Here’s some details in Catalinbread’s own words:

Features WITHOUT Benefits = IRRELEVANCE! Look around and all you will see in the tremolo world are a bunch of devices that are physically too BIG which sport features that ultimately do very little for musicians. Thus the question arrises what makes for a great tremolo effect pedal? Well, we've been taking notes for literally years and threw them into the foot-long equation and the Semaphore was the result. Slight buttery smooth warble to full toggleswitched chopping! Yeah, yeah, yeah a tremolo is supposed to do those things who cares?

Ah well yeah, we threw in a few extra features on the Semaphore that actually do something useful for players. Firstly, we decided to brag about the fact that you don't have to settle for "apparent volume drop" when engaged. Which leads to the next benefit functions as a volume boost WITH or WITHOUT volume fluctuation, YES unmodulated volume boost by turning down the "Depth" knob. Thus if you're reckless like me you can turn the volume up TOO much and you'll be surprised at the tonal/character variations on tap. Tonal variations ranging from clean boosting to mild drive to dirty! Third, we knew we wanted a device to control our beloved Teaser Stallion.

While designing the Semaphore we knew we could only settle for those features if we could also fit it all into our standard 4.3" x 2.3" enclosures, with the jacks all on one side. Current consumption and noise are huge factors with LFO circuits in tiny packages. Our early experiments with LFO opamp type resulted in dropping a volt from a battery and dying. This is where we MUST give credit to Brian Marshall of Subdecay for his recommendation of an opamp that does the job, now the battery can be sucked down to nothing and the Semaphore will happily run.

We are pleased with the final result of the Semaphore. It has been a long time coming but at Catalinbread we believe that a worldclass company can afford to take their time to deliver a worldclass product that isn't chaulked full of gristle. Thus we're certain that the Semaphore will excede the expectations and demands of all players from plug 'n play vintage geeks to knob-twiddling nerds. Features+Benefits=Semaphore.