PRS Pedals - who's got the trio? (date-stamp Jan 2023)

shinksma said:
A really good emulation of a Univibe is missing from my pedal collection. I have some attempts that sound OK, and for sure any audience would never know the same if I used them live (except I don't really play that kind of music live). I find many "Vibe" effects sound too much like phasers.

But a PRS version of a Univibe that was closer than most of the usual suspects? Hmm, that would be cool.


Lol - indeed, I understand why they do it, but if you look at many YouTube demos, where it is used in subtle ways the light never seems to come on - it's only when you slam the ceiling down it really seems to light up. But that is true of other compressors too.

OTOH, Gilmour's CS-2 didn't have any fancy lights (other than "on") - he just used his ears...
Click to expand...
Check out Drybell’s Vibe Machine.

 
gush said:
I'd say the three things I would ask are does it compress well? Does it color you're tone? Does
it add noise?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'll play with it a bit w/those things in mind tom'w. And I'll take it straight to the amp to answer the noise questions - too many other variables otherwise.
 
gush said:
I'd say the three things I would ask are does it compress well? Does it color you're tone? Does
it add noise?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I'm sure @alantig will have more specific info, but for giggles:

I don't have the pedal, but I can provide info based on what I've heard in YouTube videos - both from the pedal being demonstrated, and the comments of the YTers:

Compress well? Depends on what you are looking for for attack, release, etc. I suspect it does a good middle-of-the-road job that covers 90% of most user needs.

Color tone? No, not that I can hear, and not what reviewers have said. However - if you heavily compress a sharp attack, it will naturally sound less "picky", which might sound like it has has the treble reduced.

Add noise? Not that I have heard, and read no comments as such.
 
Dirty_Boogie said:
Maybe the Horsemeat goosing a nice tube amp is where it shines.
Click to expand...
DreamTheaterRules said:
Yes, when you go the route that you are going, the same pedals will not shine for you that do for someone using it to boost a tube amp.
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I agree with DTR: this pedal was designed with pushing tube amps. And tube amps with "color", like the HXDA or DG, vs the "flat EQ" amps like Archons. IMHO and experience, so far. It sounds really good into my HXDA, whereas into my Archon is sounded "good" but not "heavenly", ifyaknowhatimean.
 
shinksma said:
I agree with DTR: this pedal was designed with pushing tube amps. And tube amps with "color", like the HXDA or DG, vs the "flat EQ" amps like Archons. IMHO and experience, so far. It sounds really good into my HXDA, whereas into my Archon is sounded "good" but not "heavenly", ifyaknowhatimean.
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Interesting. I have fun pushing both the clean and dirty channel of the Archon with various boosts and ODs, but whether they sound great or not with the OD channel is heavily influenced by the voice of the pedal. Also interesting (and I've mentioned this before) the Black Magic Zendrive is one of my favorite solo pedals with the Archon, because the voice knob allows you do dial it to kick more in the upper mids, and the note envelope is heavenly with that on. Yes, you have to turn the gain way down, but as far as pure tone, for boosting the Archon gain channel for solos, it is my very favorite of everything I tried.

So... I was hoping the Meatpeddler would do the same thing... it's a lower gain pedal, has the voice pedals which sweeps the mids, and adds a bass control. I thought it might be competition for the Zen. That said, if it's not, it's not and that's OK because I'm getting an HDRX 20 and I'm sure it will mate well with that.
 
So, I spent a little time with the pedal today. Directly into my Archon, and I set it at unity gain (or as close to it as I could get). I decided to record what I did with it because I think that will give you a chance to hear what it's doing and we don't have to worry about what we mean when we try to describe a certain aspect. I used my 594 SC, playing fairly delicate picking in single-coil mode on both pickups, then light strumming. Then switched to humbucker (I think I noted this incorrectly on the SoundCloud page) and did heavier strumming. All on the clean channel. Switching to the dirt channel, still in humbucker, some heavier chording, then a couple solo licks. Guitar volume was on about 7-8 for all except the last, when I turned it all the way up. For each of those, there's a clip with the pedal bypassed, then the pedal with compression at 0, 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and dimed.

As far as coloration, I don't hear any. The guitar sounds the same to me when the pedal is bypassed and when it's active, minus any compression. It's very transparent to my ears.

As to how it compresses, this is a tough area. As @shinksma alluded to, there are no attack/release controls, so you gets whats you gets. I didn't specifically try to dial in a clean, country-ish, chicken-picking stereotype compression sound, but I didn't hear it, either. Not to say it's not there, but I didn't hear it with what I did. It's a very smooth compression, which is probably to be expected since it's based on a studio unit. Overall, I like what it does for my sound. I can see instances where another compressor might serve a different situation better, but by and large, this thing would be good in most situations.

