Thanks to you I never realized just how cold the Empress was when you compare to real deal vintage units. Most past my test but the one I was the most disappointed with even more than empress was the XTS GEQ mid. So bland, blah and unexciting. My Behringer GE-7 and Dano Fish N Chips Smoke it. Not saying much with that statement either FYI…
Ah yeah Empress pedals, Strymon’s, Dirty Tree and many pedals IME have that problem. Haven’t tried the Fish N Chips, but actually think my Danelectro French Toast (~$30) sounds really good for a fuzz pedal and is not bad at all vs my actual ‘70’s Foxx Tone Machine it copied (listed at $900-1000 on reverb currently)
It works but it doesn’t add much heat or excitement like I was hoping it would. Almost artificial sounding, especially compared to the ME EQ4H
I liked mine well enough too until I compared it to the EQ4H. If you heard it and compared it yourself you would know what I mean. Empress is not bad it’s just not good as others.this whole "the empress is cold" narrative.... maybe its me, but when my PMEQ stopped working properly, i switched to the empress, got the sound i wanted right away, and it sounds great to me
Nah brand new from sellers like Chicago Music Exchange, etc. No used units that I’ve seen.
I am always curious what causes this. Does this mean it has a higher frequency range, so more high-highs? More compressed? Eq circuits are pretty universal.
I didn’t think it frequency range or compression was anything unusual. A lot of pedals from different times and makers just tend to have some inherent characteristics regardless of settings. Like other gear, vintage pedals (and a few exceptions I’ve tried today) tend to sound warmer and in a way more lively or connected to the playing I feel. Most recent pedals just IME come off comparatively sterile to me, often with a plastic-y sound, but there are exceptions. It’s all in the comparisons relative to other gear. I used to be perfectly happy with lots of pedals I used to have, but this is the price or curse we pay for being gearheads going deep into the rabbit hole lol
It’s a solid pedal. It just depends what it’s compared to and I guess functionality what you want it to do. Maybe it was unfair to do so, but I had it up against my favorite vintage rack PQ units and it just sounded like a toy to me if I’m being honest, so I sold it, but there are other practical drawbacks with those vintage rack units, so it just I guess depends on one’s needsthis whole "the empress is cold" narrative.... maybe its me, but when my PMEQ stopped working properly, i switched to the empress, got the sound i wanted right away, and it sounds great to me
Generally warmer means a high end roll off. Older units might have the high end above 12khz rolled off, where modern things go to 20khz. That is why I mentioned high end. Also, usually older units run on higher voltages, but newer units use charge pump ICs to increase the voltage, so that should equal that out.
This is all possible. I don’t think about it as technically like that, so I’m not sure. Some vintage units can be both warmer and brighter at the same time, but I understand highs above 10k or so can still be rolled off. Either way I try to just rely on what I can hear. I’m not a tech guy intending to make my own gear
I am just wondering why people hear a difference when these types of units are basically the same as they were 20-30 years ago. Same parts, same designs, etc...
I don’t know, my guess is something is different, maybe something that seems very small, but still important. Also, some of my favorite vintage pedals have never been reissued as far as I know like the Ibanez PQ401 as one example. Even a reissue that sounds 80% as good would be cool