Polyend announces MESS multi-effect step sequencer pedal at Superbooth

May 9, 2025 · 2 sources

Polyend announced the MESS Multi-Effect Step Sequencer at Superbooth 2025, with pre-orders open at $599¹². MusicRadar reported the announcement on May 7, 2025, and Guitar Pedal X on May 9, 2025¹². Both describe it as sharing the format of Polyend's Step Drum Machine¹.

The pedal is a multi-effects unit built around four effects tracks and a 16-step sequencer, which Polyend presents as a way to animate and evolve effects over time¹. The effects list covers granular, particle sampler, micro looper, pitch shifter, spectralizer, reverb, delay, modulation, shaper, panning and filter types, including glitch and microloopers¹. MusicRadar counts 125 effects in total, among them reverbs and delays, granular and glitch processors, overdrives and bitcrushers, pitchshifters, loopers and slicers². It reports that the effects can be used without the sequencer, stacked in any combination, and that each track's speed and length can be set to create polyrhythmic or polymetric patterns, with chance and probability options adding randomness². It also reports 200 included presets and 1000 slots for user presets².

Controls and connections, as listed by Guitar Pedal X¹:

MusicRadar describes a knob-per-function interface with sequences built across 16 step pads, and lists MIDI I/O, stereo TRS audio I/O, an expression pedal input, USB-C and a Micro SD card slot². It reports shipping scheduled to begin at the end of June². Guitar Pedal X notes the $599 price is $100 more than the Step Drum Machine¹.

MusicRadar quotes Polyend's description of the pedal:

Guitar Pedal X's writer, who owns a Step Drum Machine, said that without the manual he could not fully gauge the device, and that he finds programming this kind of pedal clunky without a Bluetooth-connected app, comparing it to the Empress Zoia¹.