Pigtronix Gloamer: Auto Swell with Spicy Surprises!
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2022
- Sure - the Pigtronix Gloamer is an Auto Swell pedal, but it's more than that. Join me as I check out its spicy surprises! sweetwater.sjv.io/vNNNEd
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Chords of Orion - Ambient guitar is life
Bill Vencil - Guitars
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What a swell pedal! 🤓
Ha! I see what you did there! :-)
Lulz
Hahaha!!! Brilliant
This is the perfect guy to review this pedal - knows his ambient stuff like nobody's business. This pedal and the demo here are fantastic!
To this day the best auto swell I've used is the attack slider on the Pog 2. I used to frequently write EHX asking them to put that one function in a pedal, but gave up. It's so good.
There are some GI Joe font vibes here I am very happy about.
Learn so much from your channel. Thank you for the work.
Beautiful Strat!
I like the clean way this box transforms the guitar sound mostly. Not another square wave device.
What an excellent pedal , definitely going on the wish list.
Great videos Bill... Thanks !
I like this pedal.
The Bob Ross of pedal demos. Love it.
great video
Great demo ! Subscribed !!
This is great!
Sounds pretty cool into the delay/reverb. I have an old Line6 M5 that has an auto-swell patch - fun stuff 😀
Wow Bill just as I was thinking about my own signal chain incorporating an automated volume control you pop up with this...........great demo of a great pedal.......typically here in the uk no one has it in yet that I can find. Cheers.
Sounds good, it reminded me to get out my Mooer Slow Engine.
Which is a very nice little unit!
You are the master. i will prob buy this
Hi. Subscriber of yours in Northumberland, England. Possible to do a shoot-out between the Gloamer and the EHX Attack Decay Tape Reverse Simulator? Thanks for consistently interesting product reviews and some really beautiful music.
Great stuff here! I'm working on a combination of effects to achieve a cello sound and I think this pedal might cover the majority of what's needed. Down octave, vibrato, EQ and subtle fuzz should cover the rest...
The Bob Ross of guitar !
I see in the comments that there are many comparisons to other pedals with Attack / Decay functions: EHX Superego+, EHX Attack Decay, VFE Bumblebee or Boss Slow Gear. I don't own any of those pedals, but I've been eyeing the Superego+ for a while and I've watched multiple demos and reviews of all the pedals mentioned.
I think there is overlap between the Gloamer and those others if we're creating tremolo effects, but what the Gloamer has that is very special is the compressor. I believe that's what creates very natural sounding swells that would otherwise require a volume pedal and really, really precise foot work: when the signal drops, that compressor comes on and sustains the tail of the signal - your hands can be on their way to bringing in the next chord or note. This pedal has a fairly narrow array of features compared to the Superego+ but what it does, it does exceptionally well. Bill's style really flatters the pedal, but I think David Koltai from Pigtronix really has a knack for unique circuits that produce exceptionally musical results. Emphasis on musical: the Gloamer sounds musical.
Great video, would love to have see how the Sidechain option could be used with the signal from another instrument, such as a drum loop or oscillating synth.
Superb demo. I'm 90% sold on it, but what about the sidechain?? You're spot on when you said the swell effect by itself can be boring, and I'm looking to spice it up by fluctuating the attack time with an expression pedal. Would that work via the sidechain feature? I found no support yet for this in the manual. Manual doesn't have a diagram or TS vs TRS pinout so a $280 pedal is kind ot a big guess at this point. Thanks if you can provide any info.
Daamit now I need the Gloamer
Was the visual design of the pedal inspired by the GI Joe logo?
Nicely Wow thank you CoO
I bet that sounds great on lap steel.
Ooh - that would be really interesting!
Sounds pretty great. Wonder if you know the differences between this, and their Attack Sustain pedal from a few years back?
I've never used one, but definitely looks like there are a lot similarities.
