View the Results HERE: vertexeffects.com/best-programmable-overdrive 00:00 Intro 01:33 The Results 2:50 Pedal Identities Revealed! 03:55 The Winner 04:45 Nova Drive - Low Gain 05:30 Les Paul Results 06:39 Nova Drive - Medium Gain 07:30 Strat Results 08:46 Nova Drive - High Gain 09:40 Final Thoughts 10:56 Outro
Somebody offered me this pedal just yesterday. Today I did a lot of video research as I am looking to change my old ehx crayon od for something a bit more versatile for a new board that I am building. This video helped me to convince myself to get it and tomorrow I'll be meeting this guy to buy it from him. Thank you so much for this video, great content as always! Saludos from Viet Nam!
Great video Mason, loved the methodology on your approach to this! Also I was pulling for pedal 3, so I was glad to see that ended up being the RJM overdrive, such a great newer pedal!
Great stuff, was happy to see the NOVA Drive won, I've had one for almost 10 years and I really like it. The only draw back for me was finding a multi power supply that could power it. Great sounding and versatile device. Thanks for all you do!
Great experiment! Thank you for taking the time to compare these pedals. Will you be releasing a video showing the settings for each pedal on how you achieved those three iconic voices? I think a lot would be interested to see the pedal settings and it would help others as a starting point also. I guess it could also be shared as a pdf file as suggested pedal settings.
RJM had just sent me an email about their new MIDI controlled distortion pedal (11/30/23)...so I went down the TH-cam rabbit hole and wound up with this series of videos. I own the Chase Bliss Automatone as well as some other tube pre-amp pedals (and digital pre's & distortions via the GT-1000 core). I've been scrubbing the internet for MIDI controlled analog devices since the 90's. I do not know how I slept on the Nova Drive. I just picked one up (after the shoot out vid) for $124 (with taxes) to add to the arsenal. Thanks for hipping to this....and quit bashing your gut-fiddle smarts..you're not SRV but you blow away 90% of your audience...it sort of becomes insulting.
I had the tomato pegged for #2 right away. #1 sounded thinnest so I figured it was the TC. The differences are subtle for the most part in this trial, and all sound fantastic and get the job done.
Funny, I was working on the assumption that the Automatone, like Chase Blisses BROTHERS, was two drive circuits with the flexible routing. That one is also programmable, but only stores I think 3. Do you have an opinion on ELektron drive or Heat?
I think I have really good ears for this kind of test, and I picked #1 just from my iPad speakers. I’ll re-listen on my monitors, but there were things from the CB and Overture I really didn’t like. Subtle, of course, but little bits of harshness that aren’t in the original pedals. Assuming you didn’t ‘doctor’ the clips… I’m surprised. Surprised i didn’t prefer the big, pretty, shiny new pedal, and also surprised that the old TC was so close to the real pedals. If I didn’t already own really good examples/versions of those individual pedals, I’d get a Nova. In fact, it’s going to be a chore to get myself to forget these results so I don’t just buy one anyway. Really surprising, also, that there was such an even split of preferences. As Brian Fellow would say, *_”That’s crazy.”_*
Same results with studio monitors, but more exaggerated. There's something in the upper frequencies of pedals 2 and 3 that isn't as sweet as with the original or pedal 1. Probably wouldn't notice it as a problem without a direct comparison, but A/B/C/D, it's there. Assuming this is all on the up and up.... I don't know how to describe such things, but i tend to think of it as the way strings 'sing' together. When they are really singing, there's a beauty to the way the strings harmonize. When it's off, it's just two strings doing things that sometimes sounds a bit ugly. It's kinda related to how i only recently figured out that the way to make my Strat doublestops sound 'pretty' was to turn the mids down.... Which surprised me, since i equated that tone with Tube Screamers. Nevertheless.
