Friday, November 27, 2020

TC Electronics G drive

although marketed as a guitar outcomes unit, the G force can be greater precisely described as a full‑feature studio consequences processor with some neat guitar‑linked capabilities introduced. 

TC digital have built their reputation on extremely‑clear‑sounding outcomes that are musically as well as technically marvelous. They additionally pay extra attention than most to making their units easy to operate, while maintaining all of the flexibility mandatory to fulfill these programmers who like to in fact get interior a patch. The G drive is geared toward serious guitar players who are looking to put off their mess of pedals and exchange them with one unit that does it all. To this end, each overdrive and intelligent concord creation were delivered to the extra regularly occurring armoury of studio effects such as reverb, delay, modulation and the like.

so as to make the G force beautiful to as many clients as feasible, TC have given it stereo balanced outputs on jacks, stereo inputs on excessive‑impedance (instrument/line‑appropriate) jacks and 24‑bit, forty four.1kHz digital I/O on S/PDIF phono connectors. The user has access to eight impact types that can be run concurrently without a 'out of DSP means' messages, the effects blocks could be freely routed in each collection and parallel configurations, and there's an impressive modulation device, favourite as the Modifier Matrix, that permits the person to set up a variety of precise‑time manage services. external MIDI or pedal handle of impact parameters is feasible, however there isn't a dedicated pedalboard — whatever I think gigging authorities could ask for.

G force comes housed in a well styled 1U rack, and in addition to the rear‑panel digital and analogue I/O already mentioned, there's also a full set of MIDI In, Out and through connectors, in addition to an exterior control input jack that can be used with a standard expression pedal.

The front panel properties the enter and output stage controls, a PCMCIA enlargement card slot, a screen section, 22 manage buttons and two facts‑entry knobs, one for Parameter and one for value. surprisingly, the vigour change is a momentary‑action button, so to steer clear of G drive being switched off accidentally, you need to dangle down this button for as a minimum three seconds earlier than releasing it in an effort to switch the unit off. The reveal section comprises two areas — an lcd window for patch option and parameter modifying, and whatever thing known as the Billboard, which behaves quite like those scrolling text promoting indications you see at alternate indicates. basically, the Billboard is a matrix of 5 x 14 square LEDs, that could exhibit issues just like the preset identify and quantity, tempo, and messages of your personal deciding upon — a novel way to advertise at gigs. As shipped, the unit delights in spelling out its name in case you depart it by myself for greater than a few minutes. underneath the Billboard are further indicators to show when a patch has been edited, when MIDI and pedal tips is being bought etc. Yet greater LEDs act as a compressor profit‑reduction meter and tuner indicator.

The buttons are organized into logical sections, and every has a committed function. The outcomes control part provides a button for every of the eight results varieties plus the noise gate, as well as bypass, Tuner and Tempo buttons. Tempo can also be used to faucet in lengthen tempos and so forth, whereas Tuner turns the front‑panel display into a large and extremely correct guitar tuner. When a patch is known as up, LEDs in the corresponding impact buttons mild as much as display which consequences blocks are lively, and any block could be bypassed by using pressing its button. In outcomes Edit mode, these buttons may be double‑clicked, computing device mouse‑style, to get you at once into the effect edit menu for that block.

next along are the control buttons handling recall, save, outcomes, I/O Setup, Mod and Utility. take into account and save take care of discovering and saving patches between the two manufacturing facility preset banks and the a hundred user reminiscence locations (900 more patches may also be saved on a card). or not it's also feasible to replica particular person impact‑block settings from patch to patch. once you're in a monitor window, the left/correct arrow keys are utilized in aggregate with the Parameter and cost knobs to access and edit parameters. The Enter key's used when loading selected patches and for confirming settings while editing — an in-built LED flashes when a affirmation is anticipated. Exit enables you to go away the existing screen, notwithstanding it will probably also be utilized in some situations to cancel actions.

earlier than that you can use G force, you deserve to select the applicable I/O mode by means of the Setup menu; if you are patching a guitar without delay into the unit, you ought to opt for the left analogue input as the source. you could additionally install even if operating pass should kill the dry component of the sign — anything you'd consistently do if the usage of the G force within the aux ship/return loop of a conventional mixer.

