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New Pigtronix Resotron

#41
OhulahanBass said:
I tried the Resotron for the first time last night. It appears to not be well suited for active bass, it clips harshly when I hit a low note on my E-string even at moderate active volumes. I reached out to CS to see if they had any suggestions or if there is a trim pot I can mess with to help the issue but have not heard back.

To be clear, this is an issue I have never come upon after trying more envelope followers than I have fingers and toes.

I must say it is disappointing to find lacking headroom in a pedal that requires 18V supply. Every time I play below the 7th fret on my low E string I get nasty (in a bad way) clipping on the pedal. I can't tell if the clipping is the input or output section but it doesn't sound like filter drive.

In addition, the down envelope sweep is hard to dial in, so hard I haven't yet. Pitch tracking sounds great on guitar and is easy to dial in but not so much on active bass. Plus the range of tracked pitches available do not seem well suited for bass (drop the pitch too low). The up sweep sounds great on bass if I turn down my input volume.

The pedal can't take low bass notes in active mode on a J-retro pre above 60% with out clipping. The J-retro preamp is middle of the road heat for an active preamp. Turning up the compressor/blend circuit seems to add a bit of meat but also a nasty ring, kind of like the compressor preamp is so hot that it is picking up unwanted string hum.

So far, the usable Active bass level is at a volume to low to drive my other pedals properly. However, I have found one sweet spot with Filter set low, Resonance Moderate, Blend/Comp off, LPF, Up sweep, glide disengaged and the sensitivity to taste. It is a great sound but unusable in the context of gain staging for my other pedals.

It is hard to be sure of the health of the pedal, except, that it sounds FANTASTIC on guitar. I will report back if I hear from CS but for now I would advise against this pedal if you play an active bass and don't want to drastically change your signal chains gain stages.
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The J-Retro has a fixed bass-boost doesn't it? I had one in a bass for awhile, but didn't really jive with it and felt like it lacked neutral tones and range to dial in what I like to hear on a J-bass. IME- I have been able to clip just about every low-pass filter I've ever tried (with the exception of digital units like the SA C4 or some Line 6 models) when the resonant sweep passes low enough to where any circuit really requires additional headroom to not clip (a guitar never goes low enough to require that kind of additional headroom), and this is with fairly average-output passive basses. I could imagine that if the pitch-tracking brings the frequency down too low for the low range of a bass that clipping would be inevitable with any bass with a stout bass-heavy output (at least in my experience it doesn't seem like it is necessarily overall output, but bass/low mid-frequency output that tends to clip the sweep of a low-pass filter unless the resonance is set low). It seems few people have really found this pedal suitable for bass use thus far, which is a shame as it seems really cool in theory.

Have you tried the Source Audio Spectrum or C4? The filter in those pedals has a pitch-tracking range that works pretty well and also gives a number of different octave ranges to choose from.
 
#42
sunbeast said:
The J-Retro has a fixed bass-boost doesn't it? I had one in a bass for awhile, but didn't really jive with it and felt like it lacked neutral tones and range to dial in what I like to hear on a J-bass. IME- I have been able to clip just about every low-pass filter I've ever tried (with the exception of digital units like the SA C4 or some Line 6 models) when the resonant sweep passes low enough to where any circuit really requires additional headroom to not clip (a guitar never goes low enough to require that kind of additional headroom), and this is with fairly average-output passive basses. I could imagine that if the pitch-tracking brings the frequency down too low for the low range of a bass that clipping would be inevitable with any bass with a stout bass-heavy output (at least in my experience it doesn't seem like it is necessarily overall output, but bass/low mid-frequency output that tends to clip the sweep of a low-pass filter unless the resonance is set low). It seems few people have really found this pedal suitable for bass use thus far, which is a shame as it seems really cool in theory.

