The White Whale Junior is a compact, amp-like tremolo and reverb pedal. It's true bypass and all-analogue, but its true selling point is that it uses real springs.

The result is a very authentic replication of vintage amp reverb and tremolo, in a pedalboard-friendly form-factor.

Specs

• Price: $349 | £259| €299
• Type: Analogue amp-like spring reverb/tremolo
• Controls: Dwell, Tone, Mix, Volume, Speed, Intensity, Volume, Independent footswitches
• Features: Reverb, Tremolo pedals
• Connectivity: Input, Output, Power
• Bypass: True relay
• Power: 9V DC Centre-negative, 110mA
• Dimensions: 154 x 68 x 83 mm
• Weight: 490g
• Contact: Crazy Tube Circuits

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

The White Whale Junior aims to deliver a true amp-style spring reverb and tremolo in a compact enclosure. To do this, no corners have been cut – there's real springs inside the oversized enclosure. You can confirm this by giving the unit a gentle kick to hear the spring 'splash.'

This is something I can't wait to check out, popping off the back and eyeballing three real springs and a neat off-board wiring job. However, as noted in the manual, these springs and the fly leads are fragile, so it's not a good idea to do this at home!

Inside and out everything is sensibly laid out and feels sturdy. The true-bypass switches are soft-click relays, which is a nice touch.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

The pedal has seven straightforward controls. The reverb and tremolo sections have their own footswitches, and the effects are easy enough to dial in.

Compared to the larger White Whale, there's no harmonic trem mode, and the Dwell times are streamlined to a single pot. Still, this all makes for an intuitive set up, assuming you didn't need those features.

The only complexity comes from the reverb, as it has its own Volume and Blend controls. As this section contains an amplifier stage, finding unity volume is crucial.

The amp stage can result in level issues when paired with any pedals in front of the White Whale, which is likely to be at the end of your chain.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

With a clean guitar, the White Whale delivers characterful reverb and tremolo tones, but it really starts to come alive once there's a bit of dirt. The amp stage in the pedal can be used for boosting, but it has a dark voicing.

The Tone control affects the reverb, which can result in a more brittle sound when the Tone is up. Consequently it makes more sense to brighten up the gain blocks in front, and set a more neutral tone on the White Whale.

Placing a Rangemaster-style boost in front (Crazy Tube Circuits' own Triptychon, in fact) yields excellent results. Conversely, a Roland Space Echo-derived discrete op-amp preamp proves less satisfying due to its darker tone. Moving on to drives, the pedal interacts differently with the drives I throw at it.

Although there are no concerns, it does result in a fuzzier, darker tone. The Smallsound/Bigsound Mini JFet drive needs a fair bit of tweaking, while the Hamstead Odyssey runs prematurely to feedback. Though, it must be said, I do run that pedal quite hot.

At higher gain settings, the White Whale's voicing is less of an issue, since the overall sound is so complex. Turning again to the Triptychon to stack several gain blocks together, Rangemaster, Fuzz Face and drive modes running in series results in a searing lead tone, with the reverb eventually guiding the guitar into very musical feedback.

The tremolo, meanwhile, has no quirks, in a good way. I prefer the quick, choppy tremolo, but it can go all the way down to slow throbbing, with a depth from fully open or closed to quite subtle.

Verdict

For all that the White Whale gets right in bringing classic 50s and 60s tones to the modern pedalboard, it's still very much aimed at surf players.

Players from many genres might be after a spring reverb, especially one that sounds this good, but room, hall and ambient reverbs are the go-to for many players and genres. This makes the White Whale a more niche prospect.

MusicRadar verdict: If you need the most amp-like reverb that money can buy, and don't need the features of the larger White Whale, then the Junior is an excellent, compact option. It sounds fantastic, it's versatile, and it's mostly well behaved when stacked with other gain pedals on your board.

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R.J. Ronquilo

Tone Factory

The premise of the Towers Stereo Reverberant Filter pedal is to feed your guitar signal through what EarthQuaker describes as “an array of infinitely repeating micro-echoes” into a large cathedral-style reverb.

The whole lot then interacts with a resonant low-pass filter that’s woven into the signal path for an extra layer of harmonic complexity.

Specs

• PRICE: $299 | £329 | €338
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Stereo Reverberant
  Filter pedal
• FEATURES: Tails or Full bypass, 8x assignable presets
• CONTROLS: Length, Frequency, Mix, Filter, Preset selector, Mode switch (Man/Env/LFO), Stretch footswitch, Activate footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard inputs (L/Mono, R), standard outputs
  (L/Mono, R), EXP
• POWER: 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 85mA
• DIMENSIONS: 108 (w) x 121 (d) x 64mm (h) 
• CONTACT: EarthQuaker Devices

Usability and sounds

While you get a standard Mix knob to add effected sound to the dry signal, and a Length knob that determines how long your reverb tail is, the filtering is the key to the Towers’ unique sonic aspects, adding a ringing richness and movement.

A Filter knob controls how much the filter is mixed into the reverb pathways, determining the depth of harmonic resonance, with the filter Frequency dialling in variations of the effect via three toggle-switched modes that determine how it is applied.

Manual mode is used for setting the Frequency knob where you want it for tonal shading. In Envelope mode you can control the filter frequency with picking dynamics, the Frequency knob adjusting the sensitivity of the envelope and determining how you can emphasise that ‘opening filter’ movement in the sound. In LFO mode the filter frequency is controlled by a slow moving LFO, with the Frequency knob adjusting the sweep rate.

It’s here that you’ll find the most dramatic stereo effects as the signal pans across the field.

With left and right channels working independently, the pedal is at its optimum in stereo, but its richly textured reverb still works perfectly well in mono.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

There’s plenty to explore, with subtle sonic changes engendered by small knob adjustments, so it’s great that there are eight preset slots for you to save and recall any favourite sounds you might discover.

For performance, a second footswitch initiates the Stretch function, which slows the processor speed, doubling the length of reverb effect and generating a lo-fi effect that pulls apart the delay lines while smearing the filter and lowering the frequency responses – it’s not unlike a tape slowing-down/speeding-up effect.

There’s also provision to plug in an expression pedal for control of any one of the parameter knobs.

MusicRadar verdict: Just when you think you’ve seen enough fancy reverbs and ambience pedals, along comes another. However, EarthQuaker Devices has proven past history within this area and it all comes together in this excellent example of the genre’s shifting atmospheric soundscapes.

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High-quality, low-priced electric guitars are a dime a dozen these days. That’s a great thing for both novice players and those looking to expand their collection without having to smash open the piggy bank.

Thomann-owned Harley Benton has found itself at the top of the tree when it comes to offering a lot of bang for very little buck, and its latest, modern-minded T-types are very much a case in point. From roasted flamed maple necks to locking tuners and glow-in-the-dark side markers, its spec sheet is generous for a sub-$500 axe.

But times, as Bob Dylan once said, are a-changing. Access to factories and materials is increasing, helping to drive down prices while simultaneously ramping up specs. And the more budget brands on offer – Sire is one of the brands proving a bit of a dark horse here – the more weight firms throw at their cheapest models. This iteration of its successful Suhr-inspired Fusion series is one such beneficiary as Harley Benton bids to remain ahead of the curve.

It sports a nyatoh body, the aforementioned roasted flame maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard adorned with 24 frets. Its neck is billed as having a modern C-profile, a 12”–16” fretboard radius, and a Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut.

The electronics are also modern-minded, with two gold-covered Tesla Opus humbuckers, one Volume, one Tone control, an Alter mini-switch for a variety of coil combo sounds, and a five-way pickup switch.

Other specs include a Babicz Z-Series FCH hardtail bridge and a heel-mounted truss rod wheel. It’s well appointed, but does it outgun the other guitars at its price point?

Specs

• Launch price: £385 / $433 / €449
  Made: Indonesia
  Type: Six-string electric guitar
  Body: Nyatoh
  Neck: Roasted Canadian flamed maple, C-profile
  Fingerboard: Rosewood, circle dot inlays, glow-in-the-dark side dots, 305mm - 406mm (12" - 16") compound radius
  Scale length: 648mm (25.5")
  Nut/width: Graph Tech TUSQ XL, 42mm (1.65")
  Frets: 24, medium jumbo Blacksmith stainless steel
  Hardware: gold Babicz Z-Serie FCH fixed hardtail bridge, Jinho JN-07 staggered locking tuners
  String spacing at bridge: 52mm
  Electrics: Tesla Opus-1B and Opus-1N Alnico 5 humbuckers, five-way switch, mini Alter switch; 1x volume control, 1x tone controls
  Weight: 7.01lbs/3.18kg
  Options: including EMG pickup model in Satin Black, White Metallic with Babicz tremolo
  Left-handed options: including Flame Bengal Burst, Satin Gold (with Babicz FCH 2-Point Special Z-Series C tremolo), Black Metallic Gloss with maple fingerboard, EMG pickup model in Matte Black
  Finishes: options for hardtail include Purple Metallic (as reviewed), Quilt Black Burst Gloss with maple fingerboard, Flame Bengal Burst, Black Metallic Gloss, Satin Grey with maple fingerboard
  Case: Not included
  Contact: Harley Benton

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

In a world littered with T-type copyists, it’s interesting to see Harley Benton colouring outside the traditional lines here and looking to brands like Suhr and Ibanez with its Fusion design. The Purple Metallic colourway, paired with the gold hardware, gives it a regal, premium look, but it also brings to mind Lari Basilio's LB1 Ibanez signature.

The Volume and Tone controls sit in tidy little grooves, and the embossed headstock logo makes it feel more like a premium player than a budget build. Everything fits snugly. It’s very well put together.

There are contours galore too, with the cut around the back of the treble horn, and the slick neck heel cut itself showing a level of detail I’m not used to at this budget.

This guitar has been living in and out of my office during a heat wave during some of the testing, with temperatures reaching 35°C on multiple days, and my office is small. It gets hot very quickly. Yet most of the time I’ve picked up this guitar, its tuning has remained pretty consistent.

A closer look at the bridge, which ditches the traditional ashtray approach, does a lot to instil confidence; this isn’t an own-brand pale imitation of a hardtail; it’s a branded and well-thought-out design.

Most notably, the eCAM system, which replaces small-screw saddles with a rotating cam-shaped design, endeavours to eliminate unwanted gaps between the bottom of the saddle and the top of the bridge plate, thereby improving sustain. As far as functionality and feel are concerned, it’s hard to fault it.

For my money, this Fusion-T II's weight is in that happy midpoint between being back-breakingly heavy and so light it doesn’t feel like you’re playing a guitar. Simply, it feels pretty good slung over my shoulder

I don't think the circle dot are a good design choice from a practical perspective. They’re quite subtle, which goes against what they’re on the guitar for. Thankfully, the glow-in-the-dark side dots are big enough to land a plane on.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★½

The biggest surprise for me is that, contrary to its outward appearance as a modern machine, this Fusion-T II's neck is far thicker than I expected. It’s less shredder/session guitar and more old-school Fender.

Using digital callipers, I measured the neck thickness at the first and 12th frets to be 23mm and 23.3mm, respectively. That's thicker than the 21mm billed at the first fret in the official specs. It also comes in thicker than my Squier Classic Vibe baritone Telecaster (23mm and 23mm) and my Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2 24 HH HT CM (20mm and 21mm). It absolutely impacts the playability for me. I found the beefy neck needs to be fought with a little, and it definitely slows me down when I’m playing leads.

The guitar ships with 10-46 gauge Harley Benton HQS EL Coated, which feel quite tight, especially on the higher strings, when in standard tuning. I’d be tempted to try 9s or 9.5s to make bends a little easier. These two features conspire to make playing the guitar a little less forgiving than anticipated for me.

The frets have been finely filed, and the arm contour really thins out the guitar body at the point of contact with my arm. That makes it perfectly comfortable to play, but I’m not sure the Alter switch is in the best place. It feels a little inaccessible to use on the fly, positioned as it is between the two control dials.

Placing it on the bass-side horn like a Les Paul, or offsetting it away from the dials, would have meant I didn’t feel I had to skirt around the outside of the Volume dial or over it to get to it. This is a switch I’ll use in the moment when gigging. Getting to it quickly is vital.

It’s worth mentioning that simplicity in design has paid off elsewhere. With a hardtail bridge and no tremolo bar, there are fewer things to go wrong and negatively affect tuning stability. That’s a smart option for a range with plenty of trem options elsewhere.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Starting with mid-gain Neural DSP plugin amp models to test the sounds, the pink amp on Tim Henson X (based on a Marshall JCM 800) quickly highlights how well-balanced the Fusion-T II's pickups are. There’s plenty of warm, roundness to the lower notes in the bridge position, with the higher octaves not too sharp or fluffy. Digging in, I can get a decent amount of grit and growl, with the guitar holding together so that, when I do, it doesn’t slip out of tune.

Position four thins out the tone, but not to the point of grating brittleness, while the middle pickup does everything it needs to do in providing a clean tone that’s neither too thick nor too thin, and, paired with the Henson plugin's Black amp, does a very impressive steel-string acoustic impression. I did, however, find position two to be a little nasal and generally underwhelming.

Which brings us nicely onto Harley Benton’s party trick: the Alter switch. If I’m honest, I was surprised it went for a five-way switch and the Alter switch. Often, it’s a three-way switch and a mini-switch for coil-split single-coil sounds, so it’s gone the extra mile here. It says the switch doubles the guitar’s total configurations, affecting all five positions, but, more intriguingly, it talks a big game about its “ghost tone”.

This isn’t just a switch in place of a split coil; it delivers “a hybrid tone which blends the warm bass of a humbucker with the bright bite of a single coil and takes on a spectral quality for ghostly playing.”

To me, that sounds like PR gobbledegook. These "Ghost Coil" split modes add partial coil blending in the five Alter-on switch positions, while retaining hum cancellation. Position five becomes a little snappier without draining it of low-end warmth completely. But nothing feels "ghostly" here to me, and the difference it makes feels too subtle elsewhere.

Engaging the switch in position four certainly makes it bite like a traditional single-coil Tele, but from a practicality point of view, going from position five and engaging the Alter switch in one fell swoop isn’t easy to do while playing a riff. I dare say Harley Benton is trying to be too clever for its own good here. I’d have been very happy with a three-way switch and a push/pull coil split.

That being said, I am really impressed with how responsive the Tesla pickups are to Volume control adjustments: in the middle position, with the Alter switch engaged and the Volume rolled back, it’s got a really slinky, sparkly quality that is very satisfying.

Elsewhere, the Fusion-T II can handle metal to a point, but has an innate snarl that’s a little much for my ears; it needs the edges sanded down with a bit of EQ. But with dry-as-a-bone tones - tested through the Henson plugin’s acoustic amp, Universal Audio’s Showtime ’64, and some black panel Fender amp models found on the Mooer GE15 Pro Li- there’s balance, clarity, and a really nice-to-the-ear sound.

Often with more budget-skewed ‘buckers, it’s these moments where their imperfections show themselves, but the Tesla pair pass the test with flying colours.

Verdict

This is a difficult guitar to put a review score on; if a four-star rating feels a little generous in light of the Alter switch and a surprisingly beefy neck that feels out of place with the style of this guitar, a 3.5-star review wouldn’t do it justice. This Fusion-T II is well-built, spec'd to the teeth, and holds up tonally. Yet the neck is too fat for its modern C-profile: billing, the Alter switch doesn’t do enough for me to warrant regular use, and overall, it feels nearly-but-not-quite.

If you find a thicker neck to be an attraction, the rest of the positives are plentiful; its looks are standout, the attention to detail in its build, from its contours to its hardware, goes against the current of its price, and its tuning stability is mightily reassuring.

But the neck makes it harder to play than its specs suggest, and as good as the pickups are, they aren’t a great option for heavier sounds to my ears. The strengths are still significant here, though.

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Dirty Boy built its reputation largely through word of mouth. Founder Alex Saraceno began by building one-off circuits for his son, guitarist Blues Saraceno, and over the years Dirty Boy pedals found their way onto the boards of players including Phil X, John Frusciante and George Pajon Jr.

Under current owner Danny Gomez, the company has continued its small-batch, handmade approach, with original hand wired Dirty Boy pedals typically selling for around $349.

The Jr. Booster is one of three pedals in Warm Audio’s collaboration with Dirty Boy, including a Fuzz and an Overdrive. For the Booster, Warm Audio revisited the Dirty Boy Ball Buster circuit, originally designed to push the front end of vintage-style Marshall, Hiwatt and Vox valve amps.

Warm Audio describes the Jr. Booster as capable of moving from clean boost into natural compression, overdrive and heavier saturation as the Drive control is increased. Bass and Treble controls provide additional tone shaping, while the three-position Freq switch changes the pedal’s low-frequency response.

At $169, the Jr. Booster enters a market that ranges from straightforward clean boost pedals such as the TC Electronic Spark Mini to pedals including the Xotic EP Booster and Benson Germanium Boost.

Its combination of Drive, independent Bass and Treble controls and three selectable frequency settings places it among boost pedals designed to offer additional tone shaping beyond a simple level increase.

Specs

• Price: $169 | £169 | €189
• Type: Boost pedal
• Controls: Drive, Treble, Bass, 3-position (Low/Mid/High) Freq switch
• Features: All-analog boost circuit derived from the Dirty Boy "Ball Buster" design; up to 10dB of clean gain before natural compression and breakup take over; responsive to pick dynamics and guitar volume
• Connectivity: 1/4" instrument input, 1/4" amp output.
• Bypass: True bypass
• Power: 9V DC, centre-negative power supply (not included). Warm Audio has not published a current draw (mA) figure for this pedal at time of writing
• Dimensions: 51 x 65 x 122mm (W x H x D)
• Weight: 9.6oz / 0.27kg
• Contact: Warm Audio

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Pick up the Jr. Booster and it feels a lot more substantial than you might expect at this price.

The die-cast enclosure has that reassuring, slightly overbuilt feel you want from something that’s going to live on a pedalboard, get stepped on every night, and probably take a few knocks along the way.

The knobs have enough resistance that they’re not going to move every time you brush against them, and the three-way Freq switch clicks firmly into place instead of feeling loose or flimsy. The on/off foot switch gives you a good, solid click with just the right amount of force required to engage it.

Warm Audio also did a nice job with the presentation. The red-on-black graphics keep the Dirty Boy look intact without making the pedal feel like a cheap tribute act, and the top-mounted LED is bright enough to see on a dark stage.

It doesn’t feel like a hand-wired boutique pedal but that’s not really the point. For $169, the Jr. Booster feels solid, well finished, and built like a tank.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

With four clearly labeled controls including a three-way Freq switch, getting around the Jr. Booster is about as easy as it gets. Drive sets how hard you're pushing the front end, Treble and Bass shape what's left over, and none of it requires a manual to understand.