TC have used customized reveal graphics to make the usage of the G drive as simple as viable. When establishing an impact from scratch (as antagonistic to modifying an present patch), you must decide a way to route your effects blocks using an on‑screen grid 4 blocks deep and eight blocks wide. At at any element the place one or more block is placed in parallel with another, the signal splits to feed both. The signal combine at every relevant element may well be adjusted and a bit bargraph display comes as much as support you get a good overview of the various combine tiers. every little thing is so intuitive for you to work most things out quicker than finding them within the guide, which is in itself amazing, as the guide is an awful lot smaller than you may predict for a piece of device of this calibre.

The consequences blocks themselves are divided into Compress, Filters, Pan & Trem, Pitch, lengthen, power, refrain and Reverb, and each block might also simplest be used as soon as in a patch (Flange comes under the chorus menu). the primary degree of editing is to choose the effect type from the record available to that block. as soon as or not it's chosen, you just hit Enter to get to the primary parameter edit page, which is organized as a simple scrolling record with parameter names on the left and values on the right. In most circumstances, the chosen parameter will even have some kind of reveal icon, akin to a bargraph meter for values. all of it works very logically.

most likely probably the most complicated half to comply with with any complicated effects unit is the way during which modulation will also be install from external controllers or interior sources, equivalent to LFOs or envelopes. Even here, TC have finished a very good job of keeping things fundamental. In impact, you've got four columns displayed on monitor with 4 modifier sources visible alongside the excellent at anyone time. The value knob is used to scroll crossways during the many accessible sources. all of the destinations are listed down the right‑hand facet of the monitor, but as soon as again, they may not all healthy at once so the Parameter knob is used to scroll down the list. a little square icon indicates where the columns intersect at any time and urgent Enter creates a patch between the chosen supply and vacation spot. notwithstanding no longer every parameter inside every impact is accessible as a modulation destination, all the logical ones seem to have been included.

When an external pedal is being used, its excessive, low and mid settings may also be adjusted to provide the favored manage law and range. Some parameters might also also be set to exchange over time the usage of the go with the flow function. better of all, in case you get into a little of a multitude, hitting Exit twice will deliver up a speak box permitting you to get rid of all the hyperlinks you could have just made.

interior modifier sources can be used to map the input sign stage to filter frequency to create auto‑wah outcomes, however that you could do a lot more than that internal the G force. There are two absolutely practical ADSR envelope mills that can also be caused with the aid of the enter audio stage, in addition to two LFOs capable of generating sine, triangle or square waves with variable pulse width. all the way through modifying, each the price and Parameter wheels can be used to simulate any of the interior controllers so that you can look at various out the impact you are attempting to create.

results may also even be sync'ed to tempo, the place you choose the tune fee you want — as an example, eighth‑word triplets — after which simply use the tap tempo to beat time with the tune. in addition to delays, chorus rates or every other LFO‑driven consequences will also be locked to tempo. tap tempo may even be edited by the use of MIDI, however there does not seem to be any technique to lock the interior tempo to MIDI clock, except I've missed something. As you modify the tempo, the Billboard screen turns into a big, pulsating crimson eye!

all the results are clear and pristine, except for overdrive, which certainly is never alleged to be! there is a reasonably simple however useful speaker simulator obtainable in the G force's output area, and as you could imagine, the overdrives sound relatively gritty if you are attempting to DI them with out it. With the simulator turned on, the overdrive is musical and fairly usable, but would not have the degree of chunk or squeal that i'm used to listening to from a true amp. The sound is extra theme from Taggart or peak observe than AC/DC, if you get my glide. Most live gamers will likely use the G force in conjunction with a guitar preamp, overdrive pedal or in a guitar amp's send/return loop, and for rock sounds, this may also be the most useful strategy right through recording. during this context, the overdrive settings support color and form what you have already got, making your normal amp much more versatile.

TC produce one of the vital world's ultimate reverb algorithms, and the ones supplied here are pretty stunning, albeit with a bit fewer parameters than you could get in a committed reverb processor. definitely there are two reverb options — an easy reverb with simplest 5 parameters, and a more comprehensive edition the place that you may manage room dimension from field to large, modify the excessive and low reverb tonality, trade the room reflections, and tweak the pre‑lengthen, the diffusion, the decay beginning time and so on. by adjusting the obtainable parameters, it be possible to emulate most natural areas.

