Nova Drive?

[JohnHorne]

Has anyone actually tried the TC Electronic Nova Drive yet? Looks kinda interesting, but I'm not sure how I'd like it...

[atson67]

I haven't but I played the nova system recently, which has the same drive circuit.
All I can say is: great ! The od side sounded like my Maxon OD-9 and the distortion side like my old turbo rat with smoother, more transparent mids.

[JohnHorne]

Originally Posted by atson67

I haven't but I played the nova system recently, which has the same drive circuit.
All I can say is: great ! The od side sounded like my Maxon OD-9 and the distortion side like my old turbo rat with smoother, more transparent mids.

Thanks, looking forward to trying it. Waiting for sweetwater or MF to get it!

[forum_crawler]

I got mine yesterday!!!

Here is a quick overview of the pedal:

OD
Your typical TS-Style OD, but with good od range. The blend feature is brilliant and you can go from Timmy like clean overdrive to fairly wet od. The only thing I wish this OD had is a bass control, or a switch that would allow it to be a bit deeper, much like the Jekyll side of the Jekyll & Hyde pedal.

I would say it is an excellent TS-Type OD.


DIST
The distortion side of this pedal is what really surprised me. It is very responsive and indeed very warm and sounds like as if there was a tube inside there. It ranges from warm overdrive to crunchy distortion. While this distortion is not as brutal as say an Openhaus, or a similar high gain pedal, it does a great job of providing smooth creamy distortion for some great rythm guitar playing.

I would say it can approach the Hyde Side of the Jekyll & Hyde in terms of gain, but it is far smoother, and much more pleasing to the ear. It can't compete with pedals like the PisdiYAUwot, Openhaus, or similar so this wouldn't be your pedal if you are looking to do the nu-metal thing.

Ease of Use
The controls for this pedal are simple, just 4 knobs per side so tweaking individual effects is very simple. You will get good sounds out of it in no time. It does get a bit more tricky since now you have 8 parameters to worry about, and these vary depending on the routing you choose. Now, I have only played with it for one evening and I was getting sounds I really liked in just a few minutes.

I haven't used midi to control it yet, but it is comming.

High Volume
I got a pleasant surprise when I run the pedal at high volume. None of that fizziness that is normally associated with other distortion pedals is to be found here. Naturally, I am sure you can find it if you look for it, but I doubt anyone will!

Gear Used
Amp: Peavey ValveKing 212 with Mesa 6L6GCs
Speakers: Eminence Swamp Thang & Wizard
Effects: Diamond Compressor > Nova Drive > Damage Control Timeline
Guitar: Gibson Explorer with Seymour Duncan Blackouts

[nsriley]

I got mine about 5 minutes ago......but my son is taking a nap so I can't test it out yet! LOL!

[nsriley]

Originally Posted by forum_crawler

I got mine yesterday!!!

Here is a quick overview of the pedal:

OD
Your typical TS-Style OD, but with good od range. The blend feature is brilliant and you can go from Timmy like clean overdrive to fairly wet od. The only thing I wish this OD had is a bass control, or a switch that would allow it to be a bit deeper, much like the Jekyll side of the Jekyll & Hyde pedal.

I would say it is an excellent TS-Type OD.


DIST
The distortion side of this pedal is what really surprised me. It is very responsive and indeed very warm and sounds like as if there was a tube inside there. It ranges from warm overdrive to crunchy distortion. While this distortion is not as brutal as say an Openhaus, or a similar high gain pedal, it does a great job of providing smooth creamy distortion for some great rythm guitar playing.

I would say it can approach the Hyde Side of the Jekyll & Hyde in terms of gain, but it is far smoother, and much more pleasing to the ear. It can't compete with pedals like the PisdiYAUwot, Openhaus, or similar so this wouldn't be your pedal if you are looking to do the nu-metal thing.

Ease of Use
The controls for this pedal are simple, just 4 knobs per side so tweaking individual effects is very simple. You will get good sounds out of it in no time. It does get a bit more tricky since now you have 8 parameters to worry about, and these vary depending on the routing you choose. Now, I have only played with it for one evening and I was getting sounds I really liked in just a few minutes.

I haven't used midi to control it yet, but it is comming.

High Volume
I got a pleasant surprise when I run the pedal at high volume. None of that fizziness that is normally associated with other distortion pedals is to be found here. Naturally, I am sure you can find it if you look for it, but I doubt anyone will!

Gear Used
Amp: Peavey ValveKing 212 with Mesa 6L6GCs
Speakers: Eminence Swamp Thang & Wizard
Effects: Diamond Compressor > Nova Drive > Damage Control Timeline
Guitar: Gibson Explorer with Seymour Duncan Blackouts

Great review!!!! BTW what did you think about the parallel verse series routing? I really can't wait to mess with the parallel sounds!

[JohnHorne]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to hearing from nsriley too!