@@mrbaiser4133 yeah but the Nova drive talks to my G System that I use to do midi changes with. The G System opens up a page where you can tweak the pedal without touching the knobs, that’s just crazy. And its an analog pedal
I would not like to come across as a tick or something ;-) I love the TC pedal. But... What I believe this video showcased in the first place was how the amp worked with dirt pedals and which one was its (amps) most favourable one. Yes, this is to say that changing an amplifier means much more to your overdriven tone than changing a dirt pedal. And yes of course it means that with this given amp a TC pedal worked the nicest.
The amp is a constant, not a variable. Standard 6L6 clean platform for pedals. You can re-try the experiment with your own clean amp if you want to test the merits of the pedals, but they were doing the lifting, not the amp.
Great timing on the video 🤜 I’m seriously thinking of getting a tc to simplify my board as I’m now using an es5 as my es8 took a 💩 at the start of the lock down😡 I’ve also switched to using a line6 m5 and dd500 for delays and mods, with the tc it would only take up one loop in the es5 as it could be set up for core tone and boost and only use one loop ! The plan is to try get the board size down to 16”/ 13” two tier as space on stage is always handy with mic stands etc now that gigs are up and running again! Thanks again for all the very informative videos! They are guitar tone gold 👍
Finally after finding a Tc ndr1 for sale in Europe second hand on eBay France 🇫🇷! Ordered it this morning! Fingers crossed it turns up as it would add great flexibility to my board with the es5 call up presets/ adding shit loads more drive tones without taking up too much space and only one loop required so giving the option of running mods pre or post drive for different flavours!
Vertex Effects Well to be fair the demo of you with the Strat and it kinda had me sold tone wise.....! In reality is there actually need for another drive pedal on ones board in your opinion if only doing rock covers and only need light overdrive, a bit heavier distortion and a solo boost ....? Other thing is in using it how does it react in regards cleanup with volume backed off a bit...? (Low output alnico 3 Strat pickups)
I thought the Chase Bliss LP BB simulation of a BB sounded great, but if you listen with headphones, wasn't in the same zip code as the Blues Breaker. On the other tracks all 4 were all much closer. The CB not getting close actually explains why CB won the LP group by so much. An outlier should take a lot more than 1/3 in a sample of 3 choices that are supposed to sound similar. We often vote for what we think is best, even when asked what's most similar. That would leave the others two that sounded the same to divide up the remainder. That one bad match made the CB stand out and clearly some people liked it better, but that isn't actually impressive since preferred when you are trying to match isn't really a win. Even so, great video and since none of them had issues with clipping or noise, I'm going to get the TC to pair with an SA EQ2. Any of them with a midi controlled EQ will be super versatile. That won't replace 3 overdrives, it'll likely replace most overdrives.
@@Mondfall Yes, which basically means digital. It says hybrid to get people interested, while the TC, RJM and CBA are fully analog with digital programming. The OD200 has the drives in a digital processor, same as strymon´s overdrives and countless others. Every digital drive has some analog input- and/or output-stages, so yes there are some analog, but really they are digital.
Hey Mason and team! Would you be able to share the TC Nova Drive settings you used for each of the Klon/BB/TS settings? Curious if you have this info in hand!
Do people know of any other programmable analog overdrives. Trying to get a feeling of what's out there. I of course know these three, as well as the Chase Bliss brothers, Elektron Analog drive and the Ramble FX kismet. Any others..?
@@youscreamiscreamCould you please explain why you think so? I agree that the TC is one of the most versitile ones (i Even have one myself), a lot because of the 2 circuits working together, but why would you consider the Elektron worse than for example the Overture? It has a 3 band EQ and modes for a lot of drives and even an octave-fuzz.
@@mikaelstensvold3199 I had the Elecktron. The pedal isn't very dynamic, in addition the tone controls are very limited in scope. It feels and sounds very sterile and flat. A few of the models are okay, but NONE are exceptional. It seems to sacrifice convenience for performance.
My favorite thing is that it points out how in a blind test, no one can really tell the price of tone. Within reason, they all performed pretty evenly. It goes without saying the CB is the most beautiful, and the fact that it does so much more is why it demands such a steep price. Great job with this one, I really enjoyed it!
