Others have said it in reviews but I will say it again, if you are not happy with your acoustic tone right now this pedal will probably not do you any good. But if you have a tone you are pleased with this pedal will absolutely enhance it.
I'll spare you my full bio cuz you don't care, just know I have been getting paid to play for 20 years and almost all of that time has been on an acoustic. Gear has come and gone. I am a worship leader now but I do a lot of percussive fingerstyle and instrumental guitar. I currently play a Taylor with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend/ Mic PUP into a Boss GE7 eq pedal into my Blackstar sonnet 120 acoustic amp. It is the simplest my rig has been in YEARS but it also sounds great! But this session pedal was the perfect final touch.
I have found even with a great PUP a decent EQ, and a compressor, you are always tweaking knobs. If you want warmth, you also gotta deal with boomy/boxiness/muddiness. If you want articulation, you get tinny/weak/shrill or ear piercing treble as well. You can use a regular compressor pedal to kind of "clean" your tone but you are sacrificing the dynamics that make the acoustic so beautiful. This pedal fixes that. The saturation gives you warmth and the comp/eq just sort of tightens things up without "squashing" your tone or making it too punchy. I am so pleased with the Session I will be trying out the Align Delay for sure and possibly the Align Reverb as well.

As the description says. I wanted to love this pedal but I couldn't get past the noise it added to my set up.

I have a USA Breedlove C20SM equipped with Baggs Anthem, the full size unit.

I have always liked the sound of that guitar/pickup pairing, and have received many favorable comments. It sounds really good through my Fishman Loudbox Mini.

The only issue I have had over the years is that blending in more than 50% mic affected the tone. The airiness was still there, but the sound lacked punch and depth.

On loud jam stages, I used only the Element undersaddle so I could cut through the mix. Still a pretty good sound but not organic enough.

The Align Session makes such a huge difference! I'm still experimenting, but it brings a richness and depth to the plugged-in sound that is remarkable.

Using the Anthem with mic blended all the way up is now a good thing! The sound has so much more character and life than it did before.

I like that the true guitar signal is not washed out or covered up.

I watched the Sweetwater demo with Justin Weaver at least 20 times, several times with headphones.

I must say that using the pedal in person does a lot more than what I heard in those demos.

I'm completely impressed with what this pedal does - particularly when playing slide. High notes are richer and more robust.

Works great for me - highly recommended!

I don't find the combined EQ/compression dial to be useful. For $, I'm better off investing in a Baggs preamp with proper EQ dials. I have a 12 string, and I find this lack of control especially not useful. May work better for 6 string, but still... a single tone dial does not make sense to me, combined with compression. At least give me a separate compression dial. I might have used this pedal, if I could just leave the EQ flat, and adjust the compression separately.

The Align Session Pedal significantly enhances the and tightens up the tone of my Taylor 214ce Plus/AD12e SB and Yamaha FS Transacoustic guitars played thru a Fishman Loudbox Mini Amp. The Saturation and Compression are a great combo. Highly recommend.

Great pedal and sound ! I have an LR Baggs on an old Seagull acoustic from the 1980's. So, I knew this would be
a good product. And made well.

Thanks again!

Makes my Martin shine !

Wow! Makes guitar sound more focused,more forward I guess,more of something that's good, more just plain more! Hard to describe really makes guitar dimensional when compared without it. If it's in your budget just get one I promise it will enhance the sound of your acoustic guitar! I use it in front of L R Baggs venue D I which is another great way to go to F O H. Together they provide a lot of flexibility. If you need a sales engineer I recommend Evan Mulvihill,he's been mine for years and has yet to steer me astray. Like title says you can't go wrong with this pedal!

I didn't know what to expect from this pedal. All I can say is WOW! I wanted to get more presence in my tone and that's exactly what this delivers. It's placed first in the signal chain. I used it for a solo gig and it really made the guitar shine (D-18 Modern Deluxe w/ a Fishman Matrix Infinity). Looking forward to hearing what it does with my Trio this afternoon.

I already had the venue by LR Baggs which is a great EQ pedal. But adding the session was a game changer it definitely helps smooth everything out and the saturation is a great bonus too. It is on from start to finish of every set I play plugged up. Next will be the delay pedal.

This device is easy to use. I was able to dial it in to the signal chain for an improved sound on my Martin acoustic. This device is used for every live performance.

