Chase Bliss, Meris, OBNE and Empress
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On synths, a Strymon setup kept me happy for years, but this year sold them all except Timeline, and moved to Source Audio Ventris for dual reverb and Eventide H9 for everything else.
I wish everything was as easy to use as the strymon big boxes.
On Bass/Guitar, it Bogner for OD and Distortions, and , there is no “and” anymore. I’m cured.
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Way Huge, Fulltone, CMATMods, and Diamond.
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New: Chase Bliss, Montreal Assembly.
Older: Boss, Electro Harmonix
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I’m surprised nobody mentioned Hologram Electronics yet. Their pedals might be a little bit quirky but I think they deserve an award for innovation.
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I love Strymon. Their stuff sounds so great, the form factor of the not big boxes is perfect for smaller pedalboards and a huge bonus is they’re amazing on synths too, even though I use my pedals on guitar mostly.
Also a big fan of MXR for their classics, especially Carbon Copy, Micro Amp and Distortion+. In the quirky department I think Caroline Guitar Company and Montreal Assembly are great.
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Empress is shockingly amazing sound-wise. The interfaces with the different color LEDs for the knobs is opaque at best (you need a cheat sheet around at all times), and I actually really dislike the form factor and printing on the boxes, but for sound they’re insane. feels kind of weird to be updating firmware on pedals regularly but they add a lot after release.
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I really like the form factor and graphics on the Reverb, but you’re right - cheat sheet’s a necessity.
Moog makes some top quality pedals. The MF Delay’s gorgeous.
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And MF Drive too. I have it on a Minilogue, it’s a game changer.
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I think “favourite pedal company” is a different question to favourite pedals. I like the stuff TC Electronics produce with TonePrint, and EHX make some really cool stuff. I have a soft spot for the look of Earthquaker Devices, Death By Audio and Fairfield Circuitry’s stuff, although I don’t own any.
But my favourite pedal company is Idiotbox Effects. (https://www.idiotboxeffects.com/). One man setup, but Matt seems like a really cool guy. He mainly focuses on overdrives/distortions/fuzzes (although the Mad Doctor Stutter is a great yoke), so probably more popular with guitarists/bassists, but I think he deserves a shout out.
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I like Strymon a lot but not the big boxes. there’s too much menu diving there. I get it that some people don’t mind this and prefer having more options in a smaller space, but I like the simplicity of the smaller boxes.
on the flip side, the OTO effects (while not actually pedals) are really nice. solid builds and they sound terrific. there’s some hidden parameters there too, and you’re kind of working blind (have to memorize what all the little dots mean!). but somehow I don’t mind it like I do with the Strymon big boxes. weird, right? I think it’s because there’s less options and they’re basically “global”; each effect doesn’t have its own set of specific parameters.
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Very valid critiques. I love mine, it it took a while to figure out. Fortunately, they all operate in a very similar manner (like Elektron boxes), so once you learn it, it is applicable to all three.
I think everyone loves the big box effect as as a concept, but no one has really found the magic bullet for UI design for them.
For example, I’ve looked at the Empress boxes, and I see plenty of complaints about ambiguous LEDs as UI, so eliminating the display isn’t quite the solution either. Maybe we expect too much of big boxes, chasing feature checklists and hindering smooth UI design in the process.
It is probably why the Line 6 DL4 was so popular.
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the Strymon’s or the OTO’s?
ooof. a classic pedal for sure. very WYSIWYG for a multi-pedal. Strymon dudes started at Line 6 actually. guess someone else was doing the interface design for them though! 
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Ha, sorry, was ambiguous myself, just like those UIs! I have the Strymons and was talking about those. I didn’t realize Strymon people started at Line 6, but makes sense!
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Earthquaker Devices. They are amazing! I also like to move on with hybrid pedals as I own a small studio thw size of a small academy like this, https://www.piano-composer-teacher-london.co.uk/
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Hey welcome aboard, and thanks for sharing anamusic!
my favorite company so far is Eventide,
i also made a short video for a friend of the Boss DD7 demonstrating how it works on a kickdrum, I only have the DD7 from Boss, it’s an affordable workhorse.
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“those beans”
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I use my Electro Harmonix Super MultiTrack Looper till death! I like their guitar effects pedals, but would rather Digitech for my guitar to make things a hella easy and stereo. I just use Reason now though…
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to preface… I own way too many guitar pedals.
my favorites not mentioned above:
- caroline guitar company
- mr. black
- dwarfcraft (although they have recently stepped away from manufacturing)
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