Now the noise. I'm not going to say it's true on every pedal, but I do hear a bit of noise introduced when the pedal is on. Going through the amp, I discounted it - I sometimes get noise from suspected interference or whatever the conditions of the day are. But at the very end of the clip, I plugged the pedal directly into my interface with no input, no processing of any kind. It's bypassed for about 5 seconds, and I think you can clearly hear where it kicks in. All that said, there's not very much noise at all. In a clean setting, I don't think it's noticeable unless you're playing solo in a very quiet situation. With OD or distortion, everything is multiplied, so it's more noticeable there, but in my mind, it doesn't rise to a level that makes it unusable. I did have a heater running when I recorded, but I tried it afterwards with the heater off and I didn't notice a difference. The heater was off for the very last clip, so that's just pure pedal.

Here's the SoundCloud link to the clips. Zero processing done in Logic - I went into my Mesa Cab Clone directly into the computer (to eliminate any external noise). FYI, I did add the sound of an 8-track tape changing programs between each clip for two reasons - one, I like to highlight when things change, even if it's fairly obvious; and two, it makes me giggle.

Hope this is helpful. And apologies for the sloppy playing.

https://soundcloud.com/alantig%2Fmary-cries-demo
 
alantig said:
So, I spent a little time with the pedal today. Directly into my Archon, and I set it at unity gain (or as close to it as I could get). I decided to record what I did with it because I think that will give you a chance to hear what it's doing and we don't have to worry about what we mean when we try to describe a certain aspect. I used my 594 SC, playing fairly delicate picking in single-coil mode on both pickups, then light strumming. Then switched to humbucker (I think I noted this incorrectly on the SoundCloud page) and did heavier strumming. All on the clean channel. Switching to the dirt channel, still in humbucker, some heavier chording, then a couple solo licks. Guitar volume was on about 7-8 for all except the last, when I turned it all the way up. For each of those, there's a clip with the pedal bypassed, then the pedal with compression at 0, 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and dimed.

As far as coloration, I don't hear any. The guitar sounds the same to me when the pedal is bypassed and when it's active, minus any compression. It's very transparent to my ears.

As to how it compresses, this is a tough area. As @shinksma alluded to, there are no attack/release controls, so you gets whats you gets. I didn't specifically try to dial in a clean, country-ish, chicken-picking stereotype compression sound, but I didn't hear it, either. Not to say it's not there, but I didn't hear it with what I did. It's a very smooth compression, which is probably to be expected since it's based on a studio unit. Overall, I like what it does for my sound. I can see instances where another compressor might serve a different situation better, but by and large, this thing would be good in most situations.

Now the noise. I'm not going to say it's true on every pedal, but I do hear a bit of noise introduced when the pedal is on. Going through the amp, I discounted it - I sometimes get noise from suspected interference or whatever the conditions of the day are. But at the very end of the clip, I plugged the pedal directly into my interface with no input, no processing of any kind. It's bypassed for about 5 seconds, and I think you can clearly hear where it kicks in. All that said, there's not very much noise at all. In a clean setting, I don't think it's noticeable unless you're playing solo in a very quiet situation. With OD or distortion, everything is multiplied, so it's more noticeable there, but in my mind, it doesn't rise to a level that makes it unusable. I did have a heater running when I recorded, but I tried it afterwards with the heater off and I didn't notice a difference. The heater was off for the very last clip, so that's just pure pedal.

Here's the SoundCloud link to the clips. Zero processing done in Logic - I went into my Mesa Cab Clone directly into the computer (to eliminate any external noise). FYI, I did add the sound of an 8-track tape changing programs between each clip for two reasons - one, I like to highlight when things change, even if it's fairly obvious; and two, it makes me giggle.

Hope this is helpful. And apologies for the sloppy playing.

https://soundcloud.com/alantig%2Fmary-cries-demo
Click to expand...
Thank you for this. Nicely done sir!
 
alantig said:
So, I spent a little time with the pedal today. Directly into my Archon, and I set it at unity gain (or as close to it as I could get). I decided to record what I did with it because I think that will give you a chance to hear what it's doing and we don't have to worry about what we mean when we try to describe a certain aspect. I used my 594 SC, playing fairly delicate picking in single-coil mode on both pickups, then light strumming. Then switched to humbucker (I think I noted this incorrectly on the SoundCloud page) and did heavier strumming. All on the clean channel. Switching to the dirt channel, still in humbucker, some heavier chording, then a couple solo licks. Guitar volume was on about 7-8 for all except the last, when I turned it all the way up. For each of those, there's a clip with the pedal bypassed, then the pedal with compression at 0, 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and dimed.

