Puremagnetik goes hardware with the LAPS pedal, a multitrack collage machine

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Puremagnetik LAPS is the company’s first hardware FX pedal and is a multitrack collage machine with granular, pitch-shifting, filtering, and tape aging. 

Puremagnetik is a company whose plugins I have written about extensively. They focus strongly on plugins with few features but much scope to explore. In many articles, I called these plugins “pedals,” as the workflow is as straightforward as on hardware pedals.

Now, Puremagnetik is taking this step and showing its first hardware pedal with LAPS.

Puremagnetik LAPS

Puremagnetik LAPS

LAPS is a multitrack soundscape machine pedal that serves as a flexible loop sketchpad. The core is inspired by Pureagmetik’s Portastudio-inspired Small Winters plugin. LAPS has taken Small Winters out of the box and into the real world with new features and enhanced functionality, say the developers.

The pedal offers three tracks, with each 20 seconds of stereo recording per track at 24-bit/48kHz resolution. You can use LAPS with two different unique modes, replica and multiply, that invite you to compose and design sounds:

Replica mode echoes your recordings back in three mirrored layers, allowing you to explore pitch shifts and loop point changes to create shifting, melodic landscapes and asynchronous textures.

Then, Multiply mode lets you stack recordings, where each layer seamlessly builds upon the last, creating lush, immersive textures without erasing what came before. LAPS also offers several creative effects processors built into the pedal engine. 

First, you have individual band-pass filters per lap, allowing you to fine-tune your sounds. The engine also includes granular spatial and glitch effects. Readers who know the plugins know that Puremagnetik has built them into many.

Plus, you can find a tape-style age effect that adds character and an unpredictable character to your recordings. 

Puremangetik LAPS is hands-on and can be controlled using six encoders, a shift button, and a switch knob that switches between three tracks (LAPS). On the connection side, it has stereo inputs and outputs with on-board panning per lap. Finally, it offers a true bypass.

First Impression

At first, I thought on Facebook, “Oh, a new Chase Bliss pedal!” because the design reminded me a bit of these pedals. But I was wrong.  It looks like a fun new creative effects pedal with a lovely, experimental-flavored feature set.

Granular and pitch shifting make you want to explore. In the first demo, the pedal sounds lovely, and it looks like it’s also an exciting release for non-guitar players. Feeding other signals also works. I hope that more demos are in the pipeline and the price is pretty fair. 

Puremagnetik LAPS will soon be available for $350. Each LAPS pedal is crafted by hand in limited numbers, and they expect to ship in November 2024.

More information here: Puremagnetik 

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