VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo
We can’t forget the OG.
Valentine’s Day is always a special day. It’s the day where we take a moment to truly cherish those who bring us happiness and love. Well, today we’re celebrating a different kind of day.
VaLEDine’s Day.
Today, we celebrate VaLEDine’s Day. In honor of this memorable day, we’d like to take a moment and celebrate a very special pedal. A pedal that always delivers a multitude of feelings to those who have experienced its ever-loving, sickkkkkk tones. Please note, these feelings are not only of happiness and love but also of inspiration and creativity.
VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo.
We’re beyond excited to introduce the limited VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo, a new perspective on one of our best sellers and a NativeAudio classic. In this limited run, we’re revisiting the Kiaayo’s overdrive circuit while also integrating an LED-based clipping into its gain architecture – the results are magical. The VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo also includes a unique enclosure and packaging that’s almost as sweet as the tone itself (details below).
Let your tone sing in a new way.
The new circuit expands upon an already flexible overdrive and delivers a dirt circuit that covers a range of gain. From a robust and transparent boost to a narly and high-gain crunch, it’ll leave your half stack wanting in on the action.
What do we mean by a flexible overdrive? Have you ever had a cold where you felt a little stuffy and after taking medicine, you could breathe and smell again? Well, LED Kiaayo delivers a similar result to your tone. It’ll open up the gain circuit up so your tone can breathe and sing in a new way.
Quick summary of the nerdy stuff.
We’ll dive into this below but here’s a couple things you’ll experience with the LED Kiaayo:
Increased headroom
Retained low-end response
High-end clarity
Reduced compression
Additional natural harmonics
Increased headroom.
Here’s where the magic starts, and this will lead into the other areas of change that we’ll be talking about. The LED-based architecture provides more headroom for your signal, and it’ll modify the way your signal is treated based on your gain settings.
One way to think about headroom is your friend’s basement that you used jam in. Remember how crazy short that ceiling was? If you even tried to jump or have fun, you’d smack your head. Imagine raising that ceiling and having more room to get wild and crazy in. Well, that’s what we did with LED Kiaayo we’re here to have some fun!
Retained low-end response.
The low end is one of those things that I believe a lot of overdrive and distortion circuits forget. It’s easy to imagine low end on a fuzz just because that’s where a lot of the funky business is happening, but where’s the low-end love for our other dirt pedals?
The standard Kiaayo already excels with the low-end content, but LED Kiaayo takes this one step further. The updated clipping structure retains more low end as you increase the gain and creates a more complex diffusion of harmonics. What does this mean? It pairs well with instruments like guitar, bass, and keys where you’re wanting to keep more of your low end intact. For these instruments, it’s very interesting because you’re experiencing a full spectrum of dirt tone that’s pretty hard to compare to other units out in the universe.
High-end clarity.
If you’re looking for a bell-like chime that’ll make your ears bleed, that’s definitely not where we’re going with LED Kiaayo. We’re talking warm and cozy but with some options. The Kiaayo standard has been known to be generous with its warm tone, but the updated clipping structure in LED Kiaayo has changed this slightly (in a good way).
We mentioned bass earlier and that’s exactly where the high-end clarity comes into play. It’ll give you that top-end bite that’ll let others know you mean business. For guitar, it comes into play when you’re doing a lot of complex chording and you need to hear each note clearly, or you need that extra high-end umph to take things to the next level.
Reduced compression.
To all the fellow Kiaayo lovers, you know what we mean when we say compression and Kiaayo. It’s that sweet feeling you get when you dig into a set of notes, and you hear that crunch tighten up. You’d think an overdrive would just do overdrive things, but Kiaayo is classy and always takes it a step further with its unique compression abilities.
So what’s new about this whole “reduced compression” thing and is NativeAudio changing the Kiaayo’s special sauce? Come on, don’t think we’re getting silly here and completely dismissing the thrill that happens between compression and Kiaayo. The compression is still there but we’ve opened it up slightly and now the Kiaayo has the ability to get in your face a just little bit more than before.
For the low gain stuff, LED Kiaayo sounds like a vintage amp that’s pushed on the verge of breakup, where you can hear that “snap” of each note as you dig in. Dial the gain up and the breakup will be present, not shying away and only delivering more sustain to your playing as the gain increases.
Additional natural harmonics.
We’ve all been there before and we say, “sounds like a tube amp.” What does this even mean? Well, I don’t think there’s too many musicians out there that can agree upon what this actually means, so I’ll stay away from arguing that myth. I will say though, that if there was something that had a tube-like response, it’d be the breakup that both standard and LED Kiaayo deliver.
Typically when you plug into an overdrive and you take the ride on the gain train, the gain just seems to do more of what it’s already been doing but not in a good way. It’s like punching a wall and thinking if you do it harder, it’ll break. Our tonal journey wasn’t meant to be this basic. Your dirt tone should have some spice, and it should kick in a weird and interesting way. That’s why the additional harmonics introduced in the LED Kiaayo digs deep into the journey that the standard Kiaayo started. There’s something so interesting and complex about the harmonic content that’s generated with the LED Kiaayo. It’s an experience that’ll leave you experimenting the Kiaayo’s entire range of gain.
Packaging almost as sweet as the tone.
Oh yeah, we can’t forget about the special packaging included with the VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo. You’ll receive the following:
-A limited VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo build that’s made with love featuring a sweet-pink textured enclosure, forbidden-love red print, and some sparkling red aluminum knobs.
-A handwritten VaLEDine’s Day card expressing our love towards you, the tone wizards.
-A pedal box covered with all kinds of love because you only deserve the best.
-A set of “NativeAudio Loves Me” stickers that you can share with a friend or with the world to let others know how much we love and appreciate you.
-A custom set of M&M candies that feature the LED Kiaayo’s limited artwork, a heart with an arrowhead, and the phrases, “Get Dirty” and “You Drive Me Crazy.”
We love you.
To some, it might be not worth their time to explore something weird like this. Things like custom M&Ms, wild stickers, lovey-dovey boxing, hand-written notes, and not to mention spicy enclosers! All of these extra steps would scream, “what are you doing???” to an average company doing average stuff for average people. But no, you’re worth it. Your more than average, we’re more than average. Let’s get weird, challenge the status quo, and have more fun than we could ever imagine!
So we take this time to say thank you. Thank you for all the love, the support, and for getting weird with us. Seriously, thank youuuuuuuuu.
Okay, enough of the mush. Let’s make some noise!
Let’s make some noise.
Now that we’ve explored the possible, let’s go and create the impossible. Visit here for the VaLEDine’s Day Kiaayo.