Undoubtedly...if we're talking about features and cool factor, Chase Bliss wins by a mile. If we're looking simply at classic OD replication, they all are under a percentage point of each other and could really all do the same job reasonably well.
Nice to see they were all close and yes, from a sound perspective not much separating them. The Automatone is still what I want because the sliders move. If the knobs moved when changing presets on the Nova drive I would consider it too.
@@jspartacus I heard that’s why CBA went with sliders, more reliable apparently. Also, I want the sliders because there is just no way I’m going to remember what the settings are on my presets. And the Automatone does allow you to turn the automatic sliders off if you feel a need to.
@@jspartacus lol, time will tell of course. CBA claims they put them through the rigorous testing. And any electronic device is allergic to water, sliders or not.
@@VertexEffectsInc I’m a midi overdrive fan, have you tried comparison CB Brothers & RJM Overture? Want to know which one got more midrange🤔 I have a CB automatone it sounds great and felt good response, but when I active other vintage unit like Rat or Guv’nor, they always makes me feel more comfortable, I think CB’s sounds too beautiful, too bright, or too “hi-fi” to me, I just can’t get the sweet midrange and always feel to much bass😓
I had it for a while and in my opinion unfortunately it lacks dynamic range in all settings. I thought the sound signature was great but it always felt to me like it limited hard attacks in dynamic playing, as if it was like a 5V pedal.
Man…i have a box full of overdrive pedals. Even had to build a shelf system to connect all my pedals through a patchbay, and even that is getting overcrowded ;-)
Hmmmm, I did not watch the prior blind shootout, but what I am hearing now of just the TC IMHO sounds pretty bad. So nasal and compressed. Sounds like a toy thru a little transistor radio. (And I have two TC pedals on my board.). I came here because the RJM, which I’ve never heard, popped up on my Reverb feed. I will also give the TC a full listen on a focused demo. Thanks Mason.
The reason we didn’t is that it’s not emulating multiple different overdrives in one box, it’s meant to be Bluesbreaker style Overdrive that’s programmable
I didn't think the Nova was very good really. It sounded sterile and brittle in comparsion to the other two. I gravitated to 3 predominantly with 2 delivering closer on a few. So I'm happy to see that number 3 was the overture. I think they’ve done a stellar job with the pedal. It is just missing a couple things to make it a practical replacement for my all analog pedals. 1) It needs a mids control to really provide the flexibility I need 2) It needs a display that shows what preset you are on AS WELL AS whether the preset has been used already or not (this is a big management hassel trying to figure out what preset slot is open to be used… are you supposed to just memorize it?) 3) I get a lot of my tone through stacking up to 4 drives. For this to be useful, I’d need to buy and stack like three of these and have a regular fuzz pedal somewhere in the mix as well as a heavy gain/distortion pedal at the end to round it out. Having a setup like that with a Loop controller having midi would give something like the AmpX and modelers a run for their money in terms of programmable convenience quickly accessing/switching tones between songs. 4) The chase bliss while being great is just too big for this, and even the Overture is on the slightly big size so any effort to reduce size if possible is appreciated.
I found the RJM to feel the best, followed by TC, the CBA. All sounded darn good overall. Midrange can be achieved in different ways...cut bass, cut treble on some you have a mid hump. Boost treble, and boost bass and you have mid scoop. The midrange knobs could be anything really - some guys might go down to 300hz an still call it "low mids" or up to 2K and call it "high mids". Also when you get into slider EQs on a graphic EQ you start to run into issues with filtering and how the bands overlap. Some of them allow you to have control of the Q like on a parametric but many of them don't. I don't think it's as simple as just having a midrange knob.
Sure it is. More control is more control. The makers of the pedal would pick the sweet spot for the mid control.Wampler is a good example of this. The mid control on their tube screamer the clarksdale is a godsend.