Compare that to the Xotic EP Booster, which hides its frequency-shaping options behind internal DIP switches - handy once you've found a setting but it can get annoying every time you want to experiment on the fly.

The Freq switch changes how much low end the pedal feeds into the amp with three tiers. High tightens things up and sharpens the attack, Mid gives the most balanced response, while Low adds noticeable weight and thickness. It’s a simple control, but the differences between the three settings are easy to hear.

I ran the Jr. Booster with both a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster into a Fender ’62 Deluxe Vintage Reissue, with the amp set for a warm edge-of-breakup tone. That proved to be a great setup for hearing how the pedal pushed the front end.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

With the Freq switch set to Mid position and Drive barely past nine o'clock, the Jr. Booster does what a boost is supposed to do: it makes the amp louder without announcing itself. Note definition holds up well, the amp's character stays intact and there's none of the thin, brittle edge that cheaper clean boosts can add to the top end. Notes are noticeably fatter with more feel under your fingers.

The Low setting added some extra body to the Strat, while High helped keep the Les Paul from getting too thick as the amp started to compress. Mid ended up being my favorite and where I spent most of my time. The three Freq settings give you enough control to shape how the pedal hits the amp without turning it into a full-blown EQ pedal.

Push the Drive toward noon and a soft compression creeps in that tightens up palm mutes and adds real push to single-note lines without sounding like a distortion pedal. This is the zone the Ball Buster built its reputation on where your tone feels more alive. Less like a pedal switching on and more like my amp simply waking up.

Past 2 o'clock, the natural compression transitions to a gritty, slightly ragged breakup that easily gets you into that cranked British half-stack space. Switching the Freq control to High keeps the low end from turning to mush at these higher Drive settings.

Separate Bass and Treble controls allowed me to fine-tune the low end and top-end presence without changing the basic character of the pedal. I found both EQ controls very musical which made it easy to compensate for the differences between the two guitars.

With the Drive dimed, the Jr. Booster edges right up against fuzz pedal tones; thick and saturated but still articulate enough that single notes never dissolve into mush. It starts polite but then gets loud, dirty and nasty enough to pick a fight with fuzz.

Verdict

Boost pedals rarely get reviewed with much enthusiasm, mostly because most of them do one predictable thing well and nothing else.

The Dirty Boy Jr. Booster earns more attention than that: it's built around a genuinely distinctive circuit with real gain range on tap, not just a volume knob in a box, and the Freq switch gives it more personality than most boost pedals.

Players who want continuously variable EQ will still gravitate toward something like the JHS Clover, and Dirty Boy purists will always hold out for a hand-wired original. But at $169, this is the most affordable route yet into a circuit that's spent years being talked about more than it's actually been heard.

Judged on its own merits, it's an easy pedal to recommend, and a genuinely hard one to find much fault with. The Jr. Booster is proof that "just a boost pedal" can still be worth the conversation.

MusicRadar verdict: A once-elusive boutique boost circuit reimagined for a wider audience without losing the attitude that made players chase it in the first place. The Freq switch and independent EQ give it more personality than its straightforward layout suggests, and the Drive control alone covers everything from a subtle clean boost to something that starts nudging up against fuzz.

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Harley Benton's Aged Series is a work two years in the making, and as such, the guitar brand calls it the "most ambitious series yet."

I understand this claim. There's a choice of five different models, with 20 overall products, fitted with aged hardware and hand-worn finishes.

They may look old, but these guitars are new for Harley Benton with Isola pickups. They also have American alder bodies and caramelised Canadian maple for the neck and (in this case) fingerboard.

Importantly, if you're not looking for a very aged look, each model comes in either a light aged (LA) or heavy aged (HA) finish - although the fingerboard and finish combinations are preset and vary across the models.

The Stratocaster, Telecaster and Jazzmaster-style guitars, specifically, are intensified by the backdrop of the legal dispute between brands like Thomann (the owner of Harley Benton) and Fender over who is allowed to use that iconic shape and styling.

However, what could appear as a timely, punky middle finger to the brand behind some of the most iconic guitars in the world has actually been in the works for a couple of years.

The ST-62LA sports a very classic Strat look and setup, with three single coil pickups, a single cutaway body, and a chunky headstock similar to the Strats of the 1950s, except a little less pronounced.

The model I've got my mitts on is the Black ST-62LA, which is a Light Aged variant, and its relicing is hand-applied. The intention being to mimic what decades of playing would actually do to a guitar.

It's an almost wildly low price for a brand new, aged guitar, and one might wonder about the potential ripple effects of this launch on the guitar industry if it proves popular. I spent a few weeks with the guitar to find out if it lives up to the story and the look. Here's how it went.

Specs

• Price: $238 | £214 | €249
• Type: Six-string solid-body single-cut electric guitar
• Body: American alder
• Neck: Caramelised Canadian maple, C-shape
• Fingerboard material: Caramelized Canadian maple
• Fingerboard radius: 305mm (12")
• Scale length: 648mm (25,5")
• Nut/width: graphite / 42mm
• Frets: 22 silver nickel medium jumbo frets
• Hardware: Kluson-style tuners, six-point tremolo system bridge, 3-ply white pickguard
• String spacing at bridge: 50 mm
• Electrics: Three Isola VT-ST Alnico 5 single coil pickups, one volume and two tone controls, 5-way switch
• Weight: 6.8lb / 3.1kg
• Options: Heavy Aged or Light Aged
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Sunburst or Black (both polyurethane)
• Case: N/A
• Contact: Harley Benton

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

To be perfectly honest, I'm not fully in on the artificially aged trend. I prefer to earn the knocks, chips and bumps in battle or while clumsily shredding in my bedroom, so letting someone else do it for me, and then getting me to pay extra for the privilege has never quite sat right with me.

But the light ageing on my review model of the ST-62LA is, dare I say, tasteful. Paint has come off on the body where you'd traditionally place your arm or pop it on your leg, the fretboard lacquer is worn down where you'd land your fingers for a typical D major chord, and the pickups are tinted yellow.

The rest of the fretboard is near brand new, and so is the headstock, but the contrast of new and old certainly doesn't look ugly to my eyes, even though it's not super 'authentic'.

I do think the white and almost orange ageing on the pickguard looks a little artificial, but everything else looks impressive, from the Kluson-style tuners and the aged output jack. The Black model I've got my hands on is a little bit of a beauty, and one I can't help but pick up every time I walk by it.

Under my fingers, it's smooth, with no friction, though I did find the fret ends to be not totally uniform. In particular, if I slide up on the bottom string between around the fifth and the seventh fret, I can feel the edge of the fret. It's not quite sharp, but I wouldn't say it's smooth either.

I feel the same issues on the top end when I'm playing attempting Hendrix- or Mayer-style thumbed chords. If I choose to move that chord shape, thumb and all, I can feel just a little too much of the fret.

The finish is polyurethane, which can largely be expected for the price, and it does give the guitar a bit of a plasticky feeling, but that does make its finish more durable. So, depending on your priorities, this (plus the price difference) could be a worthwhile trade-off.

I found no dead notes (you'd expect as such but still), and though there is some buzz on the B string, that doesn't come through when plugged in. It's just a minor annoyance while unplugged.

At just 3 kg, this Harley Benton is light to hold, and well balanced too. Left on the strap, the neck doesn't dive down, which is a huge boon for long playing sessions while stood up. It also doesn't feel weak in the process. It's the type of guitar I wouldn't mind throwing in a bag and bringing with me to a gig, and what's an extra knock on an aged guitar, anyway?

One thing that does stand out about the ST-62LA is that it has stellar specs for the price. You are getting an American alder body, which is traditionally saved for higher-priced guitars. Similarly, the Caramelised Canadian Maple fingerboard punches above its budget weight, and nicely aged hardware all add to this.

It tops that all off with a surprisingly killer aesthetic that is downright tasteful as far as faux-reliced guitars go.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

While its look often makes me want to pick it up, there's plenty of reason to keep playing because the neck is surprisingly great. It's ultra smooth and clean, and comfortable in the palm. The action is quite low too, which makes fast clean riffs easy to hit. With my finger on the 1st fret, I measured just north of 1.5 mm on the twelfth fret.

Interestingly, the relicing doesn't go past the fifth fret or so, and I suspect thirty years of me playing a guitar would end up in substantially more wear past this point. I do feel that the noticeable fret ends do cut some of that playability, but it's still a very nice guitar to just jam away on.

Playing this guitar makes you realise just how much better budget guitars have become, in regard to feel. Unplugged, jamming on my sofa, the ST-62LA doesn't feel a million miles away from a much more expensive guitar, other than maybe the feel of the poly on my elbow.

Perhaps a testament to both neck feel and a sturdy body, but there are no issues thrashing chords and playing the strings my hardest. That feels like an absolutely necessary use case for guitar, the catharsis of just throwing it at some distortion and making a wall of sound, and it handles it well.

Intonation is perfect here too, so I feel comfortable getting high up on the guitar as I play. It holds tuning decently, though loses it quicker than my PRS SE CE 24 and Fender '72 Telecaster Deluxe. I do find tuning tends to go off at around the same rate.

If you are worried about losing tuning, you may be put you off using the tremolo bar too much, and the stiffness of the bar will only contribute to that feeling. You really have to yank it to drastically change the pitch, and I'm still not comfortable applying that amount of pressure.

Out of the box, it is an impressively playable guitar but one that could benefit from some fine-tuning and perhaps a setup to sort out the fret edges, buzz and stiff tremolo bar.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Coming with three single coil pickups, the ST-62LA has a very typical S-type setup. The Isola VT-ST-N Alnico 5 neck pickup is heavier on the bass, accompanied by a bit of warmth, which is fitting for full underlying rhythm playing, where the bridge pickup is bright, almost jangly and high in treble.

The middle pickup, an Isola VT-ST-M, is intended to bridge the gap between the two. There is a volume difference between the bridge and neck pickup (with the second being louder), but this is something that could be adjusted very easily.

On the whole, I'm rather impressed with the Isolas for the price. Plugged into my Fender Mustang LT25, it can handle sharp, syncopated mathy chords with a light overdrive, or clean delay riffs like a champ.

Bridge pickups, especially more budget-oriented ones, can add a bit of harshness in the high-end, especially for solos and other flashy riffs above the 12th fret, but Harley Benton has good ones in my test model, being bright without being too piercing.

I found myself much preferring the slightly twangy bridge pickup, especially when throwing sharp attack at the strings. The neck pickup does add some fullness but also sounds a tad more muffled. I wouldn't call it bad, per se, but I do like it less. On singular notes, the neck pickup is as clear and bassy as you might want, but with jangly chords or sharp arpeggios, it can lose some clarity, and the low end can overpower.

These Alnico V pickups offer a higher output in exchange for a reduced dynamic range, which means they aren't quite 'vintage' in approach. All three pickups take to punchy sounds well (as one might expect from Alnico V), but that neck pickup struggles somewhat with intricate guitar work as the bass tones tend to drown out the rest.

That can be tweaked with the neck tone knob, and I tend to prefer it cranked to around 7 or 9, to allow the high end of its register to sing through.

As such, the tone knob for the middle pickup is my favourite to use. I find there to be a solid range of sound worth using here, whereas the neck pickup seems more limited. The first four or so layers of the neck tone knob cut away at so much of the already pretty lacking high end that I found them often not worth using.

Interestingly, with only two tone knobs (for the neck and middle pickup), there's no way to control the bridge pickup without going into the EQ of the amp or DAW you use, or throwing some sort of EQ pedal at it.

Swapping over to my DAW of choice (Logic Pro), I set the guitar on a whole pile of amp presets via the Neural Amp modeller, with it taking particularly well to a 1977 Fender Super Reverb. I also found ferocious tone in the Full Rig Peavey 5150 + Mesa 4x12, but it can get a bit messy, especially in the silence in between notes. That's a common single coil hindrance, though.

Where this Harley Benton shines particularly is in twangy country, blues, and rock and roll, thanks to an assortment of bright pickups.

I would, however, advise bringing down the tone knob just a smidge if you are throwing something very heavy and loud, as its brightness can punch through distortion in a way that can almost pierce.

But no matter which pickup you use and in which position, the ST-62LA is bright. And to me that's part of its charm. Overall, it's a solid set of sounds that mimics the more expensive Strat well, and though it won't convince you it's a much more expensive guitar, it certainly doesn't sound as cheap as it is.

Verdict

The ST-62LA is surprisingly well built, but lacking the final touches I would otherwise want, like smooth fret ends and an easy-to-use tremolo bar. And I much prefer the sound of its neck pickup to its bridge one. Still, it feels great to play, has a tone that outpaces its very modest price, and it looks great.

Though I don't think the relicing is perfectly consistent, I do think it looks pretty great, and I don't know how much I care about 'fooling' someone into believing my Harley Benton is actually from the '60s.

Still, despite some QC issues, when I'm throwing riffs at it on that bridge pickup, I'm getting a truly great experience for the money, and one that I would have expected to pay much more for. It's clear that Harley Benton knows how to make a good guitar, and you feel it instantly.

Still, one might expect that if they're paying little for guitars, they might require some setting up, and the ST-62LA's blemishes don't totally dull the shine of everything else. If you're in need of a cheap relic'd guitar, I simply can't think of another option out there for the price, other than the other aged guitars that Harley Benton has launched beside it.

My review model has some annoyances and blemishes, but the overall package sounds good, feels lovely to play, and most importantly, looks the part. I'm particularly fond of its bright, jangly neck pickup, and combined with the smooth neck, feel like I could jam away on it all day.

MusicRadar verdict: If you're looking for a budget aged guitar, there is really nothing like the ST-62LA out there at this price. It's helped by materials that would traditionally accompany much more expensive guitars (like the alder body) and fantastic neck. It offers a great fast-track, tweakable platform for an aged guitar at an accessible price point.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Harley Benton

• Best Harley Benton guitars 2025: Cheap and reliable electric and acoustic models

To some producers, desktop and outboard effects probably seem like a bit of an anachronism. After all, in an era of cheap, abundant and endlessly flexible plugins, why would you bother wrestling with the limitations of physical ins and outs, particularly if the effects in question are digital processors that can be accessed for much cheaper in your DAW?

There are, however, aspects of working with hardware effects that make for a profoundly different experience to processing sounds with plugins: the physicality of modulating sound using tangible controls, the qualities imparted by converters, circuitry and gain staging, the finality of recording a sound with effects ‘baked in’.

The appeal of hardware effects is particularly obvious when working with a unit with a distinctive, creative personality. This is something that Warp, from the ever-original Soma Laboratory, makes an excellent case for.

Warp is a stereo digital effect unit that houses 15 algorithms. Its effects are selected and controlled using a matrix-style interface, the labelling of which takes up most of the top panel. The selected effect type is displayed via a column of LEDs along the left edge of the grid. Each effect then has four parameters that can be altered and modulated using the four rotaries along the lower edge or the modulation inputs along the top.

Warp’s algorithms are divided into three broad categories, described in the manual as ‘spatial effects’, dealing with various reverbs and delays, ‘special effects’, which combine mod effects and distortion, and ‘dynamic effects’, such as compressors and filters, described as being designed for busses or submixes. But in typical Soma fashion, none of these are as straightforward as they initially appear.

Every algorithm has at least one parameter that can be pushed into experimental territory, whether that’s a reverb time that can create endless drones, dual low- and high-pass resonant filters that produce different effects when their cutoff points overlap, or a reversed lo-fi delay that degrades sound as it repeats.

Pricing

Launch price: £566 / €649

Performance

Warp is a device clearly designed by somebody who understands the appeal of hardware effects, and its design is full of little touches that put it in a league above many other similar devices.

The hardware design itself is simple, but the clear layout makes for a consistent and easy to understand workflow. Although having four controllable parameters for each effect type is far from exhaustive, there’s a simple immediacy to the design and it feels like the exact right level of editability in order to encourage hands-on experimentation.

Although the resulting effects can’t be sculpted as precisely as some other digital effects units, it’s to Warp’s credit that there are no shift-functions and no menus.

Warp also has a CV input for modulating each of the four effect parameters as well as for the dry/wet mix, which are ideal for incorporating the device into a Eurorack or analogue synth setup. Each CV input works in positive voltage values only (0-5v), which alter the parameter in relation to the placement of the front panel controls, meaning that it's possible to manipulate each by CV and by hand simultaneously.

The one slight bugbear I have with the control layout is that the touch-sensitive pads used to switch between algorithms are placed next to the parameter rotaries, meaning they’re very easy to accidentally nudge whilst manipulating effects (at least for left-handers like me). Soma has addressed this with an algorithm locking function, accessed by tapping the pads three times. It still feels as though it might have been easier just to place those selectors towards the top of the interface instead.

The analogue-to-digital signal path is well thought out too. Warp is stereo throughout, with dual TRS ports for the input and output. The front panel has level controls for each stage, each with LEDs to indicate the correct level of operation. There is a digital limiter placed on the output stage that can produce soft clipping when overdriven, which can sound great on drum tracks and percussive sources.

What is slightly confusing, arguably, is that the output LED indicates when this limiter is activated, but since the output level control is placed after the limiter, adjusting the control has no effect on the level going into the limiter. This means that there’s actually very little correlation between the output control and the LED placed next to it. The operation of these elements is clearly explained in the manual though, and having control over the output gain independently from the limiter is undoubtedly useful.

Effects

Thankfully, Soma has clearly put just as much thought into the algorithms within Warp as the hardware itself. While many of the effects on offer here are fairly conventional-sounding on the surface, in action it's clear that each has been calibrated for creativity and experimentation.

Take the reverbs, for example, which occupy the first five slots in Warp’s list of processors. Between them, they are certainly capable of conventional spatial effects, such as applying parallel room- or hall-sized reverb to instrument parts. However, several of the effects also have Time or Feedback parameters that effectively turn them into drone generators, allowing the user to turn simple sounds into a wash of ambience.

Of these, my favourite is probably the Generative Reverb, which creates extreme-length ambience combined with resonant high- and low-pass filters. Sweeping the cutoff of these with the Time parameter cranked to near maximum can conjure lovely shifting textures within the reverb.

Equally interesting is the Granular Reverb. Again, with the Time parameter near maximum and the Blur parameter turned up, this can turn simple sounds into washed out ambience. It also has a reverse parameter though, which introduces variations in how the grains are played back. With a short decay time, this can create some really interesting rhythmic effects that sound great for experimental percussion.

Another highlight is the Nyquist algorithm. This is a sample rate modulator that, when its Mult parameter is above zero, responds to the pitch of the incoming audio. The manual describes this functionality as “a unique function where the sample rate is dynamically altered by the harmonics of the dominant note detected by the algorithm.”

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure exactly what it’s doing, but it sounds great, particularly on bassy kicks and low toms. Modulating the Mult and Fine parameters results in some wonderful harmonic shifts that add a whole new dimension to the sounds being fed through it.

