TC Electronic Vintage Guitar Pedal plug-in for PowerCore
| Posted in Music Technology
The TC Electronic Vintage Guitar Pedal plug-in for PowerCore will be announced today at the 2010 NAMM show, offering all second generation PowerCore users what TC is calling “five of the most sought-after vintage guitar effects pedals”. Among them is the manufacturer’s stereo chorus flanger, the SCF.
Developed in conjunction with Audiffex especially for guitarists, the bundle – incorporating the SCF, Booster/Distortion, XII Phaser, Sustainer/Parametric EQ, and Dual Parametric Equalizer – has reportedly been created using the original schematics of the pedals, all of which are described as ultra-rare and collectible. Each plug-in’s performance is said to precisely mimic the results of its equivalent hardware version.
So what does each plug-in offer? Undoubtedly the stand-out pedal emulation is the SCF, a point that TC makes succinctly by referring to it as “the Holy Grail of stereo chorus and flanging”. The pedal itself has been used by a variety of professional players, including Erik Johnson, Robben Ford, and John Petrucci, while it’s even been adapted by keyboard players over the years, including many a Rhodes electric piano fan. The pedal was rugged too, having been constructed from high-end military-grade components. The software emulation probably can’t claim quite the same level of indestructible road-worthiness, but a lot of fans of the original pedal will be lining up to push it to its limits.
Similarly, the Booster/Distortion is promising a “raw and untamed” performance, with a transparent boost and a built-in noise gate designed to unleash big tones while caging unwanted colouration. According to the manufacturer, the plug-in will deliver “the sound of vintage tube amps cranked to high levels”. We can’t confirm that until we try it, but it certainly makes us want to give it a chance.
The XII Phaser meanwhile is said to bring “ethereal sounds to extremely grungy effects” to the Vintage Guitar Pedal Bundle - couple that with a looper and you have a Rob Sandall gig. It might be worthwhile to note that much of TC’s description of the Phaser concentrates on this kind of descriptive text, claiming that the XII Phaser sounds as good on “clean, funky chord as overdriven riffs and super-saturated leads”. That may be true, but let’s have some facts. Here’s one: the plug-in boasts an integral 4-8-12 filter selector to alter the phasing depending on the track it’s applied to.
The Sustainer/Parametric EQ promises a wide breadth of performance, from subtle compression to extreme sustain at the turn of a knob, apparently delivering a pleasingly percussive thud for funk or country players. The inclusion of a Parametric EQ is also a huge boon for recording guitarists. Similarly, the Dual Parametric Equaliser – described as “the secret weapon of many pros and producers” – will give guitarists a potentially powerful tone-shaping tool. Nor will its appeal be limited to the strumming community – TC notes that while the DPE pedal became something of a go-to product for tone-shaping electric and acoustic guitar performances, both the hardware and software version typically adds presence, focus and weight to any audio signal.
If the bundle sounds impressive, and we think it does, then do note that only second generation PowerCore users will be able to user it. The supported systems are the PowerCore PCI Mk.II, PowerCore Unplugged, PowerCore Express, PowerCore Compact, PowerCore FireWire, PowerCore X8 and PowerCore 6000. That being said, we suspect a lot of players are going to keen to find out how faithful a performance they can get from the TC Electronic Vintage Guitar Pedal plug-in for PowerCore.
About Barney Jameson
A contributor, editor and in some cases creator of more music and pro audio magazines than he cares to remember, Barney Jameson is a veteran of writing about gear, and a pretty keen singer songwriter to boot.
Having started his musical education reading old copies of the Melody Maker while riding the tube to University in the mid-nineties, Barney once sang in a band called Sugarstone, troubling record company chequebooks not quite enough to make it a career option. Instead, he achieved his goal of starting a music magazine of his own when he founded Playmusic in the early noughties. Later on, having exploited VIP access to as many festivals as possible, he wrote about the pro audio industry throughout Europe and the Middle East, travelling to far-flung destinations such as Dubai, Doha and Muscat (nice mountains).
As the latest addition to the DV247 team, Barney has big plans. But when he’s not plotting online domination of the musical instrument world, he keeps himself busy writing songs on a battered old acoustic guitar and playing them to audiences in his home town.
Tags: TC Electronic plug-ins, TC Electronic Powercore, TC Electronic SCF