You Get What You Pay For

I bought it when it was £33.

To answer the questions on the sidebar there, I'm a former gigging musician, have some airplay under my belt, and have a small home studio. What motivated me to buy it was seeing a shiddload of YouTube musicians buying a bunch of Micro Pedals and Combi Units like this one, saying they were the bee's knees, and figuring it's £33. What's the worst that could happen?

And that's £6.60 per mode (it's technically 5 effects). With that in mind, I provide the following review: Durability: This thing is built like a tank, it feels like. Solid metal housing, the stomp switches feel sturdy, and the knobs, while tiny, also feel like they're attached to something worth having in the device. Even the (very tiny) switches to swap between the Reverb and "Roto Engine" (modulation) modes feel pretty stout.

Sound: Delay: The delay is great. It's a digital delay, fairly self explanatory. I'd have liked a slightly longer delay time, but hey, £6.60 delay pedal. Ocean Verb: It's the exact same circuit as all of the mini pedals branded as "Ocean Verb" over on Amazon, with a slightly duller sound. Probably because of the power drain from being in a multi-effect unit. Instructions say it has a memory mode you can save a setting to and recall, that does not work on the "Ocean Verb" setting. Just like the mini pedal version, the Shimmer setting has harsh harmonic overtones that I don't personally care for. YMMV.

Roto Engine: This SAYS it has Phase, Vibe, and Chorus (like I said, 5 modes). What it really has is Leslie Emulation, borderline-but-not-quite Tremolo, and Chorus. It D*does* have a recall mode that functions. As someone who uses phase shift, tremolo, and chorus religiously in their setup, I can say the phase shifter is just garbage for a phase shifter. If you want a rotary speaker emulation, it's marginally better, but still not really all that great. The trem doesn't go nearly deep enough on the volume cut, so you'll never be able to get that choppy staccato effect you can with something like the TR-2, but you CAN make use of it. The chorus is about on par with what you'd find at the low end of chorus units, it's serviceable, but I don't see it replacing my SC10 any time soon.

Summary: I give it 3 stars because at the end of the day, while it's one unit, it's technically 5 effects built into one unit, which means it's a sub-£10 pedal on each effect I'm reviewing. They get sounds better'n I would expect in that price range. The delay was great. I love the delay. Is the delay, reverb, and chorus worth £33? That is one I'll have to play with it a bit more and decide. It may be good for like a knock-about board, but I really don't see it becoming part of my regular kit.

It'd be a great pedal for someone starting out wanting to explore sounds for cheap. But for established players who know what they are looking for? Not so much.

Still, you could do a lot worse.