Although extreme and experimental effects are certainly a speciality here, Warp has some more conventional uses too. Used in moderation, the Pump and Multiband Drive modes, for example, are great for adding a touch of extra heft to hardware drum machines. The Flanger mode too – while also capable of some extreme sounds – works wonders for adding a subtle touch of extra movement at the end of a chain of other effects.

Verdict

With a price point equivalent to some hardware synths, Warp is certainly not the cheapest effect on the market. And while its effect algorithms are unique, it's certainly possible to experiments in a similar manner in the software realm for much cheaper.

Both of these criticisms miss the point of its appeal though. As a creative, expressive effect, Warp’s value lies in its ability to transform your existing sounds and instruments into something new and unique. In testing Warp I’ve tried pairing it with budget synths and drum machines from the likes of Korg’s Volca range and Teenage Engineering’s POs – its ability to turn these simple, affordable noisemakers into something altogether weirder, more characterful and richer is enough to warrant its price.

It is undoubtedly at its best when in motion though, modulated physically or via CV (or ideally both), when you embrace its hands-on nature and allow chaos to unfold through experimentation – although that unpredictability could arguably be seen as a weakness for some.

Compared to say, Hologram Electronics’ Microcosm pedal – which is probably the most obvious direct competitor – Warp lacks the ability to tempo sync parameters or save parameter combinations as user presets. Admittedly, sync would only really be applicable for the delay and looper algorithms here anyway, and the simplicity of the four-parameter setup effectively nullifies the need for presets. That said, it does result in a less predictable device.

Warp is an effect unit aimed squarely at those who want a fast, powerful way to experiment with their existing sound sources. It might not be the most versatile or deeply editable effects unit on the market, but for anybody happy to embrace unpredictability, it’s well worth the price.

Hands-on demos

Soma Laboratory

Alternatives

Specifications

The original MicroKorg is a tough act to follow. Released in 2002, the MicroKorg dominated its corner of the synth market in a way that few other instruments have this side of the Millenium, shifting units in the hundreds of thousands over the course of two decades.

It’s tough to say exactly why the MicroKorg was so much more successful than other synths of the era. It was neither the most powerful nor the most groundbreaking virtual analogue of its time, being largely based on the engine of Korg’s existing MS-2000. Its matrix-style programming interface could be fiddly too, and made designing patches something of a slog.

But there was also a lot that the MicroKorg obviously got right. It was affordable and accessible, with a genre-based approach to presets that made exploring its sounds feel fast and fun. Crucially, many of those presets sounded great too – it was capable of convincing retro pads, basses and lively arp patterns, as well as acting as a vocoder via its detachable gooseneck mic.

Having tried, with mixed success, to evolve the MicroKorg concept with the XL and XL+ in the late ‘00s, Korg finally launched a true successor in 2024.

The MicroKorg 2 is another virtual analogue synth, although its oscillators are now also capable of generating sounds through additive synthesis and PCM samples. Once again, at the core of its workflow is a chunky dial that lets users browse through eight banks of presets that are grouped by genres.

The biggest change from the original MicroKorg is an increase in polyphony, from four voices to eight. The MicroKorg 2 is also bi-timbral, allowing it to simultaneously play two patches of up-to four voices each.

As with the original, the instrument ships with a gooseneck mic for use with its internal vocoder. That section is further upgraded with harmonizer and hard-tuning vocal processors, all of which can be used alongside the synth engine thanks to the bi-timbral design.

More recently, significant firmware updates have refined the MicroKorg 2 – so how does it stack up to the legacy of the original in 2026?

Pricing

Launch price: £479 / $549 / €599

Performance

It would be doing the MicroKorg 2 a disservice to imply it’s merely a vessel for presets, but as with the original version the eight banks of genre-themed patches are the core of its design. Each of these is broken into four categories, the first three of which are labelled Classic, Modern and Future, while the fourth is saved for user sounds.

This method of selecting sounds feels like a throwback, particularly compared to something like the plugin-style library found on Arturia's AstroLab 37. I quite like the MicroKorg’s retro approach, although I’ll concede this may be down to nostalgia, seeing as the original was the first hardware synth I ever owned back in the mid-’00s. Other might understandably find it a little naff.

The sounds are generally good quality and many feel highly usable. Despite coming labelled with specific genres, a key part of the original MicroKorg’s appeal lay in how versatile many of its sounds were – even if a few verged into cheesy territory. Unlike some synths’ presets that come overloaded with modulation and effects, the MicroKorg was a great source of classic virtual analogue basses, pads and – a particular speciality – arp lines.

This successor does a good job of building on this legacy, although the increased complexity of the synth engine and the addition of effects does mean that some presets veer a little into ‘show off’ territory. For the most part the banks are full of sounds you could easily imagine using in the real world, either in a DAW project or for jamming with other musicians.

Take control

As with the original, parameter changes are handled by the five rotaries that sit to the top right of the interface. Here, however, the overall experience of editing sounds is a vast improvement on the original. This is largely thanks to the 2.8-inch colour LCD display, which is probably the MicroKorg 2’s smartest addition.

Although it’s not massive, it’s streets ahead of the basic numerical display of the original version and also a vast improvement compared to the simplistic displays found on other recent Korg synths like the Modwave or Opsix.

Thanks to the new display it’s easier to keep track of what the five parameter controls are doing and as a result they’re able to do more. Rather than controlling a set parameter across every patch, these function more like macro controls, changing what aspect of the synth sound each alters depending on the currently loaded patch.

The screen is most useful when editing deeper parameters or designing sounds from scratch. The original MicroKorg relied on the user navigating a convoluted matrix printed beneath the controls and then setting values numerically. The enhanced screen makes finding parameters much, much easier, and visualises things like envelopes and filters in a clearer and more engaging way. It’s a radical improvement.

The bi-timbral design works well too. As with the original, arpeggiated synth lines are a speciality of the virtual analogue engine and these work particularly well for dual layer patches, allowing users to pair a melodic arp with underlying chord progression, a wash of ambience or a deeper bass patch.

That arpeggiator has always been a core part of the MicroKorg’s personality, and little has changed in this regard for the MicroKorg 2. This is an easy-to-use and immediate arpeggiator, which makes use of a hold function and ten selectable patterns to quickly turn chords into melodic patterns.

Thankfully, the MicroKorg 2 keeps the step arpeggiator feature of the original, which lets users engage or disengage individual notes in an arpeggio using the preset selector buttons. It’s always been a nice feature for quickly creating and editing simple riffs and patterns.

Whereas the arp is a fairly like-for-like copy of the original, other aspects of the MicroKorg design have been more significantly overhauled.

The most notable of these is the vocoder. The MicroKorg 2 once again ships with a gooseneck mic that can slot into the rear panel of the synth and connect to its audio input. As on the original this can be used to input a modulator signal into the synth’s vocoder engine. Here, however, that engine has been upgraded and expanded into a full vocal processing module.

Alongside the existing vocoder the module now has hard tune – real time Auto-Tune-like pitch correction – and harmonizer modes. Both can create effective, if slightly dated-sounding effects, although neither offer the comprehensive functionality you'll find in dedicated software or hardware competitors on the market.

Synth section

The expansion of the synth engine itself is more successful. MicroKorg 2 layers a third oscillator into the virtual analogue engine, and all oscillators have been expanded with additive DWGS and OneShot PCM sample modes.

The oscillator section is also now capable of cross modulation, allowing for ring mod and phase modulation. As of the v2.0 firmware update, the third osc also has a ‘low’ mode, allowing it to function as a wide-range LFO that can act as an additional modulation source.

These new features make MicroKorg 2 a more versatile synth than its predecessor and, coupled with the improved editing workflow, make it a much more interesting environment to build sounds from scratch. That’s enhanced further by a simple but effective modulation matrix, which lets users route two mod sources for each destination, making use of the synth’s LFOs, envelopes, and a random voltage-style Analog source.

It’s arguably a shame that the filter section doesn’t offer the various emulations found on other recent digital synths from Korg, which can make use of virtual recreations of the distinctive circuits found on the MS-20, Polysix and more. The MicroKorg 2 offers a more straightforward resonant multimode filter with 2- and 4-pole low-pass and high-pass, and 2-pole band-pass modes.

The onboard looper and effects module are the MicroKorg 2’s strongest additions, and both were significantly enhanced with last year’s free 2.0 firmware update.

The Loop Recorder can capture and overdub audio from the synth itself as well as the mic and aux input. That in itself is a fun tool for basic recording and layering, but the functionality has been expanded further since launch, adding capabilities including step sequencing and loop slicing.

This latter feature is particularly fun, as it allows users to capture a loop of audio and then slice and retrigger segments across the keyboard. It all adds up to a module that is great for instantaneous fun, and feels refreshingly different to the sequencers found on other synths at this price point.

The effects section, meanwhile, is pretty run of the mill in its basic functionality, with modulation, delay and reverb effect slots, although each sounds great and there’s a good level of control over both sound parameters and routing options.

The effects modules became more noteworthy as of the v2.0 firmware though, which opened them up for use with Korg’s Logue SDK. This is an open source format, originally developed for the company’s Prologue and Minilogue XD synths, which allows third-party developers and users to code their own effects and oscillators that can be loaded into the synth via a librarian.

Although there are a variety of paid and free expansions that make use of the SDK, Sinevibes is the developer most closely associated with ‘Logue’ expansions. The company’s site offers a range of MicroKorg-compatible expansions that include granular reverb, multiple types of distortion, new modulation effects and much more.

Verdict

Overall, the MicroKorg 2 does an excellent job of updating the formula of the original in a way that modernises the design while still feeling familiar.

It’s a shame, however, that the keyboard itself does little to improve on the 25-year-old design of the original MicroKorg. Although the three-octave keyboard has a nicer action than the springy keys of the first generation MicroKorg, the mini keys themselves are the same fiddly size and, although the keyboard is velocity sensitive, there’s no aftertouch (as is found on the similarly priced Arturia MiniFreak, for example).

Given the expanded capabilities of the engine and improved modulation system, it feels like a real missed opportunity to not offer aftertouch within the synth itself. It's a shame too that the MicroKorg doesn't respond to poly-aftertouch or MPE, although it's more understandable that these options aren’t included for the keyboard itself.

Things like this might sound small, but could prove to be make-or-break for the MicroKorg 2 in the long run. Although this is still an excellent and approachable synth at this price point, it has entered a far busier and more competitive market than the original did in the early 2000s.

Microkorg 2 is a great workhorse virtual analogue, but it runs up against more characterful synths from the likes of Arturia and Korg themselves. It’s a worthy successor to one of the most recognisable synths of all time – but it feels unlikely to replicate its predecessor’s iconic status.

Hands-on demos

Korg MicroKorg 2

Alternatives

Specifications

Sire might not be the most glamorous name in the guitar market, but when jazz legend and long-time Gibson endorser Larry Carlton ended his relationship with the firm to team up with Sire, it proved a match made in heaven. Together, they recreated the Gibson ES-335 he used to track hits with Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell, and kick-start a relationship that is showing no signs of slowing down.

Carlton believes that the Sire guitars he helps produce can stand up to anything in Fender’s Squier line, and with models like this priced similarly, it’s easy to see why he’s made such a comparison. The X1, in turn, is less jazz rock and far more heavy metal, with a subtly pointed visage for its mahogany body, twin Sire Basic humbuckers with a push/pull coil split, and a two-point tremolo bridge with whammy bar ensuring it’s dressed for the job.

This end of the Sire line may be aimed largely at beginner players, but the collaboration also appeals to modern players looking to expand their collection, be it as an affordable backup, a runaround, or perhaps even as a modding platform. And all the baked-in specs could lend it to that. There’s a C-shaped hard maple neck and rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges and a 14”, serving up a generous 24 frets.

For $299, there, on paper at least, it looks decent value. Players may not look overly kindly on the concept of a jazz great adding his name to a metal-leaning S-type, and for others, the low price point might not instill a lot of confidence, but I'm diving in here with an open mind.

Specs

• Price: $299 | £249 | €283
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Indonesian Mahogany
• Neck: Hard maple, C-shape
• Fingerboard material/radius: Rosewood with rolled edges, 14"
• Scale length: 25.5” / 647.7mm
• Nut/width: PPS (Plastic), 43mm
• Frets: 2.7 mm Medium Jumbo
• Hardware: Sire Basic tremolo, Sire Basic diecast tuners, whammy bar
• String spacing at bridge: 157mm
• Electrics: Sire Basic humbuckers, 1x Volume, 1x Tone control with push/pull split coil, and three-way pickup switch
• Weight: lb/kg: 9.2lb / 4.2kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Satin Dark Navy, Satin Black, Satin Charcoal Metallic, Satin White
• Case: None
• Contact: Sire

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★½

Unfortunately, the guitar hadn’t been out of the box for more than five minutes when the switch tip came clean off – it clearly hadn’t been glued in. But thankfully, that didn’t wholly foreshadow what was to come.

This review example's mahogany body is Les Paul-level weighty, which is a mark against its beginner-friendliness, but otherwise, the build quality is fairly high. The neck is nicely finished, and, while not being anorexically thin, isn’t Les Paul-fat, either, with its contours and fret access as good as I could have hoped for considering its price.

That being said, there are times when the guitar reminds me that it’s right at the budget end, with its tuners and plastic nut making tuning stability average at best during testing, and the bridge can have an almost slap-back delay-type quality to it, especially when I really dig in as the springs in the back rattle like a freight train. It’s a little off-putting.

The weight does at least counter any potential neck dive issues, and the coil split is a really pleasant surprise at this price point to help get the most out of its pickups (more on those below). If this is to be a beginner’s guitar, it’ll teach players about the differences between single-coil-esque and humbucking pickup sounds.

Charvel’s new budget Tele disappointed me with its heavy gloss finish. Those finishes, to my eye, are not only a magnet for dust, but also scream “I’m cheap,” and so the Charcoal Metallic Satin finish here is more aesthetically pleasing to me. It feels premium, and while some may feel it’s a little bland, I think it looks really smart. Plus, there’s a Dark Navy Satin colourway option for those who want something a little more eye-catching.

The Charvel and a cluster of Harley Benton models benefit from the new-standard heel-mounted truss rod wheel, but the Sire and most others at this price – we’re talking the Squier Affinity series, Ibanez Gios, and the Jackson JS Series Dinky JS11 – have the more traditional headstock access point, beneath a cover. That makes it unfair to deduct a point, and so, considering the relative buttons Sire wants for it, it is an impressively assembled $300 axe.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

My focus here is on ease of playing, considering that, at its price point, most players picking it up will be relatively inexperienced. In that regard, everything feels like a happy medium: the Goldilocks build?

The C-shape hard maple neck feels smooth, with a roundness to it that’s comfortable on the hands, without being too fat, and therefore a guitar I have to fight, or too thin, which arguably could give beginners a skewed introduction to guitar builds. It feels like the perfect starting point, and if anything, feels more like a traditional Fender neck than anything else.

The finish is pretty sleek, too. I’m not a fan of gloss necks as I find they can have a bit of friction, but it’s not so smooth that it makes me feel like Bambi on ice all the same. The rolled edges (Sire calls it "Edgeless") are a great aid, too. It feels like it’s built to hold a newbie’s hand; to be their noble steed rather than a wild horse they need to tame.

Fret access, up to the 18^th fret, is plentiful, but it does become a bit of a stretch reaching those highest frets as the neck heel starts to become obstructive.

Its contours are pretty minimal, but the arm carve does make it a more comfortable player, while the weight of the guitar remains a sticking point. I know it's on me, and it starts to feel extra heavy during longer sessions.

In all, its playability is positively vanilla. Nothing is too lacking or too extreme; I can play fast on it without it feeling like I’m in a tug of war, and it never feels like I’m wading through treacle. It’s billed as a rock/metal guitar, but its design doesn’t lean too heavily into that. It plays like a solid all-rounder, which is ideal for a beginner’s platform.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

First off, the pickups pack way more heat than I expected. The cynic in me always sees affordable guitars offering “high output” humbuckers and doesn’t believe it; they’re usually rather meek and mild. This isn’t the case, and even going through a clean 1960s Fender Showman amp model, there isn’t that brittleness I’m used to from cheaper guitars.

The mahogany body and rosewood 'board do a fair amount of lifting here, resulting in a slightly darker, more bass-forward tone that makes it sound far meatier, and reinforces its status as a rock and metal guitar. Stick it through a fairly high-gain amp – I paired it with everything from Neural DSP: Archetype Gojira’s hot amp to Quad Cortex amp models of a 5150, JCM800, and a Victory Kraken – and the balance between searing heat and robustness is pretty easy to strike.

Personally, I like quite a warm and fat tone, but one that still bears its teeth. This achieved that in minutes. I never have to get too specific with amp settings to cover up any glaring weaknesses.

There aren’t many sharp edges to the guitar’s voice, with the neck pickup especially rounding out to make it forgiving for beginners trying their hand at lead phrases and sweep picking, stopping the clean tones from getting too nasally. Crucially, when it comes to chugging through some power chords, there’s a grunt and a grind to it that will satisfy many newbie players. Everything seems tailored to building confidence in lesser-skilled players, while still having worth in the hands of more advanced shredders. It’s a smart move.

The coil split certainly takes a little of the body out of the tone, but it sounds more like a lesser-quality humbucker than a snappy single coil. Still, it’s a surprise addition for the price point, and I’ve found myself engaging it plenty of times. It isn’t show-stopping, but it certainly has its uses to aid dynamic shifts.

The pickups are also really quiet, even when going through a pretty hot signal, which is another pleasing and beginner-friendly aspect, but their high output does hurt how dynamic they are. For newer players, I think this is more of a positive than a negative; even scuffed notes come out with a degree of confidence, but the attack response isn’t overly expressive or dynamic.

Verdict

The budget market, thanks in part to Harley Benton’s constant waves of progress and everything the Indonesian Cort factory is churning out at speed, is getting more and more expansive. For the beginner player – and for the parents who want to buy their child their first instrument – the current timeline means options are plentiful. Yet, despite the competition, the Sire Larry Carlton X1 puts itself proudly in the firing line.

Its price is pretty mind-blowing considering the quality of what’s offered; it’s never a fight to get a tune out of it, its pickups are voiced to be forthright and forgiving in equal measure, and I also think it’s a real looker. The subtle bottom spike is a nice touch. It looks like it means business and offers something just left of centre.

I can imagine a 10-year-old opening this up on their birthday or Christmas, and despite the possible drawback of it not being a big-name brand, being pretty happy. It has the looks and the goods to make it a memorable and beloved present and/or first guitar.

The rattling springs and the sheer weight of the thing do impact its overall score, but I’m thoroughly impressed with it – this is a guitar that can stand up against Squiers, Harley Bentons, and even budget-end Jascksons and Ibanez guitars.

