Vox StompLab IG Modeling guitar Effect

[WRGKMC]

Bought one of these the other day and it's showing as being delivered so I guess I'll be playing with it tonight.

 

I have the bass version already and it does a great job recording bass. I'm hoping the guitar version will be just as good.

I mainly wanted it for The Vox amp simulators. I have one other pedal that comes close but its generic at best. I was going to try one of those Joyo AC amp boxes, but for a few bucks more IU figured I may as well get an actual Vox. If they cant do it better then a clone maker then who can. Plus I have hundreds of other effects in a box that simple to navigate and build presets.

 

Its got several Vox heads and cabs which is pretty cool. Allot of pedals just do it generic.

I definitely want to check out the Univibe and rotary emulator. Theres a bunch of different fuzzes like the Tone bender and octave fuzz so I can probably nail a Hendrix/Trower sound. Some of the stuff I'll probably never use like the auto wah and Ring modulator.

Its only got 20 user presets, but that's more then enough for my needs. The Appendices shows all the different parameters you have to work with. Amp drive and cab choices are quite numerous so it may be several days before I can give you some feedback on how well I think they work.

 

 

It probably will be a few days before I record with it which is my main reason for getting it. I must have a hundred pedals already but one good one that does a couple of things better can make it a keeper, Plus $40 was a decent price for it slightly used a few times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

I tried it out through my little 15W Marshall practice amp and I was very pleased with the results. I mainly went through the presets and saved the ones I liked as user presets. As with most pedal presets they showcase what the pedal can do and half of them had too much effect like chorus or echo dialed up so they wouldn't be much use without dialing those back. I still have to learn how to modify the parameters to my own tastes.

 

There were still plenty that had straight up amp settings. Several had those cool Vox amp tones you could get from vintage amps like the Buckingham could get with its MRB mid range boost. (You can hear that knob being switched at the end of the Beatles tune Back in the USSR)

 

What was also cool was the way the amp settings gained up. The grain of the drive was extremely close to tube amps with speakers. The big problem you have with many Solid state drive circuits is they don't gain up smoothly often times going from clean to saturation with very little usable drive in between. I really hate that raspy cold tone you get from many pedals using silicone transistors. Its hard to use too because it doesn't respond well to string dynamics so you wind up having to use compression to prevent static and ride on that thin edge between no saturation and full on.

 

This pedal had settings that responded to dynamics the way a tube amp does and the half driven sounds were just like turning an amp down. Chords responded just like they should. As you played harder, you got more drive, you played softer you got less drive. That's something I use allot in my music and many effects pedals just wont do that.

 

Another item was the placement of the reverb in the chain. It really sounded like an actual spring reverb placed between the preamp and power amp. You could drive the power amp and get the combination of pre and post drive. Most multi effect pedals stick the reverb at the end and it sounds very cold or boomy. With the cab emulation after the reverb it actually sounds like driven speakers with the reverb before it. When recording I normally had to emulate that sound using plugins, but this pedal does it right so I can skip that technique.

 

The presets are laid out well too. As you turn the rotary it gradually goes from basic cleaner tones up higher saturated settings. Each bank containing 10 presets. The lowest settings have smaller combos, Jazz tones, then more driven Blues stuff, Classic rock tones, them Metal, then stuff insanely white noise.

 

I've picked out several I'll be using on some recordings waiting for lead parts. I had been using a Digitec RP150 and Genesis 1 for about 6 months. I can get some decent settings out of them, especially for cleaner tones tracking. The amp emulation was better then not having any at all, but the drive is very similar for all settings. Switching from one amp type to another isn't nearly as convincing as this little Vox unit.

 

When you select a small combo on the Vox it actually sounds like you're playing though a small 8" speaker, not just a layer EQ that strips the frequency response away. I suppose its the way it maintains the string touch response. I can hear the string notes transparently in back of the drive instead of having a layer of artificial noise masking the notes. Whichever the case the architecture is very good and a much better match for my use.

 

With this pedal added to my collection and using the Hofner bass with a Vox bass pedal I should be able to get some cool tones happening. I always dug the tones bands like the Beatles could get having grown up during that era myself. Allot of the musical arrangements I write need those kinds of tones and getting them from some of the other effects pedals can be difficult.

