Heritage Audio Synth Buddy

The Heritage Audio Synth Buddy uses only passive circuitry, and that means that it can be used with all manner of unbalanced audio signals, including synths and guitars. It also means that it can operate in either direction — so you can select which of up to 10 mono or stereo sources are routed to a single destination, or route one instrument to your choice of up to 10 destinations. For example, I was able to sit it on my guitar pedalboard and use it to route the main output signal to the various different amps and amp emulation hardware that’s set up in my studio. I was also able to use it to feed different sources to my looper pedal.

The I/O are all on the back panel, laid out as vertically stacked pairs of TS sockets. The upper row is labelled as the left channel and the lower as right, though there’s nothing to stop you reversing that. The ‘output’, which could equally well be used as the single input, is in the middle, with five pairs for ‘the other end’ either side. On the top, you turn a large chicken‑head knob, which operates a switch that changes the routing. Everything’s clearly labelled, so you’re never in any doubt about which numbered source is selected, or which physical jack leads for that matter. (That said, one change I’d like to see here is a ‘scribble strip’ or space at the top to accommodate user labelling.)...