.
Availability Entropia will be available for download via the Darkglass Suite app starting September 25, 2025. Please note: Anagram pedals will not update automatically. To install Entropia, users must connect their pedal to the desktop Suite and manually initiate the update.
DOD today announces the release of the Overdrive Preamp 250-X, the 10th iteration of its legendary OD250 pedal. Available worldwide through local and online retailers, the 250-X delivers unmatched tonal versatility for players of all skill levels and musical styles. With three distinct distortion modes and modern refinements, the 250-X offers a fresh take on their time-tested classic at a new price point that strives to outperform its contemporaries in its category.
Inspired by the limited-edition DOD OD250-50th Anniversary model released last year, the 250-X (X representing the 10th iteration) offers the same three-position toggle switch function but in an imported, mass-produced model, at a more affordable price.
Operation is straightforward and intuitive. At its core, the 250-X retains the same Gain and Level control values and tapers as the original OD250, preserving the familiar feeling and response that players know and love. The three-position toggle switch expands its tonal range, offers Silicon symmetrical clipping for that iconic 250 sound, ASYM asymmetrical clipping for even-harmonic distortion, and LIFT mode, which removes diode clipping entirely from the signal path for a clean boost at moderate levels or a dirty boost at high levels as it drives the vintage-style LM741 op amp.
Built with an aluminum chassis and weighing in at only 8 ounces (250 grams), construction features true hard-wire bypass, modern 9V DC power input, and +18V tolerant circuitry. With ¼” connections for input and output, the pedal is ready for both stage and studio use making it the most versatile 250 to date.
For more information on the DOD Overdrive Preamp 250-X, visit www.digitech.com.
Two purpose-voiced delay lines that can run in parallel or interact in a true cascade. Built to transform delay from a passing effect to a core element, shaping time, sculpting space, and unlocking textures never heard before.
RhPf Electronics has introduced the Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch, a dual-delay pedal that reimagines how guitarists use time-based effects. No tap-tempo divisions or glitch tricks; instead, two distinct voices interact in musical and inspiring ways. One line is bright and articulate, the other warm and lush. Each has its own Rate and Repeats controls so players can shape complementary echoes that blend or collide.
Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch highlights include:
Two distinct voices: warm and lush, plus bright and articulate. Each with independent Rate and Repeats.
Parallel mode: wide, layered echoes that stay open and defined; stereo-like depth from a mono rig.
Cascade mode: true cross-feedback so each line feeds the other; repeats intertwine and evolve into living textures.
Designed to stay on: from subtle ambience and slapback to dub-style syncopation, always mix friendly.
Musical feedback range: carefully tuned to avoid runaway oscillation and gimmicks.
Like every RhPf pedal, Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch is not a clone, a mod, or a tweak. It is an original circuit designed from the ground up to be a constant companion that can become part of a player’s signature sound.
The Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch carries a street price of $190 and is available now at select retailers and directly from RhPf Electronics.
A trio of verbs: (l-r) EMT 250, Lexicon 224, and EMT 140
Reverb is one of the most powerful colors in our palette. We all know that moment when you feel the need to add some to your tracks—whether you’re recording and looking for an inspiring new dimension, or you’re mixing and require that extra touch of spatial magic. But why are there so many options? With literally hundreds of convolution, algorithmic, plate, and spring reverbs out there, it’s easy to feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Knowing the differences between types of reverbs and why certain units have become legendary can significantly elevate your recordings and mixes. Tighten your belts, the Dojo is now open.
The Starting Point
I’m going to sidestep the deeply fascinating and well-researched physics and psychoacoustics behind the phenomena of reverb. Instead, we’ll focus on practical strategies for how to choose the right one (plate, spring, algorithmic or convolution), and why some types are more prized than others.
Unless you’re situated in an anechoic chamber or an open field, every environment, from a hall closet to a canyon, has reverberant properties. But before the advent of reverb chambers and plate reverbs, it was a fixed byproduct of the space where the recording took place—think of the 1961 concert document, Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall, for example. Not all concert halls lent themselves to studio quality recordings, though, especially for genres of music other than classical or opera.
After 1947, the only way to add artificial reverb was to employ a chamber—literally, a specially built room with a speaker and microphone(s). Recording studios started to develop their own echo chambers that gave a unique sonic fingerprint to the recordings, and we still prize certain studios—Abbey Road, Ocean Way, Blackbird, Motown, Sound City— for their chambers, many of which are now available in the forms of plugins.
All that began to change in 1957, in Berlin, with the advent of the EMT 140 plate reverb. EMT’s solution was brilliant: suspend a large sheet of steel under tension, feed sound into it through a transducer, and capture the shimmering decay with contact mics. The EMT 140 gave engineers long, smooth tails that felt lush without overwhelming the source. Vocals in particular took on a glow that instantly elevated a mix. That unmistakable “plate vocal sound” defined the recordings of countless artists, from Frank Sinatra to the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to Pink Floyd. Even today, plug-in makers such as Universal Audio, Waves, and Arturia are still chasing that magic, and multiple original units are still widely used by world-class studios.
“Unless you’re situated in an anechoic chamber or an open field, every environment, from a hall closet to a canyon, has reverberant properties.”
Fast forward to 1976, and EMT again pushed things forward with the EMT 250, the first commercially available digital reverb—for the princely price of $20,000 (over $114,000 today). Only 250 units—a mini refrigerator-sized machine with controls that looked like they came off the dashboard of a spaceship—were produced. What made the EMT 250 special wasn’t just its novelty, but the way its algorithms shaped reflections. It had a character all its own: warm, slightly grainy, and wonderfully musical. Almost a proto mutli-effects processor, it didn’t try to mimic reality so much as create a believable illusion of space, and it did so with a tremendous personality. (The EMT 250 is currently available from Universal Audio as a plug-in for $249 street.)
Meanwhile, across the ocean in Massachusetts, Lexicon was hard at work refining digital reverberation. The Lexicon 224 (1978) was half the price of the EMT 250 and boasted a reverb range of 0.6 to 70 seconds. It also offered the first flexible and convincing Concert Hall, Chamber, Room, Plate, Rich Plate, and Inverse algorithms. It was the studio reverb of choice until the 480L(1986) which, with its updated signal processing power, became thestudio staple—and for good reason. Chances are it’s the main big reverb on classic U2, Talking Heads, Rush, Prince, and Peter Gabriel records. The 480L’s algorithms remain benchmarks: dense, lush, and capable of everything from subtle ambience to stadium-like grandeur. Even today, if you walk into a top-tier studio, odds are a 480L is still patched in.
I encourage you to set aside some time and get to know the differences between these four classic verbs, before we move on to another set in the next installment. They are all available in plugin format with fully functional trial periods. I’ll share my favorite reverbs in order of preference and application next month. Until then, namaste.
PG contributor Steve Cook takes a look at EMG’s new E-Series bass pickups—a set of slim, soapbar, active pickups that feature wide-aperture coils and ceramic magnets. The E-Series offers big lows, articulate highs, and noiseless performance, the calling card of EMG’s active pickup designs. With drop-in replacement and full compatibility with EMG accessories, the E-Series presents a serious option for modern bassists.
