Malekko Heavy Industry Sneak Attack VCA Tremolo

The Malekko Heavy Industry Sneak Attack is a tremolo pedal built around a voltage controlled amplifier. Pedal of the Day described it as "essentially a tremolo pedal, but it is also so, so much more"¹, and Godlyke Distributing calls it "an auto-swell volume pedal that can also be manually triggered or used in a tremolo mode"². It was announced at NAMM in February 2016 alongside its Lil' Buddy footswitch companion³.

An envelope-shaped VCA tremolo

The core of the pedal is an Attack/Decay envelope generator with separate length and curve controls for both the attack and decay segments⁴. In practice, that means the player shapes the contour of each volume swell or pulse: how long it takes to rise, how long it takes to fall, and how sharply each segment curves. Pedal of the Day describes this as "An Attack and Decay envelope generator with control sections for the Length and Curve of both of the aforementioned segments"¹.

Because the envelope shapes a VCA rather than gating the signal hard, the pedal also behaves as a compressor. Delicious Audio's write-up from NAMM notes "a 'Threshold' control to adjust the amount of compression" and "an output 'Level' control"⁵, and their verdict was that "it does standard compression very well"⁵.

The controls and trigger modes

The pedal's controls and modes, as described by the press coverage:

• Attack Length and Decay Length: set the length of each envelope segment⁴
• Curve controls: shape the curve of the attack and decay segments¹
• Threshold: adjusts the amount of compression⁵, and in tap tempo mode multiplies the tempo by 1, 2, 3 or 4¹
• Level: an output level control to mix the effected sound with the dry signal¹⁵
• Threshold control modes: set to LFO (Low Frequency Oscillation) for conventional tremolo shapes and envelopes, or to Manual Trigger mode, where "it will only trigger an attack envelope"¹

Pedal of the Day describes the mode options as "Single Trigger and Cycling modes, plus LFO and Manual Trigger mode on the threshold control"¹. Guitar Interactive adds that the pedal "can also be manually triggered or used in a tremolo mode"¹².

Tap tempo and external triggering

Tap tempo is "activated simply by using the main footswitch"¹, and the Threshold control multiplies the tapped tempo by 1, 2, 3 or 4 while in tap tempo mode¹. The envelope can be triggered in several ways: "via the input signal, the built-in footswitch, the Lil' Buddy external switch, or an external clock/click track"¹. That last option is what lets the Sneak Attack follow a drummer's click or another tempo source.

What reviewers said

Pedal of the Day found the pedal friendlier than its feature list suggests: "the actual ease of use with this pedal is not as tedious as you might initially think"¹. Their overall verdict: "One of the funner pedals we've recently had the privilege to review, the Sneak Attack/Lil' Buddy combo is a powerful sonic tool for numerous musical scenarios"¹. Delicious Audio, writing from NAMM, confirmed that "it does standard compression very well" in addition to its envelope tricks⁵.

Malekko has explored tremolo and volume-swell designs beyond the Sneak Attack, and more of them are covered on the Tremolo Pedals page. As for the Sneak Attack itself, the reviewer found that "the actual ease of use with this pedal is not as tedious as you might initially think"¹.

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