I bought a Nova Drive second hand years ago and it sounded decent but it broke down pretty shortly after I bought it. I paid like $150 for it and had to contact TC's tech support, pay to ship it in, and then they wanted $270 to repair it. They never even sent it back... There's something to be said about paying a bit extra for quality. Pretty subjective test considering the settings could be extensively tweaked more on the Automatone than the other 2 pedals and most of the voters probably listened to this on their iPhones...
@@VertexEffectsInc It's pretty well known and documented that TC pedals and specifically the Nova Drive have issues with breaking down. That's probably why they don't make it anymore. 🤷♂️ Not that it didn't sound good but that doesn't really matter if it doesn't function properly.
@@erickaymusic All the Nova series, mechanically, is the same - Nova Drive, Nova Delay, Nova Reverb, etc. That series was overall very reliable and well received. None of the pedals from that Nova series are still made, they were superseded the more current line of pedals and the change over to the Harmon ownership. I would argue that they were better built then (Nova days) then now. I've not seen it as being a recurring issue with the Nova pedals and I've been around them a lot since they release in the early 2000's...maybe even late 90's as an offshoot of the G Systems.
@@VertexEffectsInc Different strokes bruh 🤷♂️, lol. All you have to do is Google TC Nova problems and there are troves of bad experiences. I also thought it was absurd that TC's repair center wanted to charge me almost $100 more than the pedal cost brand new for the repair and then never even shipped the pedal back to me. Just my experience. I've owned the Nova Drive and now own an Automatone and the fidelity and versatility of the Preamp MKII are unrivaled.
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![Automatone Rules Them All [Do You Need A Programmable OD Pedal?] - That Pedal Show](/img/n.gif)
View the Results HERE:
vertexeffects.com/best-programmable-overdrive
00:00 Intro
01:33 The Results
2:50 Pedal Identities Revealed!
03:55 The Winner
04:45 Nova Drive - Low Gain
05:30 Les Paul Results
06:39 Nova Drive - Medium Gain
07:30 Strat Results
08:46 Nova Drive - High Gain
09:40 Final Thoughts
10:56 Outro
I've used the NOVADRIVE on 3 solo albums, super happy with it.
It’s a keeper
Somebody offered me this pedal just yesterday. Today I did a lot of video research as I am looking to change my old ehx crayon od for something a bit more versatile for a new board that I am building. This video helped me to convince myself to get it and tomorrow I'll be meeting this guy to buy it from him. Thank you so much for this video, great content as always! Saludos from Viet Nam!
Great video Mason, loved the methodology on your approach to this! Also I was pulling for pedal 3, so I was glad to see that ended up being the RJM overdrive, such a great newer pedal!
This one definitely felt the best under my fingers, but all of them were great honestly. Can't go wrong.
Great stuff, was happy to see the NOVA Drive won, I've had one for almost 10 years and I really like it. The only draw back for me was finding a multi power supply that could power it. Great sounding and versatile device. Thanks for all you do!
My pleasure!
It is still my main drive pedal, I power it with a Cioks DC-7. You could check it out.
@@alpaca_x thanks
I use my Nova all the time
Great experiment! Thank you for taking the time to compare these pedals. Will you be releasing a video showing the settings for each pedal on how you achieved those three iconic voices? I think a lot would be interested to see the pedal settings and it would help others as a starting point also. I guess it could also be shared as a pdf file as suggested pedal settings.
RJM had just sent me an email about their new MIDI controlled distortion pedal (11/30/23)...so I went down the TH-cam rabbit hole and wound up with this series of videos. I own the Chase Bliss Automatone as well as some other tube pre-amp pedals (and digital pre's & distortions via the GT-1000 core). I've been scrubbing the internet for MIDI controlled analog devices since the 90's. I do not know how I slept on the Nova Drive. I just picked one up (after the shoot out vid) for $124 (with taxes) to add to the arsenal. Thanks for hipping to this....and quit bashing your gut-fiddle smarts..you're not SRV but you blow away 90% of your audience...it sort of becomes insulting.