Music Radar’s Verdict: A rugged, easy-playing, and surprisingly heavy (both tonally and weight-wise) rock and metal guitar, the Sire Larry Carlton X1 offers a lot for a low price. Ideal for beginner players chasing heavier sounds, it provides an affordable launch pad into the wild world of electric guitar playing.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Andertons

• Best affordable electric guitars

Novation’s Launch Control series first appeared in 2013, and 2026 brings us the third generation, mirroring the revisions made to the recently-updated Launch Control XL. Ironically, given the name, neither of these units have dedicated ‘launch’ features any more – the pads from earlier versions have disappeared, which is a shame because they were useful. Along with the cosmetic update, the LC3, as we’ll call it from now on, promises improved DAW integration on one hand, and customisation on the other.

The controller arrives in a simple recycled cardboard box (and in keeping with that, the LC3 chassis is made from 85% recycled materials), and the contents are equally straightforward – the LC3, and a 1.5m USB-C to USB-A cable. Your purchase includes a software bundle that includes Ableton Live Lite, Cubase LE, and plugins from Baby Audio, Kievgrand and Output.

Products like this are rather mysterious when powered down; monolithic black shapes with dark-toned controls, and plain white text – the device needs to be powered up before things make more sense. The upper panel includes a 128 x 64 monochrome OLED display at the top left, two rows of eight endless knobs each, with indicator lights under each one, and 15 buttons in all.

Connections are located at the back, with, from left to right, a USB-C port, MIDI Out/Thru, MIDI Out, and MIDI In, all on full-size DIN plugs, and a Kensington lock slot. It’s very rewarding to see full-size MIDI connections making a comeback here, and improving our chances of adapter-free communication with other equipment.

Performance

We connected to a MacBook Pro via USB and used Novation’s Components application to check for firmware updates. Our tests began with Ableton Live 12, and configuration was as easy as could be, with the words ‘Live 12’ popping up on the OLED. The Mode/Function buttons flip between DAW Mixer mode, where knobs take over pan and volume, and DAW Control mode. The lower buttons can be used for tasks such as mute, solo, and arm, while the Page buttons cycle through banks of controls in familiar Live control style, and the Track buttons, naturally, navigate through tracks.

We then installed Novation’s Logic Pro script and enjoyed the same degree of control as with Live (other DAWs are supported, including Bitwig, FL Studio, Cubase, and anything that supports HUI). Furthermore, the LC3 has seven custom mode slots, which can be uploaded from the Components software.

We used the provided modes for Novation’s Circuit Tracks hardware, powering the LC3 via USB, with a MIDI cable connecting the devices. It was an excellent way to expand physical control for the Circuit’s onboard synths – we achieved similar benefits with Akai Pro’s MPC One+. Other templates are provided for products from Novation, Elektron, Arturia, GForce, and Xfer’s Serum, and it’s important to remember the level of customisation available, so if your gear isn’t represented, simply upload your own template, containing your chosen MIDI messages, and even keyboard shortcuts (very useful for DAW control). You could use the LC3 with iPadOS/iOS in the same way.

We would have preferred touch-sensitive knobs, MPC-style, so we could instantly see the assigned parameter; this would be a real workflow boost. Also, we would have loved a side-mounted USB port so we could more easily butt the LC3 up against other hardware, including Novation’s own Launchpad Pro, and the computer itself, a placement currently blocked by the protruding cable at the top.

And – our final question, something we’ve seen mentioned online – it looks like there’s room for another row of knobs or buttons, maybe even pads. Could be there’s a good explanation for how it is, but it feels like valuable space is being wasted.

Verdict

Those quibbles aside, taken for what it is, we enjoyed our time with the LC3. The DAW and other modes work well, and we appreciated the compact size. Other compact controllers are available, at various price points, but the Launch Control continues to strike a balance between features, size and price.

Hands-on demos

Novation

Alternatives

Specifications

The words “field recording” and “four-track” elicit a fair few associated words, but it’s highly likely that the first one to come to mind is “Tascam”. The Japanese audio brand has been there on the ground floor of every new technological moment, ready with a suite of user-friendly recording devices to launch a thousand bands.

Tascam’s reel-to-reels were amongst the first recording devices to bridge the gap between studio and musician. Its four-track Portastudio cassette recorders were definitive home-recording fare, and are still sought-after today for their inspiringly limited features and sonic capabilities. Tascam’s digital field recorders are similarly definitive, for capturing a nascent market as a flagship standard. Which brings us to now, and to the Tascam DR-40XP.

The Tascam DR-40XP is the brand’s new flagship for handheld field recording, part of a range that takes some very familiar field-recorder designs and imbues them with the foolproof majesty that is 32-bit float recording. It’s a direct sequel to the DR-40X, keeping much of the same form and features, but with some vital future-friendly upgrades.

First, the basics. The DR-40XP is a four-track field recorder in sheep’s clothing, possessing a pair of on-board cardioid condenser mic capsules and two TRS/XLR combo mic/line inputs. The on-board mic capsules can be toggled between XY or AB configuration, for focused capture or a broad stereo field; the combo inputs are phantom-powered for favourable communication with any mic from your own cabinet.

The DR-40XP iterates on the DR-40X by adding the aforementioned 32-bit float recording capability up to 96kHz, but it goes further too. It adds Tascam’s proprietary HDDA (High Definition Discrete Architecture) mic preamps, with an EIN (Equivalent Input Noise) of less than -126dBu; it adds a more RF-resilient on-board mic design; and it adds USB-C connectivity – a welcome graduation from the micro-USB standard that held on for a few years too long.

That USB-C port isn’t just for delivering power or data, either. Like the DR-40X before it, the DR-40XP also works as a 2-in/2-out audio interface, with either the on-board microphones or the external inputs as your source. If you’re not running the DR-40XP on USB-C bus power, you’re running it using three AA batteries – which, in the right atmospheric conditions, will offer up to 30 hours of on-time.

And in that on-time, the DR-40XP will handily show up for practically any recording undertaking you have in mind. The on-board mics can handle a high SPL, which, combined with its 32-bit float capabilities, makes the DR-40XP suitable for practically any sound capture. Not only that, but an on-board tuner and six-preset reverb modifier mean you’re set for live performances or location-based multitracking. Throw in the overdub and file bounce features, and you’ve got a mini mobile studio on your hands.

Performance

For starters, the DR-40XP feels reliable in-hand. It’s a moderately dense bit of handheld kit, and reassuringly solid despite its all-plastic chassis and connection ports. The metal bars protecting the mic capsules are another reassuring touch; it could certainly handle an accidental drop or three. The tactile experience is a good one, too, with responsive clicky buttons in front of every user input.

My first attempt at using the DR-40XP in the wild was thwarted by a wrongly formatted microSD card from another of my devices. These are minuscule grumbles, made larger by already being outside and by the sad omission of a complementary microSD card in the first place.

Now, not testing before departure was my fault entirely, besides which Tascam doesn’t necessarily owe anyone free storage, and data storage has of course gotten more expensive lately. Still, it’s a modern convenience we’ve come accustomed to from other brands and products; a modicum of on-board storage for emergencies would be a nice feature indeed; and, curmudgeon that I am, I want my 90 minutes of pointless traipsing back. Devoting over a hundred words to a problem of my own making might seem a bit ridiculous, but I assure you there’s a good reason: namely, that it’s almost all I have to complain about.

Once up and running, the Tascam DR-40XP is a dream to use, and capable of capturing some magnificent audio. Even without acknowledging the freedom to use whatever mics or inputs you want, the on-board microphone array is a real wonder – a world apart from the noisier capsules of older field recorders, and easily a new standard for mobile audio captures. The HDDA preamps are impossibly quiet, too. All told, it’s an uneasy feeling, getting professional-grade field recordings just from wandering outside with the DR-40XP and a camera tripod.

Navigating the on-board menus seems like it should be more difficult than it is, a precedent set by early digital recorders with dense and impregnable user interfaces. The DR-40XP, with its ergonomic button layout and well-signposted utilities, is a simple thing with multitudes beneath. Also, a small change that’s huge enough for me: the DR-40XP has added one-press recording at long last, its lack being the only tactile bugbear I’ve had with Tascam field recorders past.

At home, I tried out the DR-40XP in its ancillary function as an audio interface. In this mode, it’s limited to 24-bit/48kHz at maximum – a small shame for those hoping to twin that bottomless dynamic range with a hard-wired DAW setup, but functionally no problem at all. Just with it sat on my desk, pointed vaguely towards the 12^th fret of my acoustic guitar with the mics in XY configuration, I got a stunningly natural, bell-clear sound. It’s effortless stuff. Remarkable, even.

I did, briefly, have some issues with getting computer audio back out through the device’s headphone output, a problem I narrowed down to a driver issue. A reinstall, and a reboot of both computer and field recorder, and full functionality was there. Seamless. A breeze. And for what it’s worth, that monitor output is clear, full and transparent in exactly the way you’d hope.

Verdict

The DR-40XP is, in my opinion, the new standard for all portable field recorders. The feature-set is outsized for the form, meaning more freedom to do more with it – with less than ever. It’s built well, it’s supremely user-friendly, and its results are, in a word, pristine. It might reach a little above some budgets accordingly, but as a versatile box for recording setups big and small, it can’t be beat.

MusicRadar verdict: The Tascam DR-40XP is a phenomenal four-track field recorder, with high-fidelity recording thanks to some excellent on-board microphones and some even more excellent built-in HDDA preamps. It’s everything anyone could need in a handheld recording device, and it’s good at it all too.

Audio examples

Also consider

Hands-on demos

Tascam Official

Specs

• Microphones: stereo cardioid condenser capsules, XY/AB configurable
• Inputs: x2 TRS/XLR mic/line
• Outputs: 3.5mm TRS headphone, USB-C
• Phantom power: 24/48V
• Recording formats: WAV/BWF, MP3
• Recording fidelity: 16-bit/24-bit/32-bit float, 44.1/48/96kHz
• Recording media: microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC (up to 512GB)
• No. of channels: x2 stereo input tracks, x4 recording tracks
• EIN (equivalent input noise, mic preamp): ≤–126dBu
• Dynamic range: ≥112dB
• Display: Backlit LCD
• Power requirements: x3 AA batteries; USB-C bus power; AC adapter (sold separately)
• Battery life: 30 hours
• Dimensions (WHD): 70 mm × 155 mm × 35 mm
• Weight: 282g (with batteries)
• Contact: Tascam

Launched in 2020, Pioneer DJ’s DJM-V10 is an all-singing, all-dancing six-channel DJ mixer that has proved remarkably popular with professional house and techno DJs.

A big part of the V10’s appeal lies in its sound and build quality, both of which are a noticeable step up from much of the DJM range. Beyond that though, the mixer also offers a fresh approach towards performance effects, ditching the Sound Color FX found on other Pioneer/AlphaTheta products in favour of a focus on effect sends more akin to the design of Allen & Heath’s top-end Xone mixers.

For all that the DJM-V10 gets right, it’s an undeniably high-end device, and a significant commitment in terms of both its hefty size and near-$4k price. It’s also overkill for the needs of many DJs and smaller clubs.

The DJM-V5 is a response to this. Released earlier this year – now under Pioneer DJ’s parent brand AlphaTheta – the V5 has three mixer channels based on the V10’s design ethos, resulting in a smaller footprint and a more affordable price, relatively speaking.

The V5 isn’t simply a cut-down version of the V10 though. In the process of streamlining the design AlphaTheta has also introduced some new features and refined others, resulting in a mixer that feels like a more focused and, in some areas improved version of its bigger sibling.

Pricing

Launch price: €1,999 inc VAT, £1,739 incl VAT, $2,199 excluding sales tax (US only), $1,999 excluding tax (Canada and Latin America)

AlphaTheta DJM-V5 review: Performance

The three mixer channels found on the V5 are actually based on those found on the later DJM-V10-LF. These offer 60mm long-throw faders with no crossfader.

This is one of several significant ways in which the V5 feels specifically aimed at a certain type of house or techno DJ likely to emphasise slow, methodical track blends over quick cuts or scratching – a style perfectly suited to those long-throw faders.

Realistically, the bottom third of a channel fader often feels redundant on most mixers, since it’s only at around 40% volume that a track begins to make itself known under the master output. The extra length of the long-throw faders means there’s considerably more ‘active’ space between that lower level where a track is first audible and the maximum, which makes it possible to introduce a track more subtly and to be more precise when changing the emphasis from one track to the next.

Above each fader is a 4-band EQ that splits the mid-range frequencies into low and high mids. As with similar design found on Allen & Heath’s top-end Xone mixers, I have mixed feelings about having this extra EQ compared to a more common 3-band setup. It’s useful for slower transitions, which is certainly fitting for the V5’s design, although it can make things a little more fiddly if you want to quickly swap the low end between two tracks.

The V5’s channel faders can be switched between three different curve modes, including a new ‘soft’ mixer curve. In this mode, reducing the fader level cuts the volume of the track while simultaneously rolling off the high frequencies, the aim being to ‘soften’ the output as it's mixed out in a musically flattering manner.

I really like this as a concept, although I wish the effect was a little more pronounced. While subtlety is the name of the game for the V5, which is generally a good call, the difference between soft and non-soft mixer modes can be hard to discern, at least to my rave-aged ears.

More successful is the new XPF, or cross-pass filter mode. This combines both high- and low-pass filters so that, as the cutoff knob is turned to the right, the filter sweeps up through the high frequencies but keeps the very lowest frequencies in the mix, like a widening band-pass. This is a really fun tool for creating builds and raising tension without messing with the sub elements of a track.

On the subject of the filters, it’s worth noting that the filters on each channel are controlled by a single-direction cutoff knob. This means that, unlike most DJ mixers where the cutoff is turned to the left for a low-pass effect and right for high-pass, here the filter type is selected using the buttons to the left of the interface and then the cutoff knob is turned from left to right to increase the prevalence of the filter effect. This setup can feel a little counter-intuitive and is likely to divide user opinion, but it does mean that there’s more travel and – again – more space for subtlety when engaging each filter mode.

The highlight of the V5’s design, however, is the way it handles effects. The V5 ditches the tempo-synced Beat FX and swept Sound Color FX found on most of AlphaTheta’s other gear. Instead it makes use of both internal and external effect sends, with the internal processors putting most of the emphasis on delay and reverb.

The internal effects are housed in the Send FX module, which offers six reverb and delay effects divided into tempo-synced and non-synced types. In a neat design trick the time knob – which is a shared control dictating the length of each effect – adapts to provide haptic feedback marking the beat division when used with synced effects, but offers smooth free-flowing movement when used with non-synced modes.

With just six options, there are significantly fewer effect types than found on the V10 – or on many cheaper DJM mixers for that matter – but rather than feel like a downgrade, the design of the V5 feels more considered and focused on what its target users are likely to actually use.

Another significant change compared to the V10 lies in the fact that the return level is now controlled by a fader, as opposed to a knob. This might sound like a minor change on paper, but in practice it makes for a far more expressive way of manipulating the effects channel. It’s a really smart update.

Along with its internal routing, the V5 also has both a ‘multi-I/O’ channel that can be used for either analogue send/return connectivity on its rear panel, or a top-panel USB-C port that, among other things, allows for single-cable connectivity with AlphaTheta’s recent RMX-Ignite effects unit.

AlphaTheta DJM-V5 review: Verdict

Verdict

While the V5 is cheaper and smaller than the V10, this is still a pro level piece of kit offering the same top-end sound and build quality.

The choice of three mixer channels rather than a more conventional four-channel setup might seem odd to some, but in-use it feels like a good level of compromise. The V5’s neat size and streamlined feature set make it a more approachable and immediate DJ mixer than the V10.

The combination of that third channel and the multi-I/O connectivity provides just enough flexibility for DJs looking to push their sets beyond a basic two-deck setup, whether that involves adding an additional player or turntable, an external effects loop or some ‘live’ element like a drum machine or sampler.

The inclusion of one-knob compression on each channel is a nice touch on this front, providing an easy way to balance disparate inputs or compensate for the difference in mastering between a modern track played from a CDJ and classic played on aged vinyl.

Again, this combination of features really lends itself to a specific type of DJ. The V10 was already a mixer aimed more at club DJs than multi-format or scratch DJs, but by refining things further AlphaTheta has doubled down on this identity.

With its long faders, playable spatial effects and interesting filter design, the V5 is a mixer specifically suited to DJs that like to blend long, looping forms of dance music, where mixes for one track to the next might take several minutes and involve carefully cutting and emphasising individual frequencies.

Does this focus on a specific type of DJ risk alienating some of the potential market? Definitely. Even among house and techno DJs, the V5’s specific set of tools won’t suit everyone. But that commitment to the bit is worth celebrating.

In recent years the DJ market has seen a lot of releases that aim to be all-things to all-DJs, particularly when it comes to controllers and all-in-one systems. The DJM-V5 is a mixer that knows who it’s for and which encourages a certain style of mixing. The result is a more interesting, creative and musical piece of DJ kit.

AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ review: Hands-on demos

AlphaTheta / PioneerDJ Global

AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ review: Specifications

• MIDI Control: Full assignable MIDI controls
• DVS Control: djay Pro, rekordbox , Serato DJ Pro
• Dimensions (W × D × H): 302.0 × 437.5 × 107.9 mm / 11.89″ × 17.22″ × 4.25″
• Main unit weight: 8.0 kg / 17.6 lbs.
• Input / Output terminals
• Input: PHONO × 3 (RCA), LINE × 3 (RCA), MIC × 1 (XLR / 1/4-inch TRS jack)
• Output: MASTER × 1 (XLR), BOOTH × 1 (1/4-inch TRS jack), REC OUT × 1 (RCA), PHONES × 2 (1/4-inch / 3.5 mm)
• SEND/RETURN: SEND × 1 (1/4-inch TS jack), RETURN × 1 (1/4-inch TS jack)
• LAN × 1
• USB Type-C × 2 (MULTI I/O × 1, PC/Mac × 1)
• Sampling Rate: 96 kHz
• A/D Converter: 32 bit
• D/A Converter :32 bit
• S/N Ratio: LINE 105 dB / PHONO 88 dB / MIC 79 dB
• EQ4 Band
• Contact: AlphaTheta

We’ve come a long way in the world of multi-effects pedals. This new dawn of battery-powered units that deliver accurate modeling, looping, drum machine capabilities, IR-loading –– and more tone options than you’ll know what to do with –– for lower and lower prices has really been something to behold over the past few years. The Mooer GE150 Max Li is very much part of this movement, delivering an incredible number of features for relatively little cash.

The GE150 Max Li gives you access to 50 amp models, 26 cabs, and 170 different effects, further augmented by the addition of 3rd party impulse response support and the ability to load NAM (Neural Amp Modeler) profiles. It’s got spillover, which lets your effect tails continue when you change presets, and an expression pedal which can be mapped to control volume, wah, and pitch effects, as well as controlling any effect parameter.