The LR Baggs Align Session was the missing piece of the puzzle for my live acoustic rig. Although my acoustic pickups (K&K) sounded good going through the pa (Fishman SA330X, see my review), I wanted a bit more warmth and something to even out slight output differences from different strings.
I tried several pedals that use digital processing to correct for the pickups, but that's not what I needed.
The Baggs Align is all analog and, according to the product info, was developed with Nashville sound engineers specifically for acoustic instruments.
The end result is that now my live setup sounds much more natural and evens out the playing, especially when switching between multiple guitars.
It's as close as you can get (provided you have good pickups) to studio sound in a live performance, with the convenience of not using mics on stage.
I use this and a DI between the guitar and pa, that's it. I get many compliments on my sound and it makes for a better performance when you know you're sounding good.
I consider this a must have for live acoustic guitar!

I was a little suspect over the ability of this pedal to shape and improve the amplified sound of my GS Mini Koa Plus. The ES 2 system is already fantastic. Happily, my suspicions proved false. The Session totally helps with tweaking tone to better match the pure acoustic tone. Especially, in mellowing the bright end and brining greater fidelity to the guitar's natural compression. For further reference, I use a Bose S1 Pro as my amplifier in the "guitar" setting. Overall, I'm super pleased with it.

I really like this pedal. To me, it firmly falls in the camp of a 'tone-enhancing' pedal (as opposed to a 'tone-shaping' pedal). If you already like the sound of your acoustic pickup and you're just looking to enhance things further, then it's a great match for your rig. But if you're unhappy with the sound of your guitar pickup, this doesn't have the dramatic tone-shaping capabilities that something like a dedicated EQ or preamp will have. So for me, that's really where this pedal shines—using it as an enhancement alongside a good preamp. I've linked to a video review below where I chat more about what this pedal does, listen to it in action, and cover some of the general recommendations for setting it up. I hope you find it helpful. Thanks ; )

I set the pedal so that you just notice everything smooths out, and sustains more. Finger picking sounds more even, and there's none of the squashed tone you get with a lot of compression. The pedal is quiet, almost no noise. My SJ-200 sounds even fuller with plenty of chime and overtones. I leave this pedal on almost all the time. It's in the chain right after the LR Baggs Venue DI, a nice EQ/Tuner/Boost that can plug right into the board

I like the sound this pedal gives to my Taylor...the sound was thin and the low end was muddy just run straight from the guitar to my amp and this thickens the sound very nicely. Gives it a nice warm color in the low and mid range and evens out the frequency (Taylors are notably bright sounding). My only negative is that it does impart a bit of noise...not really noticeable when playing, but in between songs there's a fair amount of hiss even with the gain turned down. I am running from a tuner pedal to the LR Baggs, to a Electroharmonix Looper, into a TC Helicon Harmony GT-X (throughput) and to the amp with reverb added at the amp. May be something in the signal chain, but only noticed the noise when I added the Baggs. Overall, though, I am very happy with the sound I am able to get, and it comes much closer to my unplugged sound.

This clever circuit is in part a multi-band compressor, successfully tailored to acoustic guitars. It sounds wonderful.

This pedal is fantastic from this point forward I won't play without it .
The clarity and warmth are excellent and every note is super clear and clean with my 614ce Taylor or my Red Masters Furch . Absolutely recommend brings your acoustic alive sounds like a studio mix only live !

True to the product claims, this pedal improves the acoustic guitar pickup sound in a way that sounds natural and clean. I use the K&K Pure Mini passive pickup system direct into a Fishman SA330X PA, and they sound good. Add the Align Session pedal, and now the acoustic tone and dynamics really come to life and sound more natural. What I like about the Session is that it's analog compression and gain, rather than dsp that some pedals use. It's not trying to make your acoustic pickup system sound different so much as it improves on what you have using studio quality design.

I'm a minimalist, and only use a few pedals for my acoustic pedal board. This was the missing piece of the puzzle for live performances and really made a difference. I also use it to record reference tracks when I want to get something down quick and still sound good without setting up mics. Also use it to record in addition to mics to get some extra punch and bass.

It's definitely worth the investment to improve your live sound or home recording if you don't have good mics or a space to isolate for microphone recording.
Key part of my sound now, would recommend checking it out!

I bought this pedal because of its saturation function. I sort of hoped the compressor would be very good considering it was made specifically for the acoustic guitar. I'm kind of dissappointed in the compressor, but probably because I have a (cheap) optical compressor that I'm used to, and optical compressor rocks on an acoustic. I guess the session pedal does not have an optical compressor.

The saturation function is interresting though. On high settings it kind of sounds like slight overdrive, but that makes sense. Distortion has the effect of adding additional harmonics, which is what the saturation is designed to do. Nevertheless, on low to medium settings it seems to work pretty nice on my piezo pickup. It makes it sounds a little less dull, its subtle but gives me a better tone so I like it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really work well on my LR Baggs Lyric. It makes the mic feedback faster, but the mic already has a lot of harmonic content in it already so it doesn't actually need it. Right now I'm putting my piezo pickup through some pedals starting with this one, and then I end up mixing it with the Lyric pickup. This makes for a BIG & natural sound, with some crunch from the saturation.
I wonder if the price is really worth it considering I'm only using half the pedal. Nevertheless, I'm able to make an unique sound in my setup so I'm keeping it.

