Designing the Parallelarator: The Story Behind the Pedal

written by: Rich Cattell

When I started Cosmic Loop FX, I wasn’t just trying to build pedals for the sake of building pedals. I wanted to solve the same problems I’d run into myself as a guitarist—real-world, practical issues that kept me from getting the sounds I heard in my head.

The Parallelarator is probably the clearest example of that. It came about because I wanted something that didn’t exist.

The Hunt for the Right Tool

For years, I’d been fascinated with the idea of running a parallel rig—keeping my dry tone intact while blending in effects in ways that a traditional series chain just doesn’t allow. At the same time, I loved the depth and size of wet/dry/wet setups, where you have one amp running dry and two more carrying the stereo effects.

So, naturally, I went looking for a pedal that could do both: a parallel mixer with wet/dry/wet outputs.

There are plenty of parallel mixers on the market, and many of them are great at what they do. But every time I dug into the details, I found the same sticking point: none of them gave me simple, plug-and-play outputs for multiple amps.

If you wanted to run wet/dry/wet, you were looking at adding splitters, buffers, and all kinds of extra gear. On a studio desk or a massive touring rig, maybe that’s fine. But on a small to medium pedalboard—the kind most of us actually use—it was a nightmare.

At some point I realised: if I wanted this kind of pedal, I was going to have to build it.

From Idea to Design

The starting point was simple: a parallel mixer that doubles as a wet/dry/wet junction box. No extra boxes, no headaches, just one pedal that adapts to however many amps you want to plug in.

From there, the design philosophy took shape:

• It had to be automatic — plug in one, two, or three amps and the pedal configures itself.

• It had to be flexible — three loops, stereo or mono, with the ability to mix them however you like.

• It had to be transparent — no tone suck, no coloration, just your signal intact.

• And above all, it had to be simple — if you can plug in a pedal, you can run this box.

  
  

That thinking turned into the Parallelarator.

What It Became

The final pedal ended up doing more than I first imagined:

• Three stereo loops, switchable to mono and mixable into stereo outs.

• A phase switch on Loop 3 to handle those pedals that flip your signal.

• A Dry Mix control, so your core tone never gets buried.

• Adaptive outputs — mono, stereo, or full wet/dry/wet without changing your wiring.

• And of course, hand-built construction here in the UK.

  
  

What started as a personal frustration became a tool that does exactly what I wished existed: a compact, elegant way to explore parallel processing and multi-amp setups without turning your board into a science project.

Why It Matters

For me, the Parallelarator isn’t about specs on paper. It’s about creative freedom.

• Want to run fuzz bone-dry into one amp while shimmer verb floats in stereo around it? Go for it.

• Want to blend three delays in parallel for a massive wash that still keeps definition? Done.

• Want to experiment with amp setups that most guitarists avoid because of complexity? Easy.

The Parallelarator takes the “impractical” and makes it playable.

What’s Next

Building this pedal showed me just how much potential there still is in rethinking routing. The Parallelarator is the first step, but it won’t be the last—Cosmic Loop FX will keep exploring ways to make complex sounds simple, inspiring, and stage-ready.

If you’ve ever wanted more from your pedalboard without making it bigger or harder to use, the Parallelarator was built for you.

Explore the Parallelarator → [Check it out here!]