analog multi effect - Vintage Revolution PedalPro

Hi!

Here's an introduction vid for the PedalPro by Vintage Revolution, i'm playing in it.
What do you think?
[youtube]dWW_2ywut4c[/youtube]

All the best,
Roger

Thoughts on this anyone?
R

interesting. what part of it is analog? i prefer individual pedals, never been a fan of multi effects pedals. a very good demo, it sounds good other than the od sounds.

interesting. what part of it is analog? i prefer individual pedals, never been a fan of multi effects pedals. a very good demo, it sounds good other than the od sounds.

Ditto to what Louis has said. ...and what does it feel like when using the distortion effects? It sounds like digital and most of the time digital is painful. Your fretting fingers take a beating because the response it slightly off or something. I just know it ends up hurting to play using most digital distortion devices. The actual tone of the overdrive on this demo was not very good but the other effects were superb.

I had a right-handed Les Paul Custom that looked like the guitar in your video.

My only other comment is that the LED is usually inferior to working with individual pedals. You have to have good visual conditions and good eyesight to read them and they can be impractical.

interesting. what part of it is analog? i prefer individual pedals, never been a fan of multi effects pedals. a very good demo, it sounds good other than the od sounds.

Thanks. Actually all the effects, and the complete signal chain is analog. There is no AD/DA conversion of any kind. The only thing digital about it is the control and programmability of the effects. Do you not like the od sounds?
R

interesting. what part of it is analog? i prefer individual pedals, never been a fan of multi effects pedals. a very good demo, it sounds good other than the od sounds.

Ditto to what Louis has said. ...and what does it feel like when using the distortion effects? It sounds like digital and most of the time digital is painful. Your fretting fingers take a beating because the response it slightly off or something. I just know it ends up hurting to play using most digital distortion devices. The actual tone of the overdrive on this demo was not very good but the other effects were superb.

I had a right-handed Les Paul Custom that looked like the guitar in your video.

My only other comment is that the LED is usually inferior to working with individual pedals. You have to have good visual conditions and good eyesight to read them and they can be impractical.

Hey man, to me it doesn't sound or feel digital at all. That is because it's analog technology. The overdrives and distortions respond really natural and they're just kind of invigorating to play. In the od clips, listen for these 'glassy' overtones that i got on some of the notes. You just won't get that from any normal multi-fx od/dist.

It's a cliché, but they sound more like tube saturation then anything else. The chief engineer kindly explained to me that it sounds like tubes, because they've used FETs in the same way that tubes are used in an amp.

Also, there aren't any chips in the distortion/od circuits. That's why the frequency range is much wider than what comes out of my Tube Screamer and RAT pedals, when i compare them, A-B, to this.

I realize that OD/distortion is a very personal preference for any player, but i think that if you were to play this thing yourself, you'd directly FEEL what i'm talking about.
R

interesting. what part of it is analog? i prefer individual pedals, never been a fan of multi effects pedals. a very good demo, it sounds good other than the od sounds.

Ditto to what Louis has said. ...and what does it feel like when using the distortion effects? It sounds like digital and most of the time digital is painful. Your fretting fingers take a beating because the response it slightly off or something. I just know it ends up hurting to play using most digital distortion devices. The actual tone of the overdrive on this demo was not very good but the other effects were superb.

I had a right-handed Les Paul Custom that looked like the guitar in your video.

My only other comment is that the LED is usually inferior to working with individual pedals. You have to have good visual conditions and good eyesight to read them and they can be impractical.

Hey man, to me it doesn't sound or feel digital at all. That is because it's analog technology. The overdrives and distortions respond really natural and they're just kind of invigorating to play. In the od clips, listen for these 'glassy' overtones that i got on some of the notes. You just won't get that from any normal multi-fx od/dist.

It's a cliché, but they sound more like tube saturation then anything else. The chief engineer kindly explained to me that it sounds like tubes, because they've used FETs in the same way that tubes are used in an amp.

Also, there aren't any chips in the distortion/od circuits. That's why the frequency range is much wider than what comes out of my Tube Screamer and RAT pedals, when i compare them, A-B, to this.

