United Kingdom (January 24, 2018) -- Orange Amplification is excited to launch the new Crush Mini improving the amp’s sound and usability compared to its predecessor the Micro Crush. The combination of battery saving features, wood and orange tolex construction, "Pics Only" inspired 1970s design and an all analogue approach to tone makes this the best specified mini-combo for the musician on-the-go.
The top panel has been completely redesigned, bringing in the familiar shape control from its bigger brothers. The gain, shape and volume controls can be used to push the gain stage and create “real” sounding crunch and high gain, while the shape allows you to sculpt thick mids through to scooped metal tones.
The new 8 Ohm Speaker Output of the Crush Mini really opens up this amplifier’s capability allowing it to be plugged into a cabinet including Orange’s largest guitar cabinet, the PPC412. The Headphone Output permits the speaker output to be disengaged making it a great choice for silent practice. The Crush Mini also features Aux-in letting users play along to their music, and sees the return of the built-in Chromatic Tuner making it the perfect portable practice rig.
Orange Amplification is delighted to present the Brent Hinds Terror, designed in collaboration with the guitarist and vocalist of the multi-award winning band Mastodon. The latest Terror amp has its own distinctive voice and character, features styling based on the tribal imagery of Brent ’s facial tattoo and is completed by his signature.
The new Brent Hinds Terror features two channels and a new gain structure that give the latest Terror amp a completely individual nature and personality. The single-control natural channel has been redesigned to have more bottom-end yet retaining the finely balanced and highly playable character of the Terror series. The sensitivity of the new gain structure is far higher compared to previous Terrors, brightening up sound at lower levels and fattening it up the more it is dialed in.
The power switching options of the Brent Hinds Terror offers 0.5, 1, 7 or 15 Watts, making it perfect for bedroom, studio and stage. For the best possible tone and durability, the new amp uses the same beefy transformers as the rest of the Terror family to take advantage of the EL84 output. This gives players warm valve compression and saturation at neighbour friendly levels. This amp personifies all Brent’s uniqueness, both stylistically and tonally.
Orange Amplification has been at the forefront of cabinet design for the past 50 years, with the PPC412 becoming an industry standard.
Designed to provide the “Orange Sound” in a lightweight, portable cabinet, the new PPC212V is Orange’s first vertical cabinet. Using 50 years of experience in cabinet design, the PPC212V combines 15mm Birch Plywood and an open back design to reduce weight, without compromising on tone or durability. The new cabinet uses Celestion Neo Creamback speakers providing a clear and defined sound.
Finished in Orange's legendary livery the PPC212V is the ideal companion to the Orange Terror range, providing performers with the perfect sounding cabinet whilst having the benefit of a smaller stage footprint. The cab is significantly lighter than the PPC212 and capable of handling up to 120 Watts of power.
Check it out at the Orange Amplification booth #4644, Hall D where all the other Orange products can also be seen.
For more information:
Orange Amps
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
