 | Download Example 1 Hi Pass mode with the Start Stop set to play the entire wave |
| Download Example 2 Band Pass mode with the Start Stop set to play the entire wave |
| Download Example 3 Lo Pass mode and Distortion engaged with the Start Stop set to play entire wave |
| Download Example 4 Band Pass mode with all controls wide open |
| Download Example 5 Band Pass mode with all controls wide open |
| Download Example 6 Band Pass mode and Distortion engaged with the Start Stop set to play entire wave |
| Sounds clips were recorded using the Enigma Q Balls and a Kramer Disciple bass with EMG pickups. This was plugged into a SWR Marcus Miller Signature Preamp into a Presonus Firepod and tracked within Nuendo. | |
Features
As part of EH’s latest line of bass dedicated effects, the Enigma: Q-Balls may indeed be one of the Holy Grails of funkdom. The Enigma is housed in a sturdy diecast enclosure and offers a barrage of tweakability that knob-turners will adore. There are dedicated knobs for controlling Attack, Q frequency, Sensitivity, Decay, and even a blend control for maximizing the tone between direct signal and wet. There is a three-step Mode selector knob for choosing between Low Pass, Band Pass, and Hi Pass filters as well. This alone would be great, but just like a good infomercial, “wait, there’s more.”
The final two knobs are two of the secret weapons of the Enigma. With the Start and Stop knobs you can focus the starting and ending points of the Q filter sweep. You can set them both “wide” to get the effect of the entire sweep or set them “closer” in to get a more focused effect. This works particularly well for fast, dance-type bass lines, giving the illusion of an old analog synth bass. For further tweaking euphoria you can even add an expression pedal to the mix to control the Q frequency. How cool is that, kiddies?
Rounding out this fully-analog beast is the addition of separate Dry and Effect outputs and its other weapon of mass destruction: the footswitchable, bone-crushing analog distortion. With all of this firepower, bassists can now make their presence known, and the fact that the Enigma has a frequency range of 40 Hz to 3 kHz makes it even sweeter since extended range basses like five and six strings should have little worry of crapping out the Enigma’s signal with unwanted clipping.
Firing it Up
For testing purposes, the Enigma: Q -Balls was used both live and in the studio to truly test its capabilities. In both arenas the Enigma delivered from the get-go. The first thing that impressed me was the fact that, unlike some vintage envelope filters, the Enigma didn’t add any unwanted noise when engaged. This is something that players have learned to live with for the sake of tone, but the fact that the Enigma stayed quiet is obviously a priceless commodity especially when tracking parts. Thank you EH for making this improvement over the decades. Many a mixing engineer will love you and you don’t even know it.
So in trying to describe the tones and textures it is hard to focus on a single word. Obviously, “funky” could indeed encompass the joy that is the Enigma. Truthfully, it is quite more complex due to the countless hours of tweaking and sounds you can achieve from a relatively simple pedal. Greasy, furry, stanky, juicy, smooth, gritty, dirty, rambunctious, brutal, and even smelly are all represented in this somewhat unassuming pedal. In more layman’s terms you can dial up everything from Bootsy-style funk sounds to cool ‘80s-esque synth-like sounds without taking up a ton of pedalboard real estate.
The one thing as in all envelope filters that is something to be aware of is watching your gain on your gear with certain settings. Knowing that you are manipulating frequencies, it is real easy to blow speakers or fry tweeters. When going for either super Hi Pass settings or massive Lo Pass settings you should be aware that there is an eminent danger factor. The Enigma can rattle speakers at high volumes for sure, especially in Lo Pass mode. If you are really cranking, make sure you are using a rig that can handle it and you will have a much better day than if you blow your rig going off on a groove tangent.
The Final Mojo
All in all there is truly nothing to gripe about with the Enigma: Q-Balls. Yet again, Electro Harmonix has delivered an “out-of-box” experience that is truly cool. If you have an excuse to put one of these in your rig and be able to utilize it you ought to check it out. The groove will be thick and you will be one with da’funk.
Buy if...
you want to dominate the masses with supreme funkiness
Skip if...
you tend to run away from da’funk like a frightened school girl.
Rating...