Have you tried the Source Audio Spectrum or C4? The filter in those pedals has a pitch-tracking range that works pretty well and also gives a number of different octave ranges to choose
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the problem exists even when I cut the bass. It’s possible I have a bad unit but I doubt it as it sounds perfect on guitar. I have never had this issue with: Octavius Squeezer, Mu-Tron, Qtron, Enigma, other Tron clones, MF-101, Sorce Audio filters, Future Impact, 3 leaf filters....I have tried allot, non have had even close to the lacking of lower headroom as the Resotron.

I have tried the new Source Audio C4, I couldn’t get over the lack of dynamic range. I felt that none of the envelope settings gave me full access to the Filter’s frequency range from my dynamics. I think it is a symptom of some digital envelope followers, I have the same issue with the Meris Enzo but not Markbass Super Synth or Future Impact.
 
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#43
CS got back to me, they said clipping in the low registers is normal especially for active bass and to try a compressor in front of the filter. I asked if there is a mod I can try, hope they have something, otherwise I will have to classify this one as a total dud for active bass:(
 
#44
OhulahanBass said:
Unfortunately the problem exists even when I cut the bass. It’s possible I have a bad unit but I doubt it as it sounds perfect on guitar. I have never had this issue with: Octavius Squeezer, Mu-Tron, Qtron, Enigma, other Tron clones, MF-101, Sorce Audio filters, Future Impact, 3 leaf filters....I have tried allot, non have had even close to the lacking of lower headroom as the Resotron.

I have tried the new Source Audio C4, I couldn’t get over the lack of dynamic range. I felt that none of the envelope settings gave me full access to the Filter’s frequency range from my dynamics. I think it is a symptom of some digital envelope followers, I have the same issue with the Meris Enzo but not Markbass Super Synth or Future Impact.
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That is interesting, as I haven’t had that particular dynamic issue with either the Enzo or C4 (dependent on settings, which there are LOTS to work with in the case of the C4) but you clearly know what you want from an envelope and what works for you! One thing when comparing analog and digital filters is the inherent dirtiness/harmonics that are added when pushing them (and affect the sweep and tone) that may have to be compensated for in a digital pedal with external drive of some sort (in the C4 there are lots of drive options to add subtle harmonics).
 
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#45
I think both Enzo and C4 pedals are great, but for me, I can't get over the fact that I will always want the filters to open up a bit more. With both, if I set the Cutoff low and max the envelop I can't open the filter all the way. Luckily we are swimming in a sea of envelope flowers these days.

The search continues for a 24db filter that has a vast dynamic response...perhaps a new thread topic.
 
#52
I've been using the Resotron on bass for a while now, both for my active Schecter and pass Mustang. It works best on the Schecter but works fine on the Mustang. The pitch-tracking feature, though, does not work well on either bass. It seems to emphasize the low sound too much and just doesn't sound good to me. But the traditional up or down sweeps, especially the down, sound great. (The upper really shines on guitar rather than bass, IMO.)

This pedal has many controls, and it can be a challenge to find the sweet spot, which of course changes depending on the bass, the pickup selected, tone knob position, wind direction, etc. But it definitely has sweet spots for bass. If you don't find the sounds you like right away, don't give up! Get to know the pedal; you'll probably find something you like in there. I have not tried the expression pedal or the other input to make it track an external audio source. I don't even know what that would be like.

I also like to use my Markbass Compressore in front of it sometimes, instead of (or combined with a bit of) the built-in compressor. The compression is more subtle with the Compressore; the built-in Philosopher's Tone compressor is not subtle, and also boosts the overall volume considerably when turned up. And feeding an overdrive into it (I've mostly used the Pigtronix Disnortion in parallel mode) can produce some great sounds.
 
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#55
superheavyfunk said:
Not on my screen. Says it’s the regular price

EDIT: It was an hourly deal. It expired 25 mins before I posted this… 10 mins before Diegom posted their link above
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Try it again... It took me a few times to get the correct price!

Be sure to go all the way to CHECKOUT. Even in the cart, it shows the regular price.

upload_2022-7-13_15-29-3.png
 
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