banner

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

TC Electronic Plethora X5

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • TC Electronic Plethora X5



    Check out this thing!

    I love the HOF and Flashback, and the modulations all have sounded good. A couple of drive pedals and this would be a great pedalboard!

    You might recall TC Electronic teasing a do-everything multi-effects pedal back in September - before everything suddenly went quiet. But now, finally, the fruits of the Danish co’s labor have revealed themselves in the form of the Plethora X5 TonePrint Pedalboard.

    Spanning five separate effects sections - each with its own pressure-sensitive MASH footswitch - the Plethora X5 contains every TonePrint pedal TC has released thus far, spanning compression to pitch-shifting, delay, reverb and every modulation under the sun.

    Up to 127 separate ‘pedalboards’ can be created, each with five pedals, with the ability to store up to 75 TonePrints for each effect.

    TC Electronic Plethora X5(Image credit: TC Electronic)

    Any effect can be loaded in any pedal slot in any order, and TC has generously included an FX loop, which can also be moved anywhere in the chain, allowing you to run the Plethora’s effects before or after your own drive pedals.

    As you may have noted, each pedal features just a single knob - instead, the majority of editing is done via a Bluetooth connection to TC’s TonePrint app.

    Other features include stereo inputs and outputs, plus a cab sim with British-style voicing, while TC is promising a host of feature updates throughout the Plethora’s lifespan.

    The Plethora’s pedalboard-friendly size and ability to serve as an addition to a complement of drive pedals could see it win a place in the rigs of many players - it certainly takes the fight to Line 6, Boss, Zoom, et al.

    We’ll find out whether that’s true when it lands later this year for around $399. See TC Electronic for more info.
    Last edited by PFDarkside; 02-20-2020, 07:17 AM.
    Oh no.....


    Oh Yeah!

  • #2
    Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

    Just watched the video on it, it looks really cool.


    Do what I do. Hold tight and pretend it's a plan!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

      That is a really great price, too. I can imagine this would be a big success.
      Administrator of the SDUGF

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

        Seems really awesome. Except having to do most of your editing through the toneprint app. I want to be able to turn knobs.
        Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

        Originally posted by Douglas Adams
        This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

          As much as I hate that "if it was good enough in the 50's it's good enough now and change is scary" attitude that's so pervasive among guitarist, this feels like yet another poorly thought through TC design. Yes, it's awesome how much stuff you can cram into one box these days and yes, I'm sure people who love tweaking can spend days at home setting up and saving profiles. But not being able to tweak things on the fly makes it kinda of useless in any band or live setting. I have a hard time imagining anyone using this as a replacement for a floor rig that you can tweak to accommodate whatever venue or situation you may encounter. Whipping out your cell phone mid rehearsal to turn your carefully crafted reverb down seems likea good way to piss off your band mates.

          Case in point, I love my Flashback Mk I and it's super innovative how they built in a strum-tempo function, but it's completely useless in a live setting unless you have a singer who loves to give speeches between songs. What TC should've done is added four or so extra knobs for tweaking settings, so you're not limited to using apps. Then again, maybe they're saving that for the next version?
          --------------------------------------------------------
          1973 Aria 551
          1984 Larrivee RS-4 w/ EMG SA/SA/89
          1989 Charvel 750 XL w/ DMZ Tone Zone & Air Norton
          1990's noname crap-o-caster plywood P/J Bass
          1991 Heartfield Elan III w/ DMZ mystery pups
          1995 Aria Pro II TA-65
          2001 Gibson Les Paul Gothic w/ PG-1 & SH-8

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

            I think you get 3 parameters from each effect to tweak on the fly, which is about what you get from most pedals. I think most people wouldn't need more than that for a live show. You pre-program everything with a pedalboard like this. What I don't like...is that I don't know if there are any drive models in it. So while it can be part of a pedalboard, it might not be the whole thing for me (yet). They say they are going to continually add new things, though.
            Administrator of the SDUGF

            Comment


            • #7
              TC Electronic Plethora X5

              My initial reaction is that this’ll end up as part of boards, rather than a replacement for the whole thing, like how people integrate things like the Eventide H9, Line6 M9, etc. currently. I haven’t looked at it in detail, but if it includes a loop for placing drive pedals between the integrated toneprint blocks, then it would open up a few possibilities.

              EDITED - sorry, it’s early and I haven’t had my coffee yet - I see that it does indeed include a variable-position FX loop.

              Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                I wouldn’t want TC Toneprint drives, I’d want my own. Their reverbs, delays and modulations sound great though. The majority of the work happens at the TonePrint download or user customization phase, turning knobs is just mix, rate, delay time, etc. The heavy lifting has all been done earlier for the HOF and Flashback for me.
                Oh no.....


                Oh Yeah!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                  It's not a preamp and no IRs, right?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                    Meh. Give me an updated G-System and I'm all ears.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                      Originally posted by littlebadboy View Post
                      It's not a preamp and no IRs, right?
                      Correct, just effects. It does have a cab sim, but I wouldn’t expect that to do heavy lifting.
                      Oh no.....


                      Oh Yeah!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                        Apparently they are going to add a bunch of more stuff to it over time.
                        Administrator of the SDUGF

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                          I don't think TC ever had digital drives in their MFX units or toneprint pedals. The Nova system had an analog drive.

                          Three knobs are plenty on a pedal for me for live use functionality, for multiple parameter changes with a single click I much prefer presets than bending over & hoping the dials are all set to the right point in a dim lit or dark stage/room. The HOF mini had a single knob, that single knob could be assigned to control three parameter changes at set intervals or throughout it's travel range or inverse changes. So having three knobs that can do this isn't a bad deal. It's priced well too, makes my flashback delay a bit redundant at the $169/- that they were sold for new years ago.

                          This looks like a new nova system like unit minus the analog drive & a lot more flexible & compact. I hope footswitches are good quality on these.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                            Hank, I agree. I made my own TonePrint for the HOF mini that goes from subtle plate to longer lush verb to huge modulated wet reverb with the single knob. The delay I made for the mini Flashback sits under your tone perfectly. Their algorithms just work for my ears.

                            It’s got MIDI too. We’ll have to wait to see the implementation, but this paired with a Nova Drive could be great.
                            Oh no.....


                            Oh Yeah!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: TC Electronic Plethora X5

                              I just don't understand why, when it's clearly and explicitly designed to integrate into a board with your existing pedals, they chose to have the signal run Left to Right, backwards from every every pedalboard ever.

                              I know that's common in standalone, all-in-one multi-fx pedals, but this... isn't one of those. It's functionally five independent pedals in a single box.

                              Hopefully a firmware patch will allow for swapping the flow. If they can move the loop around with software, surely they can reorder the virtual, software-based pedals to display in the proper order.
                              ---------------------------
                              The most popular thread I've ever made was 1) a joke and 2) based around literally the most inane/mundane question I could think of. That says something about me, or all of you, or both.

                              https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...or-for-a-Strat

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X