New Q Tron Plus Envelope Filter

[darkhorse]

Been a fan of these filter triggers since way back when Robin Trower did some amazing tones with them and all the great 70s style funk riffs.
You can really get some heavy wah/vocal quality sweeps combined w dist and other effects. I just ordered a new Q Tron Plus and cannot wait to test out the better platform and features they have now including an integration loop, increased gain control and trigger speed adjust as well as true bypass.

Does anyone know if putting a good buffer pedal before this will mess up its triggering issue on the guitar signal?

[darkhorse]

Finally got my new box of gear today and busy trying to hook things up and positions, gets rather infinite.

Experimenting with the Q Tron loop and settings, and seriously if you know envelope filters and dig that funky English that bass players love as well. I cannot imagine a better unit especially for the bucks, the EH Q Plus is packed w great features to move it beyond the old school Mutron III reverse whip and fast attack, although it can get this sound flawlessly. As I mentioned the original EH Q Tron was mapped out by the original engineer of the Mutron III which had gone out of production just about at its peak use. The EH Q Tron was meant to be another go round of the old Mutron but the new units are smaller, true bypass and just better sonically all around.

It is a tweak machine despite everything is controlled by your touch and sensitivity of playing. Something cool which makes the unit a very cool expression tool.

This is an extra effect, probably not something you would use a lot but for a few things it would turn some heads. The additional of the slower sweep mode allows for some really great vocal vowel tones when combined w either some amp tube gain or a pedal really, gets heavy and unique. Don't expect to just do knobbies at 12:00 and have a tone, you are going to experiment a lot w this unit plus you have the combination of 4 filter settings, drive up down, sweep speed and gain adjust and some I am sure I forgot. I cut my teeth on Trower's early effect arsenal and his use of the Mutron on some tunes, also Stevie Wonder's timeless classics are all Mutron III processed to get that funk.

Some consider the effect little more than an "auto wah" but there is so much more here than just that simple use. Also using different effects in its loop makes for a lot of options and choices, which brings me to my one and only complaint on the design of this unit, the effect loop return and send is opposite of what would be considered normal in out flow, so you are going to have to run some longer connection cables that I certainly like to use. I plugged some stuff in upside down just to try out the tones. Hard to describe the tonal different in say an octave or harmonizer octaver in the loop, it works on the pedal in a unique manner and when the unit is by pass the loop is also off. Pedals in the loop can be turned on and off by they will be for use by the unit when it is on.

All in all cool unit from the heads at EH, decent price and fantastic control options you just do not get on the issue Mutron III despite that unit is also superior to the original. ByPass is good on the Q Tron cannot tell any loading at all. By the way front of chain for this one. Presents a bit of a problem for me as I like to have a nice buffer pedal first in chain but I am still goofing around with the possibilities.

[darkhorse]

I am sort of giving up on using the loop in this unit. Despite for some unknown seemingly really stupid idea, they put the effect send and return opposite to pedal jack normality. Send is on the right side, should be the left, or why not both side by side even that would be easier, WTF EH, fierce ganja that day?? I do not like having to make long runs for connections so I have to sort of turn things or put the loop pedal upside down to reach the connections with the cables I have in use. At any rate no major deal in using the loop, I tried various pedals which you lose in chain without the effect on. The octave harmonizer and phaser were the most interesting.

I can see why some would just pull it off the board messing with it, the thing you have to realize is everything changes when you put a dist or tube gain after it, the whole dynamic, tone and response changes. You might have a filter setting that does not work clean but man feed it into a nice dist and things come alive that no mere wah pedal can approach.\


By the way campers, this is a 24v feed pedal, the mA draw is not that high but the voltage is higher than anything I have used. Do not plan on thinking you can use batteries for this or having any brick power it. I have a special plug strip for high current warts on the back of my board to handle things like this.

[kafka]

Originally Posted by darkhorse

I am sort of giving up on using the loop in this unit. Despite for some unknown seemingly really stupid idea, they put the effect send and return opposite to pedal jack normality. Send is on the right side, should be the left, or why not both side by side even that would be easier, WTF EH, fierce ganja that day??

I agree, that one is stupid. I don't recall doing much with the loop, maybe just a distortion or echo.

