If you're a guitarist wanting to use software guitar plug-ins then you'll want one of these. You can't fool yourself forever that you're content with a mouse and keyboard shortcuts - you need to get your foot into the action so you can actually play like a guitarist rather than a sound engineer who likes to tweak things after the event.

The strangely named StealthPedal (what - you can't see it or something?) is a nifty rugged metal wah pedal with a USB audio interface built in. Gives you a couple of guitar inputs into your computer and full expressive control over your software parameters - like, for instanse, perhaps, wah!

As with the Stomp I/O (IK's floorboard controller) it's expandable - you could plug in a footswitch and an expression pedal to increase your control. Comes with cut down versions of Amplitube 2 to get you going and will work as a MIDI controller in everything else. At €199 it's not a bad price at all - not much more than any other 2 in 2 out box, although it does lack a microphone input.

Looks great but it does raise one question for me - similar to the original Kore from Native Instruments in that most people already have their audio interface sorted out and it seems unecessary to buy another audio interface when actually all you're after is the MIDI and software control. A USB wah pedal on it's own (made of metal and has the feel of a real wah pedal) is all I'm after really and i reckon it could be half the price and a must-have purchase. That said, for gigging with a laptop it's pretty damn perfect - although.... lack of mic input...... oh bother, why is nothing ever perfect? They should let me design the things :)

http://www.ikmultimedia.com