When can you elaborate just a little bit more?! This sounds awesome! Do you just use the input Jack or another Jack? I mainly use it on drum machines or pads.
Its all in the manual but yeah,
You can use the audio signal to trigger EG or send a trigger to the trigger input Which would be much tighter than using the incoming audio of course. So for example you could take the rim shot out of your drum machine and use that to trig the EG.
Have a play with it and see what you come up with.
Is anyone using an expression pedal with this? I see the manual says itās wants 100k. What pedal are you using? Also, it seems to mention TS cables with an expression pedals, but most expression pedals I see appear to be TRS.
For anyone else that looks into this, I emailed Vermona and they say it turns out that a regular TRS expression pedal with 10k impedance is fine.
I have to say this is turning out to be one of my best purchases ever and Iāve barely scratched the surface since Iāve only been using it with guitar. For guitar, itās equally as good with more traditional āretroā sounds as it is experimental stuff.
The reverb is beautiful, a nice alternative to my Fender tank. The drive circuit is phenomenal. Very amp like. It gives my Fender Vibro Champ almost an old Supro or Kay vibe (I used to own an old Kay from the late 50s earlly 60s). The envelope effect is also amazing. Iāve become a bit of an envelope filter junkie, and this one is top notch. It tracks really nicely on guitar, and can give you all kinds of P-funk flavor.
Itās definitely niche and pricey, so I can see why you donāt hear more about it for guitar, but it feels almost custom designed for the tones I like. Retro is the perfect description. It will give me anything from a cool 50s dreamy tone, to dirty 60s garage rock sounds, to 70s funk and dub vibes.
The one downside maybe is that because you have so many controls and so many options, it can take a while to figure out how things work. For instance, Iāve yet to figure out how to make a tremolo sound that I like, but I wouldnāt be surprised to come across some holy grail sound with the right combination of knobs and switches.
I originally got it with the intention of using it on my portastudio for Dub sounds, as I kind of baby my old Fender tank and certainly donāt want to be knocking it around, but Iāve been having so much fun using it for guitar that I havenāt even used it for that yet. When considering that this should be killer on bass and synths as well, it is just super high value, even for the price. My first Vermona product and Iām instantly a fan.
Truth be told, I wasnāt going to get it but they are pretty scarce in Japan and with the state of the worldās supply chains, I decided to go with my gut and Iām so glad I did. As I said before, itās like itās custom made for my sound.
5 Likes
Welp you inspired me to try it with my guitar instead of just my synths!
1 Like
Awesome. You probably have a good handle on it already, but I would just say bear in mind that everything is pretty interactive, it takes a bit of time to figure out what settings sound good with what, if that makes sense.
For instance, if you are doing the sort of funk envelope filter thing, the balls knob can be good, but if you are just using the gain and reverb, I like the balls knob all the way down.
BTW, I mainly use it in Post mode, and the low pass filter is the one you want for funky tones. A little bit of LFO on a slow setting will add some interesting funkiness. You have to play with attack and release, and want them up a bit high. I use the input setting for source.
Oh, man, youāve made me wish I played guitar now. I love it for all the reasons you said, but have only ever run synths through it. I donāt actually own a guitar (and couldnāt play one if I did) but I wonder how it would fare with bass (which I do have)ā¦
1 Like
Iām pretty certain it will be great. I own a couple of other envelope pedals and they are killer on bass.
This is not me and not the Vermona, but it gives you an idea of what a good envelope pedal on bass can sound like (in this case, itās a Dr Scientist Dusk with an octave pedal). Of course, this guy is an amazing bassist so that where a lot of the magic happens, but the tone is sick.
2 Likes
I do find the retroverb tricky to work. It is very interactive with all the knobs really feeling linked to one another. But it makes those moments where it all comes together feel really cool!
2 Likes
Yeah, the good thing is that just plain reverb and dirt sounds good. This is my third envelope pedal, so I think that if I wasnāt experienced with them I would have been totally lost for dialing in those kinds of funky sounds. Even then, it took a lot of trial and error. Next thing will be seeing if I can get a tremolo effect I like. Thatās not as important to me, so Iāve kind of left that to last.
Meanwhile, though I bet there are a million other sounds it can do that I havenāt even discovered, particularly since Iāve mainly been focusing on more classic tones than experimental stuff.
Somebody like Marc Ribot would probably have a field day with this thing.
1 Like
Iāve been using it as a drone machine lately. Run into my quadraverb its amazing.
2 Likes
This is the thing - I got it initially for the spring and filter, not realising how great it is when overdriven.
1 Like
If you decide to give it a go, here are some settings that can maybe serve as a jumping off point for a classic envelope filter sound.
Experiment with slight tweaks to the INT, LFO INT, and LFO speed knobs, and the filter knob between say 12:00 and 2:00.
It also helps to use a pick, play higher up the neck and use your bridge pickup if you have one.
Some of the general principles with octave pedal tracking apply I think (namely, you have to adapt your playing to the pedal, this is a great video about that). Also, envelope filters want some high frequency to work with, so keeping the resonance filter high without going into self oscillation is sort of key as well. I find picking an open string as you twist knobs can sort of help with dialing in sounds.
Also note that how hot your pickups are will matter as well. I know some people like a compressor or clean boost in front of the envelope pedal to give it a bit more signal. This supposedly helps to improve tracking.
2 Likes
FWIW, re tracking on bass, in an afternoon of frustration with octave pedal tracking, I tried many things. One of my discoveries was that every bass I tried had a tracking weakness at 5th fret Ā© on the G string. No idea why only that string and only that fret. If you have tracking issues at that point, Iād suggest you may well be at a dead end. Must be something to do with the physics of that frequency combined with the dimensions of the average bass ?
2 Likes
Ah, thatās absolutely awesome advice - massively appreciated! Thanks!
1 Like
Oof - Iāll bear that in mind too. Thanks for the advance warning!
Interesting, Iāll check it out at some point! I have the Behringer Octave Divider (Mutron clone) and a G&L L2000. The Octave Divider generally tracks pretty well, and the L-2000 is nice in that it has about a million combinations (mine is the Japanese model with the coil taps as well). I tend to play up higher on the neck when I use the octave pedal, so maybe wouldnāt have noticed.
Iām constantly buying and selling gear on eBay but the Retroverb is the one piece of hardware Iāll never sell! This is a cool video that demonstrates some of its potential.
1 Like
Is there any info anywhere about what the drive circuit in this is based on?
It doesnāt sound like any of my drive pedals going into my tube amp. I wonder if itās more a preamp/console style of circuit.
1 Like
Iāve never seen anything but Iād love to know. They seem hugely underappreciated - thereās an absurd lack of decent YT videos on it.
2 Likes