3Leaf Audio Club - Episode 2

[yaksonator]

Thinking of possibly picking up an Enabler and figured this would be a good place to start. Ok, here goes. I'm wanting a DI and quiet practice rig. The headphone amp seems great here, but how does it sound? Will I need to also buy studio headphones to get a decent sound? Does OD/Distortion pedals sound good through it, or is it just clean stuff? Does the DI color your tone? I've been searching reviews, and thought I'd come to the source. Anything postive or negative will help. Thanks for the input!

It's super transparent. No color that I can audibly hear. I kept the enabler over the sadowsky Di, it's a little more subtle than some Di/preamp pedals but it's brilliant for transparency. And the headphone amp sounds amazing through cheapies and expensive headphones. I use skullcandy inears that were $30. Oh and every od/distortion I have sounds amazing through it. And the Di is really strong and fat, nice and warm!

 

[overbybr]

Thinking of possibly picking up an Enabler and figured this would be a good place to start. Ok, here goes. I'm wanting a DI and quiet practice rig. The headphone amp seems great here, but how does it sound? Will I need to also buy studio headphones to get a decent sound? Does OD/Distortion pedals sound good through it, or is it just clean stuff? Does the DI color your tone? I've been searching reviews, and thought I'd come to the source. Anything postive or negative will help. Thanks for the input!

I won't repeat yaksonator's comments except to say that better quality headphones will never sound worse than cheaper headphones. That being said, the enabler faithfully reproduces the bass guitar signal, so as long as your headphones are able to achieve a good seal to your ears (over ear or in ear), it will sound just right.

 

[Saluki]

 

[halfjackson]

Thinking of possibly picking up an Enabler and figured this would be a good place to start. Ok, here goes. I'm wanting a DI and quiet practice rig. The headphone amp seems great here, but how does it sound? Will I need to also buy studio headphones to get a decent sound? Does OD/Distortion pedals sound good through it, or is it just clean stuff? Does the DI color your tone? I've been searching reviews, and thought I'd come to the source. Anything postive or negative will help. Thanks for the input!

Everything that I've thrown at my Enabler sounds great through it. Like the previous posters have said, it's very transparent. If you're looking for a pedal to radically change, or save your sound, then this isn't it. It sort of just enhances the sound that you put into it. And the "Deep" toggle adds some really nice low end flavor.

The headphone amp section of this pedal is ridiculously awesome, and you can pick up a power supply on the cheap. If the day ever comes that the Enabler doesn't make the cut onto my pedalboard for some reason, I'll still keep it, and, it'll have a spot in my gig bag for sure.

I hope that this helps.

 

[halfjackson]

Received my you're doom and duality yesterday. I really like both pedals, but the you're doom is going on the board. The you're doom just feels right and is pretty different from the fuzzes that are out there. I would say it is most like my prunes and custard but without the phase/envelope thing that the prunes has going. I love the prunes too, but the you're doom just sounds better to my ear on bass. Both have a blends but prunes sounds thinner and the you're doom sounds like it was made for bass. The you're doom is really touch sensitive and works really with in the loop of the wonder love.

The Duality is a great pedal as well, but probably won't make my board. I compared it with my mastotron, DMB bumble, and oxide. The duality is really thick and chewy in the mids to my ear. Mids sound a little less defined with the filter knob from counterclockwise till about 3 o'clock then it opens ups some with some extra fizz of the filter. The gate side sounds good but it doesn't clamp like the TAFM (the best I have heard) or the oxide or mastotron.

Compared to the oxide, I like the duality better. The duality keeps more of the natural bass tone, and the oxide is pretty colored sounding. The Duality sounds closest to my DMB bumble but more chewy in the mids. Since I really like to hear the note definition (even with fuzz) my sweatspot with the duality is running it with blend between 9 and 12, after that it starts getting into face melting territory. It really gets crazy going into the B7k. Into the loop of the wonderlove I prefer the you're doom. It just works.


