I have to warn you before you read any further, if you are a gear lover like me this website is highly addictive. ShootOut.fm have created a website that allows you to compare pedals, but the way it works is fantastic. You should watch the intro video below which will explain how it all works but basically you choose
a pedal category such as Chorus or Delay and a grid of pedals from various manufacturers appears. You can search for a particular pedal to see if it is available or you can select a manufacturer, or just scroll through all of the available pedals in the category. By clicking the add button the pedal is added to the bottom section of the site which is where you can compare up to 5 pedals at a time, you simply select one of the 14 available tracks and whether you want to hear it played on a Stratocaster or a Les Paul and then simply switch seamlessly between pedals by clicking on the photo. You can also chose blind test mode which randomises the order and hides which is which so you can choose which you prefer the sound of without being influenced by manufacturer! Another cool feature is that you can create a Poll and share it among your guitar playing friends to see which they prefer. One other clever feature is that if you choose a pedal such as the TC Electronic Alter Ego which has different types of delays there is a dropdown menu so you can actually select each one!
Now I have only spoken about effect pedals but actually there are a couple of other categories which are also relevant to guitar players too, the first is Microphones and then there are two sets of DAW Plugins, EQ & Compressors. For all three of these categories you can audition the product in the same way as the effect pedals but this time you can select from a number of recorded tracks and from different instruments within the tracks, Female and Male vocals to Snare Drum, Kick Drum and Acoustic Guitar. With the EQ plugins you can select from a huge number of EQ presets such as 10dB cut at 80hz or 5dB Boost at 1K. And finally with the Compressors there are some presets to choose from such as 4:1 4-7 dB Reduction Fast Attack Fast Release.
This site is brilliant if you just want a quick overview of some different products, obviously you can’t tweak the effects yourself so you have to just accept that the guys at ShootOut.fm have matched settings in order to give a clear indication of difference in sound. Obviously some pedals need to be tweaked to find the best settings but at least you get a rough idea.
Anyway enough waffling from me, checkout the intro video below to see the site in action and then visit shootout.fm yourself and don’t say I didn’t warn you about how addictive the site is.