Anaheim has been electrified with the bustle of brands all over the gear world unveiling new products that'll be on offer throughout this year. We've covered a lot of new pedal news so far, but there's still so much more to dig into—like French brand Anasounds, which unveiled a brand-new trio of effects on the NAMM floor.
First up is the Silver—the brand's very first tremolo pedal. "As always, our first concern while designing the Silver was to not ruin the precious sound you’ve spent many years trying to find," the brand explains. "You won’t find an analog to digital converter in there, your sound only goes through a purely analog signal path."
The Silver features a Tap Tempo footswitch that doubles as a self-oscillation trigger when you keep your foot down. "You pick your rhythmic subdivision, you tap your foot on the switch and the tremolo rate is immediately adjusted to fit the rhythm of your song, without having to turn a knob in the middle of a cool moody arpeggio."
Players can also use the center switch to select their desired waveform from six presets, and if you want even more precise control, you can access secondary settings from the Trimpot menu.
Next up is another kind of tremolo, but rarer and more interesting—the the new Ages, a harmonic tremolo. According to Anasounds, harmonic tremolo is livelier than the traditional tremolo, "it doesn’t have the outdated stigma of the chorus, and it takes up less space than a delay or reverb."
This new hybrid pedal retains a purely analog signal path and maintains a simple interface, while being full of possibilities. Players can use the tap tempo footswitch (and three available subdivisions via the central switch) to control the rate of the effect. It also features an attack follower that can either the rate or the depth based on how hard you hit the strings.
Lastly, Anasounds has unveiled a new expression pedal called the Spinner, and it's not quite like anything we've ever seen before. We'll let Anasounds provide the justification for its design.
"Until now, you could get more from your pedals by adding a tap tempo footswitch or an expression pedal. Truthfully, what was called an expression pedal was more of a control pedal that would have the exact same effect as turning a knob with your foot. Very handy obviously, but not too creative. With the introduction of the Spinner, here comes the first expression pedal worthy of the name."
The Spinner features an actual spinner on its control face, which is mounted via a screw inspired by skateboards. There's a magnet under each blade that's directed by the Sensor, which sends your rotation rate to the circuit. So, every time you kick the star, the effect changes based on your previously chosen parameters (set via switch on the back panel).
For now, the Spinner is compatible with both the new Silver tremolo and Ages harmonic tremolo. Click the blue buttons to add these pedals to your Reverb feed when they're available, and click the orange banner below for more news from NAMM 2020.