gamechanger audio plus pedal review Gamechanger Audio Plus Pedal — Pedal Empire

The Plus Pedal is a truly unique solution for the modern singer songwriter, taking the basic concept of a piano sustain pedal but providing more control and customisation. This pedal is a revelation, and really moves the goal posts of what you can do.

Essentially, it allows you to sustain selected notes and chords to create a "drone" as you play. By pressing and holding the pedal down, it will sustain the tail-end of the last note in a soft pad effect. Then you can continue to play over the top, and the pedal will only sustain the notes that were played when you pressed it.

Already, this pedal is ‘smarter’ than a mechanical sustain pedal on a piano. But they haven't stopped there...you also get 4 controls to really tweak your sustain!

Blend
Blend allows you to adjust the amount of wet signal in the mix. In other words, it affects how loud you want the sustained notes to be in comparison to your original dry sound.

Tail
Tail controls how long the note continues to sustain once you release the pedal. You can set it to cut off straight away, giving you snappy control, or let it ring out and combine new layers on top of each other for a richer sonic "wall of sound."

Rise
Rise controls the attack of the wet signal, and how quickly or slowly you want the wet signal to fade in.

Sustain
Sustain allows you to change the length of the sustain, from that of a naturally ringing string’s sustain to an infinite sustain (as long as you’re holding the pedal!)

Other features
Thanks to an effects loop, with a dry/wet toggle switch you can play with other effects and change how they work with the wet or dry channels separately. And with 2 outputs, you can send your dry signal out to a separate amp to the wet signal and really control the effect you’re creating on stage!
The optional extra ‘Wet’ pedal will also allow you to toggle the dry signal off completely and use your guitar as a string or organ-like pad. The options are endless for what you can create with the Plus Pedal!

Here's what Gamechanger Audio say about the Plus Pedal:

No ordinary stompbox
The PLUS pedal is a new kind of audio processing engine that offers piano-style sustain for guitars and other electric instruments

Real time audio sampling
is a unique technology developed by GAMECHANGER AUDIO that lets you capture and sample tiny bits of your instrument’s signal in real time and loop them into a seamless, warm and responsive sustained tone. Think of it as a smart looper that only “catches” the last segment part of each note or chord and use it to create a continuous sound.

Dynamic & Responsive
The PLUS Pedal is also fully responsive to any playing style – create continuous layers of sustain incorporating vibrato, bends, harmonics, trills and other dynamic playing techniques. You can also use the whammy bar, play with a slide or experiment with amp feedback or noises – the PLUS Pedal will capture all of these tonal nuances and turn them into a continuous sound.

Reinvent your style
The PLUS Pedal is an extension of your instrument, letting you create multiple layers of sounds as-you-go.  From jazz-voiceleading to heavy post-rock drones – the Plus Pedal lets you do more with your instrument!

Live Performances
The PLUS Pedal is incredibly useful for both solo performers and bands – create rich harmonies and achieve a huge sound on stage – the audience won’t know what hit them.

Songwriting
The PLUS Pedal opens up a whole new dimension for song arrangments and chord-melody. It is almost like having an extra hand.

Practice & Aural training
Instead of thinking about what scale shapes fit over which chords, the PLUS Pedal encourages you to focus on listening and develops your understanding of intervals and tonal relationships.

Sound Effects and Ambience
Even with no experience in sound production – you will be able to transform your instrument into a full-on sound effects laboratory. Great for ambient genres or movie scores.

Two Outputs

The PLUS Pedal has one main mono 1/4 inch jack input. To plug in a microphone, you’ll need to use an XLR adaptor. The Second Output “DRY OUT” will send the DRY signal at all times (it also doubles as a footswitch input jack).

The Main Output on the pedal’s far left side can send out a mixed Dry / Wet signal, depending on the position of the Toggle switch. When the toggle is set to MIX, then the Main Output will send out a mixed signal: when the Pedal is not engaged it will simply send the DRY signal through unafffected; as soon as the pedal is pressed down, the WET signal will be added to the mix.

When the toggle switch is set to WET Only, the DRY signal will be removed from the Main output. This mode is called “WET ONLY”. The DRY output can be used for many purposes – for example – create a stereo effect with two amps, or split you effects chain. Another option would be to keep the dry signal plugged into a recording unit at all times.

FX Loop

The FX Loop allows you to link the PLUS Pedal with any other effects unit and use it to modify the Wet or the Dry signal separately. For example – add a tremolo unit into the FX Loop and apply it to the WET signal only. That way you can play a chord, sustain it with the PLUS pedal and it will have a nice pulsating effect, while anything you play on top will be unaffected by the tremolo.

Or you can put a Overdrive pedal into the FX Loop, set the Toggle Switch to DRY and use this setting to play clean chords, and lay overdriven fills on top of them. This is really an open platform for experimentation and we encourage you to dust off some old unused pedals and try them out in a whole new context.