Has a demo of a da-2 adaptive distortion

ThePrettyDamned

It really impressed me. I went in to see the od1x and ds1x but time was not on my side and the dude in the shop was most keen on the adaptive distortion for versatility.

Fao @monquixote possibly?

Anyway, it went from a transparent clean (no drive at all) boost pedal through to quite high gain 80s esque levels of drive.

And it sounded really, really great at all settings!

For reference I went through the Bright channel of a fender 2x10 vibrolux. Which was a great sounding amp - and sounded great at true bedroom practice levels, too! (I was given a very friendly, and thorough, demo ). Minor hair trigger on the volume between bedroom and loud home practice, but there have been much worse!

So, at 0 it can be totally transparent - dialled to sound identical to the amp, with either volume match, cut or boost (tons on tap). Then you can boost or cut the treble and bass content.

The neatest thing was the low strings remained defined and the high strings were never shrill.

Then we worked the gain range. It was very touch sensitive (we didn't touch the volume knobs but until max gain, pick attack could clean up quite nicely and gave excellent dynamics.

Why the Bright channel? I like spanky clean funk tones and spanky clean metal arpeggio tones. It would allow me to test the shrillness - and it didn't disappoint at all.

Even with the gain maxed, where randy rhoads tones were to be found, with the treble down to 1/4 or less (or even 0!) it remained defined when chugging on a bridge humbucker but smooth as you went up.

Only the most complex jazz chords sounded nasty - and to be honest, they didn't sound much better with no gain at all. Chromatic bass note chord runs were always driven or distorted, but never mushy or shrill - it looks perfect!

Until...

The noise floor.

This was my only gripe - perhaps a dodgy pedal, or perhaps because it's an old model.

I told the chap I'd come back on my birthday and try all 4, dyna drive, adaptive distortion, od1x and ds1x to see which would suit me the best. The adaptive distortion seems to be so perfect, but even on a humbucker, there is a definite level of hum and noise introduced when the gain is at half or above.

Anyway, I'd urge people to give it a go. It was great for overdriven 3 note funk work high up, or down low, as well as general chugging, fusiony lead tones (the shop guy was a great player!) and touch sensitive blues and jazz, or a transparent and totally noise free clean boost.

hugbot

Mine was surprisingly noisy for super whiz bang modern pedal too. Not unusibly so but dissapointing for a pedal where the appeal is its clean sound.

I think its a great pedal for fusion or modern prog-metal-with-silly-chords stuff.

ThePrettyDamned

hugbot;401753" said:

Mine was surprisingly noisy for super whiz bang modern pedal too. Not unusibly so but dissapointing for a pedal where the appeal is its clean sound.

I think its a great pedal for fusion or modern prog-metal-with-silly-chords stuff.

It could be a deal breaker.

It was demod with a coily cable, which might not help.

I'll compare to the others, though. The ds-1x doesn't sound like it does od tones at all, so this one would be perfect if only for the noise floor.

monquixote

The DA-2 is quite different to the OD-1X. 

I haven't noticed it being noisy as part of the GT-100, but then most of the gainier patches have noise gates and on my own patch I used it on I kept the gain on 25%. It's certainly very nice sounding and has some big chuggage available. 

The OD-1X was crazy quiet considering how much filth it has available. See the Pete Thorne demo for an example.

The main difference between the DA-2 and the OD-1X was how it responded to neck single coils. The DA-2 was like a RATM big fat sort of thing where as the OD-1X was really tight and smooth. Don't write the OD-1X off for more rock tones as it's got shed loads of gain. The only thing that makes it less suitable for metal is the sweetness of the clipping. 

ThePrettyDamned

monquixote said:

The DA-2 is quite different to the OD-1X. 

I haven't noticed it being noisy as part of the GT-100, but then most of the gainier patches have noise gates and on my own patch I used it on I kept the gain on 25%. It's certainly very nice sounding and has some big chuggage available. 

The OD-1X was crazy quiet considering how much filth it has available. See the Pete Thorne demo for an example.

The main difference between the DA-2 and the OD-1X was how it responded to neck single coils. The DA-2 was like a RATM big fat sort of thing where as the OD-1X was really tight and smooth. Don't write the OD-1X off for more rock tones as it's got shed loads of gain. The only thing that makes it less suitable for metal is the sweetness of the clipping. 

Ahh so it's an algo on the multi? 

That's cool.  The single pedal is really noisy - I'm thinking, what with it being one of the 'original' ones, the newer ones have upgraded circuitry, or maybe even a clever built in gate.  

I'll be trying the whole lot out, though, and definitely getting one.  The noise might have been made worse by the coily cable and close proximity to the amp?  I don't know.  It was quite bad, though, coming from the Visual Sound Son of Hyde, where even with the gate off, it's not that noisy.  

Apparently @petethorn has done a demo of the DA-2 - which I'm going to search for now, see if he notices any noise. 

ThePrettyDamned

The DA-2 is possibly *the* go to OD box, though.  It does the whole range of tones from genuine transparent clean boost (as well as eq tweakage) to slight breakup, responsive bluiesy drive, full fusion and 80's hair metal. 

Never heard such a wide range of great sounds in one box. 

ThePrettyDamned

Wow, on his demo there is a lot of *fizz*! I didn't get any of that, but had the treble down quite a bit.

It was never muddy, though.  Very powerful, useful EQ controls. 

The OD1X and DS1X have their work cut out to beat it.