As far as coloration, I don't hear any. The guitar sounds the same to me when the pedal is bypassed and when it's active, minus any compression. It's very transparent to my ears.

As to how it compresses, this is a tough area. As @shinksma alluded to, there are no attack/release controls, so you gets whats you gets. I didn't specifically try to dial in a clean, country-ish, chicken-picking stereotype compression sound, but I didn't hear it, either. Not to say it's not there, but I didn't hear it with what I did. It's a very smooth compression, which is probably to be expected since it's based on a studio unit. Overall, I like what it does for my sound. I can see instances where another compressor might serve a different situation better, but by and large, this thing would be good in most situations.

Now the noise. I'm not going to say it's true on every pedal, but I do hear a bit of noise introduced when the pedal is on. Going through the amp, I discounted it - I sometimes get noise from suspected interference or whatever the conditions of the day are. But at the very end of the clip, I plugged the pedal directly into my interface with no input, no processing of any kind. It's bypassed for about 5 seconds, and I think you can clearly hear where it kicks in. All that said, there's not very much noise at all. In a clean setting, I don't think it's noticeable unless you're playing solo in a very quiet situation. With OD or distortion, everything is multiplied, so it's more noticeable there, but in my mind, it doesn't rise to a level that makes it unusable. I did have a heater running when I recorded, but I tried it afterwards with the heater off and I didn't notice a difference. The heater was off for the very last clip, so that's just pure pedal.

Here's the SoundCloud link to the clips. Zero processing done in Logic - I went into my Mesa Cab Clone directly into the computer (to eliminate any external noise). FYI, I did add the sound of an 8-track tape changing programs between each clip for two reasons - one, I like to highlight when things change, even if it's fairly obvious; and two, it makes me giggle.

Hope this is helpful. And apologies for the sloppy playing.

https://soundcloud.com/alantig%2Fmary-cries-demo
Click to expand...
Thank you Sir! That does help.

I can hear the noise with high gain stuff but that's just going to happen no matter what.

I can clearly hear it smoothing out the peaks which is what I want and it doesn't seem to change the tone very much at all. My Barber tone press does seem to change my tone more than I like but the sad part about living in SE Iowa is cool gear isn't as readily available to try.

I like the clips on the drybell unit 67 but I've never seen one in the wild to try and at 300 bucks I just don't want to buy it and not like it. I'll check the prices on the prs unit.

I love the 8 track thing but we all know you'll never develop a true dislike until it changes track in the middle of your favorite song.......ugh

Is that your guitar in the pic? There is a bird between the pickups and two behind the trem in the flame maple. Very cool.
 
gush said:
Thank you Sir! That does help.


I love the 8 track thing but we all know you'll never develop a true dislike until it changes track in the middle of your favorite song.......ugh

Is that your guitar in the pic? There is a bird between the pickups and two behind the trem in the flame maple. Very cool.
Click to expand...

You’re welcome! That is my PS. I had the idea to do the birds on the body, and strangely enough, they line up just like a continuation/repeat from the neck. And credit Tina Sears for the fifth fret bird between the pickups. I’d never considered it.

I bought Kiss’s “Dynasty” on 8-track when it was released in 1979. It has a track split during “X-RayvEyes”, but whoever did it cut the guitar solo out - it happens during the track change. I bought it on vinyl a few years later, and on CD as soon as it was released, so I’ve had the full version for well over 20 years. I’m still surprised when I can actually hear the solo.
 
I had all three but kept only the Wind Through the Trees and the Mary Cries.

Sent the Horsemeat back right away as I found it harsh. The more I turned up the gain, the harsher it got. The only way I kinda liked it was when I stacked it with a Mad Professor Simble but I still greatly prefer the Barber Direct Drive LG to the Horsemeat. I read a comment that the Horsemeat has some similarities to the Keeley Oxblood - didn't like that one either so now I know why ... Never played a Klon or one of the pedals inspired by it otherwise - maybe I wouldn't like those either.

Love the Wind Through the Trees. This is the first flanger pedal that I really really like. I had the Thorpy Camouflange before and sent it back because it distorted with humbucker equipped guitars. The Wind Through the Trees works with both humbucker and single coil equipped guitars. I set LFO 1 to do a Chorus tone and LFO 2 to do a Flanger tone, and I dial back and forth depending on the song. Love the blend control - with the MXR 117 I would have to operate a parallel signal path, otherwise the effect is too extreme for my taste. Despite that the PRS pedal has lots of knobs it is still very intuitive to operate. Well done, PRS!