As a side note I would say the guess the B7k, the duality and the DMB Bumble are high gain pedals. They are the only pedals that have a noticeable noise floor when kicked on. When the blend on the B7k or duality is about 9 o'clock I don't hear this. On the DMB i have to turn the drive down to reduce the noise floor. All other pedals are dead silent. Just for reference I am using a puma 900, two very mid oriented Baer ML112s and skjold CS5. I haven't tried my Lull PJ5 through the board yet.

Lot of variable here folks, so take this with a grain of salt and do what works for you.

Thanks for this great review!

 

[Spencer!]

Will I need to also buy studio headphones to get a decent sound?

It doesn't hurt. My favorites are the Beyerdynamic DT770.

 

[kleinenenten]

Everything that I've thrown at my Enabler sounds great through it. Like the previous posters have said, it's very transparent. If you're looking for a pedal to radically change, or save your sound, then this isn't it. It sort of just enhances the sound that you put into it. And the "Deep" toggle adds some really nice low end flavor.

The headphone amp section of this pedal is ridiculously awesome, and you can pick up a power supply on the cheap. If the day ever comes that the Enabler doesn't make the cut onto my pedalboard for some reason, I'll still keep it, and, it'll have a spot in my gig bag for sure.

I hope that this helps.

Does a 1Spot work for power? I've got one, and I know Darkglass uses them while testing, and Spencer makes DG stuff...

 

[halfjackson]

Does a 1Spot work for power? I've got one, and I know Darkglass uses them while testing, and Spencer makes DG stuff...

I'm pretty sure that the headphone amp needs 300mA to work properly, and I'm not sure of the power requirements for just DI/EQ use. I bought an Enercel 9v adapter from Radioshack (can use 12v supply for added headroom). And for pedalboard use I run it out of one of the high(er) current (9v) outputs of my Voodoo Labs PP2+, which I think is only 250mA, and it works fine.

I'm not sure of your 1Spot specs, but you could always run an adapter into your power strip.

 

[kleinenenten]

I'm pretty sure that the headphone amp needs 300mA to work properly, and I'm not sure of the power requirements for just DI/EQ use. I bought an Enercel 9v adapter from Radioshack (can use 12v supply for added headroom). And for pedalboard use I run it out of one of the high(er) current (9v) outputs of my Voodoo Labs PP2+, which I think is only 250mA, and it works fine.

I'm not sure of your 1Spot specs, but you could always run an adapter into your power strip.

The 1Spot website states it can power up to 1700mA, so I guess that depends on what other pedals I'm using simultaneously then, right? I usually have my MXR Bass Compressor on, my MXR Noise Gate, and my B3K on at all times. After some quick spec-checking, it seems that ALL of my pedals combined at the moment would use only 171mA. So when I use the Enabler, I'd still only be at 471mA, under a third of what the 1Spot is capable of. Nice!

And for my own sake, I'll ask about this: Did I compute the numbers right? I just went to the manuals, found the "Current Draw" (or similarly named measurement in mA) and added them all up and compared to what the 1Spot can power. Is that right? There's no strange ohm calculation thing, like how more cabs means less ohms, or any other non-straightforward math, is there?

 

[overbybr]

The 1Spot website states it can power up to 1700mA, so I guess that depends on what other pedals I'm using simultaneously then, right? I usually have my MXR Bass Compressor on, my MXR Noise Gate, and my B3K on at all times. After some quick spec-checking, it seems that ALL of my pedals combined at the moment would use only 171mA. So when I use the Enabler, I'd still only be at 471mA, under a third of what the 1Spot is capable of. Nice!



And for my own sake, I'll ask about this: Did I compute the numbers right? I just went to the manuals, found the "Current Draw" (or similarly named measurement in mA) and added them all up and compared to what the 1Spot can power. Is that right? There's no strange ohm calculation thing, like how more cabs means less ohms, or any other non-straightforward math, is there?

