effect details

[earlink4555]

First I would say that this pedal is awesome. I assume that when this pedal is used with an external MIDI controller the presets of the Voluum can be changed with MIDI commands. But what I want to know is what do some of these effects sound/compare to when using the pedal as a FEED THRU.

For instance would the compressor in the Voluum be able to replace compressor I have on my board? Right now I have an Xotic SPSP compressor and it gets squishy/noisey but can be subtle as well. I was really considering buying a JHS Pulp n Peel compressor because it never gets squishy/noisey no matter how much you turn up the effect. I like the idea of being able to use the Voluum for compression alone under certain presets and be active when commanded from the external MIDI controller. Do you think this would work? How does the compressor sound in this pedal?

As far as a limiter and noise gate I have never had those in my signal path for guitar. I know they will be useful but could they be useful somehow in the way I explained above with the compressor? What I mean is as a single FEED THRU through effect? I am just trying to get an understanding of what the effects may do on their own.

Can this pedal be set up to do something like a touch sensitive effect? For instance if you strum the guitar beyond a certain threshold the LFO will kick in? Kind of like what you do with the Wahoo when you bend the strings it will engage vibrato but of course that is different concept but can you do that as well with tremolo?

[james]

First I would say that this pedal is awesome. I assume that when this pedal is used with an external MIDI controller the presets of the Voluum can be changed with MIDI commands. But what I want to know is what do some of these effects sound/compare to when using the pedal as a FEED THRU.

Yes, you can change the presets using MIDI program change messages.

For instance would the compressor in the Voluum be able to replace compressor I have on my board? Right now I have an Xotic SPSP compressor and it gets squishy/noisey but can be subtle as well. I was really considering buying a JHS Pulp n Peel compressor because it never gets squishy/noisey no matter how much you turn up the effect. I like the idea of being able to use the Voluum for compression alone under certain presets and be active when commanded from the external MIDI controller. Do you think this would work? How does the compressor sound in this pedal?

The Voluum compressor sounds amazing (this is the reactions from customers and people who have tried it at demos). It's a top-end studio-grade compressor, put into a pedal. It sounds very musical and has lots of gain at low noise -- so great for clean sustain. It's very transparent and it won't colour your sound. If you're looking for a compressor that adds colour, the Voluum isn't what you want.

You can turn the compressor (and other effects) on and off by MIDI -- not just by changing presets, but within a preset you can control which of the effects are active.

Also remember, that unlike other compressors, the Voluum compressor can be pedal-controlled: you can setup two compressor and seamlessly morph between them using the pedal. This is another way to turn the compressor on: gradually bring it in with the pedal.

As far as a limiter and noise gate I have never had those in my signal path for guitar. I know they will be useful but could they be useful somehow in the way I explained above with the compressor? What I mean is as a single FEED THRU through effect? I am just trying to get an understanding of what the effects may do on their own.

The limiter is mostly used to clamp the signal if the gain gets too high and you don't want to overload your subsequent effects (most effects don't have such high voltage rails as the Voluum), but it can also be used as a subtle effect.

The noise gate has lots of control and can be used as an effect on it's own when you set more extreme values. Usually its set so you don't notice its action -- it's reasonably transparent.

The compressor can also be set up as a "limiter" by setting the ratio (compression amount) very high.

Can this pedal be set up to do something like a touch sensitive effect? For instance if you strum the guitar beyond a certain threshold the LFO will kick in? Kind of like what you do with the Wahoo when you bend the strings it will engage vibrato but of course that is different concept but can you do that as well with tremolo?

LFOs can be set to "retrigger" when you strum, and also with a delay on start (a fade-in). So you can, for example, have a long delay so melodies are unaffected by tremolo but sustained notes and chords let the tremolo swell to any level you set.

Currently, pitch-bend processing is not in the Voluum.

Volume effects can also be controlled by strumming (or single notes, for that matter). You can trigger an ADSR envelope so that the sound automatically fades in each time you pluck or strum. You can get great effects this way.

[earlink4555]

Thank you James, I have another question. Can the Voluum act as a boost pedal? For Example push a clean channel on tube amp to distort or push other distortion/OD pedals to work harder like a boost for leads/solos?

[james]

Yes, the Voluum acts as a boost pedal. It can provide up to 40dB of boost for small signals. For larger signals, the boost is limited when the output signal gets close to the voltage rails (around +/-15V). This gives plenty of headroom to overdrive the front-end of a valve amp.