I realize that OD/distortion is a very personal preference for any player, but i think that if you were to play this thing yourself, you'd directly FEEL what i'm talking about.
R

i am not crazy about tube screamers or rat pedals either. comparing this unit to multifx units and lower end dirt pedals it very well could compare favorably. the reason i like individual pedals, i like all parameters available for immediate adjustment. not the case with menu driven systems. when one knob controls several different parameters, if on the fly adjustments are required, playing live, pretty much screwed. michael's point on visibility is also an issue. i have several od's with fets and mosfets. they can work very well. i also use some chip based ones. right now i have a timmy, a lovepedal, a hao rumble mod, an xts precision drive and a jetter gsb on my board. how many different od's does this provide simultaneously? i like to have at least 4 dirt pedals hooked up in a row, all set at pretty low gain settings, and use different combinations of them for different tones. i like the results i get from cascading od pedals like that. is that possible with this unit? how many simultaneous effects total can you use? the only possible way i would consider something like this, if it replaced my whole board, so this is all i carried. having the ability to change an individual pedal out if so desired would still be an issue though.

i did not like the od sounds in your video. too brittle and fizzy. not quite articulate enough either. doesn't have that singing quality i like from od's. the other effects did sound really nice. of course i would like to hear the different fx compared individually to good pedals.

i am not crazy about tube screamers or rat pedals either. comparing this unit to multifx units and lower end dirt pedals it very well could compare favorably. the reason i like individual pedals, i like all parameters available for immediate adjustment. not the case with menu driven systems. when one knob controls several different parameters, if on the fly adjustments are required, playing live, pretty much screwed. michael's point on visibility is also an issue. i have several od's with fets and mosfets. they can work very well. i also use some chip based ones. right now i have a timmy, a lovepedal, a hao rumble mod, an xts precision drive and a jetter gsb on my board. how many different od's does this provide simultaneously? i like to have at least 4 dirt pedals hooked up in a row, all set at pretty low gain settings, and use different combinations of them for different tones. i like the results i get from cascading od pedals like that. is that possible with this unit? how many simultaneous effects total can you use? the only possible way i would consider something like this, if it replaced my whole board, so this is all i carried. having the ability to change an individual pedal out if so desired would still be an issue though.

i did not like the od sounds in your video. too brittle and fizzy. not quite articulate enough either. doesn't have that singing quality i like from od's. the other effects did sound really nice. of course i would like to hear the different fx compared individually to good pedals.

Hey Louis,
i realize that comparing to TS or RAT type pedals is really random at best. But i must say that my TS, which is a Keeley TS +mod, was really doing it for me until i played these tones.
The visibility of the controller lights has not been problem for me.
Cascading 4 different od pedals like you do is of course not possible. But what you would do is program let's say 12 distinctly different od and dist tones and switch between those. It's really tweakable with the various parameters so that's easy.
It will do all of the available fx at the same time. This is because it's analog, so no processing power limits as you'd have with digital multi-fx.

In the video there's no proper low-gain od, both presets are high gain distortion (although distortion is a type of od right). We did record some clips with a Strat, playing some blues- and dumble type low-gain overdrive tones. That's gonna be in one of the coming video's.

As it is, i like the od tones a lot. 'Britlle and fizzy' - not to my ears, and there really responsive and dynamic.
Do you have a suggesting to which pedals you would like the different fx compared? We will probably do some AB comparison vids in the near future.
best
Roger

The multi-effect stuff is interesting to me, but I doubt I'd ever gig with a muti-effect pedal as opposed to a pedalboard with individual pedals. I agree with the guys who say the non-OD effects sound great, but I prefer what I hear from my OD pedals compared to what I hear in the demo. That said, listening to a demo over a computer speaker is not a fair assessment. My problem with multi-effects is, if something goes wrong with it, you have no effects. If I lose my chorus pedal because someone spilled a beer on it, I still have everything else (hopefully).

If the currency converter I used is correct, this unit sells for $3160 USD? Wow . . . that'll buy a bucket load of pedals!

...the od sounds in your video. too brittle and fizzy. not quite articulate enough either. doesn't have that singing quality i like from od's. the other effects did sound really nice. of course i would like to hear the different fx compared individually to good pedals.

"Too brittle and fizzy" is how digital sounds to me which is why I asked about how it felt to play in those modes.

I am interested in more videos and comparisons to gear that will help paint a clearer picture of this but it is very expensive so it will have to produce ideal sounds for many people to consider buying it.

