Heheh, I reached out to him about the 2022 Mystery Effects list recently. He just said to get/stay on his mailing list. He's going to limit the number of them this go-round to keep the releases closer to the expected dates, and will prioritize mailing list members for the available slots.
I literally opened the mailer for mine about 45 minutes ago, and haven't had time to plug it in yet. Oddly, I was just about to start looking for an EQ pedal. So, that's very nice. I'm a complete pirate hooker for good design, though, and it surely pushes those buttons hard. I might not plug it in before I go to bed, but I'm likely to play with it for at least a minute or two before I work tomorrow morning.
My year-end reviews? (yeah, it's almost all old, but I just got ahold of it recently)
Hits:
Behringer Bass BDI 21 - it's supposed to be a SansAmp Bass Driver clone. I've never owned one of those, but for $35, it made home recording of bass tracks easy as hell. I'm still pumping it's output through a tube preamp and a cab sim, but it makes getting "rock bass sound" almost brainless, and it seems flexible enough to get a lot of other sounds, as well.
IdiotBox Effects' WhataPhaser - It was a a mystery effect, but wow, it's nice sounding. I haven't found a particular use for it (just haven't written a song where a phaser's needed or particularly useful since I received it), but I still just plug it in to enjoy the sounds it makes when I'm playing through it. That enjoyment alone is worth the price of admission.
Zvex Fuzzalo - I got this because my singer bought it, used it, and then made it easy for someone to run over his pedal board. I replaced the switch, and he decided he didn't really want it anymore, so I inherited it after repairing it. It's a nasty, nasty, nasty fuzz. Only controls are pulse width and volume, the volume knob on your guitar is the fuzz control. It's a good pedal, but you gotta watch yourself with it. It's easy to get it more saturated than you mean to.
Caline Crazy Cacti - a $40 copy of a Fulltone Fulldrive 2. I've used it on both bass and guitar tracks, and have been quite happy with both after tweaking the knobs and switches. It is flexible. If you want to own one $40 overdrive, you should probably grab that one.
Misses:
Really, only one: The Caline Action Replay Distortion. I didn't like it's low end sound on guitar, much less bass. It's a pity, because I kind of like a lot of the high end distortion it generates.
The Jury is still out:
Hmm. Maybe the other mystery effects this year, and a few of the others from the previous series. I can get the Space Yo-Yo to sound like a normal delay, but man, that feels like I'm selling it short. The same with the Gargalactic Blaster. I can make it sound in the neighborhood of a normal fuzz - but I've got that already, and that surely isn't what that pedal was made to do. I need to open up my composition and playing to utilize them in the way the electrons intended! Or, maybe not necessarily the way the electrons intended, but to utilize them best on the paths they were going to semi-deterministically employ? Ehh, it gets worse the more precisely I try to describe it. I'm not good enough to use them, yet.
As to places to live: Heh, I've lived in the DFW area my whole life. I may move away, but it will be a surprise to me. It's not because I love the place in any particular visual way - dry prairie is somehow less visually appealing than scrub desert. But I know it, it's the briar patch. If you come here for vacation and you don't have family here, I question your ability to scope out vacation spots. But it is a decent place to live if you can stomach a December high temp being in spitting distance of a Michigan August day - our August days being somewhere between that and 110F with silly humidity. Plus, the sky is capable of doing a random dance of trying to open up and trying to kill you. Oh, and it's very flat in most places, so you can drive at ludicrous speeds and not get pulled over too often if you're somewhat careful. It takes forever to get anywhere in this state, and the cops seem to understand that, up to a point.
I keep describing the place in those terms, and people keep moving here nonetheless. It's friggin' loony here, and if you move here you will become more loony whether you notice or not. Even though it's my home state and I love it, I see that as an inevitable result. I don't know if it's the weather or the water.
