Phaser and envelope filter combine to make unconventional sounds that transcend both effects.
This pedal was designed to crank out an array of off-kilter sounds, twisting your riffs into crazy new forms. Bee stings, perfect for funky moods. Gloopy syrup to drench your low-string twanging. Fifty shades of rude behavior that’ll turn a pleasant cocktail party into a drunken brawl.
The Attack Vector Phaser & Envelope’s attitude is intended to work with electric bass as well as guitar. So if you’re looking for pedal that smiles politely and behaves appropriately, keep right on walking – you won’t find it here. But if you seek a kindred spirit and fellow troublemaker, the Way Huge Smalls Attack Vector Phaser & Envelope might just become your new best friend.
Smart interface design makes exploring traditional modulation tones and deeply tweaked sounds an intuitive joy.
Gazillions of possible modulation tones from trad’ to bizarre. Well-designed interface. Rich basic sounds. Easy to use in conventional settings.
Some study required to maximize pedal potential. Some weirder lo-fi sounds betray digital artifacts.
$349
Walrus Audio Mako M1
walrusaudio.com
Depending on your appetite for adventure, the Walrus Audio M1 modulation machine can look like a thrill ride or a very nasty little thing. The knobs and switches—as well as the graphics and text that describe their function—are packed like sardines onto the face of the pedal. And depending on your settings, the two bright LEDs can pulse like an entire Fillmore liquid light show stuffed into two little fish eyes.
If simplicity is your muse for the moment, M1 might not be the best travelling pal. But before you move on too fast, plug the M1 in. Twist any one of those knobs any direction you’d like and play a simple D chord. My guess is that, as terrifying as the M1 might look, it’ll take just that one strum to hook you. Because the M1 is fun. Lots of fun. And even if you never use its deep and impressive sound-crafting tools to fullest potential, the M1’s sounds and smart design still make it a cornucopia of easy-to-source, immersive modulations.
Walrus Audio Mako M1 Review by premierguitar
- Three chorus voices: Traditional, dual chorus, and tri-chorus, each played at various depth and rate settings with occasional tweaks to lo-fi and tone settings.
- Three vibrato voices: Traditional vibrato, vinyl record, tape vibrato, and pattern tremolo each played at various depth and rate settings with occasional tweaks to lo-fi and tone settings.
- Three tremolo voices: traditional tremolo, harmonic tremolo, and pattern tremolo each played at various depth and rate settings with occasional tweaks to lo-fi and tone settings.
Damn the Navigation Aids! Full Speed Ahead!
I could spend most of the space in this review describing the primary and secondary functions governed by the M1’s 11 switches, knobs, and toggles (not to mention the stereo I/O, MIDI in/thru jacks, and a USB jack for firmware updates). But the M1 is deep enough that the job is best left to the thorough, downloadable manual available on the Walrus web site. This excellent piece of documentation is worth cruising even before you buy the M1 to see if the deeper functions merit your investment. However, if you choose to take the plunge and explore M1 as intuitively as possible, the manual is a well-written map for your trip through modulation wonderland. Should you meander too far from the trail, it’ll likely get you back on track fast.
At the M1s core are six modulation voices. Chorus, phase, tremolo, vibrato, and rotary speaker sounds are all represented along with a modulated filter setting. Each voice spans pretty and demented sounds, and each is full of surprises. In their most traditional incarnations, the digital emulations of analog effects are beautifully accurate and replete with rich overtone detail. Secondary functions abound on the M1 and making the most of them really does require some study of the manual. But one of the best things about the M1’s designs is that if you get into the weeds with these secondary functions, it’s generally easy to get back on track using the pedal’s rate and depth modes, which lends a sense that it’s OK to proceed fearlessly.
Even in small measures, many of the lo-fi sounds can shape straightforward modulation in very cool ways.
Diving for Pearls
If and when you do get the courage to explore M1’s deeper possibilities, there’s much to enjoy. The primary path to this deeper functionality comes via the tweak and tune knobs and their associated switches. Both controls change function depending on what you select with the switch below. Tweak enables you to choose between sine, triangle, and square waveshapes; quarter-note, triplet, and eighth-note tap divisions (there are a wealth of subtle rhythmic textures here); or one of three modes for each basic program. These modes include tri-chorus in chorus mode, different horn/drum virtual miking configurations in rotary mode, tape- and warped-vinyl-inspired vibratos, harmonic tremolo, and high, low, and bandpass filters in the filter program, just to name a few. On the tune side, the 3-way switch enables the knob to be configured for adjustments to tone, wave symmetry, or “X” functions that include everything from stereo phase effects to phaser feedback and tape flutter. Should you start to worry about losing your place as you get into these deeper realms, remember that the M1 has the capacity for nine onboard presets (easily accessed using the A/B/C bank switch and the two footswitches in concert) and 128 total presets via MIDI.
Yet another realm of tone possibilities lives in the lo-fi strata of functionality. Accessing these functions on the fly is a little more cumbersome as they require selecting a function via the 3-way switch, holding down the bypass footswitch, and then using the tweak or tune knob to add the lo-fi element to taste. Not all these functions will serve all players. A lot of them tend toward the noisy, junky, and weird side of the sound spectrum. But even in small measures, many of the lo-fi sounds, like age, space (reverb), drive, and noise, can shape straightforward modulation in very cool ways. Once set up it’s easy to mix in these textures with the lo-fi knob. Don’t be afraid to set up highly weird sounds and add them incrementally.
