Okay!!! So my groove regulator finally arrived in Belgium. After taking it for a spin, I'll be sharing my opinion on this black beauty below. Soundclips may follow later on if I can get my hands on some decent recording apparel! relevant info:
I am no envelope-filter-conaisseur and this is only my third envelope filter. Previous ones I used where the Micro-Q-Tron and the Q-Tron. Logically, I'll be comparing the groove regulator with these pedals. Genres I usually play are new wave, funk and classic rock.
gear: Stringay 2EQ, markbass Little Mark II and a 4x10 Markbass cab...
love at first sight?
Delivering this pedal took well over a month. However, this had nothing to do with Spencer, who makes these pedals. He answered my e-mails concerning the ordering and paying of this pedal almost on a daily base and after having paid, it took him about five days to get the pedal in Belgium...
Belgian customs, however, decided that they needed about a month to process the item
...
So, when I finally received the package, my findings where the following. It was packed very safely. Two robust cardboard boxes (one in another) and the usual protection, it was all there.
After unpacking it, I must say that I was nicely surprised. The paint job is really nice and it looks really professionaly built. Concerning this pedal, "love at first sight is" is not exaggerated. The buttons and switches all work clearly and it seems sturdy enough to survive a tour.
Only remark that I have, is that something seems to be loose in there. I noticed when taking it upstairs (where my amp is)... When hurrying up the stairs, I could clearly hear that something was rambling softly in there...
candy for eardrums?
After doing some initial testing, everything seemed to be working just fine. Compared to my Q-trons, I find it somewhat more difficult to find that "right setting" on the groove regulator. Still, it is a very intuïtive pedal and it's easy to dial in a useable tone.
And that's where the groove regulator squashes my micro-q-tron.
What I really, really like about the groove regulator, is that it respects your clean tone of your bass. My micro Q-tron provides quite a change of sound, compared to the clean sound of my ray... The groove regulator also funkifies and changes the sound, but somehow it's still clearly audible throughout the "enveloping" that I am playing my stingray through my amp...
The sound of the pedal itself is clearly analog, quite deep and I have nothing to complain about. I personally like this sound better than the sound of both the Q-trons I have played... Volume spikes are also really acceptable on the pedal...
Where this pedal "literally" shines (okay, okay, really literally would be the LED), is the amount of options it gives... It has several useable sounds. For example, my new wave band would never let me use my envelopes, since they felt this did not fit the music... In the lo mode, however, the groove regulator can sound really synthy, for which they made an exception.
The only thing that keeps me from dumping my Micro-Q-tron from my board, is the fact that even in the most extreme settings, the groove regulator still sounds somewhat "in control"... It can give quacky sounds. It can give crazy sounds... but compared to the EHX pedals, it stays reasonably controlled... So when I want really "outta control" sounds, I'll be using my "old friend"...
What's this loop thingy?
If using the loop, the pedal does the following:
The input controls the envelope and the loop is the input on which the envelope effect is created... When using af distortionlike pedal, this gave me the following benefit: I could use the pedal, without make the pedal literally screech because of the hot input, since the envelope was created on base if my clean signal.
When using my favourite "dirty" pedal, however, it gave a huge volume drop. When putting the Big John Granny Puker in the loop, output went down by 50%... Is this a common problem with fuzzes or are those two pedals just not getting along??? I am yet to test everything with another fuzz or overdrive...
Another envelope follower and a delay gave no volume drop or whatsoever...
The most funny thing I could do with the loop was playing some notes into my digital delay and having it continue forever... Afterwards, I connected the output of my delay to the input of the groove regulator... I connected my bass directly to the "loop return" input. By controlling the tempo of the "serie of notes" that went to control the envelope, I could make the lot sound almost like a funky vibrato...
plus and minus
+ Love the sound (useable and funky, no severe peaks, lo-mode is DEEP)
+ Lots of different sounds
+ the loop can make for some crazy/funky sounds
+ fairly compact in size, fits well on a board
+ true bypass
+ good for slapping
+ customer service is top notch
- the power connection is nighly fitted... Unless it's really connected on the "sweet spot", my 1spot does not power the pedal... My boss 9V adapter, however, does power the pedal in just about every position...
- the envelope is not as sensitive as I am used to...
- output goes down when using granny puker in loop???
To summarize everything:
I like this pedal a lot... It'll be on my pedalboard anytime... I find it beautiful-sounding, useable, compact and user friendly...
There are some things which I need to sort out (which pedals are useable in the loop, powering it the right way, ...), but all together, I would recommend this pedal to everyone looking for a good envelope follower...
... I am just a little bit hesitant to have the granny puker on it's hottest, since that particular pedal seems to give a lot of subsonic noise in some settings...