MSRP $189 - Electro-Harmonix - ehx.com |
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| Download Example 1 2008 Fender American Strat. Settings on left channel Dipper are Ascension: 3 o’clock, Inclination: position #2, Diffraction: off. Right channel settings are Ascension: 3 o’clock, Inclination: position #3, Diffraction: noon. |
| Download Example 2 1993 Ephiphone Sheraton with Tom Holmes PAFs. Settings vary using each position on the Inclination positions to show variation of filters and dynamic filter range. |
| Download Example 3 1993 Ephiphone Sheraton with Tom Holmes PAFs. Settings vary using each position on the Inclination positions to show variation of filters on a single lick. |
| All clips were recorded through a Krank Rev Jr. Pro into Krank 1x12 cab with mid '70s Celestion Blackback 25 | |
Starry Night
The LD-01 comes in a rugged-but-beautifully designed deep sparkle blue case that resembles a clear and starry night sky. There are three heavy duty chrome controls, Ascension (threshold), Inclination (trigger timing) and Diffraction (fuzz) as well as a true bypass stomp switch, mono ¼” input and output and a 9V input for externally powering the pedal. An added artistic and useful input level indicator consisting of seven LEDs in the shape of the Little Dipper are situated between the control knobs and stop switch. There is no question that this pedal is built like a tank. The knobs feel heavy and have just the right amount of resistance to feel expensive and deliberate. The Inclination knob is actually a 4-way switch that selects between varying trigger timing of the two filters and works in conjunction with the Ascension control. Opening the pedal revealed a very clean and rugged looking set of circuit boards and high quality workmanship. Adding to the roadworthiness of the pedal, the jacks are mounted on a separate board away from the main circuit, which gave it a feeling of stability and thoughtfulness. Also inside on the main board are two small trim pots labeled “clean” and “release”. The Clean pot (listed as “blend” on the TWA site) controls the amount of clean instrument level against the effected signal. When set to zero there is only effected signal passing through while at full there is equal amounts of both the clean and effected signal. Finally the “release” control (labeled “gate” on the website) controls the noise gate threshold in case the effect gets a bit noisy from the extreme nature of the filters and fuzz.
When I first plugged into the LD-01 with a standard 9v battery I saw a flash of light on the Little Dipper LED’s but no effect was produced. Replacing the battery with a fresh one produced the same result, which made me think the pedal might be broken. A quick call to Kevin at Godlyke solved the problem. According to Kevin, the LD-01 has a voltage-doubling circuit that requires a somewhat high current draw to power up properly. It can power up off a 9-volt battery, but the battery must be “heavy duty” and have a full charge. Likewise, power supplies of less than 500 mA do not power the unit properly. Fair enough, I was using a cheap brand of 9Vs, so my bad. I switched over to a Godlyke Power-All and was off and running in no time.
Brilliance
Now, to get back to the brilliant comment earlier…when I kicked on the pedal this time I was nearly blinded by the insane light that burst out of the LEDs when I struck a power chord! Maybe being many millions of light years away from the real deal is easier on our eyes. Suffice it to say you’ll definitely know where this pedal is in a dark club. With my Strat plugged in directly between the pedal and my JCM800 I set the Inclination to position #1 and Ascension to off. In this setting the tone was similar to a parked wah and switching between the various Inclination positions opened the filter up much like rocking the wah to a different sweep point.
The similarities ended as I brought up the Ascension control, which began to reveal the true nature of the formant filters. The further clockwise the Ascension was set, the more it sounded like somebody opening their mouth and talking with wild filter sweeps that were controlled exclusively by my touch. With a little practice and the right settings I was able to get convincing Talk Box sounds that spanned from “Hair Of The Dog” tones to Frampton Comes Alive. It’s not exact but the effect is addictive.
The Diffraction control brings up a level of fuzz that adds presence and depth to the effect. If you push the Diffraction all the way up it gets pretty intense depending on the amp’s settings and can get a bit harsh, but in a good way. This is where the internal trimmer came in handy, as I wanted to cut out some of the noise. A few tweaks later I was able to pull out most of the noise and set the gate to not chatter too much as it clamped down. Very valuable and useful.
The Final Mojo
I tried several guitars out with the LD-01 including my Les Pauls and even my Epiphone Sheraton, all with great results. No matter how you set the pedal up, the effect is always obvious but cool. It can even mimic the sound of a phaser or flanger because of the way the filters interact with the dynamic input of your playing. If you dig ‘70s funk, this thing is a machine and could easily give the vintage units a run for their money. The tone has a thick and chewy feel to it, even on the most extreme settings, and I loved every minute of playing through it. It might not be for everyone, because formant filtering is certainly a unique sound, and a little goes a long way, but for my money I can’t think of another pedal that could do such a great job. The LD-01 is a fine pedal for those who dare cross over to the funky side.
Buy if...
you’re an adventurous soul and want to add vocal fx to your sound
Skip if...
thinking outside the box isn’t your bag
Rating...
Street $300 - Totally Wyked Audio - godlyke.com |
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| Download Example 1 Guitar volume slowly increased |
| Download Example 2 Set totally clean, single notes. Blue channel - rich then lean. Green channel - rich then lean. |
| Download Example 3 Both channels engaged, first with the amp set clean, then slightly overdriven. |
| All clips recorded with a Fernandes S-Type into an Orange Tiny Terror | |
Upon unpacking the Jetdrive, the first surprise was that, though this dual channel overdrive sported switches for each channel, it did not have a master on/off switch. After extolling of the advantages of such a switch on his GS3 model, I was amazed that Jeter had left it off of his new baby. When queried he replied, “I had thought about it, but I would have had to make it the GS3 V2. I really didn't want to do that. Another thing that factored in heavily was a lot of feedback from players that said they didn't have a problem with only two foot switches (many preferred that configuration), and wanted a smaller footprint than the GS3.”
