dave_bass5

Yeah, its still very early days for the Tone Prints.

Looks like all the existing Spectracomp tone prints are now available for the Spectradrive. Fast work on TC's side.

Looks like you cant beam the existing Spectracomp tone prints to the Spectradrive. Only the ones designed specifically for the Spectracomp built in to the drive. So far thats just one. Not deal breaker for me, and im sure TC will add more now that the SD is out. A guy on TB has two, and has posted his findings. So far, its a very clean pre amp, the stock OD is horrible (the Natural tone print is a huge improvement though), and the output is very loud. These were just day one, bedroom level testing though. Mine should be hear on Monday, Ive got a rehearsal Monday evening so im hoping to give it a good run.

Just to be clear. when you program a tone you can set which output it uses. Even when using both tone engines in one preset, you can still get them to only use the one physical output. No need for any external switches. its a very cool device. Although ive not had mine long, i was all geared up for using as many of the pre set slots as i could, but it ended up getting quite complicated. Now i actually just use the stock tones, although i have changed the tone engine on the Vintage position to something less middy.

I think Al might have been talking to me about it, i got one off here last week I dont think ill use it much, but from what i have seen its really cool. In the AS each preset has two separate tone engines. You can program them to stack, use just one, one for each output socket etc. If you use the Tap Tempo you can program the preset to allow the TT to switch between each tone engine, but still only use the mono out. Effectively two pedals in one. you can have one on all the time, and stack the second tone, either while you hold the switch down, or latching, or switch between the two. Ive not yet found a way to actually switch between each of the 6 different preset slots (3 on the toggle switch, 3 preset in red mode). I dont think you you can, but if you could, that's a lot of options to try and remember.

Its almost like there isnt any music left in the signal. Just as well I’m not in to that type of tone. As long as i can get a tiny bit of OD colouring thats all ill need. My AS will supply the magic :-) EDIT: Just noticed a couple of other videos from the same source. Dear me, they really arent selling this thing well IMO. Even the off tone sounds poor.

Another YT video. Not my cup of tea at all, but i know its capable of a lot more.

Gear 4 Music. I probably use them more than I should these days lol.

Right, all ordered. The Spectradrive should be here sometime next week. I was surprised to see the price drop once i went through to the Payment options. The cost of the unit itself was only £186, plus £7.99 delivery. Im quite pleased with that. i will of course post back with my thoughts once ive had a play with it.

Yeah ive done that now. Hopefully anyone that did see it will also see more than one of us saying no one here has it after that was posted. Logic will say that includes me as well.

Thanks Dad. Well i do apologise to the mods for my small outburst last night. Had I realised i had posted using the wrong word in one (and only one) of my posts (thanks for pointing that out Bas) I would have corrected it immediately to avoid any more confusion.

It does seem like a different gig culture over there. Blue’s posts on here seem to show there are types of gigs that we don’t really encounter over here much.

I’m struggling to get the Helix tone print to work with it, but other than that its all good :-)

No one here has one, thats what we have been talking about recently.

And looking on Talkbass you’d be lead to believe all bass players are American lol.

Well it says ready for imidiate dispatch. I also found this YT video. This guy already has one.

By the way, Sweetwater have it in stock now, so hopefully we will start seeing soem real world reviews.

And lets face it, who doesn’t already own a tuner.

Ill agree with that. There are quite a few of these type of boxes already out, and the one thing that puts me off is they are all trying to do so much. Ok, the SD could have had more things on it, but when to stop? A tuner would have been good, but that would involve a display of some kind, which I’m sure would push the cost up and maybe make the box larger. the thing that jumped out of Rome was that it offerese just what I need, in a box the size I want, with an effect I’m already using so wont lose out by replacing it with the SD. It’s still way under the cost of the Darkglas Ultra boxes, and for me at least, much more usable in more than one situation. .

Yeah, and I have no idea what a TC OD sounds like, as I’ve never used any of their dirt boxes or heads. At least it has its own footswitch so can be turned off.

Ive just been to many times to find it interesting now. It’s a great place to visit every now and then though. My old band used to play a Christmas party in the American hanger. We did it 3 years on the trot. As you can imagine the acoustics were not ideal. Back the the SD. I won’t find lack of tone prints an issue, as I’m quite happy with the stock SC TonePrints if it comes to it. I’m sure there will be others once the pedal has been out for a while. I’ll be interested to hear what the OD section can do though, but im not expecting much.

Yeah, I’d like to read a bit more about it first. If only to see what the cons are. Im very impatient though, and about to spend the afternoon at RAF Duxford, so might get bored and push the buy now lol.

Just went back to G4M and it looks like they are shipping them direct from Sweeden, with £7.99 delivery charge. Looks like someone has already ordered one as the number has gone down I have it in my basket already but will hold off for a bit as I’d rather not pay that much for delivery. I expect by the middle of the month other places will have them in stock.

Pretty much agree with all that. Just a hair of dirt is all I’ll need from the SD, and the AS can supply the real dirt. Just going off topic a bit, I tried the Tap tempo with the AS yesterday. Very impressed. It turns the AS in to almost 2 separate pedals. An always on mild dirt, plus a full on (or anything you want) dirt pedal. Thanks to the tones being two channel. Not bad for £20

I’ve taken my SPECTRACOMP off my board at the moment. It was getting too cluttered and I was hitting my phaser and AS at the same time. Having more specs has helped. If the SD can replace the VTBass DI as the always on preamp, supplying EQ and comp, then that’s a win win for me. I don’t need to use the VTBas, it’s just there at the moment because I’ve not used it for ages so fancied a change. Plus I want some from of EQ at the start of the chain. Where the comp sits in the SD signal chain is really how I use my SC anyway, so that’s good. The downsides will come if I want to use it at home. Ironically this was my intended use for it, but it now doesn’t seeem practical as having the headphone out at the start of my board will mean bypassing the other effects. Still, I can use just the SD at home I suppose, I don’t tend to go all out with using all my effects when just learning songs etc.