The multi-effect stuff is interesting to me, but I doubt I'd ever gig with a muti-effect pedal as opposed to a pedalboard with individual pedals. I agree with the guys who say the non-OD effects sound great, but I prefer what I hear from my OD pedals compared to what I hear in the demo. That said, listening to a demo over a computer speaker is not a fair assessment. My problem with multi-effects is, if something goes wrong with it, you have no effects. If I lose my chorus pedal because someone spilled a beer on it, I still have everything else (hopefully).

If the currency converter I used is correct, this unit sells for $3160 USD? Wow . . . that'll buy a bucket load of pedals!

Hi Ches, thanks for replying,
Yes, i guess that to fully hear what's going on in the od/dist, you'd have to hear it live, or better yet, play it yourself. My touch on the instrument might be way different than yours, and the response is something you have to feel for yourself.
I'm a pedalboard user myself, but once i a-b'd my fx against the PedalPro and saw that the latter actually sounded fuller on most fx, i was sold. Having a multi-fx in full analog, with a specialized buffer inside, also means that you get rid of the loss of tone/frequency that you have with a regular pedalboard and all the patchcables and connections involved.

For things going wrong, i think they tackled that problem by making everything as durable and sturdy as possible. They even did tests with the power short-circuiting, pouring water and beer over the footcontroller etc. They also had a robot push the pressure pads at various strengths for a few weeks straight.
I'm not worried about gigging with this thing.
R

...the od sounds in your video. too brittle and fizzy. not quite articulate enough either. doesn't have that singing quality i like from od's. the other effects did sound really nice. of course i would like to hear the different fx compared individually to good pedals.

"Too brittle and fizzy" is how digital sounds to me which is why I asked about how it felt to play in those modes.

I am interested in more videos and comparisons to gear that will help paint a clearer picture of this but it is very expensive so it will have to produce ideal sounds for many people to consider buying it.

Hi Michael,

we're definitely doing more vids this and next month, also comparison videos. To which pedals/multifx should we actaully compare it you think?
The obvious one until now is Axe-fx II, but considering that it's digital, PedalPro shall blow it away easily, soundwise.
Which other fx should we gather for comparison?
R

Hi Michael,

we're definitely doing more vids this and next month, also comparison videos. To which pedals/multifx should we actaully compare it you think?
The obvious one until now is Axe-fx II, but considering that it's digital, PedalPro shall blow it away easily, soundwise.
Which other fx should we gather for comparison?
R

Roger,

I just think it is a good way to show people how good your product is. I wish I had more knowledge of popular pedals to suggest. Features that enable adjustments need to be exposed and when you use another product people may gain some understanding of what can be done when they might not have recognized the similarity or the demo might not otherwise make a certain point. My personal perception so far is that the overdrive/distortion effects need to be showcased more. What I heard did not appeal to my tastes but it is possible there are many other capabilities yet to be brought out in that area. The other effects sounded very good. I know they are not widely used but is there a form of Univibe or Leslie speaker simulator on this pedal?

Michael

considering the price, you want to compare to top notch pedals in each category. like a srymon el capistan delay, a bluesky or wet reverb, a keeley or rothwell compressor, a klon centaur, zendrive, exotic, lovepedal, mad professor, wampler, ethos overdrives, budda wah, and so on. the cost involved warrants going up against the best. would you choose this pedal pro over a pedal board made up of the best individual pedals, including a bypass looper that takes care of any cable length and noise issue, plus you can call up combinations of different pedals at a press of a single switch, and it still costs more than double for the pedal pro? also, can you patch the different effects into separately some of them front of the amp and some of them into the effects loop? that feature would be absolutely imperative. if all of this was included in just the foot controller, that would be great, having to set up a separate rack unit and the foot controller, is not nearly that convenient anymore.
the only market i really envision for this, people who want to go direct into the pa, basically replacing pod xt live, or axefx, or g major and similar systems. as far as using it with an amp, replacing regular pedal boards, i am not so sure.

