GEAR 2021: Way Huge has unveiled a new pedal that's so off-the-charts that it requires a new category. In practical terms, the Atreides is a synth, fuzz, octave, phaser pedal and more, but it is an effect that Way Huge calls an “Analog Weirding Module.“
The first of its kind? Most certainly, but the sounds that you can conjure from the Atreides skew retro, with 80s analog synth tones inspired by the Eddie Van Halen favourite EHX Mini Synthesizer keyboard, sub-octave low end, phase shifting and envelope filter effects.
A pedal such as this requires a very special kind of design, and the Atreides' enclosure is a change of pace for a guitar playing community that has grown accustomed to dials adjusting parameters on our stompboxes. Here we have seven sliders and a footswitch for engaging and bypassing the effect.
Each slider corresponds to its own parameter: Volume, Sens (Sensitivity), Range, Bright, Fuzz, Rate and Sub.
- NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.
Adjusting Sensitivity and Range controls the envelope filter. Rate controls the phaser, while Sub dials in your sub-octaver, with an internal switch allowing you to set it at one or two octaves down. You can also adjust the phaser feedback with an internal control.
Volume is self-explanatory, as is Fuzz. But with a pedal as weird as this it is sometimes wise to let the pedal speak for itself. Indeed, even Way Huge are saying nothing about it, their minds presumably still blown after First Contact with such an alien effect. It was left to Josh Scott to launch and demo the Atreides on the JHS Pedal show.
Now, once you have checked out the demo video above and found all these far-flung musical possibilities populating your imagination, parting with £215 / $199 of Earth money will secure you the Atreides. And it is available to order now.