I had the tomato pegged for #2 right away. #1 sounded thinnest so I figured it was the TC. The differences are subtle for the most part in this trial, and all sound fantastic and get the job done.
Glad you enjoyed!
Excellent video as always, its just like talk with a good wise friend (Mason) and hear what he did a couple days ago with his toys 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Funny, I was working on the assumption that the Automatone, like Chase Blisses BROTHERS, was two drive circuits with the flexible routing. That one is also programmable, but only stores I think 3. Do you have an opinion on ELektron drive or Heat?
Quite surprised at this result. Guess I need to get a Nova Drive now :)
It's a keeper!
Brilliant, well done and surprising!
I think I have really good ears for this kind of test, and I picked #1 just from my iPad speakers. I’ll re-listen on my monitors, but there were things from the CB and Overture I really didn’t like. Subtle, of course, but little bits of harshness that aren’t in the original pedals. Assuming you didn’t ‘doctor’ the clips… I’m surprised. Surprised i didn’t prefer the big, pretty, shiny new pedal, and also surprised that the old TC was so close to the real pedals. If I didn’t already own really good examples/versions of those individual pedals, I’d get a Nova. In fact, it’s going to be a chore to get myself to forget these results so I don’t just buy one anyway. Really surprising, also, that there was such an even split of preferences. As Brian Fellow would say, *_”That’s crazy.”_*
Same results with studio monitors, but more exaggerated. There's something in the upper frequencies of pedals 2 and 3 that isn't as sweet as with the original or pedal 1. Probably wouldn't notice it as a problem without a direct comparison, but A/B/C/D, it's there. Assuming this is all on the up and up.... I don't know how to describe such things, but i tend to think of it as the way strings 'sing' together. When they are really singing, there's a beauty to the way the strings harmonize. When it's off, it's just two strings doing things that sometimes sounds a bit ugly. It's kinda related to how i only recently figured out that the way to make my Strat doublestops sound 'pretty' was to turn the mids down.... Which surprised me, since i equated that tone with Tube Screamers. Nevertheless.
Ignorance is bliss
Woa I just bought the Nova Drive. What a useful pedal, way beyond its time.
It really is!
Beyond its time? The Boss ME-5 was released in 1988, and Ibanez had a series of programmable pedals in the early 90s.
@@mrbaiser4133 Thats not analog, different thing although you can get some similar sounds
@@mrbaiser4133 yeah but the Nova drive talks to my G System that I use to do midi changes with. The G System opens up a page where you can tweak the pedal without touching the knobs, that’s just crazy. And its an analog pedal
I said 2 all the way and the CB is on my board- Glad I have not shamed my ears haha!
congrats!
Good job knowing what you like consistently
Great, great comparison! I got a used Nova Drive after watching this vid! Could you share the settings you used to emulate the Klon? Thanks!
I think we pan over the pedal when we do those settings...I don't recall.
Nova Drive prices exploding in 3... 2... 1... 🤣
better get in on the ground floor!
@@VertexEffectsInc Ah... I already have one, mint condition. A worthy investment 11 years on! 😀🥳💰
@@jspartacus there you go!
Great job
I would not like to come across as a tick or something ;-)
I love the TC pedal. But...
What I believe this video showcased in the first place was how the amp worked with dirt pedals and which one was its (amps) most favourable one. Yes, this is to say that changing an amplifier means much more to your overdriven tone than changing a dirt pedal. And yes of course it means that with this given amp a TC pedal worked the nicest.
The amp is a constant, not a variable. Standard 6L6 clean platform for pedals. You can re-try the experiment with your own clean amp if you want to test the merits of the pedals, but they were doing the lifting, not the amp.
I said Pedal 1 was best for Strat, and Pedal 3 for Les Paul. As a Strat player, my wallet is happy!
This was a great experiment, thanks Mason.