You did it correctly

 

[J_Rock]

Is anyone using a Proton with an active bass? All the reviews that mention the bass they are using are always passive. My bass has an Aguilar OP3 in it.

 

[Spencer!]

Is anyone using a Proton with an active bass? All the reviews that mention the bass they are using are always passive. My bass has an Aguilar OP3 in it.

It works fine with active basses.

 

[J_Rock]

It works fine with active basses.

Thank you!

 

[LeonD]

Is anyone using a Proton with an active bass? All the reviews that mention the bass they are using are always passive. My bass has an Aguilar OP3 in it.

I use mine with an MTD 434-24. Sounds great.

 

[halfjackson]

The 1Spot website states it can power up to 1700mA, so I guess that depends on what other pedals I'm using simultaneously then, right? I usually have my MXR Bass Compressor on, my MXR Noise Gate, and my B3K on at all times. After some quick spec-checking, it seems that ALL of my pedals combined at the moment would use only 171mA. So when I use the Enabler, I'd still only be at 471mA, under a third of what the 1Spot is capable of. Nice!

And for my own sake, I'll ask about this: Did I compute the numbers right? I just went to the manuals, found the "Current Draw" (or similarly named measurement in mA) and added them all up and compared to what the 1Spot can power. Is that right? There's no strange ohm calculation thing, like how more cabs means less ohms, or any other non-straightforward math, is there?

You did it correctly

Cool.

 

[Matt Dean]

Nice review, Saluki, thanks!!!

Big +1

A You're Doom should arrive on Monday... I like the Duality a lot too, but don't think I can use it for anything other than living room wanking, so I flipped it for a You're Doom. I also have The Enabler and think it's an awesome pedal. In fact right now, it's an on all the time pedal. Gotta Wonderlove too... my pedal board is slowly being taken over by 3 Leaf critters.

 

[Down_Low]

Is anyone using a Proton with an active bass? All the reviews that mention the bass they are using are always passive. My bass has an Aguilar OP3 in it.

I use it with my Stingray, sounds great. Here's a quick little demo I threw together not long ago. Playing isn't great sorry, was concentrating on switching pedals on and off too much! https://soundcloud.com/ryan-pedlow-2/stingray-effects-demo

 

[Down_Low]

Just got back from my You're Doom's first run with the band. Sounded great! Even the singer noticed it, and commented on how fat it was sounding. It does the synth sound I've been looking for for ages, and with the Proton is even better. It replaced a Mastotron on my board, which I did like, but the You're Doom is a whole new level.

 

[nshuman]

Hi everyone, I have a question about my Enabler. It is very new to me so I am sure that I just do not know how to properly use the DI yet. I should also mention that everything seems to work perfectly on the pedal (headphone amp, all switches, gain, volume, eq, output) so I do not think there is anything wrong with the pedal.

However, when I connect the DI to my Roland Quad-Capture interface, no matter what I do, I get a very bad output that is scratchy and the level seems way off (as if it was too low or too high).

Anyway, when I connect the normal non DI output to the Roland interface, all is good.

So, basically, this is my question, what settings should I use when connecting the DI from the enabler to a capture interface? Thanks in advance!

 

[yaksonator]

Hi everyone, I have a question about my Enabler. It is very new to me so I am sure that I just do not know how to properly use the DI yet. I should also mention that everything seems to work perfectly on the pedal (headphone amp, all switches, gain, volume, eq, output) so I do not think there is anything wrong with the pedal.

However, when I connect the DI to my Roland Quad-Capture interface, no matter what I do, I get a very bad output that is scratchy and the level seems way off (as if it was too low or too high).

Anyway, when I connect the normal non DI output to the Roland interface, all is good.

So, basically, this is my question, what settings should I use when connecting the DI from the enabler to a capture interface? Thanks in advance!

Hmmm? The only time I had an issue was when I set my gain knob past 12. I overloaded the preamps on our presonus board. But now its sets at 9 all the time. I'm sure Spencer will help!