It's a repackaging of their philosopher king pedal. Biggest difference being tons more options with the king & it was made in america
Can be found on verb for like 150ish used vs 280 for gloamer. Check em out
The Gloamer distills the best features of the Philosopher King and its predecessor, the Attack Sustain into a smaller pedal that runs on 9V. The critical thing the Gloamer has that was missing from the Philosopher King is the BLEND knob. Along with the BLEND knob, there is new power supply circuitry in the Gloamer that allows the unit to run on standard 9VDC pedal power while internally boosting the voltage up to 18VDC to recreate the outstanding headroom of our previous designs.
Surprising pedal. IRemember gloamer, the magical sprite from the Punky Brewster cartoon? I like to think this is pigtronics ode to his memory. Gloamer died in 1987 under mysterious circumstances. Same way mc scat cat died.
Your demos are so great - thorough yet straightforward, and always musical! I'm seeing a lot of comparison to the EHX Attack Decay (understandably), but I'm getting stronger Malekko Sneak Attack vibes (also an amazing pedal). I'll probably stick to my Superego+ for these kinds of sounds though - it's the pedal that kicked the Sneak Attack and Attack Decay off my board.
Meh. The Superego+ is antiquated compared w/the synth pedals released in the past year, especially Boss's SY-200. The lack of any meaningful presets & it's inability to track at faster speeds leaves it dated in 2022. The SY-200's pitch shifter is also phenomenal, giving you real Bootsy Collins bass tone from your guitar, & not something that sounds synthesized. I love EHX, but they're outgunned in the synth dept.
@@JeighNeither totally fair. Superego is doing exactly what I need at the moment but who knows what will come out over the next 6-12 months, the pedal scene is crazy right now!
What do ppl think of this versus the EHX attack decay pedal?
Great video as always!
It definitely seems cool, is it $120 better than the attack/decay by ehx though?
Been looking at the auto swells recently and not a ton of other options.
Just the fact that it needs to finish its cycle before it swells again - as Bill demonstrates at 3:28 - unlike all of EHX's various autoswell/attack removal pedals (attack/decay, superego+, pog2), I'd say no. This reminds me of a more elaborate TC Crescendo, which works the same way. I haven't had that on my board since shortly after I purchased it.
(oh wait, that sounded more dismissive of this pedal than I meant it. This does indeed look like a great pedal, if you've got Bill's chops for interspersing lovely picked melodies between your swells. If you rely mostly on layering swells (like me) this might not be for you (me).)
@@casuallyabandoned I really appreciate your input! Had the attack decay and sold it (which I regret) mostly because it didn’t feel all that refined which was likely me expecting the pedal to play to me other than me playing to the pedal. Will probably try the gloamer when it hits a local GC so I can return it easily if that envelope trigger is an annoyance. The side chain might be a really fun feature, unfortunately have yet to see that in the minimal demos available.
Pigtronix philosphers king
Presumably for playing “Roaming in the Gloaming”.
Isn't this a rebranded Attack Sustain that was discontinued by Pigtronix?
It's a copy of the VFE Bumblebee! I still think the EHX Superego plus kicks this PTX Gloamer to the curb.
How much time do you spend playing around with a pedal like this before making a video? Great content. I've been digging your channel for some time now.
Good question! With this pedal, I would say about 2 hours or so over a couple of days to prep. I then shot a 1st version of the video, which I thought failed miserably - so had to go back and shoot it again. There are other pedals that take less time to prep, and some that take a LOT more time.
@@chordsoforion Love the honesty. You are awesome Bill. Always enjoy your content. oNe LovE from NYC
Hey there bill! Could you explain the advantages/differences between and auto swell and a volume pedal?
That sounds like a great topic for a video! Let me noodle on that a bit.
@@chordsoforion thank you!!
What I’ve wanted for a long time is an EHX POG2 without all the octave stuff - just the envelope side. It’s truly polyphonic, catching all the transients and applying the filters (attack, detune, etc). I’ve yet to come across any other auto swell that does that. I thought maybe their Attack Decay pedal would do it, but no.
