Is Universal Audio about to launch its first guitar pedal?

Universal Audio – legendary audio company, creator of countless high-end guitar plugins and the Ox Amp Top Box – looks like it could be taking its first steps in the guitar pedal market, judging from a new teaser campaign.

Accompanied by the caption “60 Years of Analog Tone”, a video launched on UA’s social media accounts features flashing lights and close-ups of a solitary control knob – and did we catch a glimpse of a guitarist in there? – soundtracked by clean guitar coated in swathes of flanger, delay and reverb.

An accompanying URL points towards UA Live, where we can glimpse the edge of a unit on what looks to be a wooden floor. So, most likely a, well, floor-based unit, then.

The plot thickens when you consider the filename of the teaser image contains ‘emperor_live_teaser’ – Emperor Live could refer to a product designed for, well, live use, or it could simply mean the live launch of Emperor.

Given UA’s wealth of software, we’d have said a multi-effects pedal was most likely on the cards, but that “60 Years of Analog Tone” is throwing us off. Perhaps it’s an all-analog multi-FX in the vein of ’80s Boss and Ibanez units? Or maybe that wooden floor was actually a desk, and it was a new audio interface all along. Hmm.

Anyhoo, there’s only one way to find out: head over to UA Live on January 27, and all will be revealed…