It delivers up to 9 hours of playing time on a single charge through an integrated, rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, so you can run it without an adaptor or pedalboard power supply. It’s got a full colour 3.5-inch display, and plenty of connectivity for live players, with stereo 1/4-inch and XLR outputs, as well as a ground lift switch to deal with any extraneous noise when playing live.

Add in a stereo looper capable of 80-second loop times, 40 drum patterns and 10 metronome sounds, both adjustable via a Tap Tempo switch, and you’ve got a seriously capable, budget multi-effects pedal.

Specs

• Launch price: $259 | £207 | €240
• Type: Multi-effects pedal
• Controls: Master, select, mode, 8x footswitches
• Features: Expression pedal, rechargeable battery, looper, drum machine, ground lift switch
• Connectivity: 1x 1/4-inch input, 1x 1/8 aux in, 2x 1/4-inch outputs, 2x XLR outputs, 1x 1/8-inch output (headphones), USB-C
• Bypass: DSP bypass
• Power: 9V DC 1.5A, lithium-ion battery 2000 mAh (7.4 V / 14.8 Wh)
• Dimensions: 326 mm × 204 mm × 63 mm
• Weight: 1.73 kg
• Options: N/A
• Contact: Mooer

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The GE150 Max Li is a fairly lightweight unit, not too dissimilar in size to the Quad Cortex. You can definitely chuck it into a backpack and not worry too much about the weight, or even a large gig bag pocket if yours will accommodate.

It’s overall pretty sturdily built, with the majority of the front face composed of a hard plastic, while the back panel is metal. The 8 footswitches offer a satisfying click that lets you know when you’ve pressed them, but doesn’t give the huge ‘clack’ you typically get from cheaper stompboxes. The expression pedal is also metal, and features a Milky Way-esque grip pattern with a similarly galactic-themed paint job.

The screen is a nice size and plenty bright even when using the unit on battery. The preset name and number are big enough to be seen when playing standing, but the coloured signal chain icons need to be seen closer up to determine what they are.

Overall, it's really well put together, and there was nothing here that worried me during my testing, even with some exuberant expression pedal use and rough stomping to simulate live playing.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

I began using the GE150 Max Li in battery mode for my testing with a pair of headphones and a PRS SE Silver Sky, and it’s easy enough to start navigating for anyone who’s used a multi-effects before. The four lettered footswitches along the bottom each access a different preset, with Bank Up and Down switches in the top left, and the Tuner and Tap Tempo in the top right. You hold the Tuner footswitch down to access the looper.

The signal chain is displayed in two places, on the bottom of the screen and in individual white lights that run left to right underneath the screen. It would be nice if the colours of each lined up for a better visual, but at this price point I'm nitpicking.

Using the two Select and Mode rotary encoders, I start diving into the signal chain to make edits, which, as I’ll come to in the sounds section, is definitely something you’ll need to do.

A turn of the Mode knob lets you start tweaking the presets, with each turn thereafter moving across the signal chain from left to right. The corresponding light blinks on the signal chain diagram below the screen to let you know what you’re editing.

When you’re on the module you want to tweak, the Select knob moves through each setting, with a press down activating that particular parameter for you to tweak.

It’s pretty self-explanatory, and when you get to the extreme left or right of the signal chain, you’re automatically brought back to the main screen.

Each block of the Overdrives, Amps, and Cabs has exactly the same settings, so every drive has Volume, Tone, and Gain; each amp has the same six settings that can be tweaked. Weirdly, there’s a tube type setting in the Cab menu, alongside the more sensical Mic, Center, and Distance settings for tweaking your cab sound.

Each block can be engaged or disengaged by pressing the Mode button. It definitely feels unintuitive at first, moving up and down between the encoders, and I make plenty of errors accidentally exiting editing modes before getting the hang of it.

The expression pedal has a dedicated button which lets you specify exactly what you want it to do, and you can assign it to any of the parameters from any of the blocks in the signal chain. This means you can use it to ramp up the gain, delay time, or even change the distance of the mic from the cabinet, making it very useful for those who want to do changes more in-depth than just those typical volume or wah functions.

The looper is engaged by holding down the tuner footswitch, which gives you access to a typical looper configuration. Footswitch A handles the recording, playback, and overdubs, while footswitch B acts as a dedicated stop. Footswitch C lets you bring in a drum track while footswitch D exits the looper. The rhythms need to be set via the separate dedicated button beneath the Master Volume encoder, but you can quickly adjust the tempo on the fly using the Tap Tempo switch, which makes it pretty flexible.

The built-in rhythm sounds aren’t anything to shout about. All of the hits of the drum kits are at the exact same velocity, so it only takes about a minute of listening to them before my ears start to get some serious fatigue. They definitely feel like an afterthought. The metronome offers a good range of time signatures though, with 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 6/8, 7/8, and 9/8 all available, making it a good option for honing your rhythm chops.

Downloading the latest firmware update so I can use the NAM profiles with the unit turns out to be a convoluted affair on my Mac. Actually finding the correct software is slightly confusing, as it tells you to download the Mooer Studio app, but the software isn't actually called this. I eventually work out that what I need to download is also labelled as the latest firmware update. I get there in the end, but it would be nice if this was more clearly marked and I didn’t have to search on Facebook to find the correct information.

I find using the software itself a bit more intuitive than tweaking presets on the hardware itself. It’s pretty basic-looking, but it does the job, allowing me to change presets and get hands with my tone with ease. Versus tweaking tones on the hardware itself, I much preferred doing it this way.

To get access to the NAM profiles, I need to install the converter plugin, which takes around a minute or so. I then have to convert the NAM profile to Mooer’s configuration, called GNR, which adds another couple of minutes to the time taken. All in all, it’s fairly painless though, with the hard work already done after navigating and installing the firmware update and associated software.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★½

Before I install the firmware update and the NAM profiles, I cycle through the presets to see what’s what, and…they’re not great. It’s pretty typical with cheaper units that not much effort goes into setting up the stock presets, and these are particularly bad.

On a lot of them, the treble is piercingly high, the volumes jump around a lot, and some of them are just way off the mark considering the names, which seem to imply a certain sound - looking at you, ‘Enter Night’ preset.

Something doesn’t seem right, so I factory reset the unit to be doubly sure. I’m not sure what happened with the original unit, but now these high-frequency issues appear to have fixed themselves, making me think there was some kind of software bug present during my first play-through.

The presets still aren’t mind-blowing, though. It’s a theme I’ve found with many of the cheaper units I’ve tested from Mooer, Nux, Hotone et al.; they’re all capable of great sounds, but it doesn’t feel like someone knowledgeable or experienced has put together the presets.

There’s still some harsh high end present in a lot of the sounds, which, although not as bad as it was previously, is tough on the ears when using the single coil pickups on a Sire S7. On some of the presets, this is down to the presence being boosted unnecessarily high, whereas on others it just seems like a natural characteristic of the amp models. There’s also a lot of volume jumping between presets, which needs to be resolved if you ever wanted to use this unit live or in a rehearsal room.

Once I’ve tweaked the stock sounds, there are some really nice tones here. The Fender amp-inspired cleans do that mid-scoop thing, there’s some nice Marshall crunch tones, and some chunky high-gain Mesa and 5150-inspired stuff. They’re solid amp models that do a great job considering the price point of the unit. It’s not going to compete with flagship models of the big brands, but it can certainly get you close with some patience.

There’s some nice reaction to picking dynamics, and the edge of breakup sounds are handled reasonably accurately. The high-gain sounds are my pick of the bunch, although again with the stock presets, I found them needing a boost in the low end to get them to where they should be. It can cover a wide variety of styles thanks to the selection of amps, as alongside the classics mentioned earlier it’s packing models based on Orange, Vox, ENGL, Bogner, Two Rock, and plenty of others.

The effects are similarly a mix of mainly great but some not-so-good stuff. The drives are accurate, delivering a good selection of additional saturation options. Ditto with the delay tones; they accurately model digital, tape, and ping-pong stuff. The spring reverb leaves a lot to be desired, though, and for some reason the pitch effects are in the modulation section after the amp and didn’t track well in my testing.

The addition of NAM profiles definitely raised my eyebrow, especially considering the price point, but I was left disappointed here, too. The profiles need to be converted to Mooer’s own proprietary format, GNR, and in this process there’s a huge loss of audio quality. Uploading three of my favorite NAM profiles that I know intimately - a Fender DRRI, Marshall JMP 50, and an EVH 5150 - the conversion process has compressed the life out of them.

They’re noticeably quieter than the stock presets even with the volume dimed, and are a shadow of the tones that I’m used to, sounding much less dynamic and lifelike than the stock presets.

It’s unfortunate, because I was quite looking forward to seeing if those on a beginner budget could get access to some of the best profiled tones around at the moment. However, it seems like we’ve still got a little way to go before we can get them sounding their best on units with lower DSP power.

Verdict

I went into my testing of the Mooer GE150 Max Li with very high hopes. It ticks a lot of boxes with its rechargeable battery operation, NAM compatibility, built-in looper, expression pedal, and typical amp and effects modeling capabilities. It does some of these really well, and others less so, making it a bit of a mixed bag overall.

For its core audience, beginner players and those on a budget, it handles the basics well. You get some good-sounding amp and effects models once you’ve tweaked them a bit, and plentiful features like a usable looper, built-in tuner, and battery operation, which is a real boon for keeping things neat at home.

It’s got pretty much everything the beginner player needs to get up and running, done at good enough quality that it’ll take you from first riffs to first gigs.

It’s a shame, then, that the stock presets aren’t particularly well done, and that the NAM profiles suffer some serious degradation during the conversion process. This may well be something that Mooer can iron out with further firmware updates in the future, but for now, the NAM compatibility doesn’t give it any huge advantage over units from Mooer, Hotone, Boss, etc.

The battery life, on the other hand, is really impressive. I play-tested it for a good 3 hours, and it only decreased by a single bar, so Mooer’s claim of up to 9 hours of life appears not to be hyperbole. It also means if paired with a wireless guitar system, you can get totally cable-free operation, which is super handy considering that most of its target audience will be practicing at home with the unit.

MusicRadar verdict: For players new to the world of multi-effects and amp modeling, the Mooer GE150 Max Li offers some excellent functionality, particularly with the ability to use it sans any power supply. The core amp and effects tones offer a solid platform to build from, with plenty of choice on offer. It won’t impress those who’ve experienced more expensive units with a higher DSP count, though, and the NAM profile conversion leaves a lot to be desired in its current state.

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Rock Mixer

Tascam’s a tried and tested brand in the field recorder space. It’s a frequent flier in our guides to the best field recorders, a brand that fields fierce competition in just about every price bracket, and the source of some of music’s most iconic recording devices (looking at you, Portastudio).

In previous products, Tascam’s already flirted with the audio-visual market, but the new FR-AV series goes all-in. This is the FR-AV4 – a brand-new four-track field recorder, designed as a compact and high-performance device for location recording, and as a compellingly seamless addition to audio-visual shoots.

The FR-AV4 is the second and largest in the FR-AV series, which takes some cues from camera-friendly Tascam recorders past, but also takes things in a maximalist – and thrillingly pint-sized – new direction. The FR-AV4 boasts 32-bit float recording at up to 192kHz, built-in timecode generation and HDMI sync, in a form factor so slim you could probably post two through someone’s letterbox.

The four tracks in the FR-AV4 are serviced by four combo XLR/TRS inputs, each of which is furnished with individually toggleable 24/48V phantom power, and Tascam’s own Ultra HDDA preamp design – which offers a wide gain range and an impressively low noise floor too. Inputs three and four can be superseded by a separate stereo 3.5mm input, for receiving audio from another camera or external device. There’s 3.5mm TRS ins and outs for the FR-AV4’s built-in timecode generator, and, handiest of all, a pair of HDMI ports that cover a great deal of clever business.

For one, connecting a camera via the FR-AV4’s HDMI port allows audio and video to sync, as well as enabling the camera to control record start/stop. With a monitor recorder plugged in at the other end too, via the FR-AV4’s HDMI out, 4K/8K video can be passed through with the FR-AV4’s audio embedded (and with the camera’s own audio, too, if you like). Game-changing simplicity for small rigs! Finally, the HDMI ports can also be used to daisy-chain multiple FR-AV4s, for virtually limitless extra tracks, all synced, and all slaved to the record button on the first in the chain.

There’s clever digital business going on inside the FR-AV4 too. It’s a high-fidelity field recorder, capable of recording up to 32-bit/192kHz audio. The dynamic range of 32-bit float trivialises gain-staging and, coupled with the four XLR inputs, makes this a potent partner for sound design and literal, bona fide field recording.

Each channel in the FR-AV4 gets some sound-sculpting tools too, including a four-band EQ, limiter and noise gate. All of this, in something roughly sandwich-sized – and powered by four AA batteries, or 5V bus-power from the USB-C port. Which is also a conduit for the FR-AV4’s second life as a six-in/two-out audio interface. It works hard for its price point.

Performance

As a musician with little professional experience shooting video, and being that I’m reviewing this field recorder for a publication with Music in the title, I’m actually not touching any of the Tascam FR-AV4’s AV-friendly features. I’ll leave the evaluation of anything video-like to other, more video-y people, and focus instead on its core multitrack field-recording functionality, which is excellent.

My first session with the Tascam FR-AV4 was to capture the ambient sound of an industrial passageway in the same building as my studio space; I wanted to experiment with quadraphonics, capture some spooky atmospheric sounds, and grab an impulse response for that spooky, atmospheric industrial-passageway reverb. Setting up for this was a dream, and a healthy portent of sessions to come.

The FR-AV4 has two embedded screw holes for camera tripods, on the top and bottom, so you can mount it any which way you choose. Getting it situated, connected to my four pencil condenser mics and ready to record was a matter of minutes – which, looking at the front panel for the first time (and not having looked at the manual at all), was far quicker than I expected.

Navigating the FR-AV4 is actually extremely intuitive, if a little tedious when you want a setting quite deep in the multi-page menu. Thankfully, almost everything I wanted to adjust was only a couple screens away, and I instinctively found it with ease.

As well as the big-picture cool stuff on display with the FR-AV4 – the per-channel EQs, the limiters, the ambisonics decode function in the menu that Tascam don’t even mention on their product page – there’s also a number of small, user-friendly touches that demonstrate a real thoughtfulness on the part of Tascam’s engineers. My favourite is that you can easily group multiple tracks to a single gain control, allowing you to keep your relative levels while broadly adjusting the whole mix.

The only place where the thoughtfulness outstrips its returns is with the screen, which is a touchscreen, but also far too small to reliably use without fat-fingering the odd input. Still, in places, using the screen is a small and welcome time-saver.

As for the results: I was blown away, in the most boring of ways. I recorded at 32-bit float/192kHz, and captured everything. The cold, sustained quality of the passage in three dimensions; the soft hum of air conditioning units some hundred metres away; birdsong and children played in the neighbourhood past the car park; even the band rehearsing in the studio below. I messed around with gain settings, and, predictably, could not create a situation with poor results. The audio is clean, clear and uncoloured; a reliably professional standard.

As a USB audio interface, the FR-AV4 is almost as seamless to use. Being able to run it in 32-bit float is a welcome feature, and one which is conspicuously absent from Tascam’s new entrants in its DR-X series. A tiny bit of menu-diving and you can manage all the FR-AV4’s functions in-unit, including a handy SD card browser and exporter.

If I were the type to nit-pick, I’d throw a minuscule amount of shade at the placement of the USB-C port. It’s on the left-hand side, close as can be to the front face – and in front of all the I/O accordingly. It might be easy to access on location, but when transferring files or using the FR-AV4 as an audio interface, the trailing USB-C wire only gets in the way.

A broader nit-pick would be that Bluetooth monitoring and timecode sync – a key feature in Tascam’s eyes – is locked behind the purchase of a separate Bluetooth adapter. I’m generally not a fan of paywalling core features, particularly when this paywall seems a bit arbitrary (£47/$61 for the necessary Tascam AK-BT2 adapter). Still, I ultimately consider these nit-picks small for a small four-track with big features.

Verdict

It’s safe to say that I’m a big fan of the Tascam FR-AV4. It’s trivialised multitrack recording in the field in a number of ways, most impressively through its diminutive form factor. Seriously, it will probably fit in your coat pocket.

There’s so much more to this device than covered in this review that makes it a compelling buy for multimedia creators at any level – though the £699/$999 cost will naturally give some pause for thought. I think the price is actually quite justifiable, given its outsized feature set and sheer practical utility.

MusicRadar verdict: The Tascam FR-AV4 is a four-track field recorder with its gaze levelled squarely at the audio-visual world. It’s a multimedia darling, with HDMI pass-through, sync and audio embedding – but for me, the real smarts are in the audio. High-fidelity multitrack recording through phantom-powered XLR ins and whisper-quiet discrete preamps, all in a box the size of your lunchtime sandwich? Genius.

Audio examples

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Hands-on demos

Tascam Official

Specs

• Inputs: x4 TRS/XLR mic/line; x1 3.5mm TRS line/camera; x1 HDMI-A; x1 3.5mm TRS timecode input
• Outputs: x1 3.5mm TRS line/camera/timecode; x1 3.5mm TRS headphone; x1 HDMI-A; x1 USB-C
• Phantom power: 24/48V
• Recording formats: WAV/BWF, MP3
• Recording fidelity: 16-bit/24-bit/32-bit float, 48/96/192kHz
• Recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC (up to 512GB)
• No. of channels: x4 input tracks, x6 recording tracks (inputs + stereo mix)
• EIN (equivalent input noise, mic preamp): ≤–127dBu
• Dynamic range: ≥133dB (inputs 1-4)
• Display: 1.9-inch (4.8 cm) LCD touchscreen
• Power requirements: x4 AA batteries; USB-C bus power; AC adapter (sold separately)
• Battery life: 17 hours
• Dimensions (WHD): 184 mm × 42 mm × 130 mm
• Weight: 756 g (including batteries)
• Contact: Tascam

Pedal company partnerships are nothing new in the world of stompboxes. We’ve seen Boss and JHS team up for the much-hyped Angry Driver, Chase Bliss and Z-VEX unleash the gloriously unhinged Bliss Factory, a mad creation born from Reverb’s The Pedal Movie, and MXR help guitarists everywhere finally get hold of an Analog Man classic with the Duke of Tone. It's hard to predict just which companies will collaborate next, but the latest tag-team is something we didn’t see coming.

DOD and Morley have joined forces for the aptly named WTF, or Wah-ocTo-Fuzz. Combining three pedals in one, it’s a triple-threat that promises to be a sonic Swiss Army knife, packing a wah pedal, octave, and fuzz into one unapologetically wild box.

Built around the classic Morley wah chassis, the pedal, of course, features the Illinois-based firm’s tried-and-true Electro-Optical design, switchless operation, and a glow-in-the-dark treadle ready to spring into action the second your boot hits it.

