Designed for enterprising instrumentalists who wish to go beyond the usual compressor pedal, the Electro-Harmonix PLATFORM is a compressor/limiter stompbox with a switchable overdrive section and an esoteric swell control. Its dynamic-section boasts controls typically reserved for studio pieces, such as hard/soft knee selectors, variable ratios (in Compressor mode), variable thresholds (in Limiter mode), and continuously-variable attack and release knobs. A Limiter switch is on hand for putting the squeeze on guitars, basses, and more, while the stereo operation is also a boon. With this pedal, you can route mono sources to mono destinations, split your mono sound to two different outputs, or run in true stereo. This makes the pedal suitable for keyboardists.

Indeed, these various attributes render the PLATFORM not only a useful tool for live musicians, but a fun processor for eccentric studio applications as well. For example, if you’re new to the world of outboard compression, you could try compressing the drums of your mix by running them from your interface, into this pedal, and back into your interface.

Onto the drive section, with which you can secure an overdriven, distorted sound: The PLATFORM provides a dedicated footswitch for the overdrive, as well as volume, tone, and drive controls to tailor it to your liking. Another useful effect is the swell knob, which is particularly useful for musicians operating in country or American genres. This effect effectively removes the sound of your pick attack, and causes the note to fade in. With different timings of the swell knob, you can get anything from a more bowed sound to a pedal-steel timbre. Tape-reversal effects are also achievable with the Swell knob. At noon, the Swell knob is taken out of the circuit.

This pedal utilizes stereo, buffered bypass circuitry, so that your tone is preserved across long cable runs and multiple pedal setups. It requires a power supply to run, which is included with your purchase of the PLATFORM.