Did you set the EHX A/D to "polyphonic"? It's supposed to do what I think you want, and I'm pretty sure it does it for me! ;)
@@FonceFalooda2 yes I tried that, but I remember thinking it still did not work like I remembered the POG2 working when I had it. But we’re talking about recollections on top of recollections, so it’s completely possible there are user errors and misrememberings in play :)
@@andyhelmboldt2339 I haven't played the POG2, so I can't directly compare it personally, and I haven't done extensive, detailed testing with the A/D, but I'd be surprised if EHX put worse tech in their dedicated pedal. Maybe find a local shop that'll let you play one again, and see if it'll do what you need. :)
@@FonceFalooda2 yeah, that's what I thought when I tried it, but I remember thinking, "Huh, strange, why doesn't this do what the POG does?" Like I said though, I didn't compare them side by side either, and I might have been misremembering the POG's capability. I just went back and watched the A/D release video from EHX, and it does seem to behave how I wish it would in Poly mode, so maybe I do need to give it another shot.
I'll stick with my Morley volume Plus thank you very much.
No auto-swell can ever take the place of a good volume pedal!
It is ok
What I'm looking for is a way to exactly mimic the bow sound of a violin or cello. Most of the guitar effect pedals I know exaggerate by giving too much swelling and too slow, and therefore far more volume difference between the initial signal volume and what follows and a kind of delay that disturbs the rhythm of the music. Additional delay effects even makes this worse. That's not how a string instrument sounds. This demo could not convince me that the Gloamer can do this. It would be nice, because the sound signal is analog and not distorted.
I wish Pigtronix would use quiet switches, they are worth the extra cost.
I do too!
For $300 I'd rather have 3 EHX attack/decay pedals.
There are SO many of these pedals coming out now. Too many choices. If it takes $10,000 in dozens of pedals to create "that" sound...something is wrong . Few can do it as well as Bill can. But idiots like me cannot...nor can I keep up with the technology. Maybe a couple of Strymons and a synthesizer is more MY speed. But I'll be forever grateful to Bill for introducing me to the creative Joy's of Ambient guitar.
Wouldn't it be 'swollen' notes? Or is that gross?
Interesting. I believe you only scratched the proverbial surface.
It might be more work, but seems like a volume pedal would give you a lot more control.
I just returned mine. Didn't like it at all.
I like the pedal but I don't like the colors of the red and blue lol.
Sounds like a copy of the EHX Attack Decay pedal.
"It works like every other autoswell pedal..."
*cough* (except the EHX "Attack/Decay") *cough*
Your point is well taken. I would say though, that the Attack/Decay adds a "synthy" digital artifact to the tone when in Poly mode, so it ends up sounding very different from the Gloamer. Very cool indeed, but different. The Gloamer feels a lot more like the traditional Slow Gear type of swell. Hope that makes sense.
@@chordsoforion I've never noticed the artifacting, but I have the A/D at the very start of my chain, and I have a whole bunch of digital stuff after it, so I don't know if I would. ;)
That said, it's a small price to pay for the miracle of polyphonic swells. Along with the Mel9, there's a lotta magic coming out of EHX. Still not sure how they do it. :)
Is that your cellphone or my cellphone ringing, lol. You should make a pedal called airplane mode. noise gate/eq/volume swell. just saying.
So, I went back and put the audio into a frequency analyzer, and there does appear to be a small spike at 18k - about 24dB down from the main guitar signal. It is only present when I am actually playing the guitar, but disappears when I am not due to the noise gate being used in the recording. I doubt I have been able to hear that high in the frequency spectrum since the 1980s. Congratulations on your highly sensitive ears. Please take care of them! :-)
The logo is giving me G.I. Joe vibes.
I see what you mean!
How come you have an f-hole on that Eric Johnson Strat?v
It is the Thinline model that was out in 2018.
G.I. Joe vibes anyone ?
No need for talking, explaining, narrating. He really tries you patience. Just playing, visual device settings, minimal text. It's done professionally on quite a few videos.