For the fuzz, Morley brings its notorious Power Fuzz circuit, a ‘70s-inspired gain machine used by the likes of Metallica’s low-end master Cliff Burton. You get a Level knob for volume tweaks and an Intensity control to dial in as much filth as you see fit.

Octave duties are courtesy of DOD’s cult-classic FX35 Octoplus circuit. This monophonic sub-octave pedal, long-coveted since its discontinuation in ‘94, is all about thick, synthy, glitch-happy low end. It’s even rumoured to be the secret behind Alain Johannes’ massive detuned sound on Eleven’s Reach Out.

The WTF wraps everything up in a slick navy blue, cold-rolled steel enclosure, a nod to classic DOD styling, with standard 1/4” ins and outs, 9V power from a battery or pedalboard power supply, and buffered bypass.

Specs

• Launch price: $249.99 | £249.99 | €290.99
• Type: Wah, Octave and Fuzz
• Controls: Octave Level, Direct Level, Tone, Fuzz Level, Intensity
• Features: Combines Morley switchless wah with a DOD octaver, and classic Morley Fuzz.
• Connectivity: Input: One 1/4-inch, Output: One 1/4-inch, 9V power
• Bypass: Buffered
• Power: 9V, 30 mA.
• Dimensions: 6.84" x 4.25" x 4.10" (17.4 cm x 10.8 cm x 10.4 cm)
• Weight: 2.26 lbs (1.02 kg)
• Contact: Digitech

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

If you’ve played a Morley pedal before, you’ll know they are built like a small tank, and the WTF is no different. The navy blue finish is a slick nod to DOD’s iconic look, and I think it looks pretty cool – not that I should be surprised, as the wah company has been making pedals since the ‘70s.

It’s worth noting that this is not a light unit – it’s pretty chunky thanks to the rolled-steel casing and triple-loaded circuitry, and I certainly feel its presence on my pedalboard.

I’d also say it’s a little on the tall side. If you’re used to standard-issue wahs, you’ll notice the extra height right away. It’s not a massive issue, really, but it can feel a little awkward at first, as the pedal sits at a different angle to that of a Cry Baby. On that, it's worth mentioning that this wah is mechanically sprung.

Therefore, the pedal returns to the heel-down position when you take your foot off the treadle. It also could present an additional size challenge if your pedalboard lives in a bag or case.

Now, while the treadle is a joy to operate, thanks to its very smooth travel, the two effect switches for the octave and fuzz sit a bit too close for comfort in my opinion – particularly if you’re rocking boots or have larger feet. It’s nothing I can’t get used to, especially with the help of pedal switch toppers but it does feel cramped at times.

Still, the switchless wah operation works like a charm. I made the switch to a switchless Cry Baby a number of years ago, and I can’t ever see myself going back. I just love that there’s no more toe-tapping to engage or disengage; I just step on the treadle, and away I go. It’s seamless and intuitive, letting you focus on your playing rather than your footwork. Plus it comes with the added benefit of not having a pot to wear-out or become scratchy through dust collection.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

For being a three-in-one pedal, the WTF is pretty straightforward to operate, with somewhat minimal controls. Starting with the fuzz, there are only two controls for dialing it in – Level and Intensity – which let you adjust the volume and gain level. I do like simple pedals, but I can’t help but feel that a tone control would come in handy here. Fuzz by its very nature is bright, so being able to knock some of that fizzy top end back a touch would be very useful.

Moving over to the octave, and this time there are three controls – Octave Level, Tone, and Direct Level. This feels pretty much perfect and exactly the dials I want to see on an octaver. The Octave Level lets me dial in how prominent the low octave is, while the Direct Level preserves my clean, unaffected signal, and the tone controls the perfect amount of top-end.

The wah doesn’t muddy the waters with unnecessary extras, too. There are no controls for the wah itself, but the classic Morley treadle is adorned with a handy glow-in-the-dark strip, ensuring that finding your footing on a dark stage is never an issue.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

And now on to the sound. For testing, I opted for a Gibson Firebird and a Fender Telecaster going into a Fender Blues Jr amp, while drive duties were handled by the JHS AT+. I start by taking each of the effects on its own to get a true sense of what’s going on before I start combining them.

Okay, so if you’re aware of that classic Morley tone, you know exactly what I have here. It’s wide, throaty, and vocal, with a sweep that covers glassy funk to classic rock solos and everything in between – and it sounds killer in my opinion.

The electro-optical design keeps things smooth and hassle-free, making it a joy to ride whether I'm chopping rhythms or wailing on my basic clutch of blues pentatonic licks. All told, it’s a versatile wah that may not have any tone-shaping capabilities, but it doesn’t really need them – it’s a point-and-shoot wah that does exactly what you want it to.

The fuzz circuit, inspired by Morley’s Power Fuzz, is a raspy, unapologetic beast. To my ears, it’s a touch thin. Comparing it to the Big Muff that’s a staple on my 'board, the Morley lacks the bottom-end weight of the Electro-Harmonix and can sound a little brittle. That said, it certainly can cut right through a mix with its snarling highs and abundance of bite.

Now, the octave circuit is where the WTF really shows its eccentric side. Borrowed from the FX35 Octoplus, it’s monophonic, analogue, and gloriously glitchy. As I play single-note riffs, I’m greeted with a satisfying sub-octave growl that wobbles with artefacts.

I’m used to the pure, clean octaves of the EHX POG, so this kind of old-school sound makes me want to experiment, pushing my riffs and solos into new, uncharted territory. If I play chords, the FX35 tends to freak out a bit and sound almost synthy, but, man, it's fun.

All in all, the effects here sound decent on their own, but as you’d expect, the real magic happens when you combine them together. Add the octaver to the fuzz, and suddenly it transforms into a monstrous wall of sound, thickening up and adding that depth it was lacking when soloed. For me, this is an instantly inspiring sound and one that just seemed to produce riffs out of nowhere. Throw in the wah, and you can almost create talk-box-like sounds.

Whether you’re looking for classic funk, synth-inspired doom, or just want to shake things up with something unpredictable, the WTF has you covered. It’s not for the faint of heart, but I must say, it's an absolute blast.

Verdict

So, where does the Morley x DOD WTF leave us? Quite honestly, it’s the kind of pedal that could only exist as a result of caution being thrown to the wind to create something a bit different, and honestly, I’m totally here for it. It wears its weirdness as a badge of honour, and that’s exactly why I love it.

The switchless wah is as smooth and intuitive as ever, and the fuzz, while a little thin in isolation, comes alive when paired with the octave, morphing into a glitchy, monstrous force that is ideal for riff inspiration. The octave circuit is pretty old school, and as such it’s gloriously imperfect, with that unmistakable analogue grit that modern players may not like.

Sure, the layout can be a bit cramped, and I’d still love a tone control on the fuzz, but these are small prices to pay for a pedal that delivers this much character and creative potential.

The build quality is classic Morley, and the DOD styling gives it a retro-cool edge that stands out on any board. What’s most exciting, though, is the precedent this sets. If Morley and DOD can resurrect the Octoplus in such wild fashion, what’s stopping them from diving even deeper into the DOD vault?

I’m already dreaming about a Morley wah fused with the infamous DOD Grunge, and the washy swirl of the FX64 Ice Box chorus. The possibilities are endless, and if the WTF is a sign of things to come, I can’t wait to see what these mad scientists cook up next.​

MusicRadar verdict: Morley and DOD’s WTF is a wild mashup that thrives on weirdness; combining what could be three run-of-the-mill effects into one stomp that is seriously fun to play with. The wah is seamless, the octave is beautifully glitchy, and while the fuzz is thin in solo, it transforms when stacked. It can feel a little cramped to operate, but it’s packed with character, and I can’t help but wonder what madness would ensue if Morley took on the DOD and took a stab at combining more DOD classics in the Morley format.

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Hands-on videos

DigiTech

Home practice sessions are something that benefit every guitar player and there’s plenty of gear options out there to facilitate that when it’s not possible to use a full rig, whether that be a headphone amp, affordable amp modeller, guitar plugins or a small practice amp that can be run at a reasonable volume. The latter being dominated most recently by the likes of the Positive Grid Spark and Boss Katana series and most comparable here, the Positive Grid Spark Go.

Blackstar has had the Beam Solo guitar headphone amp available for a while, and now that has been joined by the Beam Mini, a tiny desktop amp with speakers and a comprehensive set of practical features.

The Beam Mini looks and feels classy with a textured rubberised finish and sits solidly on any table with its controls easily accessible on the top. It takes its power from any five-volt (500A) USB-C charger like you would use to charge your phone – a cable is provided with the unit.

A full charging session will give you 18 hours of playing time. You plug your guitar into a socket on its right cheek, and there are headphone and USB sockets on the rear.

The headphone socket will also handle headsets with mics should you wish to input vocals, while the USB socket facilitates recording via the built-in audio interface with multiple audio inputs and outputs.

The unit is not only a source of guitar tones but also uses a Bluetooth connection to function as a speaker for music streaming, which you have a choice of playing along with.

Blackstar has really paid attention to acoustic design here and the combination of the sealed, acoustically-tuned cabinet with two full-range drivers and auxiliary bass radiator units puts out an extremely powerful sound for such a small device, with expansive imaging courtesy of Blackstar’s Super Wide Stereo technology.

Specs

• PRICE: $229 | £169 | €189
• ORIGIN: China
• TYPE: Portable practice amp
• FEATURES: 5x presets, Bluetooth audio streaming, removable carry strap, USB audio interface, app with tuner, metronome and more 
• CONTROLS: Power button, Bluetooth pairing button, Patch, Gain, EQ, FX, Volume, SpeedDial
• CONNECTIONS: Standard instrument input, 1/8” stereo headphone output, USB
• POWER: Internal Lithium-ion battery charged via USB (18 hours’ use on a full charge)
• DIMENSIONS: 152 (w) x 89 (d) x 79mm (h) 
• CONTACT: Blackstar Amplification

Usability and sounds

The full functionality of the Beam Mini is accessed wirelessly via the Beam app, which is available for iOS and Android, but the physical unit itself is usable straight out of the box and perfectly capable of standalone use without a phone in sight.

There are five user-defined patches stored onboard and accessed from the top panel, which has a small array of buttons to access various aspects of the sound to be adjusted by a rotary SpeedDial. Basically, you can choose your patch and adjust the Gain, EQ, FX and Volume – the white light Beam intuitively illuminates in line with any changes you make.

The patches are constructed in the same way as those in the ID:X Floor pedals. You get a Pre-FX in front of your chosen amp, then the amp followed by a fixed chain of three effects (modulation, delay and reverb), all passing through Blackstar’s proprietary IR-based CabRig DSP. All of this is easily set up in the app, which has very clear visual representations of everything – just pair up your phone and the Beam Mini over Bluetooth and you’re good to go.

The 12 modelled guitar amps include several Blackstar models such as the St James, plus the brand’s Ampton range of modelled classic amps, which includes Fender Twin, Vox AC30, Marshall Plexi and JCM800, Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and Peavey 5150. All have fully adjustable conventional controls and you get Blackstar’s ISF to adjust the tone stack characteristics from UK (Marshall) to USA (Fender) sounds.

You also get some bass amps and an acoustic preamp. The CabRig facility gives you a choice of six cabinets with either a mic’d sound via a choice of virtual mics, or the ‘In the Room’ option, which works really well in a practice situation, offering more of the experience of standing next to an amp while you play.

With 35 effects available to populate the pre- and post- effects slots, there’s a wide range of flavouring to complement the amps and create quality, playable tones for a wide variety of musical styles – something that is reflected by the factory-programmed patches provided by Blackstar in the app.

What really sets the Beam Mini apart, though, is that besides all of the modelled sounds provided by Blackstar you also get access to a humongous range of amp captures. Blackstar has teamed up with Neural Amp Modelling pioneers Tone3000 for access to the open-source NAM platform, including the recent A2 capture technology.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Blackstar amp menu and you can engage NAM and scroll through its range of snapshot captures of physical amps and rigs for selection for placement in your signal chain (at the moment you can’t have a Pre-FX with it, but you can add the post-FX).

Checking out the captures, I found some excellent tones among them ranging from staple amps to weird-and-wonderful curios. Yet, as anyone can upload their own captures, there are also plenty that are a bit lacklustre. However, sort out the wheat from the chaff and you’ve got access to a cracking range of sounds, playable straight from the hardware for free.

The Beam app also comes with a metronome and a range of backing tracks in various styles that you can stream into the unit and play along with, but you can also stream any music you want into it, which is where an update expected in late summer will offer even more potential for practice.

In August 2026, Beam Mini will be able to integrate Moises AI stem separation, letting you isolate or remove instruments from any song, thus you should be able to take any song and remove the guitar part, allowing you to play your own part along with the band instead.

The other side of that coin is that if you’re struggling to learn a particular guitar part, you may be able to isolate it from the backing and the vocals to hear it with clarity.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★★

The Beam Mini packs all the elements you need into a fully portable practice amp and does it in style for a very reasonable asking price.

MusicRadar verdict: It’s a somewhat different take on a dirt pedal, and probably not designed for chasing what we generally think of as traditional guitar/amp tone. But it offers an alternative set of flavours and textures and is especially useful for anyone who records DI guitar. More colours in that paintbox is no bad thing.

Hands-on videos

Blackstar

The Studio Rats

Peach Guitars

• "The amp and effects modelling unit for those who’d rather play than get bogged down in too many details" Blackstar ID:X Floor Two review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Monitoring is often a contentious subject. It gets easier with more gigging experience as we learn to set our gear properly and communicate what we need from our bandmates and sound engineers. The ultimate in control is having an in-ear monitoring set up that allows us to independently tweak our own mix without having to worry about getting in anybody's way.

It’s a different world from that of floor wedges, and one that doesn’t suit all. However, the rise of silent stages, decibel meters and the use of backing tracks have changed how we monitor ourselves, instigating many a headache for musicians, with in-ears often being the most practical solution. Thankfully, getting started with budget in-ear monitors is more affordable than ever.

One such example of a low-cost entry into the world of in-ears is the Beyerdynamic DT 30 IE, which I have in my hands for review, coming in at a very reasonable $150.

To test them thoroughly, I figured I would take them to a real-world gig and see how they do. I’m not about to compromise the show, though, so if they are not up to scratch, they won't make it past soundcheck.

Specs

• Launch price: $150 | £99 | €119
• Type: In-ear monitors
• Origin: China
• Driver: Single 11m dynamic
• Connectivity: MMCX
• Frequency range: 5Hz to 20KHz
• Max SPL: 137dB
• Impedance: 18 Ohms
• Protection class: IP54
• Case: Yes
• Contact: Beyerdynamic

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★☆½

A glance at the specification will reveal a single 11mm dynamic driver. For anyone buying their first set of in-ear monitors, you will often see the driver count being pushed as an indicator of quality. The general implication being that more drivers equals better performance.

This is not necessarily true. While having multiple drivers that handle different parts of the frequency spectrum is beneficial in aiding clarity and general performance, this only works if those drivers are well-tuned and well-built.

A single, high-quality, well-tuned driver can outperform six cheaply put-together drivers. Most single-driver IEMs will be utilizing a dynamic driver, and that is what we see here. We’ll get into sounds later, but spoiler alert: this driver does a good job.

In the hands, both the cable and the buds feel a little bit plasticky, which is what I would expect at this price point. The important thing is that it feels solid enough that I’m not worrying about any fragility.

We have a mouldable section of cable at the tips that allows the cable to wrap and stay-put around the ears. It doesn't retain its shape as well as some only slightly more expensive models, but having it at all is still a plus. The cable is removable, and therefore replaceable should it break, and also sports a little bit of rubber strain-protection down by the 1/8” TRS jack, which will help with longevity.

The case is fabric wrapped around a harder interior. It will protect the headphones as they are chucked in and out of a gig bag, but flexes a bit when squeezed and takes a moment to return to its original shape, making it feel a little less than premium.

It is important to remember, however, that we are not paying high-end money. At this price point, the most pressing thing is that the product feels solid enough to last a significant number of gigs. In lieu of a long-term test, first impressions are that the DT 30 IE’s will.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★★

Headphones aren’t that complicated. The most annoying thing is getting those tips onto the earbud, but they slide on fairly easily and securely here. Beyerdynamic provides small, medium, and large tips in both silicone and foam form, which is standard and should fit most preferences.

To get the full bass response that the earphones are capable of, it is important to find a snug fit, so it's beneficial to experiment here to see which tip suits you best. Also provided are spare earwax guards, which is something we don’t always see, even in more expensive units.

If you are new to in-ears, Beyerdynamic has you covered with a concise leaflet that explains the process of assembly and maintenance in a beginner-friendly way.

Left and right connections are well indicated in color (red for right) and with the letters L and R on the MMCX connector themselves. This type of connector (in contrast to the two-pin alternative) allows the earpiece to rotate in place, which helps users find that important tight fit while also reducing stress on the cable.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

As I mentioned earlier, I am testing the DT 30s in the format of a real-world gig, with the caveat that they need to be at least good enough to not compromise my experience of the show. To cut a long story short, I was more than happy to use them for the entire gig.

The low end is well represented, with both the kick drum and bass guitar coming through nicely. Mid frequencies are a similar story, and what results is a smooth sound that is easy to listen to without fatigue.

Where the DT30’s are left behind by my usual Shure 425s is in high-end clarity. This is important in gaining proper separation of instruments in a dense mix, and the DT30’s smooth nature means that things can get a little bit muddy in comparison.

However, I am speaking relatively here. The level of mud is far from problematic, as I am able to adjust my mix to compensate. You might struggle if you are in a big band with lots of instruments, but in a four-piece as I was, this is an issue that is easy to deal with after some proper mixing.

Pro tip: stereo mixes are a little more involved to set up, but totally worth it to facilitate panning in these circumstances. Some musicians don’t like to pan things in their in-ears; if this is you, it might be worth investing in something with a little more clarity.

It’s worth remembering that the aforementioned Shure 425s are, while relatively humble in the world of in-ears, twice the price of the DT30s. At this sort of budget, the DT30’s are hard to beat.

Verdict

While it is apparent that we are looking at an entry-level model here, the Beyerdynamic DT30 IE’s do a great job. They feel like they will last, are easy to use, and sound surprisingly good for a budget set of earphones.

While I would have preferred more clarity, when I was testing them, I was able to forget that they were not my usual set of in-ears and just enjoy the gig. So, if you are looking for your first set of in-ears, or a decent backup for a pro-level set, these are a good choice.

Music Radar verdict: The Beyerdynamic DT 30 IE’s perform admirably for a set of in-ears at this price point. Yes, you can tell that they are a budget set thanks to the slightly plasticky feel and a sound that could do with a bit more high-end clarity, but they boast a good bass response and a smooth overall tonality. They are perfect for someone who is looking to get started with in-ear monitoring, or for a seasoned gigger in the market for a backup.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Beyerdynamic

Donner is a breakout name in the budget guitar-accessory market – the brand that launched a thousand Amazon storefronts. First famed for its affordable micro-format guitar pedals, it’s since collaborated with Ruben Wan and Jack White’s Third Man Records, and broken guitar-pedal containment entirely to sell a suite of instruments and accessories. Among these, a small, handy, Game Boy-shaped box of a musician’s friend: the Donner DBM-100, a three-in-one digital metronome, guitar tuner and rhythm trainer.

