Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

[mantis]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

I'm getting interested in TC Electronic pedals. The toneprint feature is great if you spend time with it.

I'm considering the Hyper Gravity, Hall of Fame and Flashback next. I'm also considering the Vortex. The Corona does do a convincing flanger, but I think a dedicated flange will be more tweakable to what I want.

My flashback is under suspect as it does weird things. I've dug into it for awhile now and I might go back to the DD-7 by Boss, I felt that was a better Delay pedal. I got all hooked on the tone print thing and thought that was the best thing since sliced bread. I'm now learning that simple is much better.
The hall of fame is a pretty fantastic Reverb pedal. I like everything about it.
The Sentry Noise gate is better then the NS-2 by Boss IMO. It goes further and doesn't have the strange digital sound the NS-2 makes sometimes. The Sentry is a little overly complicated but thats kinda of a good thing as I can dial it in exactly as I need it. I would not go back to the NS-2.

 

[arath060]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

^yes its grounding tab. Does the pedal pass signal when in buffered mode? Then its getting powered & problem is the footswitch. This series has been reported to have early switch failure with the initial factory run. The switch was revised after awhile but not sure if the problem was fixed or not.

Not sure, but if it is the footswitch will I have to return it or contact TC about it?

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

My flashback is under suspect as it does weird things. I've dug into it for awhile now and I might go back to the DD-7 by Boss, I felt that was a better Delay pedal. I got all hooked on the tone print thing and thought that was the best thing since sliced bread. I'm now learning that simple is much better.
The hall of fame is a pretty fantastic Reverb pedal. I like everything about it.
The Sentry Noise gate is better then the NS-2 by Boss IMO. It goes further and doesn't have the strange digital sound the NS-2 makes sometimes. The Sentry is a little overly complicated but thats kinda of a good thing as I can dial it in exactly as I need it. I would not go back to the NS-2.

I definitely want a more complex gate... I find the really simple ones seem to choke off my notes or don't close fast enough, so something that I can tweak is welcome.

 

[mantis]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

I definitely want a more complex gate... I find the really simple ones seem to choke off my notes or don't close fast enough, so something that I can tweak is welcome.

Well my friend this is where TC hit a home run man. Their Sentry Noise gate is about as good as it gets. You don't even know you have a gate except the fact your noise floor is much lower. It's transparent unlike the Boss NS-2 which you know you have a gate with that. It's really good but difficult to get setup perfectly.
I tried both pedals and did a pretty good vs battle between them. The NS-2 has been my go to for a while but when I learned about the Sentry, it was everything I thought Boss could improve on the NS-2. Not to say the NS-2 isn't a great pedal as it is and when the gate closes if your muted or ending a song, it's fine but you can hear the gate close and it sharply cuts off. This is adjustable to a point but you can't seem or at least I couldn't get it seamless. The Sentry on the other hand is just a notch better. When the gate closes it goes away gently, now you can adjust this as well but it has 2 adjustments in Dampening and Decay. They work together along with the 3rd adjustment in Threshold. When I first got it I was a bit overwhelmed on how to set it up properly. I had no idea where to set it and It was a bit frustrating. So I went online, watched a few youtube videos on it and got a better understanding on how it works. Once I did that I was set.
Then there is the tone print feature, this is pretty cool as some artist set up the gate frequencies that get gated and others to pass. This is damn powerful as if you find a tone print already done for you, your right there is getting it dialed in perfectly in your rig. If not you can use the tone print editor and experiment with where your noise is and where it is not so you can get just that and let everything else pass.
I believe that is where the magic of this pedal really comes through. The ability to adjust it that deeply makes it the perfect gate IMO for any guitar rig.
Boss could learn a great deal as well as all others on the market. I don't see another gate being better anywhere near this price point.
I ended up selling my NS-2.

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Nice. I will definitely have to look into the Sentry.

The internal gate in my Jeckyll and Hyde is a nice touch, but it's not responsive enough. You get that few seconds of noise and no sound before the gate closes. It's chokes off the notes when only the distortion is on if I let them ring too long and if you're stacking any other pedals into it, it's slow to close. I'd sooner turn it off and have a dedicated gate for my whole signal chain.

 

[mantis]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

That sounds like it basically sucks

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

The sound of the pedal itself is great and the internal gate is better than none at all, but, it's a bit annoying when you want notes to ring really long and then the gate closes. I've learned that the best solution around this is have the Distortion after the OD and since most sustained notes will be when they are stacked anyway, probably the best way to deal with it is to turn off the OD as close to the last note as possible. At least, the gate can be turned off if you don't want it.

