The innovative analog unit works alongside an app and Bluetooth footswitch to offer up a boatload of fully analog switching options, including fully customizable pedal signal paths and unlimited preset-saving powers
LAA Custom has unveiled the SmartSwitcher – a remote, fully analog switching system that is controlled via a wireless footswitch unit and a mobile app.
Said to be everything “you really want from a switcher”, LAA Custom’s latest offering has been designed in collaboration with SonicMind, the brand behind SmartSwitcher’s digital guitar gear-controlling platform.
The compact app-programmable switcher boasts an immensely small footprint – 300mm x 110mm x 44mm – meaning it can be assimilated into pedalboards or installed into existing racks with what looks like relative ease.
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(Image credit: LAA Custom)
(Image credit: LAA Custom)
Boasting a fully analog tone path that promises to preserve your pedals’ purity, the switcher features 10 effects loops – four of which are stereo, with two offering built-in parallel and wet/dry functions – and connects via Bluetooth to the equally compact SmartController.
The SmartController offers five footswitches with four banks per switch, though the number of footswitches can be extended to 10 when used in partnership with the additional extension unit.
Perhaps what’s more impressive, however, is the SonicMind app, which opens up a whole host of additional possibilities for some seriously flexible switching setups.
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(Image credit: LAA Custom)
(Image credit: LAA Custom)
(Image credit: LAA Custom)
(Image credit: LAA Custom)
(Image credit: LAA Custom)
Available on both iOS and Android – on tablet or smartphone – the app enables you to digitally program analog pedal sequences into unlimited presets, and lets you arrange them by song, setlist or any other scenario you may find yourself in.
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As an added bonus, the app also allows for an impressive amount of digital signal routing experimentation, and lets you shake up your analog signal chain and effect pedal positioning within each preset in any way you deem fit.
In terms of the nitty gritty, the SmartSwitcher features LAA True Coil transformers on the main output, audio-grade buffers and a ground-loop isolator. Additional appointments include two expression pedal inputs and MIDI in/out interface.
(Image credit: LAA Custom)
You can follow the development of the SmartSwitcher and keep an eye out for its release date over at LAA Custom, with its own Kickstarter campaign launching soon.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
