Pamparo in Toronto

The other day, there was a question @ TGP on how to do the Two Speed setting on the Empress Tremolo. The manual really doesn’t say much on how to go about doing it.

Empress Tremolo

Lucky I have one, so I tried it last night … here’s what you do:

1. Set the mode to “Two Speed”
2. Set the rate/speed using the “Ratio/Rate” knob, this is the first speed setting
3. Press “Tap” and set the second speed using the “Ratio/Rate” knob again
4. Engage the pedal
5. To switch between speeds, just press the “Tap” button

If you want to change the speed settings, by following most of these steps.

Have fun … but don’t overdo it

I’ve been getting a lot of different answers as to what the voice knob for the Zendrive is supposed to do. So, to appease myself, I have plugged it in directly into Logic. I was watching the spectrum analyzer as I rotate the knob from left to right & right to left. I did that for a bit and I noticed that it seems to boost/cap the signal between 2Khz-6Khz region just before going into the gain circuit. So it’s then true, that the voice knob would affect the gain and the tone characteristics. The tone on the other hand is doing the same sort of thing but I think it is after the gain circuit.

DISCLAIMER: This is only my non-scientific observations!

What did I learn from all these? Nothing much really, but I did find a great setting for my Zen.

Gain – 2 o’clock
Voice – 2 o’clock
Tone – 11 o’clock
Volume – unity

So after I got bored, I realized that since I am already plugged-in, then I should be able to record! I was going to record the different settings of tone & voice combination but I did this instead:

No post-processing and it’s really sloppy … my playing that is! So I only recorded less than a minute to somehow also lessen my shame

If you manage to survive listening to that, here are the settings for the following tracks …

Rhythm 1: Zendrive, Telecaster (Bridge PU)
Rhythm 2: Sparkle Drive, Empress Tremolo, Telecaster (Bridge PU)
Lead (wannabe): SFX-03 Channel 2, Diamond Delay, Telecaster (Neck PU)
Bass: I didn’t have my bass ready! Doh!
Drums: loop from betamonkey.com