Enigma owners: question about volume

[Jumbotron]

I'm interested in the enigma, since the sounds I hear from it are pretty cool. But I'm concerned that it's one of these pedals where no matter what you do, you get a volume boost. I'm not talking about the spikes--that's totally normal and expected for a filter (and I run a compressor anyway)--but the volume before the envelope opens up.

So, in your experience, is it possible to get a nice wet sound without everybody turning around and asking what the heck you're doing? (obviously, this is more of a live concern than a studio concern.) Does that internal pot for the distortion, for example, allow you to reduce gain to the extent that the effect is at basically the same level as your dry signal?

[WaldoNova]

There is a trimpot to control distortion volume. This also can be controlled by the sensitivity input. As for the volume overall there is a slight volume boost overall but it isn't that bad and is easily controlled with a compressor/limiter.

[guroove]

I just put a compressor after mine. I rather enjoy the volume boost when I run it in lowpass mode.

[Jumbotron]

OK, I got an Enigma and for the sake of completeness, felt compelled to go on here and give a bit more of an answer my own question.

Yes, it's possible to set it up with essentially unity gain. It can't be done with all the settings, and sometimes an unexpected knob (attack???) will get moved just a little and everything will get louder. But in just an hour or so of fiddling with it, I've got a really wet sound set up with the bandpass filter that's basically at the same volume as my dry sound. The blend knob is pretty handy for all this, too.

Still learning how to use it, but quite happy so far.

[RCCollins]

just get a limiter and you can use whatever settings you like on the enigma!

one heck of an envelope filter pedal IMO

[sillyfabe]

i use a limiter after it and that way it doesn't matter what i set its limited to protect my poor speakers!

[cst bass]

can anyone recommend a good limiter?

[mcnach]

Originally Posted by Jumbotron

I'm interested in the enigma, since the sounds I hear from it are pretty cool. But I'm concerned that it's one of these pedals where no matter what you do, you get a volume boost. I'm not talking about the spikes--that's totally normal and expected for a filter (and I run a compressor anyway)--but the volume before the envelope opens up.

So, in your experience, is it possible to get a nice wet sound without everybody turning around and asking what the heck you're doing? (obviously, this is more of a live concern than a studio concern.) Does that internal pot for the distortion, for example, allow you to reduce gain to the extent that the effect is at basically the same level as your dry signal?

I sold mine because I wasn't it for the bands I'm in, but it was a great pedal, and I know what you mean about the volume boost (like the micro QTron) but this one you can adjust perfectly.

In addition, you could always use a Boss LS-2 to put in a loop the "loud" pedals and tame them with it plus blend some dry signal with it. The LS-2 is such a versatile pedal, not just as a line selector as it does more than that, I'm surprised not to see it in more pedalboards.

[Jumbotron]

Hey, it's my old thread, back from the dead!

A year later, I still love my Enigma. It's a keeper. The volume boost is a non-issue for me with this pedal, and when I run it into an EBS Multicomp, the spiking is well under control.