Decibel Eleven Pedal Palette

For a player, that means two things a basic switching pedal cannot do: you can reorder your pedals from the floor without replugging anything, and you can run two effects side by side instead of one into the other. Guitar World's reviewer noted that parallel processing opens up textures such as simultaneous clean and distorted tones, dry guitar blended with reverb, or compression blended with the dry signal¹.

What it does: series and parallel routing

A conventional loop switcher puts each pedal either in the signal path or out of it, always in the same order. The Pedal Palette's routing matrix goes further: each of its four loops can be configured to pass the signal in series or in parallel, and each parallel loop has its own mix Level control so you can dial in how much of that effect blends against your dry signal³.

Guitar World's reviewer found this opens sounds that series-only boards cannot get:

Each loop carries the same small control set:

The phase-invert switch matters when running parallel paths: two effects summed together can cancel each other if one inverts phase, so being able to flip a loop back into alignment is part of what makes parallel blends work¹.

The controls

The front panel is organized around two rows of footswitches and a Store/Edit button¹³.

Lower row, four footswitches. In Direct mode, each switch engages or disengages an individual loop. In Preset mode, they select one of four presets within the current bank¹.

Upper row, three footswitches. In Direct mode, these swap the order of your pedals: the first switch from the right swaps Loop 1 and Loop 2, the third switch swaps Loop 3 and Loop 4, and the middle switch swaps the first two loops with the last two³. In Preset mode, the upper row selects banks and engages master bypass¹.

Buffer and tails. There are in/out switches for the buffer circuit, and a tails function that lets delay and reverb tails continue ringing after a loop is switched out¹. The buffer itself is an optional Class A discrete input buffer².

Store/Edit button. Saving a preset is a short process, as MusicPlayers.com described it³:

1. Enable the loops you want to use.
2. Hold the Store/Edit button.
3. Select a preset location.
4. Hit the button again to write the preset³

The unit stores 128 presets in total, selectable from an external controller¹.

Bypass, buffer and connections

The four loops use true-relay (hardwire/mechanical) bypassing, so pedals switched out of the chain are kept out of the signal path entirely¹. That is the core appeal of any true-bypass loop-switching system: it cleans up and preserves your guitar's tone by keeping unused pedals and their cables from loading the signal¹.

For long cable runs or pedal chains that need it, the optional Class A discrete input buffer can be switched in, with its own in/out switches on the front panel¹². MusicPlayers.com tested the unit with pedals from Boss, Voodoo Lab, Morpheus and TC Electronic with the buffer engaged and reported no problems³.

Connections are straightforward: a master 1/4-inch mono input and output, four loops each with its own 1/4-inch send and return jacks, and a tuner output that sends the unprocessed guitar signal directly to a tuner¹. Multiple Pedal Palettes can be synced with MIDI².

Power

The Pedal Palette runs off 9V or 12V at 300mA³. That current draw is well above what a typical 9V battery or a small daisy-chain output supplies, so it needs a proper power supply.

Where it came from and what reviewers said

Decibel Eleven introduced the Pedal Palette at NAMM 2013, in January 2013, describing it as the first fully analog loop bypass switcher, router and mixer². Chris Hern, Decibel Eleven's vice president of product development, said of the design:

Guitar World reviewed it in its November 2013 issue and was positive, concluding that despite the sophisticated routing and output capabilities, it stayed simple to operate:

MusicPlayers.com placed it in a unique position in the floor-based looping category, comparing it against the Rocktron Patchmate Loop 8 Floor, Carl Martin Octa-Switch Mk II, Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher and One Control Crocodile Tail Loop³. Its differentiator against those units is the parallel routing and per-loop blend, which the others do not offer in the same way.

The unit is housed in a rugged metal enclosure with Carling-style switches³. At launch it carried an MSRP of $560 and sold for approximately $400³; Guitar World listed its street price as $399¹.

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