Mary Cries is a nice compressor. Love the fact that it has only two controls to mess with. Tone is similar to the Earthquaker Devices Warden but that has six controls which is too much for me. I like it more for bass than for guitar. It does a perfect limiting function there. For guitar the Barber Tone Press returned to the board as I love the fact that it has a blend control so that I can have the desired portion of direct signal to retain the attack.
 
shinksma said:
Yeah, well, that is the bit that always amazes me, that not only do new pedals keep coming out, and new brands (like PRS), but that they also keep selling enough to keep those new brands around, usually.

I've been meaning to check out the Dark Side - is it all that and a bag of chips?


Got a photo of your board to share?


It has been said [citation required], and I agree, that compressors work "best" with single coil guitars. Since I use HB-equipped guitars a lot, and single-coil modes on HBs are somehow never quite the same as true single coils, I am unclear how much I would use it - basically only when I'm pretending to be David Gilmour, using my Silver Sky or 305, etc.

I'm also struggling with "only" two controls, one of which is output "gain" (level). I'm used to compressor/limiters/sustainers with at least one more control (attack). My brain makes this akin to a delay pedal with only one combined control for "feedback" and "delay time" like they have on some simple effects controls on practice amps (like my Roland micro-cube).

As as I heard in a recent YouTube video (Phillip KcKnight), compression effects are "for the chef, not the client" - i.e. it help s the player play what they want. So online video demos are counter-intuitive and also beset by the built-in compression of all audio of the delivery service.

I guess I need to try one to decide if I should get one, and the only way to try one is probably to get one.
Click to expand...
I tried both the Horse Meat and the Mary Cries compressor today in my rig. I have a Keeley two-knob compressor that is very similar to the Mary Cries, and they both very good compressors. I would say the PRS might have a slight edge in sound quality but the switch made a loud pop when turning it on or off. Priced over twice as much as the Keeley, I expected a more refined studio grade pedal.
I A-B’d the Horse Meat with my Archer Ikon. Again it was very similar in tone with the exact same settings to the Archer! It does have a lot more gain than the Archer, so it could effectively act as a boost, overdrive or distortion pedal. The bass eq is a nice feature. But I can get the same tones on the Archer without one. I think the elephant in the room with all three pedals is price. These three are significantly more money than other competing boutique pedals. I don’t know what the future holds for PRS in the pedal market but it will be a challenge for them.
 
shinksma said:
I'm also struggling with "only" two controls, one of which is output "gain" (level). I'm used to compressor/limiters/sustainers with at least one more control (attack).
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The classic opto-compressor is the Teletronix (Universal Audio) LA-2A, a $4500 tube optical compressor that's still in production, and a studio classic. It's a two-knob compressor (there's a switch on the front panel for setting the output level to pro level or consumer level, but the controls are two knobs).

www.uaudio.com

Teletronix® LA-2A Classic Leveling Amplifier | Universal Audio

Audio professionals revere the LA-2A. The original was immediately acknowledged for its smooth, natural compression characteristics. Its tube-driven electro-optical attenuator allows instantaneous gain reduction with no increase in harmonic distortion.
www.uaudio.com www.uaudio.com

On a classic opto-compressor the ratio is fixed, and the two knobs are interactive, just input level and output, but that's what controls the operation of the device.

There are no threshold, attack and release controls, everything is about how the two knobs interact.

Not only is it the easiest compressor in the world to use, it's one of the best sounding for vocals and guitar solos, and it's been my absolute first choice for lead guitar on every recording I've ever mixed. And I've tried just about everything. It's hard to make a recording sound bad with an LA-2A.

This pedal is supposed to be an opto-compressor. I haven't tried one, so I can't say how it sounds, but there's nothing at all wrong with 2 knobs on an opto-compressor, they're all that's needed (and all that's desirable, really) with that type of circuit.
 
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alantig said:
Now the noise. I'm not going to say it's true on every pedal, but I do hear a bit of noise introduced when the pedal is on.
Click to expand...
What compressors do is make soft sounds louder, and loud sounds quieter. This includes making low level noise louder. The idea is to "level" the signal so it's heard at a consistent volume.

What it's doing, then, is taking the noise that's part of your guitar signal, and increasing its volume, but it's also controlling your peak volume. In a mix, that increase of noise level is masked by the other instruments.

This property of compressors is a big reason why microphone self-noise is an important spec. You don't want that to happen with, say, a vocal.

You will always hear a higher noise floor with a compressor - if the source signal has noise, and all electric guitar pickups are noisy compared to studio gear. Good demo of the pedal.
 
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