On the processing side, the G drive has a compressor optimised for guitar use, a 5‑band EQ with two shelving sections and three absolutely parametric bands, plus a typical guitar wah‑wah, as well as vowel‑based layout filters. The greater familiar results consist of pan and tremolo plus emulations of chorus, flanger and phaser pedals that reproduce every thing but the noise of the originals. notwithstanding the pitch‑shifter still reveals a level of shimmer (a side‑impact with even the top of the line precise‑time shifters), it in all fairness usable offering it's mixed with probably the most straight signal, and there's a full plus or minus one octave range purchasable. with the aid of deciding upon a key and a scale category, it be also viable to set up an intelligent pitcher that can harmonise guitar ingredients in real time with up to two additional voices. The more formidable can create their personal customized scales, and even though that you would be able to in form the result isn't definitely two or three guitars enjoying collectively, the illusion is pleasantly musical. The unit can additionally do extremely respectable monophonic octave box impressions, in addition to all of the standard detuning and spiralling 'pitch shift in a prolong loop' hints we're so used to listening to.

The lengthen part comprises a stereo delay line with a optimum delay time of 740mS, which is greater than sufficient for most sensible makes use of, however quite stingy if you're into Fripp‑fashion looperisms. in spite of this, there may be high cut and low cut, to make tape echo imitations extra convincing, as well as a number of multi‑faucet and cross‑comments options.

it be a testament to the dedication of TC that they've made such an excellent‑sounding unit that may also be reviewed in so short a space. The G drive's working equipment is striking, so journeys to the manual cabinet should be rare, and the sonic first-class of the results is beyond reproach. i am impressed that all the outcomes blocks can all the time be used without working out of processing vigour, and some of the advanced examples offered, the use of the G force's modulation capabilities to create results that morph or shift over time, are quite inspirational. or not it's likely fair to assert that the overdrive part would not basically try and emulate precise amp voicings — it's assumed that the majority gamers will use the G drive along side an amp of some type — however you could DI without delay from the unit and nevertheless get a effect that's musically responsive and usable for a lot of guitar patterns outdoor mainstream rock. it may, although, be a limitatio n to a few clients that the digital I/O can handiest feature at forty four.1kHz, especially for those who need to group it with a digital desk/ADAT/BRC setup that may most effective run at 48kHz.

The G force is likely most suitable applicable to those that demand fine but don't wish to spend their existence identifying the way to use their gear. The calibre of the results, both technically and musically, is up there with the best of them, and being in a position to promote your band or studio by means of the Billboard screen is barely an introduced bonus! in case you want real first-class devoid of the bother, this is one effects field to take very severely, although you don't personal a guitar!

The G Card is an non-compulsory set of patches comprising 245 presets organized into three banks. because the card is study best, however, any edits in response to these patches have to be stored in standard user memory. all of the patches on this card had been created by way of knowledgeable guitarists and as such mirror the forms of the contributing artists. The musicians are listed as: Andrew Schlesinger, Michael James and Keith Wechler, Craig Anderton, Blues Sarenceno, Brian Swerdfeger, Bernie Chiaravalle, Mathew Nelson, Gunner Nelson, guy Defazio and Tomo from Rudy's tune Centre NYC.

The presets offered vary from elementary emulations of tape echo machines to closely treated textural sounds, and notwithstanding you might be unlikely to make use of all of them they do provide advantageous beginning facets for extra experimentation. probably the most very reverberant patches that consist of a stronger octave of pitch shift can be positive for film ranking or ambient tasks, and there are loads of great chorus and modulation patches for extra universal use. I don't believe the cardboard goes any further than the factory patches when it comes to stretching the desktop, but it could be a great funding in case you don't savour the idea of creating your entire personal patches from scratch.

professionals
  • Brilliantly fundamental working device.
  • Quiet, musically inspiring consequences, including intelligent guitar harmonies.
  • Digital and analogue I/O.
  • All eight effects blocks all the time obtainable.
  • Cons
  • Digital I/O at forty four.1kHz most effective.
  • No dedicated pedal board.
  • abstract

    The effects market is a pretty reduce‑throat vicinity in the intervening time, but if you need high‑end sounds with out Mensa complexity, the G force is an outstanding place to delivery searching.

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