Newer, heavier bands like Brutus and Russian Circles have carried the torch, the latter using vintage Tauruses until a band of tweakers vandalized their trailer in 2021. Instrumental metal trio bassist Brian Cook has since been reunited with his beloved Taurus, but in the meantime he used a Keith McMillan Instruments 12 Step with Moog Minotaur model to recreate it. He is famous for shouting and gurgling in a low voice while playing the baritone guitar with his hands.
The 12 Stage expands on the original with 2 five-pin DIN inputs and outputs, as well as extended expression options with each of the 12 pedals laid out like an octave on a keyboard. Both the pressure and tilt of each pedal can be mapped to unique CCs, allowing things like filter, attack and resonance to be adjusted downwards on each press. The computer-based editor is easy to understand, and each pedal can send chords containing up to five notes for a richer sound with minimal tap dancing. You’ll need your own module to generate sounds with the MIDI messages sent by each pedal, but the USB output can be routed to a phone, tablet or laptop for easy control of synth plugins on whatever type of device you have. The 12 Step 2 is lightweight, durable, and slim, making it easy to drop over your guitar pedals before stashing it in a box on the road for safekeeping. The same can’t be said about the Moog Taurus or Roland PK-6, which are 3 inches higher and 10 pounds, versus the 12 Step 2, which is 1 inch higher and only 1.25 pounds.
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