🙏🙏🙏
Great timing on the video 🤜 I’m seriously thinking of getting a tc to simplify my board as I’m now using an es5 as my es8 took a 💩 at the start of the lock down😡 I’ve also switched to using a line6 m5 and dd500 for delays and mods, with the tc it would only take up one loop in the es5 as it could be set up for core tone and boost and only use one loop ! The plan is to try get the board size down to 16”/ 13” two tier as space on stage is always handy with mic stands etc now that gigs are up and running again! Thanks again for all the very informative videos! They are guitar tone gold 👍
I'm so glad!
Vertex Effects You are a legend 🤜
Vertex Effects hopefully the video doesn’t drive the price of them up to far on Reverb 😬
@@billytremoloband7456 I hope not! They made tens of thousands I'm sure.
It has midi too, great for options while playing!
Finally after finding a Tc ndr1 for sale in Europe second hand on eBay France 🇫🇷! Ordered it this morning! Fingers crossed it turns up as it would add great flexibility to my board with the es5 call up presets/ adding shit loads more drive tones without taking up too much space and only one loop required so giving the option of running mods pre or post drive for different flavours!
Hope you enjoy it!
Vertex Effects Well to be fair the demo of you with the Strat and it kinda had me sold tone wise.....! In reality is there actually need for another drive pedal on ones board in your opinion if only doing rock covers and only need light overdrive, a bit heavier distortion and a solo boost ....? Other thing is in using it how does it react in regards cleanup with volume backed off a bit...? (Low output alnico 3 Strat pickups)
@@billytremoloband7456 Yes! And the clean up of the distortion side as well. Great tones and lots of possibilities with these ones! :)
I thought the Chase Bliss LP BB simulation of a BB sounded great, but if you listen with headphones, wasn't in the same zip code as the Blues Breaker. On the other tracks all 4 were all much closer. The CB not getting close actually explains why CB won the LP group by so much. An outlier should take a lot more than 1/3 in a sample of 3 choices that are supposed to sound similar. We often vote for what we think is best, even when asked what's most similar. That would leave the others two that sounded the same to divide up the remainder. That one bad match made the CB stand out and clearly some people liked it better, but that isn't actually impressive since preferred when you are trying to match isn't really a win. Even so, great video and since none of them had issues with clipping or noise, I'm going to get the TC to pair with an SA EQ2. Any of them with a midi controlled EQ will be super versatile. That won't replace 3 overdrives, it'll likely replace most overdrives.
Thanks for watching!
how about Boss OD200?
Digital - we were only looking at analog drives
@@VertexEffectsInc it‘s a hybrid, digital and analog.
@@Mondfall Yes, which basically means digital. It says hybrid to get people interested, while the TC, RJM and CBA are fully analog with digital programming. The OD200 has the drives in a digital processor, same as strymon´s overdrives and countless others. Every digital drive has some analog input- and/or output-stages, so yes there are some analog, but really they are digital.
No Elektron Analog Drive pedal?
It’s one I wish we could have included - I tried to find one but couldn’t get one domestically before the video was shot
@@VertexEffectsInc Bummer. Perhaps another time.
Hey Mason and team! Would you be able to share the TC Nova Drive settings you used for each of the Klon/BB/TS settings? Curious if you have this info in hand!
I went to the other video to remember my vote. I mostly choose pedal 3. the only one that I don´t know!
hope you found it helpful!
Cool shootout! I thought Nova Drive would be last place.
Thanks for watching!
Do people know of any other programmable analog overdrives. Trying to get a feeling of what's out there. I of course know these three, as well as the Chase Bliss brothers, Elektron Analog drive and the Ramble FX kismet. Any others..?
As in this video, Nova Drive, and RJM...both great.
The Elektron Analog drive isn't great, very one dimensional. The TC is SO much more versatile
@@youscreamiscreamCould you please explain why you think so? I agree that the TC is one of the most versitile ones (i Even have one myself), a lot because of the 2 circuits working together, but why would you consider the Elektron worse than for example the Overture? It has a 3 band EQ and modes for a lot of drives and even an octave-fuzz.
