EarthQuaker Devices Sunn O Life Pedal V3 Demo | First Look
The doom device's third iteration includes a thorough circuit tweak designed to capture the band's shattering, front-end saturation felt throughout 2019's Life Metal.
Sunn O))) are pleased to present an enhanced version of the Sunn O))) Life Pedal Octave Distortion + Booster, in collaboration with their comrades at EarthQuaker Devices. The Sunn O))) Life Pedal circuit has been meticulously tweaked from the original to squeeze every last drop of heavy crushing tone available. The octave section has been fine tuned to make it more pronounced without losing the bottom end and we added a third footswitch, utilizing Flexi-Switch Technology®, for the octave to allow an additional method of quick and radical tone shaping.
“I’m super stoked to have this pedal back in our line!” says EarthQuaker founder, president and designer Jamie Stillman. “We put in a lot of hours dialing this one in and I’m very proud of the final product. Sunn O))) is such an iconic band and I’m thrilled to be part of their legacy.”
EarthQuaker CEO Julie Robbins agrees.“It has been an honor and privilege to collaborate with Greg and Stephen on the SUNN O))) Life Pedal. We are so excited to give this special pedal a permanent place in our line.”
In the writing sessions for Life Metal, Stephen & Greg worked extensively shearing their tones toward a broader energy spectrum over high powered saturation and across planes of sonic character, with the ambition to take full advantage of recording engineer Steve Albini’s exacting capture skills.
The results are astounding: there is breadth and luminosity of colour, vast sonic cosmoses, flashes of abstract colour (synthetic and objective) through resulting themes which emerged from the mastered depths of saturation and circuits between the two players and their mountains of gear.
“We set out to create something that was unique and had its own distinct character to it. The result combines different distortions and achieves different shades of saturation that we were actually doing in the studio,” says Greg Anderson. “I’m extremely happy with this pedal. It’s an integral part of my tone and it holds an important place in my pedal chain.”
“Working on this new version has been a great continuity of this collaboration which feels so right, and sounds so right,” says Stephen O’Malley. “It’s a really beautiful pedal and it’s also a beautiful art collaboration. I think we made something really interesting that people can enjoy to use for their own music, but also, it makes a lot of sense to release a piece of distortion as a release for our band. We’re really happy that this is a trilogy now.”
Learn more about the pedal here.
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Inspired by a cult favorite, this decadently deviant "harmonizer" makes it an absolute breeze to indulge anti-tonal tendencies. The PG RPS Effects Arcade Machine review.
Fabulously freaky possibilities. Expression-pedal control maximizes mayhem potential by letting you scroll through all 11 intervals in real time.
Not for the tame. Masks the voice of virtually every pedal running into it, making signal-chain placement key.
$265
RPS Arcade Machine
rpseffects.com
5
4.5
4.5
4
Ask adventurous pedal builders to name the coolest weird pedal ever, and there's a good chance you'll hear something about the Schumann Electronics PLL. RPS Effects' aptly named new Arcade Machine is the latest of many available PLL homages. While others have shrunken and simplified the approach (EarthQuaker Devices' Data Corrupter and Mantic's Flex being perhaps the best known), the Arcade Machine remains on the large side, though it does manage to cut the number of controls from Schumann's 15 to 11—and to label their functions much more self-evidently.
Recorded with a Squier Classic Vibe '70s Jaguar with Curtis Novak Jag-V pickups feeding the Arcade Machine, then the boost side of a SoundBrut DrVa MkII, a Ground Control Tsukuyomi mid boost, a SolidGoldFx Electroman MkII delay, an Anasounds Element reverb, and then a 1976 Fender Vibrolux Reverb miked with a Royer R-121 and a Shure SM57 going into an Audient iD44 then into GarageBand with no EQ-ing, compression, or effects.
Clip 1: Bridge pickup with high-pass filter engaged. Arcade Machine with -2 oct knob at minimum, -1 oct, 0 oct, and int-level knobs at noon, +1 and +2 oct controls at 9 o'clock, gate at max, level at 7:30, vibrato off, and an expression pedal changing pitch intervals.
Clip 2: Bridge and neck pickups with high-pass filter engaged. Arcade Machine with -2 and +2 oct knobs at minimum, -1 oct at 3 o'clock, 0 oct at 9 o'clock, int-level and +1 oct at noon, gate at 4 o'clock, level at 7:30, vibrato off, and a minor-third interval selected.
Clip 3: Neck pickup. Arcade Machine with -2 oct at minimum, -1 oct at 11 o'clock, 0 oct at max, int-level and +2 oct at 10 o'clock, +1 oct at 2 o'clock, gate at 2 o'clock, level at 7:30, vibrato depth at 9 o'clock and rate at noon, and a perfect-fourth interval selected.
What unites all the aforementioned eff-things-up boxes is their use of "phase-locked loop" circuitry—which sounds nothing like what those individual terms might mean to most guitarists. Arcade Machine is an analog monophonic harmonizer that converts your signal to a square wave and lets you add up to five other pitches—up to two octaves above and/or below the source, plus one of 11 intervals. Sonically speaking, "square wave" should be the operative term rather than "harmonizer," as it all adds up to sounds reminiscent of vintage video games and/or old-school synths gone haywire. There are independent volume controls for all six pitches, while a gate knob instills a modicum of predictability vis-à-vis attack control, a vibrato circuit's depth and rate knobs govern agitative throbbing, and an expression/CV input vastly expands your ability to bleep-bloop-bloop and digitally mangle the $#!% outta your sound in ways sonic anarchists will deem patently glorious.
Test Gear: Squier Classic Vibe '70s Jaguar with Curtis Novak pickups, '76 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
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