Cusack Pedal Cracker

The use of pedals with horns inevitable causes a search for the best interface that give you access to your pedals from a microphone. Cusack have thrown their hat into the interface ring with the creation of the Pedal Cracker. This interface is full of interesting features, like their trail/presend switch and their momentary footswitch. While these are interesting and cool tools, they are limited by one key design flaw that unfortunately limits this pedals usability. If you are the type of pedal use that does not want to alternate between wet and dry signal chains, then this pedal will work wonders. If you like to utilize both wet and dry signal paths, this may not a pedal to consider.

External Control: None
Cost: $$

HornFX Review

Interface:  2/5
The Pedal cracker is structured much like the Voco-Loco or the Mixing Link, utilizing an effects loop between an XLR in and out. The gain knob is particularly useful when wanting to either send more level to the sound man or when needing a way to dial it back. It has some interesting features like the trails/preset switch which allows for a reverbs and delays to decay naturally even after you switch the effects loop from on to off. It even has a momentary switch that while held down, will activate the effects loop when it is off, and turn it off when activated. It even has separate knobs for the wet and the dry signal, which at first glace seem to give an enticing amount of control. Unfortunately all of these cool features are obscured by the way the bypass works. In order to get a sound that is fully saturated by your effects, you simply have to put the wet knob to full and completely turn off the dry. However, if you were to turn off the effects loop, the bottomed out dry signal knob still has control when the pedal is bypassed. This means that if you were using a fully wet signal with no dry at all, then bypassed the pedal, your pedal would be muted. A bottomed out dry knob cuts out the signal all together when the effects loop is bypassed. Luckily for those who use only fully wet signals and never look to have a completely dry signal available, this pedal will work great, and the momentary switch can serve as a mute button. The trails will allow for delays and reverb to finish their natural decay when muting in that way. For those of you that want access to both a fully wet signal and a fully dry signal, this pedal can only achieve that by bending down between switches to change the wet and dry knobs. The only way to have a dry signal that is interchangeable with your wet signal by using the momentary or bypass switches is to have wet and dry mixed together when the effects loops is engaged. That eliminates the possibility for a fully saturated effects loop, and therefore greatly diminishes the utility of the momentary switch. This pedal would receive extremely high marks if there were separate knobs for engaged dry signal and bypass dry signal.

Versatility: 2/5
As discussed above, this pedal is only structured for comfortable use with a full-time, fully wet effects loop, or a partially wet effects loop that will be occasionally bypassed to leave a completely dry signal in its place. With the previously suggested dry signal knobs, this would be an incredibly versatile pedal.

Tonal Reproduction: 4/5
The drive knob does allow for the slightest tone manipulation, which can be pleasing. But, even with its lack of tonal control, this pedal does an excellent job at reproducing your tone.

Live application: 2.5/5
For pedal users who want a fully wet effects loop at all times, this is a near perfect pedal that can include a functional mute button. For those who want access to both wet and dry signals, each with full saturation, as is available on the Voco Loco, Mixing Link, and Blow!, this is not the pedal for you. For those that can use this pedal, you will be pleased at its low power draw, its relatively small size and weight, and its conveniently placed XLR jacks on the right side. The Pedal Cracker is an extremely convenient pedal for those that fit into limited scope of usability.

Product Information

The Cusack Music Pedal Cracker was created to allow anyone with an XLR microphone output to use standard stompbox pedals. It was inspired by vocalists, keyboardists, horn players and percussionists alike who've desired the ability to have the control and versatility that guitar and bass players have long possessed. The Pedal Cracker enables them to now incorporate any pedal they desire into a pedalboard of their own allowing complete control, with some added functionality from its' assignable momentary footswitch . Simply plug into the Pedal cracker via the XLR input, connect the pedal board through the 1/4" input and output jacks, and you have a low noise buffered effects loop which is incorporated back into the XLR output of the Pedal Cracker. From live performance to studio applications, the Pedal Cracker is a useful tool to have!

Features:
-Wet signal volume
-Dry signal volume
-Gain
-3-way toggle to select between trails, normal, and pre-send modes. This switch selects the status of the send and return, which, in conjunction with the momentary footswitch, allows the user a variety of creative options.
-Recessed switches for ground lift and 48V phantom power
-9V center negative power supply (not included)

Power:
-Standard center negative 9V DC  Linear power supply-preferably regulated. ( power supply not included)
-Current draw: ~54mA

Dimensions:
-4.7" L x 3.69" W x 1.37" H

Product info taken from the Cusack website.