After reading and watching mixed reviews, I was a bit hesitant on whether to buy it or not, but now I'm really glad I did. The pedal is extremely great with fantastic features. It exponentially improved the Fishman Sonitone on my Martin. In the reviews I read and watched, in my opinion there were a few misconceptions about this pedal, so here's a bit of what I've learned:
Start with the IR side of the pedal:
1. Listen carefully to each of the IRs included in the pedal, and make a list of your favorites.
2. Replace and/or load third-party IRs into the pedal. Listen carefully and and make a list of your favorites.
3. Once you've chosen your favorite IRs, you might have noticed that their volume isn't the same. The easiest way to have them all at the same volume is to record a track on your DAW and play each IR consecutively, then split each of them, and then lower or increase the gain on each IR accordingly, so they all have the same volume (visually you'll be able to see if the waveforms are at the same volume). Now connect the pedal to your computer, and on the pedal software, increase or decrease the gain/volume by the same amount you did on your DAW. Disconnect it from the computer and you can go back to your usual playing setup.
6. Here's the step where there were a few misconceptions about this pedal in the reviews. The Amp side is supposed to work with the IR side simultaneouly (unless you choose not to, which is ok), because, well, IRs are what they are, they need EQ in my opinion. So, now that you've loaded your favorite IRs into the pedal and all of them are at the same volume, and with the IR side turned on, turn on the Amp side and adjust the settings to your liking.
7. The Amp side of the pedal is based on a Neve console, and you can clearly hear it. The knobs are extremely sensitive and a slight turn of a few milimiters (literally) will cause dramatic changes. Which is great, because most pedals need huge knob turns before we can hear any change at all.
8. Unlike the IRs, the Amp side can be used on its own, and sounds great. The curves on those knobs were really well thought, and since they're based on a Neve console, nothing can go wrong there. It will make your pickup sound fantastic.
A few things not mentioned in the manual:
- Once you create/save a preset, when you load it again and for some reason you need to adjust it, when you turn a knob, an asterisk (*) will appear right next to the number, to let you know you've made changes to the preset, the * will disappear if you place the knob in the exact same position it was before, when you created the preset. This is great and so helpful.
- You can change the names of the presets only on the pedal software. It's really easy. It's the icon below the floppy disk icon at the top of the software screen (the part that deals with presets).
Now, regarding the feature of creating your own IRs, I'm still struggling a bit with it, but I think it's just because the setup in my apartment with all the background noise isn't ideal. I need to try it in my band's rehearsal room with better equipment, no noise and a real mixer instead of an interface.
It needs a little patience to setup, but since it's all in good fun, I highly recommend it. If I had one recommendation for the manufacturer: improve your user manual.
