Friday, March 7, 2014

TC Electronic Gravy Chorus/Tremolo Pedal



Another sideways picture, but you'll be fine.  Probably.  To the item at hand, we have the TC Electronic Gravy Chorus/Tremolo pedal.  I've been extremely impressed with TC Electronic products.  They are a beautiful hybrid of analog tone with digital control.  The Gravy has 4 potentiometers and 2 switches.  One switch is on/off, while the other changes the pedal from chorus to Tone Print to tremolo.  Addressing the most intriguing of the three, Tone Print is the name of a piece of software from TC Electronic that can be downloaded for free.  It allows you to assign up to 4 parameters to each potentiometer, set their maximum and minimum levels, create totally new forms of modulation, and download pre-sets from famous musicians.  The level of versatility that this program gives to this pedal is astounding.  Literally any modulation sound can be created (tremolo, flange, chorus, etc.) and edited down to the smallest detail using the Tone Print software.  Things like the shape, depth, and length of the wave for just one form of modulation are all adjustable and assignable to any of the 4 potentiometers.  And with an analog tremolo and triple chorus circuit, the possibilities are endless.  Any sound from light chorus/reverb to crazy outer space ducks on fire are easy to create.  Another fantastic feature of the Gravy is that once you have a tone, you can get it to the pedal using either the supplied USB to microUSB cable, or put the tone on your smart phone.  Using the Tone Print software on your smart phone allows you to transfer any stored tone to the pedal by holding the phone up to the pickups and pressing a button on the screen of your phone.  I have no idea how it works, but it is incredibly cool and very handy if you have a few tones you tend to use regularly.  Moving on to the analog effects, the triple chorus is also very versatile.  The tone pot actually affects how the EQ of your guitar comes through (which is something I've been disappointed with in other pedals).  I tend to use a very deep, slow sweep with medium tone and lots of chorus in the mix.  With three chorus circuits, the creates a somewhat shimmering yet calm and controlled smoothness.  This setting tends to work very well for almost all of the clean playing I do.  The tremolo does exactly what its name implies.  It takes whatever note/chord you are playing and modulates the frequency up and down.  The amount of modulation is controlled with the depth pot and speed by the speed pot.  The FX Level pot determines how much of the modulated audio gets sent into the main mix.  Pretty straightforward.  Honestly, I don't use tremolo by itself very often, but this one is definitely among the best I have ever played with.  Overall, the Gravy is mighty impressive both in quality and verstility.  I don't need to own any other modulation type pedals because this one can do anything I want.  Highly recommended for people looking to downsize, people looking for versatile tone, and people looking for amazing value.

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