Strymon La Brea

Strymon La Brea Analog Tape Drive is a fully analog drive that brings the distinctive character of tape saturation to a compact effects pedal. Inspired by the Saturation section of Strymon’s Deco, its multi-stage analog circuit is designed to recreate the behaviour of tape. Its range extends from subtle warmth, compression and mild breakup to powerful overdrive and even fuzz-like saturation, with no digital processing anywhere in the signal path.

The Tape Sat control determines the amount of saturation, while the Gain switch adjusts its available range. The Shift switch lets you choose between a dedicated high-frequency boost or a combination of high-frequency and midrange boost for additional body and clarity. La Brea also features a fully variable dry signal path that always remains in phase with the pedal’s output, allowing you to retain definition and the natural attack of your instrument even at high saturation settings.

La Brea operates internally at 24 volts, giving its all-analog circuitry plenty of headroom, a wide gain range and quiet operation. This makes it equally suitable as a subtle always-on tone enhancer or as a source of much more aggressive driven and saturated sounds.

The La Brea requires a standard 9V DC center-negative power supply capable of delivering 500 mA (not included).

Strymon La Brea demo video