@@mikaelstensvold3199 I had the Elecktron. The pedal isn't very dynamic, in addition the tone controls are very limited in scope.
It feels and sounds very sterile and flat. A few of the models are okay, but NONE are exceptional. It seems to sacrifice convenience for performance.
@@youscreamiscream Ok, got it! Nice to know, thanks!
My favorite thing is that it points out how in a blind test, no one can really tell the price of tone. Within reason, they all performed pretty evenly. It goes without saying the CB is the most beautiful, and the fact that it does so much more is why it demands such a steep price. Great job with this one, I really enjoyed it!
Undoubtedly...if we're talking about features and cool factor, Chase Bliss wins by a mile. If we're looking simply at classic OD replication, they all are under a percentage point of each other and could really all do the same job reasonably well.
@@VertexEffectsInc I shoulda bought up some tc pedals, that pedal stonk is about to go 📈
@@RobertNolan there might still be time
Now have a look at the Boss ME-5 and the Ibanez DCP series
Too big compared to these.
Nice to see they were all close and yes, from a sound perspective not much separating them. The Automatone is still what I want because the sliders move. If the knobs moved when changing presets on the Nova drive I would consider it too.
Just more crap to break. Fender had moving knobs on the Cyber Twin, and look where that went.
@@jspartacus I heard that’s why CBA went with sliders, more reliable apparently. Also, I want the sliders because there is just no way I’m going to remember what the settings are on my presets. And the Automatone does allow you to turn the automatic sliders off if you feel a need to.
@@ILuvJazzNJava Nope. That stuff is notoriously unreliable. And forget it if you get it wet.
@@jspartacus lol, time will tell of course. CBA claims they put them through the rigorous testing. And any electronic device is allergic to water, sliders or not.
@@ILuvJazzNJava Eh, your money. It's not gonna last.
I sold my nova drive many years ago, but after seem this vid… I am searching it now. God I miss how that sounded.
They're great!
@@VertexEffectsInc I’m a midi overdrive fan, have you tried comparison CB Brothers & RJM Overture? Want to know which one got more midrange🤔 I have a CB automatone it sounds great and felt good response, but when I active other vintage unit like Rat or Guv’nor, they always makes me feel more comfortable, I think CB’s sounds too beautiful, too bright, or too “hi-fi” to me, I just can’t get the sweet midrange and always feel to much bass😓
Somehow about 104% voted on best for les paul
Not the same amount of people voted on each choice, some people only voted on one or two choices, but not all, or one guitar and not the other.
We have a Winnah!
Yes indeed!
Elektron Analog Drive!
It's one I wish I could've got my hands on!
@@VertexEffectsInc I love it, all 8 ODs sound good, programmable and MIDI !
I had it for a while and in my opinion unfortunately it lacks dynamic range in all settings. I thought the sound signature was great but it always felt to me like it limited hard attacks in dynamic playing, as if it was like a 5V pedal.
Wanted to sell my nova drive, but not sure anymore…great video!
It’s a keeper
Man…i have a box full of overdrive pedals. Even had to build a shelf system to connect all my pedals through a patchbay, and even that is getting overcrowded ;-)
@@drpaco947 Get a midi controller and stick with the nova, super flexible!
So we’ll done guys! I love my Automatone nice to see where it fits in with these other drives.
Hmmmm, I did not watch the prior blind shootout, but what I am hearing now of just the TC IMHO sounds pretty bad. So nasal and compressed. Sounds like a toy thru a little transistor radio. (And I have two TC pedals on my board.). I came here because the RJM, which I’ve never heard, popped up on my Reverb feed. I will also give the TC a full listen on a focused demo. Thanks Mason.
need to throw a Jackson pedal in there, like the Broken Arrow
The reason we didn’t is that it’s not emulating multiple different overdrives in one box, it’s meant to be Bluesbreaker style Overdrive that’s programmable
The Jackson doesn't have presets :( although it has quite a lot of midi shaping
Boss OD 200 is by far better than these 3. And the Boss is average at best. Just my opinion.
