My Nova System arrived today, so I fired up my Orange OD80, and put both my current pedalboard and the Nova in a blind loop switcher and started testing the Nova! Here are my first findings.
1. That tempo LED is annoying as fck. It's flashing like crazy and every patch in a different tempo.
2. The Nova is noisy. I could hear the flickering of the LEDs in the sound produced by the unit.
3. Selecting patches is also very cumbersome.
4. Can't tune down to C, but there's a fix for that.
But generally speaking, I'm pretty impressed by what it can and how the controls work. On to the sounds! I've tried to mimic the effects I gathered over the years, so this is really biassed and unfair to the Nova, but still.
_Overdrive / Distortion_
The Overdrive lacks definition and punch, so I quickly ended up in the Distortion mode. I like the sound of it, but switching back and forth to my Coron Distortion 15 clone made the Nova look bad. The Coron is way snappier and has a lot more mid/roar.
_Phaser_
I love my Ross phaser; nothing I've tried came close to the musicality and richness of it. The Nova fails in that department too, especially with the Distortion on. This is quite a let down for me, as I really did not like the Nova's Phaser.
_Compression_
I use my Coron Compressor 20 (which is an Ibanez CP 830 clone) for adding sustain and some boost/dirt. The Nova covers this perfectly with the Sustain compressor, and beyond! The Nova scores points for this.
_Delay_
The Nova should win this hands down, as I don't really love Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay clone, but it is a tie; and the jury elected the DBD instead of the Nova if it really had to choose
_Octaver_
I can be really short about this: my MicroPOG owns the Nova's Octaver, with ease. The Nova Octaver has a lot wobbliness on the low notes, can't mix wet/dry properly, and does only an octave up, or down. The tracking on the MicroPOG is way, way better and it just sounds so much better, clearer and the mixing of dry, plus one and minus one octave is really nice.
_Boost_
My Xotic EP Booster clone does what it needs to do: add volume, and some highs. I haven't found the controls for the Nova Boost yet, so this one is for an other day.
_Noise gate_
My iSP Decimator G-String clone is absolutely perfect, with only one knob. Nova's Gate is quite difficult to set up, so it might be ok too; but the iSP clearly wins because of the ease of use.
_Tuner_
The Nova can't tune my default tuning: D with a dropped C. Yes, it can be hacked to do so, but this is clearly a major mistake by TC. Then again; nothing beats my Turbo Tuner ST200, which will always be my tuner of choice.
These are all the effects I have on my pedal board, so I haven't tried any of the other effects the Nova has. As I said before, it's all pretty biassed because I know and love the effects I have picked over the years for my board, but this is the standard new gear must reach or exceed in order to replace my old stuff.
The most important pedal on my board is my drive, and while I did not hate the Nova Drive, I certainly did not fall in love with it.
Now let's see what we can mod on this machine
Favorieten/bladwijzers