touch-sensitive

Touch-sensitive describes an effect, most often an overdrive, fuzz, or drive pedal, that responds to the player's picking dynamics and guitar volume changes¹². Such pedals can clean up or distort depending on playing dynamics³, and some remain articulate and touch sensitive even at their highest gain settings⁴. The term is used in sound descriptions to characterize pedals as dynamic and responsive, sometimes alongside words like transparent, amp-like, or tube-like¹⁵.