The Verdict
One of the M1’s great achievements is that it can serve two muses—the obsessive, micro-level sound designer, and the reckless, intuitive sound tripper—simultaneously. This is no insignificant thing. And Walrus deserves praise for accomplishing this design feat in a compact stompbox. But the highest praise may be due for Walrus’s ability to make M1 so much fun and so sonically satisfying. And Walrus’s ability to walk this engineering and design tightrope makes the otherwise steep-looking $349 price a relative bargain.
A dynamic drive generator that’s as much fuzz as filter.
Many unique and varied drive and fuzz sounds. Surprising dynamic range. High-quality construction. Killer studio potential.
Internal master-volume trimpot. Can be pretty noisy.
$225
Death By Audio Germanium Filter
deathbyaudio.com
I really needed the shot of adrenaline I got from Death By Audio’s Germanium Filter. I appreciated the reminder that stompboxes should prod you along reckless creative vectors. It felt great to play something so simple that sounds so cool in so many ways. It also felt good to tap into a mainline source of sass and attitude.
Obviously, Death By Audio is famous for devices that provoke such reactions. But their new Germanium Filter doesn’t thrill just because it’s weird. It excels at overdrive, distortion, and fuzz. And the germanium circuitry makes it capable of great dynamic nuance. But it’s also positively explosive, buzzes like a two-ton mutant hornet, and gets fantastically trashy. For a pedal with just two knobs and an internal trimpot, its capacity for tone variation and richness across so many different sounds is impressive.
Dynamite Kegger
Even by DBA standards, the Germanium Filter looks crazy cool. The vertically aligned flying saucer knobs for gain and filter are easy to read at long range. A third trimpot for master volume is situated inside the enclosure. That’s a bummer, because the volume can profoundly change the functionality, flexibility, and sound of the pedal by adding copious extra power, thump, and contrast.
One way to extract maximum potential from the Germanium Filter—particularly at higher volume levels—is by employing a dynamic touch. The Germanium Filter is sensitive to guitar volume attenuation in the same way a vintage germanium fuzz like a Fuzz Face is. It’s also responsive to picking dynamics, and even at aggressive gain levels you can clean up with a light touch. This dynamism makes the Germanium Filter an expressive vehicle for heavy electric fingerstyle improvisation. And though it can be a tad noisy in delicate-to-loud applications, I’d argue the tactile thrills are worth it.
Filter to Focus
The filtering aspect of the Germanium Filter is not subtle. The pedal’s output is compressed and highly focused. Yet it can readily shift emphasis from brilliant, scalding top end to heavy-swinging low-midrange without sacrificing potency or its capacity for chord detail. As a result, the number of possible sounds and applications stacks up fast.
There’s plenty of the piercing, gnarly, and funky sounds that Keith Richards would have died for in his ’66–’68 period.
Tone touchstones are elusive when describing the Germanium Filter’s voice. Fuzz sounds at maximum gain are super ripping, especially at treblier settings. DBA mentions recording console drive as an inspiration for the circuit, and it’s easy to hear and feel traces of a vintage console’s input overdrive tendencies. Some early germanium fuzzes could also be a kissing cousins. But the Germanium Filter is more compressed and focused than most mid-’60s fuzzes, and often more savage for it.
Among the cleaner, bass-heavy overdrive sounds there is a hint of the high-mid clang you sometimes hear from a big Marshall stack. The heavy side of the filter can also contribute to the illusion of a 4x12’s sense of mass if you’re trying to make a little amp sound big. But even higher-gain settings sound organic, cohesive, present, and punchy in the top end in a way that makes your amp feel like a living, breathing thing. Indeed, one of the most beautiful things about the Germanium Filter is that it sounds so bold without feeling like an awkwardly grafted appendage to your rig.
Needless to say, it’s pretty easy to craft tone oddities with the Germanium Filter. There’s plenty of the piercing, gnarly, and funky sounds that Keith Richards would have died for in his ’66–’68 period. Some tones could have been a parallel-universe path Jimmy Page might have taken to Led Zeppelin. Mick Ronson probably would not have objected to a go at it either. But the Germanium Filter is by no means just a retro-rock trip. The tight, concise nature of many of these drive tones makes them a perfect pairing for expansive reverbs, delay, and modulation that turn more full-frequency drives to mush. And many post-rock, shoegaze, and improvisational players will dig the way the Germanium Filter sparkles and remains articulate among thick, stacked effects.
The Verdict
Sometimes the right pedal hits you at the right time. And the Germanium Filter sparked a fire that I hadn’t felt in a while. I’m keenly aware that a lot of these tones won’t be for everyone. Players seeking wide-spectrum or transparent drive tones might find the focus of the filter too narrow and many of the tones just plain odd. But I found the Germanium Filter’s stylistic range engaging and vast. Even its most pedestrian overdrive sounds bristle with deviant attitude. Other sounds suggest weird old catalog amps and audio engineers slamming recording console inputs and tweaking EQ to creative ends. And the fuzz tones are among the most exciting I’ve heard in a long time.
It’s probably smart to give the Germanium Filter a go before you buy. At 225 clams, it’s an investment. And some players in search of more even-tempered and predictable tones may struggle to make sense of it. Accordingly, the tones and value scores here should be considered fluid. Players with more conventional goals may want to round down and approach with caution. Weirdos, however, should probably round up and pounce. For players craving a shot of pure, super-heated sound energy, new directions for solos and riffs, or a way to elevate a performance or mundane mix, the Germanium Filter is a treasure in waiting.