|
Toadworks Enveloope:
ToadWorks Enveloope is the world's first dynamically controlled effect loop pedal. A new spin on the true-bypass box, Enveloope employs a built in optical envelope follower. For the first time, you can now add attack-controlled depth capability to any non-dynamic effect in your arsenal.
ToadWorks Enveloope is the only Vactrol-based, envelope follower controlled, 9V powered effect loop in the world. No fancy expression pedals, no AC power requirements - just throw it on the floor and groove on the smooth amplitude-controlled transition from dry, to wet, to dry again. Go from Mr. Clean to gooey flange distortion nightmare with nothing more than a slightly increased attack.
Enveloope has been tested and used with dozens of new & vintage effect units. Every combination of guitar and effect will have a slightly different response, and the sensitivity and operation will always vary to some degree, so expect the unexpected. This pedal quite literally adds a new dimension to even the most mundane or overused effect, and once you turn it on, you'll never want to turn it off. Don't forget the stamp... er, we mean stomp.
Versatility:
ToadWorks Enveloope is an effect loop, the same way that a Ferrari is a car: it fits the basic requirements, with a few extra hundred horsepower under the hood. Sure, it's a buffered effect loop... AND a dynamically controlled effect loop... AND it has a reversible direction control.... AND a trigger for external audio sources.... AND a compressor/limiter... it does everything but wash your dishes and make your bed (we're working on it).
Groovability:
Sometimes, you feel funky... sometimes you don't... and sometimes you feel right in the middle. For those special, fleeting, in-between times, there is Enveloope. With Enveloope, you as an artist are no longer tied to the basic envelope-controlled filter effect. Maybe you want a fuzz face in there! Maybe you want a flanger... into a delay... into an overdrive.... and you want it dynamically controlled! Why shouldn't you have all that? The stompbox MAN has been keeping you down, and it's time you stood up for what was right. Besides, stomping on boxes to turn on an effect is soo 2004.
Reliability:
ToadWorks Enveloope is hand wired, by people, not machines. From our high quality 3PDT switches to the custom made machined aluminum knobs, every component is the finest available, making ToadWorks pedals the most well-built and reliable effect pedals in the world.
Function
ToadWorks Enveloope has 5 basic modes of operation:
- True Bypass
- Dynamic Forward
- Dynamic Backward
- True Loop
- Trigger
In the primary mode of operation (Dynamic Forward), signal coming into the effect is split off into three separate signals. One of the signals is sent to an Envelope Follower used to control output levels. Another signal is sent to the output (almost) unaffected – it stays clean, but the level is controlled by the Envelope follower. In Forward Dynamic mode, the harder you play, the SOFTER the clean, unaffected signal becomes (Backward Dynamic mode produces the opposite effect). The third signal is sent through an FX loop (the two ¼” jacks on the top), and that loop returned level is also controlled by the Envelope Follower, but exactly the reverse – the harder you play, the LOUDER the loop signal becomes (again, Backward Dynamic mode produces the opposite effect). In other words, playing soft, regular old clean signal, like it’s bypassed, but the louder you play, the less clean signal you hear, and the more effected signal is present.
Musicians now have the ability to add attack-controlled depth to ANY effect – new, vintage, distortion, wah, whatever. It sounds more natural with modulation effects, since they are not really changing the sound, only modulating it. With a distortion box, the effect is more pronounced, owing to the extreme nature of that transition.
Another cool feature – the SEND jack is switched – if nothing is plugged into it, it turns the clean signal OFF – then you can take any audio source (like, say, a pre-recorded horn track), plug it into the RETURN, and then use the guitar (or anything else) as a trigger to control the amount of the RETURN signal present in the output (Nile Rodgers did exactly this with the horns on Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” track, but he used a modified noise gate).
ToadWorks Enveloope will work on ANY effect – like, say MEAT – if you connect MEAT to the loop and set the level high, playing hard will make your signal get VERY loud (same with any effect that you can adjust the level on)… and if you use a short cable to bypass the send/receive of the loop, the signal just gets softer the harder you play, very much like a compressor. OR, if you connected MEAT and made it Fat but unity, the sound will have incresed low end depending on how hard you hit the strings. Or, you can connect it through a board and run voice through it, or whatever you want – it will add dynamically controlled effect(s) to any signal you put through it... OR, you can send your guitar signal into a distortion box, into a volume pedal, into the Enveloope, and control the varrying effect levels using the volume pedal... The possibilities are endless.
Operation
The switch turns the unit on and off, the left knob ("Sensitivity") controls the amount of signal necessary to trigger the envelope follower, the right knob ("Release") controls the amount of time for the envelope follower to shut off, the "Send" jack exports the unaffected signal to a remote device, and the "Return" jack accepts signal from a remote source to be mixed into the output.
Manufacturing
Enveloope features a true-bypass circuit, so when its off, its really OFF. Each pedal is carefully manufactured by hand, using only the finest components. The box is custom made to ToadWorks specifications, the switch is the highest quality 3PDT we could find, the jacks are Switchcraft. The knobs are solid machined aluminum, custom made specifically for ToadWorks. Capacitors are a mix of ceramic & electrolytic, resistors are a mix of carbon and metal film - none of these decisions was made based on cost, they were made purely for sound and reliability. |