considering the price, you want to compare to top notch pedals in each category. like a srymon el capistan delay, a bluesky or wet reverb, a keeley or rothwell compressor, a klon centaur, zendrive, exotic, lovepedal, mad professor, wampler, ethos overdrives, budda wah, and so on. the cost involved warrants going up against the best. would you choose this pedal pro over a pedal board made up of the best individual pedals, including a bypass looper that takes care of any cable length and noise issue, plus you can call up combinations of different pedals at a press of a single switch, and it still costs more than double for the pedal pro? also, can you patch the different effects into separately some of them front of the amp and some of them into the effects loop? that feature would be absolutely imperative. if all of this was included in just the foot controller, that would be great, having to set up a separate rack unit and the foot controller, is not nearly that convenient anymore.
the only market i really envision for this, people who want to go direct into the pa, basically replacing pod xt live, or axefx, or g major and similar systems. as far as using it with an amp, replacing regular pedal boards, i am not so sure.

Hi Louis,
thanks for answering.
Of course the fx will not sound exactly like the pedals of your choice, but they will be on that top level in terms of sound quality and will have their own sound. So for the tone it will go up against the best. They took some of the classic analog pedal circuits (crybaby, old CE-1 etc.) and improved on them where they could.

For the pedalboard comparison: i'm a pedalboard user, but having to have the bypass looper and all the pedals on the board makes a big, heavy thing with a lot of vulnerable connections. With the PedalPro, you'll not just 'call up combinations of different pedals at a press of a single switch', you call up different parameters for each effect and a different order of the fx for each individual preset! Pedalboard still requires squatting down and tweaking knobs, no parameter programming possible, no different fx order possible.

The PedalPro has 2 seperate external fx loops, which can beprogrammed at different places in the signal chain, PER PRESET. Combined with the fx loop on an amp, you could have: preamp/comp/od/dist fx - amp pre/od - timebased/mod fx - amp post.

quote: 'having to set up a separate rack unit and the foot controller': Not much setting up to do. Plug in 2 instruments cables, 1 control cable and power supplies.

qutoe: 'and it still costs more than double for the pedal pro?' I don't think you'll be able to get 10 of the top notch pedals, a pedalboard, a 10-loop programmable bypass looper and all needed power supplies for less then the price of the PedalPro system. What do you think that would cost?

best,
Roger

i could do that for less than 2k. of course i rarely buy anything new. let others take up depreciation. and that would include 3-4 different od pedals, including a tube pedal and an ep boost. the power supply is just a single unit like fuel tank or similar. a pedal train board and george l's cables.

i am curious how they are achieving the reverb in this thing? i have not seen an analog reverb without the springs in it. the delay in the video sounds digital, but you say it is all analog. how long is the maximum delay time? does it go into oscillation?

i have a few more questions. does the compressor have a blend function where you can blend the compressed and the clean sound, so the attack is not compressed, only a sustain is added on the decay? what is the list of effects? wah, phaser, tremolo, distortion, compressor, delay, reverb, chorus, and ? is there a tube in the distortion? the preset says tube distortion. if yes, is it a high plate voltage design? distortion is different different than an overdrive or a fuzz. this unit only has one right? which one is it?

i could do that for less than 2k. of course i rarely buy anything new. let others take up depreciation. and that would include 3-4 different od pedals, including a tube pedal and an ep boost. the power supply is just a single unit like fuel tank or similar. a pedal train board and george l's cables.

i am curious how they are achieving the reverb in this thing? i have not seen an analog reverb without the springs in it. the delay in the video sounds digital, but you say it is all analog. how long is the maximum delay time? does it go into oscillation?

Hi Louis,
thanks again. Here goes:
So you are basically talking about buying 2nd hand stuff right? ('let others take up depreciation.'). Ok i see that.
Anyway i found out that the price in US would be about 2660 dollars because US doesn't have VAT. That is for the PedalPro and footcontroller together.
The PedalPro has 14 programmable fx, so to match that you'd have to have a huge, heavy pedalboard, which still would not be programmable, even if you add a 700 usd effects gizmo looper.