After some consideration I realized that I fell in the second camp myself: a little foot dancing is worth the extra space for another effect on my pedalboard. The Jetdrive lacks the GS3’s battery compartment: you need to take the pedal apart to change the 9-volt, but with the typical long life of the average overdrive battery, this should be an infrequent process. It also supports a standard A/C adapter.
Each channel sports three controls: the Volume and Drive knobs for are pretty standard, but the third knob is not a typical tone. Those are labeled “Lean” on the counterclockwise side and “Rich” on the clockwise end. Jeter says, “These controls have been finely tuned to a specific range of frequencies that are been optimized for maximum impact. The rich/lean controls are very interactive when the channels are cascaded.”
What these ears heard was that the Jetdrive’s “tone” controls tended to affect the midrange. On the “lean” end the mids seemed de-accentuated for a flat tone, not in the sense of unexciting but meaning more or less equal across the frequency spectrum. As the two channels are voiced differently, this leads to different effects, depending on which channel is engaged. Set to the “Blue”—more American sounding—channel (the channels are called Blue and Green for the color of their LEDs, not for any sonic relation to the Jetter Gain Stage Blue or Green pedals), the lean setting served up a beautiful clean boost, ripe for chiming Eric Johnson chords or jazz box standards devoid any boominess. The same extreme lean setting for the British voiced Green allowed that channel’s inherent low mid-range to peek through. Moving either channel’s tone control toward “rich” starts to add more upper mids until about three o’clock, where high end is added. Every point in either control’s circuit, from lean to rich, is totally musical. There might be some that miss the heavy treble roll-off available on some overdrives, but there is always the guitar tone control for more extreme shaping.
I test-piloted Jetdrive through Reverend Hellhound and Orange Tiny Terror amps, driving it with a Fernandes S-Type with DiMarzio Virtual Vintage single-coils, and a Burns Steer with a humbucker in the bridge.
While I stick by my assessment of the Jetter GS3 as “one of the most versatile, natural, and flat out terrific sounding overdrive devices I have ever heard,” I must say that the Jetdrive, in some ways tops it. In that crucial range, just where clean turns into crunch, the Jetdrive sounds even more like a real amp than the GS3. The Jetdrive manages to be simultaneously spongier, yet less compressed sounding than the GS3.
The Blue channel is as American as apple pie, making the Orange amp’s EL84s sound more like 6V6s. Turning that channel’s Drive up to about two o’clock, I performed my ultimate test [see sound clip 1]. Starting with the Fernandes guitar volume at around 2, I kept playing an open G chord, turning the guitar volume up one notch at a time. The chord started out as clean as with the pedal off, getting gradually grittier until full up it was grinding out grimy crunch chords full of rich harmonics, yet distinctly defined. The amazing part was that there was no single point at which the sound changed from dirty to clean, as is the case with most pedals; rather the dirt increased on an analog arc—exactly like a real amp. The Green channel responded just as smoothly in its British-voiced way.
Cranking the gain on the Blue channel produced divine, Dumble-esque drive: smooth, sustaining, but not over compressed— and that is with the Fernandes’ single-coil bridge pickup. Pushing it harder with the Burns’ relatively high-output humbucker sent it to fat-city, without a trace of mud. Sustained single-note bends with the Green channel set for dirt bloomed into the kind of high harmonic found only in the best boutique amps.
Summing the two channels opens worlds of distortion and sustain. Though technically the Blue Channel “feeds” into the Green channel, either one can be set to “drive” the other. If you set the gain on Blue higher than on Green, the tone will tend towards this side of the Atlantic; push the Green harder than the Blue and the sound heads across the ocean in the other direction. Changing the lean and rich settings for each channel will also affect the sound of both together. Personally, I set individual Blue and Green sounds that I liked and just enjoyed whatever they became when combined, but that is just one of the myriad other ways this pedal can work. You might set the Blue channel for your mild crunch and Green in a manner that best compliments Blue when both are engaged.
The Jetdrive will not necessarily replace the GS3; some may prefer the latter’s tighter tones and master switch. Nor is it for everyone: this pedal requires a developed touch to truly come alive; beginners may not get the best out of it, and scooped Metal mavens should probably move on. On the other hand, experienced players seeking one of the most responsive, versatile, dynamic, low to medium gain overdrives on the market will likely stop looking once they try the Jetter Jetdrive.
Buy if...
you want a terrific sounding, two-channel boutique amp in a pedal.
Skip if...
you like a more compressed, pedal-style overdrive sound.
Rating...
Street $249 - Jetter - jettergear.com |