This is how the Presidential elections should look like 😆
Too transparent
I didn't think the Nova was very good really. It sounded sterile and brittle in comparsion to the other two. I gravitated to 3 predominantly with 2 delivering closer on a few. So I'm happy to see that number 3 was the overture. I think they’ve done a stellar job with the pedal. It is just missing a couple things to make it a practical replacement for my all analog pedals.
1) It needs a mids control to really provide the flexibility I need
2) It needs a display that shows what preset you are on AS WELL AS whether the preset has been used already or not (this is a big management hassel trying to figure out what preset slot is open to be used… are you supposed to just memorize it?)
3) I get a lot of my tone through stacking up to 4 drives. For this to be useful, I’d need to buy and stack like three of these and have a regular fuzz pedal somewhere in the mix as well as a heavy gain/distortion pedal at the end to round it out. Having a setup like that with a Loop controller having midi would give something like the AmpX and modelers a run for their money in terms of programmable convenience quickly accessing/switching tones between songs.
4) The chase bliss while being great is just too big for this, and even the Overture is on the slightly big size so any effort to reduce size if possible is appreciated.
I found the RJM to feel the best, followed by TC, the CBA. All sounded darn good overall. Midrange can be achieved in different ways...cut bass, cut treble on some you have a mid hump. Boost treble, and boost bass and you have mid scoop. The midrange knobs could be anything really - some guys might go down to 300hz an still call it "low mids" or up to 2K and call it "high mids". Also when you get into slider EQs on a graphic EQ you start to run into issues with filtering and how the bands overlap. Some of them allow you to have control of the Q like on a parametric but many of them don't. I don't think it's as simple as just having a midrange knob.
Sure it is. More control is more control. The makers of the pedal would pick the sweet spot for the mid control.Wampler is a good example of this. The mid control on their tube screamer the clarksdale is a godsend.
Can’t stack. Preamp mk2 sold.
How do you mean? Two functions as once? TC can.
Damn... why did I pass on that used Nova drive for sale at GC.😑😑😑😑
There's still time :)
I bought a Nova Drive second hand years ago and it sounded decent but it broke down pretty shortly after I bought it. I paid like $150 for it and had to contact TC's tech support, pay to ship it in, and then they wanted $270 to repair it. They never even sent it back... There's something to be said about paying a bit extra for quality. Pretty subjective test considering the settings could be extensively tweaked more on the Automatone than the other 2 pedals and most of the voters probably listened to this on their iPhones...
I haven't found the quality on the Nova series to be an issue...perhaps this was just a bad one?
@@VertexEffectsInc It's pretty well known and documented that TC pedals and specifically the Nova Drive have issues with breaking down. That's probably why they don't make it anymore. 🤷♂️ Not that it didn't sound good but that doesn't really matter if it doesn't function properly.
@@erickaymusic All the Nova series, mechanically, is the same - Nova Drive, Nova Delay, Nova Reverb, etc. That series was overall very reliable and well received. None of the pedals from that Nova series are still made, they were superseded the more current line of pedals and the change over to the Harmon ownership. I would argue that they were better built then (Nova days) then now. I've not seen it as being a recurring issue with the Nova pedals and I've been around them a lot since they release in the early 2000's...maybe even late 90's as an offshoot of the G Systems.
@@VertexEffectsInc Different strokes bruh 🤷♂️, lol. All you have to do is Google TC Nova problems and there are troves of bad experiences. I also thought it was absurd that TC's repair center wanted to charge me almost $100 more than the pedal cost brand new for the repair and then never even shipped the pedal back to me. Just my experience. I've owned the Nova Drive and now own an Automatone and the fidelity and versatility of the Preamp MKII are unrivaled.
I've had my NovaDrive since it came out and still no issues.I also have the Nova Delay too.