oscillator. It’s great for recreating studiolike double-tracked effects and is perfect
for dialing in mid-period Cure tones.
There’s a fantastic and perfectly glitchy
Octaver and a super squashy take on the
Dyna Comp.
Like so many digital multi-effect pedals,
the only real downside of the iStomp
are the overdrive, distortion, and fuzz
tones—it’s not that they’re bad, they
just lack the dynamics of the real thing.
For example, the Fuzzy (it’s round and
blue) does a great, wooly fuzz tone, but
it doesn’t clean up with your volume
knob and isn’t very touch sensitive. The
Glimmer Drive does a real cool TS808
36
TONE TALK //
with clean blend, but again, it lacks in
dynamics. In other words, while the dirty
tones sound good, they don’t necessarily
feel good.
I’m not pretending that the iStomp is
the greatest pedal ever. It’s extremely
cool and offers great sounds, but other
companies have done better with figuring
out the iPhone plus stompbox interface.
I am saying that at the current going rate
($30-60), iOS users could do a lot worse
than an iStomp. As I write this, I have one
iStomp setup as the Magic Fingers on my
writing and inspiration board and one set
up as the Spring Tank on my little “grab
and go” Pedaltrain Mini.
DigiTech iStomp: The Best $50 You’ll Ever Spend