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Pros:
- Affordable
- Smooth
- Is compatible with almost anything
- Flexible
Cons:
- Build quality is not that great
- Does not work well with keyboards
One day when I realized I needed an expression pedal in my life I started searching every corner of the market to find the one that would work for me the best. Since I hadn’t utilized this effect before, I chose to go with the cheaper one so that I would be able to throw it away without seeing my money getting on fire in front of my eyes. I thought that I would get something that I would easily substitute later on if I fell in love with the capabilities it offered. That is when I came across the price range that I didn’t even know existed. When I saw the tags on these pedals I couldn’t believe my eyes and even pinched myself a couple of times to check if I was dreaming or not. I got really curious about their capabilities so I took a risk and got my first cheap expression pedal. And let me tell you, I didn’t throw it away. Today we aren’t going to exceed that price range and talk about the model that is extremely affordable. M-Audio EX-P is something that anybody can treat themselves with – it costs so little it is basically free. Enough about its price, let’s dig deep and explore the features and sounds of this one. Cheap or not we want our pedals to work, right? We shall begin now.
Features
Since I mentioned a couple of times that M-Audio EX-P is extremely affordable, I won’t waste your time focusing on that feature. Though it determines everything about this one, we cannot be that materialistic. One thing is true, though, sometimes even cheap units can be as useful as more expensive counterparts. What we are looking at here is a pedal that doesn’t look that great, at least in my personal opinion. There is something about its black and grey colors and its weird shape that makes me look the other way each time I catch its glance. Fortunately, since it has a taper, your foot will be on it all the time and you won’t have a chance to see that much after all. Looks aside, EX-P is made out of plastic and the overall build quality is not that great, but I don’t think we have a right to ask for more at this price point. Plus, it isn’t bad enough to be a deal-breaker, so what are we even complaining about? This pedal enables you to mess around with polarity to make it compatible with the rest of your chain. Sometimes the units from different brands don’t want to get on with one another and that is when polarity can save the day. With its help, you can use all your favorite pedals and employ your newly-found expression along with them. How great is that! M-Audio EX-P will provide you with quality performance and do its job wonderfully (maybe even better than you thought it would). This is a great example of a cheap expression pedal that actually knows how to get everything done and with simplicity in mind, too. After all, expression pedals exist to make our lives easier – not to complicate it with nonsensical features. And that is probably why EX-P works this well.
Controls
Though I am not exactly thrilled to discuss the control section of M-Audio EX-P, I still think we should go down that road. This brand has taken a really standard way and has put together their pedal accordingly. This means that you should not expect anything new here – everything is the same as we have seen countless times before. Being used to a wide variety of controls, such scarce layouts of expression pedals just annoys me. But that is simply my issue that I have to take care of, since these stompboxes don’t really need anything else. The main control here is of course the taper that goes from lower to higher settings by pressing it from heel to toe and vice versa. It enables you to modify the parameters of other pedals with precision and accuracy and, thus, achieve more refined and scrupulous results. We shall not forget that we do also have a Polarity switch here. This bad boy forces the products from different brands to get on with one another like a house on fire and alters the circuit of EX-P in a way that would make it suitable for any chain out there.
M-Audio EX-P Sound
M-Audio EX-P has a lot to brag about, since it offers wonderful performance regardless of the low price point. Even though it is quite cheap, it still knows how to treat your sound and enable you to roll off or accentuate desired properties. With the help of this amazing tool, you can turn everything into a footswitchable parameter and enjoy messing around with them on the fly. You can easily use this one in your bedroom or in live settings, just don’t abuse it too much as it might not withstand. It doesn’t interfere with your tonal palette at all, if you don’t count the knobs it substitutes so adroitly. There is no way you can go wrong with this one, since its simplicity will make you used to the easy stuff. Just plug it in, choose whatever you want to alter with your foot and dance on it as if it were your last tango in music.
Conclusion
Sometimes cheap devices are just pieces of plastic put together that don’t do a thing, but in other cases, inexpensive pedals turn out to be as great as EX-P. Though you compromise the quality here, it still does what it is supposed to. If I am being honest, it does everything even better than I initially expected. M-Audio has created a pedal that surprises us with its essence regardless of the time we spend with it. EX-P amazes me each time I reach for it and never disappoints me. Good luck!
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