Truth be told, it’s not the most exciting product on the planet. Metronomes rarely are, but they are useful. It’s a feature-packed little box of (relative) fun, with four sound banks, tap tempo, and a variety of time signatures and beat subdivisions to choose from. There’s tap tempo, an on-board microphone for detecting your own timely playing, a 3.5mm out for headphone metronome-ing, and a built-in, USB-C-chargeable battery with 11.5 hours of life to it. And there’s a neat little kickstand on the back, too.

On paper, it’s a pretty solid one-stop answer to most of the instrument-practising questions you might have - and a very convenient little box accordingly. It’s a reasonably priced accessory (around $35/£25) too, but does it walk the walk?

Specifications

• Battery Life: 11.5 hours
• Modes: Tuner, metronome and trainer
• Tempo Range: 30-280bpm
• Tuning Modes: Chromatic, guitar, ukulele, bass, and violin
• Extra Features: Tap tempo, four metronome sounds
• Contact: Donner

Performance

In the hand, the Donner DBM-100 feels like a very well put-together object. It’s got some reassuring heft, and the plastic chassis feels robust enough to withstand more than a few fumbles. The buttons are pleasingly soft and firm to press; for something you only handle a few seconds at a time, it’s very ergonomic to handle and operate – much like the handheld games consoles it seems designed to resemble.

When turning the DBM-100 on for the first time, I reflexively looked for a slider switch on the side, much as I would with those game consoles. After a minute of dumbfoundedly turning the thing over, I came to realise there’s nothing of the sort – and that, in fact, power is a matter of pressing or holding the big yellow-circled button on the front.

Does this speak to the quality of the DBM-100? No, but I do feel a weight of responsibility to share the exact moment when I was outmatched by an unfeeling technological object. That said, this moment of shame does become somewhat relevant, foreshadowing, as it does, the DBM-100's vague inscrutability in certain instances.

Features

The DBM-100 has three modes: tuner, metronome and trainer. The tuner mode is easy to use and decently accurate. As well as the LCD display, there are three LEDs beneath the screen that light up to indicate sharpness, flatness, or perfect tuning. It has five settings to cycle through - chromatic, guitar, ukulele, bass, and violin - and an adjustable pitch standard ranging from 430 to 450Hz.

In metronome mode, there are four sound banks to choose from: a classic pitched woodblock, a clap, a bicycle-style bell with a click beneath it, and a robotic female voice counting upwards to a maximum of nine. There’s a button to advance the number of beats in each bar from 1 to 9, and a separate button for subdivision beats, which cycles through a dizzying variety of note lengths, rhythms, and feels, including triplets with rests, dotted notes, and other syncopated patterns.

That last counting-up sound bank demonstrates some secret cleverness under the hood; it counts the beat subdivisions separately from the overarching beat. However, if you have the BPM set even remotely at pace, the voice rushes to cut itself off with each new count. The resulting cacophony is distracting at best and actively painful at worst. Best in most cases, then, to stick to that classic woodblock.

Finally, the trainer mode seems a bit more like an add-on than a core feature of the DBM-100. It plays you one 4/4 bar, subdivided by a beat or pattern of your choice, then asks you to sound the same rhythm back, in time, with only a visual indicator for the tempo. Every beat you sound in time is heard by the built-in mic and registered by the supportive flash of a green LED. In my view, the mic could stand to be a bit more sensitive here - it was either clapping, banging the table or flicking the mic aperture itself that registered, but nothing remotely quieter. And you can’t change the underlying time signature either.

Using the DBM-100 is extremely easy, but only once you’ve got to grips with what is quite an esoteric control interface. The buttons are semi-intuitive, but still require some experimentation before you figure out exactly what they mean.

For instance, ‘source’ refers to the various metronome sounds you can cycle between, not ‘select’, which actually advances the time signature by one beat with each press. ‘Menu’ on the side doesn’t take you to a menu (not that it could – the screen is a static LCD screen, cycling through pre-etched displays), but instead toggles you between the tuner and metronome modes; to access the training mode, you have to hold it down.

My final gripe is the dedicated subdivision button, which asks you to cycle through nineteen different note values and rhythms in one direction. No easy reset to the crotchet beat; just go round, and then round again when you overshoot. It’s illustrative of a device that could be so much smarter than it is, but which gets in its own way a bit here and there.

Verdict

For the money, the Donner DBM-100 is a perfectly viable little musician’s friend. I wouldn’t trust the tuner in an orchestral pit, but it’s a handy thing for a quick sit-down practice session at home. I wouldn’t use the trainer function for more than five minutes at a time, but it’s a nice little between-drills exercise for resetting your internal rhythm.

The metronome function is the best bit, with its comprehensive array of beat subdivisions to play along to - but it’s slightly let down by a limited library of metronome sounds. For me, I’d say, ultimately, the Donner DBM-100 is an affordable metronome that does its main job well enough. For the price, and if you want a physical metronome rather than an app, the DBM-100 is inarguably worthwhile.

MusicRadar verdict: Donner’s DBM-100 is an interesting little box of tricks. It offers a handy onboard tuner, a full-featured digital metronome, and a trainer mode that seems more like an afterthought than a feature. It’s a clever device that hamstrings itself with some strange choices - a welcome entrant to the world of portable metronomes, but not without some small shortcomings.

Also try

Hands-on demos

Steven Kambach

Klang.io's Transcription Studio promises to turn audio into notated transcriptions, lead sheets and guitar tablature. This would be a valuable tool for music educators, songwriters and composers alike. But does it work? We recently reviewed an AI transcription tool called Songscription, and we were not impressed. It detects pitches well, but it does not do so well with rhythm. Can Transcription Studio do better? Let’s find out.

What is it?

The word “klang” suggests “clang” to English speakers, but it means “musical tone” or “musical note” in German. Klang.io has been in operation as a company for a surprisingly long time; the hype around AI might be recent, but researchers have been working on the underlying machine learning technologies for decades.

Klang.io has been offering computer-assisted transcription tools for specific instruments for several years, but their latest offering is Transcription Studio, a browser-based audio-to-notation platform. (It's also available as a VST3/AU plugin, but for this review, we only tested the browser-based tool.)

In theory, you can drop any piece of music into Transcription Studio and get a notated score. However, these kinds of tools are only as good as their training data, and Transcription Studio's transcriptions work better on some kinds of music than others, as we will see below.

One disclosure before we go any further: I came to this review with a strong anti-AI bias, and I believe that we should approach generative AI with skepticism. Before I started writing, I spoke to the company’s founder, Sebastian Murgul, along with his public relations representative. I came away liking Sebastian and feeling more open-minded toward the product as a result.

Why should you care about my thought process, or my feelings about a tech company founder? In assessing a new technology, it isn’t enough to ask what the tool does now; you also want to think about where it might be headed in the future. There are many reasons for a music educator like me to be concerned about AI. Is this tool going to be an excuse to lay all of us off, even if it doesn’t do our job as well as we do?

Sebastian Murgul shares my concerns. He is a deeply nerdy person who just wants to make a useful product, not to disrupt (or destroy) music education as we know it. He does not actually think AI can replace human music transcription and analysis, and he recognizes that it can’t make sense out of every kind of recording.

Murgul has some specific cases in mind for Transcription Studio: for DAW-based composers of film and game music to be able to communicate their ideas to human performers, for example, and for pop songwriters to be able to generate lead sheets for copyright registration. (In the US, you only have to submit a sound recording of your song, but in Latin America you have to submit a notated lead sheet too.)

Murgul is clear that users will only get good results from Transcription Studio if they already have a good understanding of the music they are trying to transcribe, and if they are able to edit its output themselves.

Performance

When you enter the Klang.io Transcription Studio, you can choose between uploading an audio file, entering a link to YouTube, Instagram or TikTok (but not Bandcamp or SoundCloud), or recording straight into the computer mic. From there, you select a transcription mode from the options below.

• Multi-Instrument Mode: the default setting.
• Single-Instrument Mode: the most accurate and reliable mode, especially if it’s a transparently recorded acoustic instrument like piano.
• Classic Mode: this setting is optimized for classical music.
• Rock Mode: a beta feature. It differs from multi-instrument mode in that it is optimized more specifically for guitar, especially distorted guitar.
• Arrangement Mode: rather than transcribing each individual instrument or voice, this mode produces a lead sheet, just top-line melody and chord symbols. (Based on my tests, this should probably be labeled as a beta product too.)

After choosing a mode, you select the instruments in the recording. You can have Transcription Studio detect them for you, but it performs better if you tell it what to listen for. Finally, on the Additional Options screen, you can specify key, time signature, approximate tempo, note duration quantization, and whether you want triplets or not. Again, you can have the software detect all of this, but the results will be less accurate.

Once you have created your transcription, you can view and listen to it as a notated score or as a vertically scrolling piano roll. You can export your score in various formats, including Music XML and MIDI. Transcription Studio also has Note Editor mode, a rudimentary notation editor, though for any serious overhauls or formatting you will want to work in a separate program like MuseScore, Dorico or Finale.

The most interesting feature of the Note Editor is the Anacrusis (Pickup Bar) setting. Transcription Studio’s makers recognize that the software has trouble identifying downbeats, especially if the recording has any silence at the beginning, so they make it easy to move the location of the first beat of the first bar. Unfortunately, you can only move the downbeat in increments of one beat. (This is an issue, as I discuss later in the review.)

In testing out Transcription Studio, I repeated some of the same tests I performed on Songscription for the sake of comparison, but I mostly selected pieces of music that were better suited to showing Klang.io’s strengths and weaknesses.

I started with Nina Simone’s recording of the blues standard Nobody’s Fault But Mine. It’s a simple piano-plus-vocal recording, and had I recently assigned my aural skills students to transcribe it. Could they have used Transcription Studio to cheat on the assignment?

The answer is: sort of. Transcription Studio detected the notes and rhythms of the piano part very accurately. However, it gave the key signature incorrectly as D major; the song is a blues in A. In fairness, there is no consensus on the correct way to write key signatures for blues, but A or A minor would be the usual choices.

Transcription Studio’s take on Nina Simone’s vocal was less accurate. It simplified her melismas significantly, and it was thrown off by her vocal timbre, because notes that she sang with more inflection appeared in the transcription on the wrong pitches.

For a comparison with Songscription, I tried Crazy by Patsy Cline. Songscription had failed to make head or tail out of the song, presumably because its training data doesn’t account for 1950s recording fidelity or instrumentation.

Transcription Studio did not do much better when I asked it for a lead sheet. It could not distinguish the lead vocal from the backing vocal or instruments, and the triplet feel threw off its rhythmic detection, so it couldn’t find the tempo or downbeat. It did get the chord symbols mostly right, and it detected the lyrics accurately too.

However, Transcription Studio shows lyrics in a strange way. Rather than placing each syllable with its corresponding note, it groups entire phrases together in the middle of their approximate location on the score. I would prefer to have lyrics be on a separate page; it is confusing to see them placed so unconventionally.

I wondered whether Transcription Studio would do better on a multi-instrument transcription of Crazy. This time, I specified the instruments, the key, the time signature and the approximate tempo, and also told it that Patsy Cline is an alto. Klang performed better this way. The bassline was quite accurate. The vocal melody was still mixed up with other parts, but now the meter and rhythm were right. The guitar and piano parts were more hit and miss, and the drum part was completely chaotic; I guess the training data doesn’t include drums played with brushes.

Next, I tested Single Instrument mode with a solo piano recording of Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk. Transcription Studio offered me the choice of pop or classical; jazz was not an option. I chose pop, because that seemed closer. I also entered the key and tempo. The results were good, at least until Monk’s improvised solo started. The software rendered some of his expressive timing strangely, but that is understandable; many human transcribers would struggle to represent those rhythms.

Transcription Studio’s chord symbols were mostly on point, but with some odd omissions. The chord library does not include ninth chords, so Klang wrote Bb9 as Fm7. In Monk’s solo, something about his timing threw off Transcription Studio’s beat detection, so even though his tempo is steady throughout, the transcription was off by one beat from that point. Unfortunately, the anacrusis correction feature only works for the first downbeat. This is something you could easily correct in an external editor, though.

Transcription Studio’s training data includes lots of classical music, so I expected it would have an easy time with Prelude No. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Glenn Gould. I was right: the transcription took one tenth as long as any of the others I had done so far. It was quite accurate, aside from the fact that it was confused by the silence at the beginning of the recording, which it rendered as a one-and-a-half-beat-long rest. The anacrusis correction only works in increments of one beat, so you would need to fix this in an external editor.

I was interested to see that Transcription Studio added chord symbols to the Bach piece, with about 95% accuracy. I sometimes write jazz-style chord symbols on classical scores for harmonic analysis purposes. It is intriguing to consider the idea of having software do it automatically at scale, though I think people should be doing this kind of thing by hand for the sake of their own understanding.

For a further test of Classic Mode, I used Bach’s Contrapunctus I from the Art of Fugue, performed by the Emerson String Quartet. This chart was mostly accurate too, though Transcription Studio missed the first note, along with a few others that were played quietly. Transcription Studio also combined the violin and viola onto the same staff. Once again, it placed chord symbols throughout, which is not a feature that most classical performers would want, but that jazz and pop musicians might find extraordinarily useful.

I wanted to see how Transcription Studio would do with electric piano, which is not one of the instruments on its list. So I gave it What'd I Say by Ray Charles. I gave the software the key and tempo, and told it to listen for vocals, piano and drums. It did pretty well on the electric piano, with good pitch accuracy and timing, and mostly accurate chord symbols.

The timbre of the electric piano did confuse it somewhat, because it heard the top notes as a vocal part. Transcription Studio got the broad outline of Ray Charles’ actual vocal melody, but the rhythms were squared off and the pitch was sometimes a half-step off. As with Crazy, Transcription Studio could not even approximate the drums.

Maybe the noisy vintage recording was throwing the transcription off? I figured that a cleaner, more contemporary recording would work better, so I tried Everybody Laughs by David Byrne. As I expected, the results were more impressive. Transcription Studio misidentified acoustic guitar strums as hi-hats, but the guitar part itself was remarkably good, with clear and accurate tablature along with notation.

The vocal part was uneven, with David Byrne’s idiosyncratic singing clearly throwing the software off. Transcription Studio did pretty well with the string arrangement, showing that the training data includes a lot of orchestral music. The only real problem was that it heard harmonics as separate notes in places, but this is a problem that all pitch detection algorithms share.

For a more mainstream pop recording, I used Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, assuming that this kind of loud, bright and clear pop banger would be easy to transcribe. Transcription Studio wrote this vocal line extremely accurately. However, it had trouble distinguishing the other instruments, presumably because they are layered and processed so heavily.

For a more authentic transcription challenge, I wanted a song that I didn’t already know how to play. I chose Burnin’ Hell by John Lee Hooker. I wasn’t expecting much for the vocal, but I thought Transcription Studio might do well with the guitar, since it is unaccompanied and has clean tone. Sadly, whether it was Hooker’s open tuning or playing style, Transcription Studio couldn’t make head or tail of it. I guess there isn’t much blues guitar in the training data.

How about the Beatles? I tried Blackbird, figuring that it is sufficiently classical-informed in its harmony and playing style. However, I forgot that the song has a lot of meter changes, and Transcription Studio understandably could not follow them. Also, it had trouble distinguishing Paul McCartney’s voice from the guitar. So some measures were perfectly clear and accurate, while others were chaotic.

My final test was one of my own original compositions, a track I made in Ableton Live using only synthesizers and drum machines. I can’t find my Ableton session anywhere, and I can’t remember exactly what notes or chords I used. I’m sure I could figure it out, but I have never had the time to sit down and do it. This is the exact use case that the company has in mind.

Transcription Studio has an option for synthesizers, but there is clearly a limit to the weirdness and inharmonicity that it can cope with, so its transcription of my melody and bassline was not very good. However, it did get the majority of the chords right. The transcription is not usable as a guide for a performer, but it would be quite helpful to me if I were to transcribe the track myself.

Verdict

As with other transcription and audio-to-MIDI tools I have tried, Transcription Studio does very well at detecting pitches, especially on single instruments that are recorded clearly. It also does a good job with vocals in a conventional pop style. It can identify note onsets accurately, and if the rhythms are straightforward, it can organize those rhythms into a meter fairly well.

However, if the rhythms are too far off the grid, or if they're too swung and idiosyncratic, Transcription Studio struggles. The more complex the recording, the less able it is to separate the layers, and older or noisier recordings are a problem too. Also, even when its output is accurate, you may still need to do extensive editing and formatting before you could hand charts out to an ensemble.

The difference between Transcription Studio and its competitors is that its designers recognize the limitations of their tool. They are assuming that you are not a complete novice, but rather that you already have some musical sophistication. The user interface makes clear that the more you can inform the software in advance, the better the results will be, and that you should expect to edit and adjust the output afterwards.

The best way to understand Transcription Studio is not as a tool for generating sheet music. Even if its scores were perfectly accurate, writing sheet music for human performers requires more than identifying the notes. You need to use your judgment to decide how to lay everything out and how much detail the performers will need. (I expect AI transcription to get more accurate, but I do not expect it to develop editorial or graphic design skills.) I think it’s better to think of Transcription Studio as a tool that gives you clues for writing your own sheet music, and in that application, it has significant value.

Electro-Harmonix has been doing a grand job of reissuing the different versions of its Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal, with all of the major circuit revisions now represented in the brand’s roster.

The Big Muff Pi 2 is the latest to hit the stores, but there’s a twist with this one in that it was never available in the first place.

This pedal is a dual op-amp version by designer Bob Myers that dates from the late 1970s.

Its existence, as a hand-drawn schematic, only came to light when Josh Scott of JHS Pedals was interviewing Bob for a book, Made On Earth For Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story.

While EHX did produce an op-amp-based Big Muff in 1978 (also known as the IC or V4 Big Muff), celebrated for its use by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, this new one has a different clipping arrangement and an extra gain stage.

Specs

• PRICE: $122 | £125 | €119
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Fuzz/distortion pedal
• FEATURES: True bypass, latching/momentary footswitching
• CONTROLS: Volume, Tone, Sustain, bypass footswitch 
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V battery (supplied) or 9V DC adaptor 15mA
• DIMENSIONS: 65 (w) x 111 (d) x 47mm (h) 
• CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix

Usability and sounds

A Nano-sized pedal that will fit snugly on any pedalboard, the Big Muff Pi 2 features the familiar triumvirate of Volume, Tone and Sustain knobs, but, brilliantly, comes with a dual-action footswitch that – besides standard latching operation – can also be used momentarily for a burst of dirt for as long as you press and hold.