[raph]

Great pedal, smooth, a sleeper. I doubt this is the Nova System circuit. TC claims it is, but this seems a lot wilder. You can do serious metal with this pedal - it's not limited to rock sounds. Great demo from Tore of TC showing off the range of the pedal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCRkL3h6sio

[Bren]

I put a review of the Nova Drive on the TC Electronic forum. After another test session, my initial impression of the overdrive section has gone up. The distortion, as mentioned, is really warm and full, and I'm very impressed at how chords remain clear, every note well defined. The basic tone is close to a vintage Rat, but fuller with more low end. The two tone controls can get you a lot of places. Add the overdrive, and there's plenty more shaping to do.

Routing sounds good either direction (OD-Dist, Dist-OD) but I don't know what to make of the parallel option yet.

My only complaint is that I get a fair amount of buzz and hum when the gain on either side is past 1 o'clock. I know some noise is expected but it's more than my other pedals. Maybe it's just a home wiring problem...

Still deciding if the NDR is something I need, but it's probably worth keeping for the distortion alone, and being able to save 18 presets is obviously convenient.

----
www.jazzshelf.org

[JohnHorne]

Can you please post a link to the forum where your review is posted?

Originally Posted by Bren

I put a review of the Nova Drive on the TC Electronic forum. After another test session, my initial impression of the overdrive section has gone up. The distortion, as mentioned, is really warm and full, and I'm very impressed at how chords remain clear, every note well defined. The basic tone is close to a vintage Rat, but fuller with more low end. The two tone controls can get you a lot of places. Add the overdrive, and there's plenty more shaping to do.

Routing sounds good either direction (OD-Dist, Dist-OD) but I don't know what to make of the parallel option yet.

My only complaint is that I get a fair amount of buzz and hum when the gain on either side is past 1 o'clock. I know some noise is expected but it's more than my other pedals. Maybe it's just a home wiring problem...

Still deciding if the NDR is something I need, but it's probably worth keeping for the distortion alone, and being able to save 18 presets is obviously convenient.

----
www.jazzshelf.org

[Bren]

Originally Posted by JohnHorne

Can you please post a link

http://forum.tcelectronic.com/viewtopic.php?id=4239

Hope that works. I'm Tarkus.

[forum_crawler]

Originally Posted by nsriley

Great review!!!! BTW what did you think about the parallel verse series routing? I really can't wait to mess with the parallel sounds!

Playing with the routing is where the fun really begins. Switching the normal configuration of DIST>OD to OD>DIST can sound very different indeed. What I liked is that having the OD > DIST actually allows for lots of control from the OD unlike other pedals where the DIST colours the tone so much that you get very little differences from adjusting the OD.

I guess what I am saying is that the distortion is indeed very transparent and it will let your guitar's tone shine through.

Again, this pedal isn't fur chugga chugga type of playing, but for everything else, it is wonderful. The ability to set the dist to have a simliar sound to an OD is great because now I don't need to have another od in my board, now it is just a matter of selecting a preset.

I will say that I do like the OD from the Jekyll & Hyde a tad better, but that is because of the bass boost feature in that pedal, however, the OD in the Nova Drive can clean up very well and sound almost as transparent as a Timmy, which is also something that is fantastic.

This pedal has a very good thing going for itself and I can only hope we see more pedals that offer this level of flexibility. It isn't cheap, but I think the sounds and features justify the cost.

[aleclee]

I tried one last week. Thought both sides sounded good but nothing that particularly curled my toes. The routing stuff was cool but besides that I didn't like it as much as my current Menatone and Boss OD/Dist pedals.

[Goldwing]

Is the Distortion side of this pedal capable of that edgy distortion that the boss pedals have? I really like the distortion of Porcupine Tree Live and SWilson uses a badcat two tone and a Boss distortion (I'm not sure if is the OS2 or the DS2) that I can replicate pretty much with my Boss OS2 in distortion mode.

However the fact that the overdrive section of the nova drive is inspired in the TS overdrive and the presets are leaning me to sell my OS2 and BadMonkey and get one ND. Only need to know if it could get close to that distorted sound...

thnks...

[nsriley]

Ok...I spent minimal time with it so far due to a 1 year old tearing my music room apart.....LOL!.......anyways......WOW....I am impressed so far.....The Distortion side is very vintage RAT like, but very clear, articulate, lets the guitar shine through and maybe a tad smoother than a RAT. Even sounded tubey to me. I even hear a little woody tone to it depending on where I put the knobs. The OD side sounds like a great TS to me, with a 'mix' knob that is killer on letting some clean signal in with it if you want. Together is great too, routing in one into the other or vice versa...plus the parallel mode. LOTS of versatility! I do want to play with the parallel routing a bit more.....only because my son was in the room I couldn't blast the volumes, and they come into play a LOT in the parallel mode I noticed. Then you have the presets option of saving favorite settings......excellent feature! I ran mine into a Vox Night Train set on the bright clean side. Worked in spades with that so far!