There is no reverb in the PedalPro, because analog reverb could only be spring reverb (too big to put into a compact multi-effect) or multitap delay (not as smooth sounding as real reverb). So they choose to leave it out. If you'd use a digital reverb in the aux loop of the PedalPro, you could blend in the wet by setting the internal mixer. So your dry guitar signal will even stay analog!
Like all the onboard fx, the delay is pure analog, using BBD technology. It goes up to 612 ms. It will go into oscillation and you can program the exp. pedal to control the delay time so you can do the 'warped pitchshifting tape delay from hell' thing with it that i hear on a lot of records these days.
If you really think the delay sounds digital to you, listen to this wav file they made using the delay: http://www.guitarhow.com/audio/delay_attack2_hi_res.wav If you cannot hear it directly, choose 'file' --> 'save page as' in your browser when you have the link opened.

Best,
Roger

thank you. i was going off the 3k+ price someone posted. btw, the looper pedals can be had for much less, around 150-200 bucks, even less for the none programmable. btw, by programmable i just mean the dipswitch controlled ones, not the crazy bradshaw or CAE thingies. the wave file you posted is definitely much cleaner, can really hear well, the delay sounds good but indeed analog sounding. on the yt vid, the repeats sounded very clean, but it could be because the compression of yt made the source note and repeats sound too similar. what is the list of effects?
my smaller board has 14 pedals and is not huge or heavy. my bigger board has 20 pedals and is big and heavy. a pedal train pro.

thank you. i was going off the 3k+ price someone posted. btw, the looper pedals can be had for much less, around 150-200 bucks, even less for the none programmable. btw, by programmable i just mean the dipswitch controlled ones, not the crazy bradshaw or CAE thingies. the wave file you posted is definitely much cleaner, can really hear well, the delay sounds good but indeed analog sounding. on the yt vid, the repeats sounded very clean, but it could be because the compression of yt made the source note and repeats sound too similar. what is the list of effects?
my smaller board has 14 pedals and is not huge or heavy. my bigger board has 20 pedals and is big and heavy. a pedal train pro.

Hi again,
thanks. Here's the list of onboard fx:
Compressor/Limiter, Preamp/Booster, Distortion/OD, Tremolo, Panner, Phaser, Filters, Chorus, Flanger, Vibe, Delay, Detuner Delay, Noise gate.
Any other stuff (signature pedals, quality digital reverb) you want to use with it you can put in the two programmable, mixable loops (1 mono, 1 stereo). Mixable means that even when adding digital reverb you'd add the 'wet' to blend in with your analog signal. Best of both worlds!
best,
Roger

Hi Michael,

we're definitely doing more vids this and next month, also comparison videos. To which pedals/multifx should we actaully compare it you think?
The obvious one until now is Axe-fx II, but considering that it's digital, PedalPro shall blow it away easily, soundwise.
Which other fx should we gather for comparison?
R

Roger,

I just think it is a good way to show people how good your product is. I wish I had more knowledge of popular pedals to suggest. Features that enable adjustments need to be exposed and when you use another product people may gain some understanding of what can be done when they might not have recognized the similarity or the demo might not otherwise make a certain point. My personal perception so far is that the overdrive/distortion effects need to be showcased more. What I heard did not appeal to my tastes but it is possible there are many other capabilities yet to be brought out in that area. The other effects sounded very good. I know they are not widely used but is there a form of Univibe or Leslie speaker simulator on this pedal?

Michael

Thanks for the advice! We're gonna take it into account for the coming vids.
Yes the PedalPro has a univibe, it's called Vibe. It's also real nice to be able to control the speed of an analog univibe with an exp. pedal! We'll have to include that sound too.
For the od/distortions i agree with you. We'll do some lower gain, blues tones on a strat, as well as some more progressive high gain stuff using different guitars.

Best,
Roger

This is kind of interesting.

I'm trying to sniff out some connection to G&L - however tangential. Can you help me? - ed

This is kind of interesting.

I'm trying to sniff out some connection to G&L - however tangential. Can you help me? - ed

of course he should be demoing it with a g&l, it would sound at least twice as good.

Exactly!

Otherwise, it kind of seems like a misplaced marketing, uh, tool. - ed

Exactly!

Otherwise, it kind of seems like a misplaced marketing, uh, tool. - ed

Hi,
sorry if it comes off like that.
A lefty G&L, that would be cool eh?
Roger

Exactly!

Otherwise, it kind of seems like a misplaced marketing, uh, tool. - ed

Hi,
sorry if it comes off like that.
A lefty G&L, that would be cool eh?
Roger

actually a lefty g&l is cool. quite a few members here are lefty. it would be to your benefit. great guitars.