Just how many sounds can you cram into a 4.5" x 3.5" stompbox? If you're Empress Effects, the total is well into the double digits. Their new Nebulus aspires to be a do-it-all digital modulation pedal, offering many customizable chorus, flange, and vibrato sounds. Thanks to clever design and virtuosic programming, it largely achieves its goal.
One-Stop Modulation Shop
Exactly how many sounds does the Nebulus do? The answer requires a little math. The pedal includes four three-position mini-switches. One selects between chorus, vibrato, and flanger modes. Another chooses between three preset “sub-modes" for each of the primary modes. The third switch toggles between bright/clean/warm settings, with varying amounts of high-end roll-off. A final switch sets the intensity of one predetermined parameter within each mode, selectable between “little," “none," and “lots." And then there are all the tweaks you can make via the pedal's standard mix, rate, depth, and output knobs. That makes a grand total of…a buttload.
Also onboard: two footswitches for bypass and preset selection. As if it weren't already ambitious enough, the Nebulus lets you store up eight of your sounds in memory, though you can only access them sequentially via foot-tap. (Thankfully, you can choose the desired number of presets. So if, say, you only need two modulation sounds for a set, you don't necessarily need to tap the footswitch seven times to return from preset #2 from preset #1.) A large, eight-color LED indicates the active preset and flashes in tempo with the modulation rate.
Tweaker's Delight
Thanks to those ingenious switches, the Nebulus is far easier to program than it might otherwise be. An effect parameter menu printed on the pedal's side further clarifies the process. But while you don't have to be a tweaker to summon good sounds from the Nebulus, it helps.
Ratings
Pros:
A vast assortment of modulation colors. Small pedalboard footprint.
Cons:
Tweaking required. Tones not quite as rich as the analog circuits they mimic.
Tones:
Playability/Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$299
Empress Nebulus
empresseffects.com
Example: To access the advanced settings, you must power up the pedal while simultaneously pressing the bypass and preset switches, at which point you can enter values via the mini-switches. (If the preceding sentence makes you break out in hives, be sure to try the Nebulus before you buy.)
The pedal requires AC power (between 9 and 12 volts, and at least 300 mA). There's an internal switch that adds an extra 6 dB of padding for loud signals. Workmanship is solid throughout.
Digital Dilemma
The sound quality is par for the latest generation of digitally stompbox effects. In other words, the tones are good, though none of them qualify as “best in class." (That's not a critique of Empress so much as an observation about the current state of the low-cost DSP chip.) You can't obtain quite the smoothness and immersive detail of the classic analog modulation effects or the best of today's computer-hosted plug-ins. The combined dry and delayed signals that create most of these effects can seem colder, smaller, and less harmonious than their analog equivalents. The LFO sweeps that animate them can feel mechanical, and a bit rough as each waveform reaches maximum height and depth.
But while the Nebulus doesn't quite equal the sounds of every classic Boss, Electro-Harmonix, ADA, and Univox pedal it evokes, it provides serviceable approximations, and sometimes it truly shines (as in the lovely Uni-Vibe-inspired setting). For those who don't have access to a large collection of pricy analog pedals or the pachyderm-sized pedalboard needed to accommodate them, the Nebulus may be the perfect compromise.
The Verdict
The Nebulus offers a remarkable array of modulation effects. It's not simple to use, though its ingenious controls make the process as painless as possible. Sound quality is solid, if not quite equal to the best analog effects. It's a good choice for those seeking many modulation colors in a compact stompbox at a competitive price.
EBS BassIQ Blue Label Triple Envelope Filter Pedal
The EBS BassIQ produces sounds ranging from classic auto-wah effects to spaced-out "Funkadelic" and synth-bass sounds. It is for everyone looking for a fun, fat-sounding, and responsive envelope filter that reacts to how you play in a musical way.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