[darkhorse]

I've tried various stuff in it but when the unit is off so is the loop. I have my Whammy which I use for harmonizer modes in front and it seems to sound really good, run a low 8va into it and you can get some killer bass funk. It just did not seem worthwhile to lose a more universal effect just for use with that unit. I prefer my phaser for more general use and I am a amp loop guy for modulators.

What I love is how the unit comes alive into high gain, there is no wah that can do what that puppy does (unless of course the wah has a envelope filter mode). I think that Voodoo Lab Wahzoo might be a cool unit. Right now I use the Vox Satriani wah and I really like it. Pretty much does what the MXR CAE wah can do w the dual inductors which would have been my other choice. The Voodoo Lab costs more but some of the modes it has sound really interestingly weird. I can understand how the envelop filter is not for everyone, hell some players do not like wahs, but for me it is a cool effect to get some really odd tones that sort of get people's attention they do not expect. I love pedals that have that sort of expression feel that respond to your feel and touch just opens another dimensions of tone. I dig options and my pedalboard expands my creativity. I can dig some like the purity of no effects, but I get bored easily with the same tones. I've been messing w my new TC delay and geessshhh does that get infinite messing with all sorts of echo, it gets you playing impossible pieces. I love pedals myself, it's the fun of playing for me.

[rancid_keone]

I've always loved my Q-Tron+ I just wish the effects loop could be used when the unit is off. And yes, the send/return jacks are ridiculous...you should try using a volume pedal in there, tried it once...had some interesting gain choices by altering the volume level going into the pre-section of the pedal (via s/r jacks)

[darkhorse]

I just cannot believe they put the send and return on the opposite sides of proper normal pedal in/out. I suppose it's a given that when the unit is off it kills the loop as that is what a bypass loop does anyway. Seems the best you can do is have a pedal below or above the unit on the left side to connect to send and then run a longer feed back over to the return. Some of us hate running long cables to connect, sort of ruins the point of trying to make your rig quiet and signal true. For now I am just leaving it, busy tweaking on some cool filter tones using different gains. I am also amazed this is a 24v pedal, very uncommon. I have not seen anything running on that much voltage even real tube units that step up the voltage internally. Makes you wonder how bad that micro Q might be running on a battery. They put a fair amount of options in this pedal more so than other envelop filters I have had. The new release Mutron III is interesting as they upgraded the old platform even adding some internal option switches. But so much more expensive than the EH. And for all practical origins the Q Tron was meant to be a reissue of the out of production Mutron III. The Tron has that option gain control which I do not think the Mutron has.

[darkhorse]

Man this puppy is one moody box. So touch sensitive, you get a killer tone but cannot expect it to be the same next time as your touch might be different. Still gets some really funk tones that nothing else can. I have this cool Mutron on steriods tone going that has me doing all sorts of "Superstitious" riffs.

Any one used a good buffer pedal like a Wampler in front of one of these, does it help stabilize it?

[darkhorse]

FYI, a good buffer works fine. I am using the Radial PB1 and it is transparent to the signal touch. I am considering getting the better Xiotic Robo Talker 2 pedal over the Q Tron which is rather limiting after your first uses. The Xiotic has two separate filter circuits voiced differently and used together, pretty killer. Check out the PGS demo vid.

[kafka]

Originally Posted by darkhorse

Man this puppy is one moody box. So touch sensitive, you get a killer tone but cannot expect it to be the same next time as your touch might be different. Still gets some really funk tones that nothing else can. I have this cool Mutron on steriods tone going that has me doing all sorts of "Superstitious" riffs.

Any one used a good buffer pedal like a Wampler in front of one of these, does it help stabilize it?

Put a compressor after the Q-Tron. A lot of the time you may be hitting the Q-Tron the same way, but your amp might be louder or softer, so you hear the effect differently. It helps to smooth out the peaks, and makes it a lot more controllable.

[darkhorse]

Originally Posted by kafka

Put a compressor after the Q-Tron. A lot of the time you may be hitting the Q-Tron the same way, but your amp might be louder or softer, so you hear the effect differently. It helps to smooth out the peaks, and makes it a lot more controllable.

I've actually been considering getting another compressor. Haven't used one for several years. I really like the Wampler compressor pedal. I will probably change out the Q Tron but the compressor stability is a great idea as long as it does not squeeze the envelope whip of the filter.