We’ve seen stomp boxes that trigger iPad-based guitar effects before, but never anything quite like the heavy-handed DigiTech iPB-10 pedal board and iPB-Nexus iPad app. The package is made by a sonically-challenged company that has turned lo-fi processing into a work of art. This should be a lot of fun.
The iPB-10 is one seriously ambitious piece of gear by a manufacturer that’s not always known for beautiful sound. DigiTech effects are pretty cheap — in a good way. What a lot of musicians love about DigiTech boxes is that they muddle and mangle your guitar tone so divinely, they achieve a kind of perverse perfection. In the Sonic Youth way, not the Led Zeppelin way.
Now multiply the DigiTech disfigurement by a package that tries to emulate the nuances of 87 guitar pedals, 54 amplifiers, and 26 speaker cabinets.That’s a lot of possibilities in one smallish package.
The pedal board itself is merely a series of foot switches which trigger different processors on the iPad app. Guitar players will appreciate the lengths DigiTech has gone to make the iPB-10 look like a real pedal board. There’s a slot above the switches where you can drop your iPad, which displays the iPB-Nexus app. All of the effects controls are on colourful little pedals with knobs on the apps’ graphic interface.There’s also an expression pedal so you can Wah and pitch-shift to your heart’s content.
The sound on of the pedal board/app combo is customisable and programmable beyond what you will ever use. Twenty-six cabinets? Seriously? How delightfully arbitrary. But as long as the functionality is there, the DigiTech iPB-10 and IPB-Nexus will be an incredible way to experiment with sound. Unfortunately, the setup will cost you $US500 bucks.
[DigiTech]