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Topic: Question for Zendrive users |
Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 23 Aug 2008 8:53 pm |
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Hello Zendrivers,
I've recently gotten a Hermida Zendrive overdrive pedal. It's a very good transparent sounding pedal, but I have a few questions that I'm hoping people with more experince with this pedal can answer:
1) With the volume knob all the way up and the gain knob all the way down, the pedal seems to be at unity gain, i.e., the pedal will not boost the signal with the gain all the way down. Once gain is added the pedal gets loud, but I was under the impression that the Zendraive can be used as a clean boost, but that's not happening with the pedal I have. Does this sound normal for these pedals?
2) Do you know what the voice control is doing to the circuit?
3) Care to share any setting you have come to use?
Thanks!
Cliff |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 24 Aug 2008 9:05 am
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I never thought that the Zen should be considered a true clean boost. It will get real mild, but not really perfectly clean.
The overall tone voicing on the Zen is designed so that it dumps deep bass and also high treble. It's a big wide upside down smiley face. The center frequency of that curve is tweaked by the "voice" knob. To the left, the voicing centers its energy in the lower midrange which will dump more high treble energy giving a thicker, darker tone with more meat. Toward the right, that energy shifts upward into the treble range dumping out some lower mids giving a thinner, clearer tone.
The tone knob is a normal treble control as found on many pedals. I tend to start at noon and noon with those two knobs. If the sound feels a bit too dark for the situation, I'll turn it up to maybe 2 or 3 o'clock. If it needs to be warmer, I'll back it down to 10 o'clock or so.
It's hard to get a bad sound out of the Zen.
Brad |
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 24 Aug 2008 1:40 pm
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Thanks, Brad. This makes sense of the pedal! Yes, it is a very good sounding pedal.
Thank you,
Cliff |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 24 Aug 2008 2:31 pm
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Cliff,
I have a Tech 21 Comptortion pedal ...Its a compressor and a distortion pedal ...It also does a good job of raising a clean volume ....The distortion on it is the weak link , but used very sparingly , it's not bad ....The compressor/clean boost is the best feature on the pedal ....I'll try both the Comptortion and the Zendrive together and let you know how it sounds .... I think I will go into the Comptortion first to compress the notes , and then spill that tone into the Zendrive for some distortion and tone shaping ....Should sound good ....Jim |
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