Best Pedals of 2023 - Sinesquares Awards!
Our favorite pedals released in 2023!
We are so excited to announce our favorite gear from 2023! The first Sinesquares Awards are here! Keep in mind, that we only included gear that was released in 2023.
Pedals
If you follow our website for a long time, you’ll know we love pedals! In the past few years, there have been so many new pedals, that it’s getting hard to keep track of all the new releases and at the same time the G.A.S meter is always peaking. So here are our favorite releases of 2023 in each category!
Best Reverb Pedal:
Bronze Medal: Echo Fix - EF-P2 Spring Reverb
Echo Fix is a company from Australia that started as a repair company for old Roland Tape Echoes. But after a few years, they decided to release their own, brand new Tape Echo which is undoubtedly an amazing piece of gear.
But in 2023, they also took a bigger step and started producing new pedal designs. Their first one was the EF-P2 Spring Reverb! The Spring Reverb has an actual spring tank inside of the pedal with three springs and it also has a fully analog signal path. In 2023 we’ve also reviewed the Light Pedal from Gamechanger Audio which also has a spring inside so I’m definitely seeing a comeback for the neglected Spring reverbs!
Plus, a VU meter is a great thing to have on any piece of gear.
Silver Medal: Walrus Audio - Slöer
Walrus Audio in 2023 made probably their best pedal so far. Slöer is the peak of ambient reverbs and it’s here to stay. We have a full hands-on review of Slöer that you can read if you want to learn more about it.
Slöer is a Stereo reverb with 6 different algorithms, modulation with 6 waveform shapes to choose from, a very synth-like filter, and a Time-Stretch slider to have even longer reverbs.
It is a truly massive and ambient reverb that may not be for everyone but for those who enjoy having huge and full of texture reverbs, it is probably the best one out there.
Gold Medal: Meris MercuryX
Meris in 2023 decided to set the barrier of what a reverb pedal can do very very high. MercuryX is a modular reverb system that lets you create any type of reverb starting with the excellent Meris algorithms.
This is a powerhouse of a pedal with maximum customization, a very deep and well-thought user interface, and, of course, a fantastic sound. It is definitely not cheap but if you can afford it, MercuryX is going to be the only reverb pedal you’ll ever need.
Meris is steadily releasing awesome pedals that are made to last. The new series with the LVX & MercuryX are just magnificent and you’ll definitely not be disappointed if you invest on them.
Best Delay Pedal:
Bronze Medal: Benson - Delay
2023 has been a great year for delay pedals. Benson’s craftmanship is unquestionable so when they released the Benson Delay, we all knew it was going to be an amazing pedal. While using the overused digital PT2399 chip, they somehow managed to stretch its potential and make a very rich-sounding delay pedal that sounds and feels analog.
Benson Delay sounds like a tape or BBD delay, and they implemented a self-oscillating function when you engage the Tap/ Hold button for even more feedback. It also has an LFO that can turn it into a Chorus/ Vibrato or just add the extra modulation on slower settings. A beautiful release by our friends at Benson that certainly deserves a spot in our Best of the Year Awards!
Silver Medal: Boss - DM-101
Boss is a company that’s a staple in guitar pedals but, to be honest, their releases have not been that exciting. That is slowly starting to change since their latest releases are very interesting and their best one is probably the DM-101. A Stereo Analog Delay pedal with 12 delay modes (6 mono and 6 stereo). While it’s an analog bucket brigade delay, the DM-101 has digital controls that enhance its use and features.
This is a really robust and good pedal that can probably cover all your analog delay needs with its only downside, the lack of a stereo input. But despite that, it’s an excellent release by Boss that I feel is definitely on the right track.
* I was torn to include the Boss DM-101 or the Walrus Audio Meraki in this category. The Meraki is the first TRUE Stereo analog delay and it’s a marvelous pedal. But it’s, so far, a limited release that probably not a ton of people will be able to get their hands on.
Gold Medal: Electronic Audio Experiments - Sending V2
And for our Gold Medal, the Electronic Audio Experiments Sending V2! Another Analog Bucket Brigade with digital controls.
But why you may ask the Sending V2 is our favorite delay pedal of the year? Sending V2 is a delay pedal that unites top-notch engineering with a wide range of features and sounds like nothing else. It is truly a maxed-out analog delay with hands-on control for everything and it can produce so many sounds you wouldn’t expect from a delay pedal.
At the input, it has a really cool preamp that can saturate your sound on its way which is very useful, a filter that lets you shape the sound of your delays, and an LFO section that can go from mild modulation to absolute mayhem. Another really cool feature of Sending V2 is the insert loop where you can run an external effect chain through the feedback circuit. That can result in all sorts of different effects and the possibilities are endless.
Sending V2 is a marvelous delay pedal that was in the making for almost 5 years. So it’s our undisputed winner of this category for 2023!
PS: Full hands-on review coming soon!
Best Multi-Effects Pedal:
Bronze Medal: Line6 - HX ONE
When you think of multi-effects pedals, Line6 will definitely come to mind. Their latest release was the HX ONE which has a smaller pedalboard-friendly enclosure with 250+ effects from the HX family. Line6 has certainly nailed the multi-effects category and the HX ONE being a more affordable option is a great release. A new addition is the Flux Controller which lets you control multiple parameters momentarily or over a predetermined period of time using a single footswitch. Think of it as a macro control knob you can find on some synths.
As for the effects, there are tons of them that you can combine and set their parameters to your liking. It certainly requires a lot of menu diving but for someone who just needs an all-in-one solution, this might be it. Simple yet effective, the HX ONE is an effects pedal that can do so many things adequately and if you get creative with it, you can also dial in some weirder and more experimental sounds.