Plugging in, there’s no doubt that this is part of the Big Muff family, but the differences from the usual four-transistor models are immediately apparent.

There’s a fuller midrange in place of the regular scooped sound and that fullness extends to the low frequencies with a bigger bottom-end grunt.

There’s plenty of variation via the Tone knob, with the sludgier stuff to the left, but we found our sweet spot at around the two o’clock mark and beyond where the upper mid presence makes itself apparent.

There’s also a nice clarity to the top-end, which, incidentally, doesn’t get as fizzy as a standard Muff when the Tone knob is maxed.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

With a gritty textured edge to its fuzz/distortion, this is a pedal for big riffs and endless sustain.

MusicRadar verdict: This dual op-amp version was never released back in the day as EHX boss Mike Matthews felt that it strayed from the traditional Big Muff voicing. But these days we positively embrace fuzz varieties across the board and the Big Muff Pi 2 is a valid choice, particularly for players who value something heavier and more aggressive.

Hands-on videos

Electro-Harmonix

Guitar Guitar

Guitar Center

• “A feral supernova awaits if you dime those dials”: EarthQuaker Devices Barrows Fuzz Attacker review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save

Cubase really needs no introduction. It was the first computer-based sequencer to incorporate a graphical arrange window, and it even embraced hard-disk audio before many others. In recent years, it has settled into a steady pattern of yearly updates, and the latest of these is Cubase 15.

As before, it comes in three flavours, with the Pro version delivering the full feature set. As well as the main DAW software itself, you get a cut-down version of SpectraLayers (SpectraLayers Go) and, as usual, a big selection of sound content, virtual instruments and plugins. Steinberg’s aim is to make it a self-contained system without the recourse to third-party additions (though of course many users will have their own favourite additions).

The headline additions in Cubase 15 are the expanded modulator system, a new melodic mode for the pattern sequencer introduced last year, redesigned expression map functionality, stem separation, two new effects, the Omnivocal vocal synthesis engine (open beta), plus a bunch of workflow improvements and functional tweaks. Whilst it's fair to say that a quick glance at this list doesn't point to any game-changing new features, it does cover quite a bit of territory. Let's take a closer look.

Performance

The modulators introduced in Cubase 14 were one of its big new features, and something that the users who had experience with Ableton Live and Bitwig had been calling for.

The update expands on this with six new modulator types – Random Generator, Sample & Hold, Wavefold LFO, Crossfader, Attack/Decay and Morph LFO. Modulators are a great way to create tempo-synced effects (eg, filter sweeps), but the ability to chain them and incorporate more modulator types extends their use into more creative and experimental areas.

It's worth noting, though, that Cubase works on a per-track basis for the modulators. It would be nice to see a global modulator track that can be freely routed to multiple destinations.

The pattern editor introduced in Cubase 14 was primarily aimed at drum sequencing and at the time quite a few users hoped that a more versatile version that could work easily with melodic/musical patterns might be on the cards. Thankfully, we now have it in the form of the Melodic Pattern Sequencer. It is based on its rhythmic predecessor, but to address the melodic aspects of this type of sequencing, Steinberg has added interesting scale- and shape-generation features. This means that even with a few presses of the randomisation button, the results are likely to fit well within the context of your existing track. The more we played, the more fun we had, and although it's still quite basic, especially in pattern management and copy/paste features, this is a really nice addition.

There's no escaping AI right now, and those two letters seem to be assigned to all kinds of products at the moment. In Cubase 15, it's applied to the new stem separation feature, which can split any audio file into vocals, drums, bass, and other elements (ie, all the rest). It performs this directly from the project window, splitting tracks into separate layers. It's quick, works quite well, and is free; however, you'll find better results with specialised software solutions, including online options, where there is significant competition. In fact, explore a little further and you’ll discover that SpectraLayers Go, bundled with Cubase 15, can separate vocals from music and appears to do a superior job – at least on the tracks we tested.

The same goes for OmniVocal, although this time it is clearly labelled as a beta. It's certainly not going to compete with something like Dreamtonics Synthesiser V or Ace Studio in terms of its expressiveness, realism and flexibility, but once again comes as a free addition. Hopefully, as it develops, it will become a little bit more fluid to use, particularly when adding and editing lyrics. At the moment, it can be a bit of a slog to get the most realistic results.

Regarding new plugins, Ultra Shaper offers transient shaping, limiting, and EQ, making it a useful addition. The Pitch Shifter – as the name suggests – is designed for vocal processing and features formant-preservation and saturation modes. It's not particularly cutting-edge, but it works well, though primarily suited to mixdown rather than live processing due to its significant latency.

These and other stock plugins now support UI scaling (finally!), which is a real boon when using high-res displays. We only wish there were a way to apply a simple 2x scaling to older plugins (including some from Steinberg). This would be a simple, unfussy solution for navigating plugins that shrink to tiny proportions in some setups.

One interesting feature of the newly designed hub is Project Preview, which stores a small snippet of a track for quick listening before loading. This feature only works with newly saved projects that have it enabled (allowing you to customise which small, ie, 5-second segment, is previewed). Despite its simplicity, it is surprisingly useful, especially for those who do not employ a helpful naming scheme or work on multiple tracks at once. It's also worth noting that DAWproject support allows sessions to be shared with other compatible DAWs.

A small but significant arrival in Cubase 15 is the automation’s ‘Last Touched Parameter’ feature, which provides quick drawing/editing access to whichever knob or slider you've last moved for any given track. This is a real time-saver, as is the new ability to add volume or pan directly to the Track Controls Area (though we prefer the accuracy of a vertical fader). This is a nice way to tweak levels, and it will be a real time-saver for some.

Finally, Expression Maps have been redesigned. The setup process is now more streamlined, integration with the Key and Score Editors has improved, and per-articulation attack compensation aims to enhance the realism of orchestral mock-ups. For those with large orchestral sample libraries, especially those with compatible instruments that automatically import key switches, this will be warmly welcomed.

Verdict

This release introduces many features to boost your creativity and streamline your workflow, and it is a strong update overall. However, it might seem a bit underwhelming for some, and there is certainly some sentiment on Steinberg forums that the total on offer here doesn't quite justify the annual upgrade cost. Another perspective is to consider the £83 upgrade fee as roughly equivalent to a £7/month subscription. If it were a subscription, we would say it offers fair value for money.

Nonetheless, there are some areas we would like to see improved in the future. Key Command options could be expanded, and the Remote Editor could become more accessible. Fully featured API access, capable of integrating with AI tools (such as Claude and ChatGPT), would be a fantastic addition – possibly even a game-changer – for delivering long-awaited features. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what AI can do – not as a replacement for the composer or producer, but as a time-saving assistant, and it would be great to see Steinberg take a leading role in this.

Opening, closing and project loading times can be slow on more complex projects or setups with many plugins. It would be beneficial to see some optimisation in this area. We also hope attention is given to the comping functionality in Cubase, as there are ongoing frustrations about moving active comps to other tracks and a few other issues that cause difficulty when working with multiple live audio elements.

One of the challenges with a major DAW such as Cubase is that it must accommodate a wide range of users. For every person who finds the expression map functionality or notation capabilities particularly useful, there will be others demanding clip-based playback or improved AI generative tools. Steinberg has to carefully balance its approach to satisfy everyone. Overall, however, Cubase remains a fantastic piece of software that we are happy to continue using.

Hands-on demos

Cubase

Alternatives

Specifications

Seemingly emerging from nowhere, Baum Guitars feels like a relative newcomer to the main stage, yet the company has been going since 2015. Founded by Morten Bau, what began as high-end, custom builds out of Denmark has now evolved into mass-produced electric guitars from the Far East under the Vega Series moniker, delivering custom-inspired instruments without the lofty price tag.

There’s no need to state where the Baum Guitars Verve gets its inspiration from, with that lineup of chrome-covered neck single-coil and angled bridge pickup mounted to a metal plate. The pickups are Baum’s own Goldsound Skylark Alnico V pickups, controlled by master volume and master tone controls with 250K potentiometers, and a 3-way toggle switch. Unusually for a guitar remeniscent of a Telecaster, Baum has opted for a mahogany body here instead of ash or alder.

The bridge is a Wilkinson WTB model with compensated brass saddles, which is also unusual as most Baum guitars feature proprietary hardware. This theme returns for the tuners, however, which are Baum Performer tuning machines with an 18:1 ratio. The scale is 25.5 inches, and the roasted maple neck is shaped to Baum’s modern ‘C’ profile. It’s got a rosewood fretboard with a flat, 12-inch radius, and 22 medium jumbo, nickel frets marked with mini ‘Crown’ inlays.

Specs

• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Roasted maple / Modern ‘C’
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Scale length: 25.5”/647.7mm
• Nut/width: High-density composite / 42.9 mm
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo, nickel
• Hardware: Baum Performer, Wilkinson WTB bridge with compensated brass saddles
• String spacing at bridge: 52.6mm
• Electrics: 2x Goldsound Skylark, master volume & master tone, 3-way toggle switch
• Weight: 7.05lb/3.2 kg
• Options: N/A
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Amber Gold (as reviewed), Dark Burst, Moon Silver, Pure Black
• Cases: Baum Deluxe Gig Bag
• Contact: Baum Guitars

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The Baum Guitars Verve comes in a really nice Deluxe Gig Bag, and when I pull it out, my first impression is that it’s an eye-catching guitar with its metallic Amber Gold finish and retro modern body shape. It’s sort of Telecaster-shaped if you think of it as a shallow, single cutaway, but I do get Danelectro vibes from it as well. It manages to stand on its own without feeling too alien, which is a definite design achievement.

The single-ply, black pickguard cuts a diamond shape across a body that’s pretty much devoid of comfort carves, apart from a very slight flattening where my picking arm rests over the body. There’s no neck heel carve either, giving it a decidedly retro feel. Flipping it over, I spy there’s no plate on the back for the controls, so if you do want to dive in, you’ll need to take the strings off.

The paint is very well applied, and although I spot a couple of dark flecks on the back side of the guitar, these are only noticeable when the guitar is held up to the light and inspected closely. The neck pocket is neatly done, and all of the electronics and hardware are robustly applied. It feels worthy of gigging and ties in with other Indonesian-made guitars I’ve had in my hands recently in terms of the quality of the build.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

As soon as I sit down to play the Verve, I feel right at home. As a regular Telecaster player, it doesn’t feel much different at all from my number one guitar. It’s lighter in weight as the body is markedly slimmer, but the neck feel is pretty similar. It doesn’t take me long to get up and running with it, and my favourite licks and riffs come easily.

The medium jumbo frets feel lovely to bend against, no matter where I am on the fretboard, and the overall feel is slinky and smooth. There’s nothing that gets in my way, whether I’m playing legato, open chords, barre chords, or any other technique. It’s not a shred neck, but the profile feels buttery smooth, and alternate-picked scale runs fly around the fretboard.

It’s nicely balanced both in my lap and when I put it on a guitar strap at rehearsal, but I do notice when standing that it’s easy to accidentally hit the toggle switch. This only happens when I perform some aggressive strumming of chords, but it just means a small adjustment is required to my admittedly aggressive playing style, so I can’t rapidly strum near the higher frets of the guitar.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

I start off my sound testing by plugging the Verve into an audio interface and loading up an instance of Neural DSP’s Tone King plugin. Using a totally clean tone with a touch of a spring reverb, I notice that the high E doesn’t quite ring out true here when played on its own, which I didn’t notice when I play-tested it unplugged. My first instinct is a nut issue, but pressing behind the nut while playing the string doesn’t resolve it.

Moving up and down the E string to see if I can find a culprit, I notice it buzzes at the 9th fret, and getting my bank card out, I determine that the 10th fret is sitting ever so slightly proud at the treble end. This can happen with guitars when they get shipped from place to place and subjected to drastic changes in temperature, and I’m easily able to remedy it by raising the bridge saddle slightly. The open-E issue proves trickier, however, and I’m unable to make it better without really getting into the weeds with the nut slot.

Undeterred, I continue to play in the bridge position, and there’s plenty of Tele twang on tap here, with an output I’d put somewhere between vintage and modern. There’s loads of spank and attack when I dig in with some country-inspired leads, and it bites when I strike open chords hard, giving a nice balance of low-end weight and treble cut.

Moving to the neck pickup, there’s a noticeable volume drop, but it’s that tried-and-tested T-style sound, warm and a little woolly. It feels really smooth when I play leads with it, but there’s still plenty of articulation when playing full chords hard. The middle position is really nice when played clean, though, and due to the volume difference between the two pickups, it’s got a delicious balance to the overall tone.

Next, I load up an overdriven guitar amp tone with a Bluesbreaker-style overdrive pedal in front of it, and the bridge pickup really comes into its own. It’s really full-sounding and cuts through nicely without getting into icepick territory. The more modern voicing gives more midrange with a smooth high end. When strumming punky power chords, it really sings, and adding in a reverb pedal and delay pedal while I play lead licks delivers a very satisfying and modern-leaning guitar tone.

Moving back the bridge pickup, it’s straight into Tom Morello riffing tone. It’s warm and round, a little dark, but not so much that it sounds dull. It manages to stay pretty articulate when I strum full chords, although I do lose a little of the treble strings under the weight of the low end and mids here. In the middle position, again it’s nicely balanced as it was with the clean tone. There’s a little more of the bridge pickup than the neck, giving a very usable tone that blends the good parts of each pickup’s character.

Verdict

There are a lot of T-style guitars on the market right now, so the Baum Verve needs to do something very special to stand out from the rest, and it succeeds in most ways. The roasted maple and rosewood combo of the neck plays really nicely, with a profile that encourages faster playing and felt super comfortable no matter what I attempted on it.

The bridge pickup is really great too, offering that Tele twang with a little extra heat for the modern player. It’s probably not the best for those after 50s or 60s Tele tones, but it can deliver a wide range of tones that will cover funk, country, rock, blues, and more. I did find the neck position a little uninspired when played clean, but it held its own with overdriven tones and works great alongside the bridge pickup in the middle position.

The QC on this model wasn’t the best, however. An issue with one of the frets and the nut needed to be resolved to make the guitar play perfectly, which, while admittedly par for the course when it comes to import guitars and sometimes, even American-made instruments, to be totally fair, is nonetheless a little disappointing. Granted, these weren’t issues that made the guitar unplayable, but small hurdles that needed to be jumped over.

Guitar World verdict: For me, the real strength of the Baum Guitars Verve lies in its playability. The neck profile is fantastic, and I never felt like any playing style was out of reach in my time with it. The pickups are nicely versatile, although I wanted a little more from the neck position; for the most part, it’s capable of a huge array of styles. That said, the QC on my review model wasn’t perfect, with a couple of issues that needed resolving to get it to where it should be.

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Hands-on videos

Kris Barocsi

TheGuitarGeek

The CX102 is part of Kawai's new CX line, which takes over from the well-known KDP series. For years, the KDP-75 and KDP-120 have been favourites in the digital pianos for beginners category. Now, with the CX102 and the larger CX202, Kawai is offering a fresh option for anyone starting out, hobbyists, or families who want to get into piano without spending a fortune.

Sitting at the entry level of the CX range, the keyboard uses Kawai's Responsive Hammer Lite action, with fully graded keys designed to support the development of finger strength and technique. Kawai has carried over some of the hammer-sensing and key cushioning technology from their higher-end CN series, resulting in a keyboard with a softer feel than a traditional acoustic piano action, while still aiming to replicate its fundamental feel.

The Responsive Hammer Lite features a shorter pivot length than Kawai's higher-end actions; the pivot is the hinge around which each key rotates when pressed, making the keys lighter and more accessible.

While designed as an entry-level digital piano, the CX102 still features Kawai's Harmonic Imaging technology, sampling each key individually to deliver a realistic tone with ample dynamic range. The main piano sound is based around the iconic Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand. Hand-built at the Shigeru Kawai R&D Laboratory in Ryuyo, Japan, the SK-EX is widely regarded as one of the finest concert grands in the world, regularly gracing the stages of international competitions and concert halls. There are three different SK-EX concert grand piano sounds: Classic, Jazz, and Mellow.

The CX102 also includes 17 built-in sounds in total, with the three SK-EX concert grand voices alongside 14 additional instrument sounds covering essentials like electric pianos, organs, string pads, and even an upright bass with a ride cymbal for walking bass lines.

For amplification, the CX102 uses a 2 × 11W stereo system driving two 12cm speakers tucked under the keyboard for a wide stereo image. The design is compact, simple, and clean, with just a few buttons, a keyboard lid, and three pedals. It's available in embossed black or embossed white.

The CX102 works with two free Kawai apps. PianoRemote lets you control the piano from your phone, allowing you to change sounds, adjust settings, and set the metronome without using the piano's buttons; particularly useful since entry-level models can be tricky to navigate. PiaBookPlayer turns our phone or tablet into a digital score viewer for the built-in lesson library, with pieces from Burgmüller, Czerny, and Beyer, and you can even turn pages using the pedals. Beyond Kawai's own apps, the CX102 also supports Skoove for structured interactive lessons and Tomplay for sheet music with professional backing tracks; both are available via separate subscriptions.

As I'd expect, the CX102 comes with a built-in metronome and recorder, plus a range of lesson pieces from popular classical method books. It also features material from Alfred's well-known piano method series, giving beginners a structured practice plan right from the start.

Performance

To me, the CX102 makes a quietly confident first impression. The cabinet is neat and unfussy, with a classic piano look and layout that feels immediately familiar – sit down, and you know exactly where you are. At just 40.5cm deep, it sits neatly against a wall without eating into the room, making it a practical choice for smaller spaces. I would say it does feel a little light and plasticky up close, but at this price point, that's clearly a trade-off Kawai has deliberately made, choosing to focus on what matters most, like the keys and the sound.

One small note worth mentioning is that navigating the CX102's functions relies on button and key combinations rather than a dedicated display, and Kawai has moved from text labels to icons on the control panel. Personally, it's not a dealbreaker, but it can feel a little unintuitive at first, particularly for newcomers to the digital piano world.

What makes the CX102's keyboard interesting is that Kawai has taken a different approach to the key action here. Rather than scaling down a heavier action, they've opted for the Responsive Hammer Lite, a lighter action originally found on more portable stage pianos, making it more approachable for younger players or complete beginners who might find a heavier keyboard tiring. The shorter pivot length does mean the key weight can feel slightly inconsistent depending on where you press, something acoustic pianists will likely notice more than beginners. Overall, the action is soft and pleasant to play, though more accomplished players may find it limiting when pushing into bigger, more dynamic passages.

The CX102 also benefits from Kawai's key cushioning technology, which dampens the mechanical noise of the keys during play, a small but genuinely useful feature for anyone practising at home without wanting to disturb the rest of the household.