Snazzy FX The Mini-Ark

The Snazzy FX The Mini-Ark is a pitch-tracker pedal, a device that reads the pitch of your incoming signal and uses it to control the pitch of an analog square-wave oscillator. It sits in the wider family of octave and pitch pedals, but instead of shifting your guitar's own sound up or down, it generates a synth-style voice that follows your playing. MusicPlayers.com, covering the pedal's re-release, described it as "a monophonic tracking device"¹.

What it does

The Mini-Ark tracks the note you play and turns it into the pitch of an internal analog square-wave voice. Because it is a monophonic tracker, it follows single notes rather than chords, and its design goal, as stated in the re-release announcement, was "to work with as many different signals as possible"¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer put it plainly: "it's simply a pitch-tracker. It reads your incoming pitch and uses it to control the pitch of an analog square-wave volt"².

Controls and outputs

The pedal's main control is a six-position octave selector that sets the oscillator's pitch relative to your playing²:

The square-wave output is a routing tool as much as a sound control: Premier Guitar notes you can use it to divide guitar and synth signals, which is useful when you want the tracked voice and your dry signal sent to different destinations².

Tracking in practice

Tracking accuracy is the make-or-break question with any pitch device, and Premier Guitar's reviewer found the Mini-Ark responsive when played cleanly: "As long as you play notes articulately and accurately, the Mini-Ark will perfectly track even speedy lead lines and subtle bends"². In other words, single-note lines, fast runs and bends all follow, provided the playing itself is precise.

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