Silver Medal: Endorphin.es - Ghost
Ghost is a collaboration between Endorphin.es, a great Eurorack module manufacturer, and the Producer/ YouTuber/ Music Genius Andrew Huang. It started out as a Eurorack module but in 2023, Ghost also became a pedal for all those people who don’t want to fall into the rabbit hole of Eurorack. Ghost is such a unique and beautiful pedal that can do so many things. The effects it’s using are Reverb, Delay, Distortion, and Filter but there is so much more to it than just an effects chain of those 4 effects.
The user interface is probably the most well-thought interface I’ve ever seen on something that complex. Its modulation can be routed to every parameter with different values, you can change the order of the effects with a simple button tap, and everything sounds so glorious after Ghost. It is a pedal that invites you to spend time with it and do some weird sound design, and since it has 9 presets, you don’t have to do everything again from the start.
I really appreciate the fact that Andrew and Endorphin.es spent a lot of time on making this very deep and complicated pedal so fun to use. Every little detail is so well-thought and engineered and all companies should be taking notes on how you make something with a lot of features user-friendly.
Gold Medal: Hologram Electronics - Chroma Console
Since the release of the almighty Microcosm, Hologram Electronics has been working on their new release. Hologram is, after all, a pedal manufacturer that only makes a handful of pedals but they’re all amazing. And the wait was definitely worth it since their brand-new pedal, the Chroma Console, is a gem! Chroma Console combines 20 effects into 4 categories (5 effects in each category) that cover almost every type of effect you’ll need.
The interface looks like a console with four strips for each effect group and the pedal has a very retro, vintage look. You can choose just one effect from each category and, of course, you can change the order of the effects. The Chroma Console is a pedal that sounds beautiful and you can experiment a lot with it. The two knobs for each category (plus a few secondary controls) make things a lot easier for you to just explore sounds and every single effect is tuned to sound good on everything. This is a common thing for Hologram that also happens with the Microcosm. They do most of the work for you and you just need to dial in your sound in a few minutes. It is Stereo and also has a very nice feature where you can record the knob movement that opens up so many possibilities.
It was very hard to compete with the Microcosm, but I feel that Hologram Electronics has also done a great job with the Chroma Console. It’s such a versatile pedal that can do wonders just on its own.
Full review coming soon as I can’t wait to dive deep into this one!
Best Overdrive - Distortion:
Bronze Medal: Walrus Audio - 385 MkII
As I said before, this was a great year for Walrus Audio. Something that I think went under the radar was the release of their MKII version of the 385 Dynamic Overdrive. The 385 is inspired by the vintage Bell and Howell 385 Filmosound projector and offers those tube-like overdrive rich tones we all love.
On the MKII version, they added an A/B footswitch that lets you change between two Volume & Gain settings so you immediately understand it’s a great tool for live situations.
The 385 MKII is a simple and gets-the-job-done overdrive that sounds beautiful and full of texture. It also has a switch that allows you to change to the 385+ mode which adds an additional gain stage and sustain for even more saturation.
Silver Medal: JHS NOTAKLÖN
In 2023, there were two product releases that made people go nuts. The first one was the K.O. II by Teenage Engineering which got sold out within a single day and the other one was definitely the NOTAKLÖN by JHS Pedals. Josh Scott, owner of JHS and the biggest pedal collector and nerd in the world, has been talking about the Klon pedal and its clones for a long time so when the time was right, he decided to build his own Klon Centaur. Oh, wait. He actually decided to let YOU build his version of the Klon Centaur!
NOTAKLÖN comes in an IKEA-like box and you have to assemble it yourself just by using the tools provided inside. No need for soldering, you just have to spend around 15’ to 30’ to build your NOTAKLÖN. That was such a fun and playful decision by JHS, but the most important thing is that the NOTAKLÖN sounds exactly like an original vintage Klon Centaur that costs somewhere around 4.000€ used!
And since it’s just 99€, so many people have ordered one with the first 3.000 units of the first batch sold out in a few days. That’s how you do a pedal release. Well done JHS pedals!
Gold Medal: Old Blood Noise Endeavors - Beam Splitter
But for our Gold Medal winner in the Overdrive/ Distortion category, we decided to award Old Blood Noise Endeavors and Beam Splitter! Old Blood Noise went all out with this release, re-imagining a distortion pedal and then getting wild with it. Beam Slitter takes the incoming signal and makes three copies of it each with its own overdrive voice and delay time. There is a Blue section which is a more neutral overdrive, a Green section which is an overdrive with both soft and hard clipping, and a Purple section which is a hard-clipping distortion.
If you think that combines all these overdrives and distortions, you’ll get a totally muddy tone, you’re mistaken. Old Blood Noise wanted to replicate the habit that a lot of guitarists have to record three different takes of the same riff to make the sound thicker because of the slight changes in time. Well, Beam Splitter does that in one take. By using the Time knobs you can create different delay times for each section that makes the summed sound coming out of the main out fatter and fuller.
But the fun does not stop there. On the back of the pedal, there are three individual outputs for each section. If you don’t want to use the main output which has the summed (in parallel) signal, you can have three individual signals coming out of the pedal. They call it Trereo which might sound ridiculous but it’s weirdly accurate. So for example, you can have one guitar signal going into Beam Splitter and then three overdriven signals - one to the left channel, one in the middle, and one on the right channel. See? Trereo!
I absolutely love it when companies bring fresh ideas to the table and design something that’s never been done before. And the Beam Splitter is a great example of exactly that. A clear winner in this category for 2023!
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