LR Baggs Soundscape

The LR Baggs Soundscape is an acoustic guitar effects pedal built around Voiceprint technology. Instead of applying a generic acoustic simulation, it measures the acoustic response of the player's own guitar and captures its voice, using the processing power of a smartphone to make the measurement. The resulting Voiceprint is then loaded onto the pedal, so the tone it produces is tied to the specific instrument being played. LR Baggs describes the result as "the most accurate sonic performance we have engineered in our 40+ years"¹.

What it does

The Soundscape approaches a familiar problem for acoustic players, getting a plugged-in guitar to sound like the guitar itself, in a different way from conventional acoustic pedals or preamps. The process works in two stages:

1. The pedal's Voiceprint technology measures the acoustic response of the player's guitar.
2. A smartphone is used to process that measurement and accurately capture the guitar's voice, and the Voiceprint is loaded onto the pedal¹.

Mike Newsom of LR Baggs demonstrated the pedal live at NAMM 2020, showing how a Voiceprint is created on a smartphone and then loaded to the pedal¹. In that sense it sits alongside other approaches to capturing a guitar's natural acoustic character, such as the Audio Sprockets ToneDexter, though the Soundscape's method relies on a smartphone rather than onboard capture alone.

Release and first impressions

The Soundscape was shown at NAMM 2020, with LR Baggs stating that "The Soundscape will be available in the late spring"¹. MusicRadar included it among the notable new pedals of the show, but its editor Rob Laing was careful about drawing conclusions from a brief demo: "We only tried it through headphones at the show and that's really no way to judge acoustic tone"². He noted he was looking forward to testing it properly for a MusicRadar review of its acoustic tone².

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