I purchased this pedal because LR Baggs claimed to take the "post-production" studio acoustic sound to a live setting. This pedal does it! I love the gain flexibility but the saturation is key on this one. The compression seems best around 10-11 o'clock. After using it live I had multiple people say "that's the best sounding acoustic I've ever heard." So, I had to share a review. I'm also running the LR Baggs Reverb with this pedal.

I have been slowly building a separate board for my EUB/acoustic bass/mellower worship sets. I have the LR Baggs Reverb, Delay, Chorus, DI, and now this compressor/eq/saturation pedal. I added it to the board and WOW, it is subtle, but man is it there. On my other board, I use a Darkglass compressor (an epic pedal indeed), but this is really something different. Again transparent, but when you play with the settings it is very beautiful. I have, so far, used with my NS Design Omni bass (Arco and pizzicato), Godin fretless A4, Boulder Creek 5 string fretless acoustic bass, High Spirit's flutes, Taylor t5z, Martin d15, and my seagull parlor acoustic. My worship leader was playing with my pedal board and is really digging it, and that is high praise...oops, sorry.

It does what it claims to do, makes acoustic guitar sound better. Whenever I play acoustic guitar this pedal stays on.

Really like the sound enrichment saturation and compeq provide, adding body without altering the fundamental sound of my Larrivee with K&K Pure Western (passive).

Struggling with rating due
- Scant documentation, esp. around technical specifications
- Stiff/noisy foot switch
- Access to the battery compartment requiring a screwdriver
- A rather lofty price point

All in all, it's good device that serves my live acoustic needs. Next, I'll experiment with using it to dual-track acoustic in the studio.

Cheers!

Good little box. Kinda sounded like I was inside the body behind the sound hole. Tried 2 different 6 string & a 12 string acoustics through it. Got consistent response with each guitar. The output could do with more power but good as it stands. Doesn't come with a 'wall wart' but accepts most 9v/C- units on the market.

This is the only pedal I currently use to enhance the sound of my Martin D-42 equipped with the LR Baggs Anthem system when I play live in either my duo or single performances. The warmth created so compliments the desired tones and sounds, regardless of the size of the sound system, makes this worth every penny.

Concept was nice but this pedal is very noisy. Enhances the white noise way to much even when you back down on the gain. You have to turn down the volume but then that decrease your overall guitar sound. Disappointed

There are many discussions out there in the forums whether to use a compressor on an acoustic guitar or not. Those who oppose using compression argue the player should learn to adjust and improve their playing technique and not rely on a stomp box that will squash the sound. I respectfully disagree now that I have used the LR Baggs Align Session for about 3 hours after never using compression since 1976 when I first started playing out live.

btw .... don't think of this pedal as squashing or dulling the sound. Think of it in terms of leveling all the string volumes so they are equal. You scan still play dynamically. Actually the pedal encourages it with confidence. It works fantastically for finger style, flat picking or strumming. I highly recommend this pedal.

My gear in the event this helps you to decide to explore this pedal.

- Stock entry level under saddle Fishman UST - works well with the compressor.

I have added a "Pick Up The World #54" pickup and use it exclusively and don't bother with the Fishman. It is fantastic. I also use the LR Baggs Para DI but now with the compressor added I don't have much need to adjust the tone controls. For the most part flat and I am astonished how mic'd the guitar sounds.

Get the compressor. What have you to loose? If you aren't satisfied with your amplified sound then I suggest you start with this pedal.

All the best and stay musical. :)

Enhances my sound. I like to "color" my acoustic sound as I play straight rhythm guitar.. when I plug in, I turn this pedal on. Removed three pedals from my board. Crystal highs, enhances minds without feedback or muddy ness.

Been using this for a few months now with my Anthem SL (also Baggs), and I can't play without it now. It's subtle at first, but it adds such a beautiful layer of texture while smoothing out the overall tone.

I can"t play into a system without this now. Both the saturation and compression are just fantastic. Completely dialed into what makes an acoustic sound great. Buy this now.

For a Baggs product,I was not impressed. Sent it back. Sweetwater is sincere in wanting customer satisfaction. I have guitars with Baggs pickups, and in reality, maybe they don"t need enhancement. Maybe they"re just good enough alone, that"s what I"ve decided. I"m sure other will appreciate it, I just didn"t.

This makes my fifth purchase of Baggs gear. Each one has improved the sound of my acoustic guitars. The Align Session pedal has made a great sounding guitar sound so sweet and warm. It does what it claims! Buy one!