 

[chadd]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

I have a bunch of TC (helicon and electronic) stuff, a lot of it is really useful. The voicelive play and mic mechanic are both outstanding. The Ditto is incredibly useful for looping and acoustic stuff, I use it when writing and it's a godsend for that. I also have one of the Nova System pedals that I use for all of my effects. I prefer the delay and chorus from my old original Dan Echo and Cool Cat (18v) Chorus, but having multiple different options available makes the Nova a no brainer in a live situation. I'd really like a new version of the Nova with a good PC editor for the parameters.

 

[Coma]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Thread hijack: Was about to buy a Flashback (standard model), but found an Alter Ego x4 form the same price. The outfit with which the delay will be used will be playing metal exclusively - either thrash or stoner-ish doom. Is the Alter Ego a good idea or should I stay the course with the Flashback?

 

[VinceT]

Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Thread hijack: Was about to buy a Flashback (standard model), but found an Alter Ego x4 form the same price. The outfit with which the delay will be used will be playing metal exclusively - either thrash or stoner-ish doom. Is the Alter Ego a good idea or should I stay the course with the Flashback?

I'm not a metal aficionado, but when I think of thrash, I don't (ever?) think of delay, except for the quiet bits before the storm! [emoji1]

That said, the Alter Ego is all about vintage sounds - space echo, tape, etc. - and that sounds less (modern) metal to me than the standard Flashback - which really covers the waterfront of digital and analogue delays.

I use the Flashback x4 for all my live delays and it's great - but I'm playing all original Britpop-Americana - yes, it's a genre that I often have to explain!

I went up from the standard model to the x4 because of the TonePrint (which I design in the editor) and preset slots, basically live I've got 7 pre-programmed delays, some specific to just one song.

So, bottom line:
- I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to delay in metal
- both great pedals
- Flashback if board space is at a premium and you're not using much delay
- Alter Ego if you need up to 7 presets and can make vintage style delay fit in your band
- if you're getting a screaming deal on Alter Ego, consider buying it to flip later

Best of luck.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[jtougas]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Thread hijack: Was about to buy a Flashback (standard model), but found an Alter Ego x4 form the same price. The outfit with which the delay will be used will be playing metal exclusively - either thrash or stoner-ish doom. Is the Alter Ego a good idea or should I stay the course with the Flashback?

The Alter Ego x4 might be overkill for thrash... Plus, all of the delays are vintage models, which may not be quite the tone your after.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Any modulated delay should be capable of a good chorus with a very small delay time, no feedback, and the delayed signal about as loud as the dry signal. I had done this for years with all sorts of echo pedals.

 

[mantis]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Thread hijack: Was about to buy a Flashback (standard model), but found an Alter Ego x4 form the same price. The outfit with which the delay will be used will be playing metal exclusively - either thrash or stoner-ish doom. Is the Alter Ego a good idea or should I stay the course with the Flashback?

Stay on target.

 

[Coma]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Alter Ego got sold. So it's a non-issue

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Doesn't metal just call for a DD-3 and be done? Maybe a DD-7 for the psych out portions of stoner?

Flashback x4 might be good if you can find one at a decent price (3 easily accessible presets), but so could a DD-20.

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

The sound of the pedal itself is great and the internal gate is better than none at all, but, it's a bit annoying when you want notes to ring really long and then the gate closes. I've learned that the best solution around this is have the Distortion after the OD and since most sustained notes will be when they are stacked anyway, probably the best way to deal with it is to turn off the OD as close to the last note as possible. At least, the gate can be turned off if you don't want it.

Aren't there 'Threshold' and 'Rate' on that gate? Set the Threshold high and the rate very slow so it'll shuts off the noise very smoothly.

 

[mantis]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

Doesn't metal just call for a DD-3 and be done? Maybe a DD-7 for the psych out portions of stoner?

Flashback x4 might be good if you can find one at a decent price (3 easily accessible presets), but so could a DD-20.

I haven't used the DD-3 in a long time. The DD-7 I had recently and it's amazing. The DD-20 is by far one of if not my favorite delay pedals of all time. I traded it like a fool to get a GT-10

 

[Mincer]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

I always liked the DD-20. I would get another one some day.

 

[Coma]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

BTW, anyone had a chance to try out the Mimiq yet?

 

[jtougas]

Re: Let's talk about Chorus pedals. And other TC pedals.

BTW, anyone had a chance to try out the Mimiq yet?

There's a thread... ah, you found it...


Sent from my iPad using a bunch of electrons, copper, and probably some fiber optic cable