 

I have other effects and amps that nail completely cover the Marshall and Fender tones. But trying to get Vox tones from those amps and effects just doesn't come anywhere close enough. Same with the Bass. I have Ampeg and Fender tones nailed down but Vox signature tones were pretty elusive. I owned a Vintage Vox amp back around 1970 but I was still quite young and even then that amp was pretty ragged out. I remember getting a Moserite after that then the Bassman.

 

I could go to an actual Vox amp, but I already have about 8 amps now. The pedal is close enough for what my needs are so I'll just use it.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Does it sound fairly convincing to you when used as a direct recording tool?

[WRGKMC]

I only tried it on one song so far but it'd definitely got allot of beef. I noticed it with the Bass version too. The sub lows from that pedal could rattle your teeth but didn't make the monitors flab out. I'd say its got fuller sounding tones then the half dozen older rack units I've used for years recording direct. The part I do like as I mentioned is the way it translates string response. Its not just a blur of clipped waves forms with a short ramp to clipping (of course you can get that too with the high driven settings)

 

I set it for what sounded like to me a guitar plugged straight into an amp with moderate breakup and a little reverb. I could strum light and get clean notes for arpeggios, Then as I strum harder, it got meatier like a normal amp would. I played the guitar with that one setting alone for at least an hour doing all kinds of Hammer on chords and double note stuff.

 

It felt so good not to have to be fighting the guitar and retaining strict string control to get those same tones from other units. Not sure what they did to get that but I do recognize its a tube like saturation that comes on gradually as you increase dynamics, not the typical SS clipping you get using diodes and such. I do know Vox has some tube emulation circuitry in their amps. They must be using similar circuits miniaturized.

 

The author who wrote this article for SOS about the Vox Valvetronix amps says nearly the same thing when he gets down to talking about "The Sound" in this article. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep0...alvetronix.asp I know in some of their amps they use what thay call a Valve Reactor with a pair of preamp tubes driving a transformer. They then use a SS power amp to boost the gain up in wattage.

 

This pedal doesn't have tubes obviously but they must be using something close to that architecture to get that kind of touch response and smooth saturation. In any case I'll give it a solid workout this weekend and get back on the results. Maybe I'll even post a recording here with it in use.

 

I should also acknowledge Vox was bought by Korg in 1992 and had been making Keyboards for many decades before then. They also did allot of work in collaboration with Yamaha who's a major player in sound gear too. I've never been overly impressed with the Yamaha guitar amps I've came across, they still made allot of Pro studio, sound system and Effects gear. Korg has been into analog synths since the 60's so they also know a bit about designing circuits that emulate analog products.

[jayjay1010]

Hi ijust got myself one of these -iput some new batts in (no power ad at the moment) got through about 30 prests then the pedal cuts out and i cant get any sound frommy amp even though amp is on -if i turn the pedal and amp on and off it the pedal starts to work again but soon starts cutting out again after 1-3mins..I am using a peavey vypyr 15 but while pedals in i turn effects off on the vypyr and use the classic peavey amp modeller on clean channel while turning down all eq on the vypyr..Any help is most welcome...Regards..

[jayjay1010]

I think the problem is caused by using zinc batts instead of alkaline batts -zinc batts are for low powered devices such as clocks so probley wont work well in somthing like Vox stomplab ,intrestingly i moved the same batts to a Xbox 1 controller and it didnt even light up .still if anyone has any ideas pls let me know-i dont want to buy power adapter if its the pedal and not the zinc batts...

[WRGKMC]

The battery type shouldn't mean anything other then some can last longer then others. I do suggest you get a zero hum adaptor however. This is a larger pedals that runs allot of effects so the batteries probably wont last very long.

 

The unit does have a factory setting that powers the unit down to save your batteries when you haven't played through it for a certain amount of time much like a computer goes into sleep mode. You need to toggle which will keep the unit powered on until you manually turn it off or remove the cord.

 

Disabling the auto power-off function

While holding down the EDIT button and Program UP pedal, turn the power on.

After “AP” is indicated, the program/value display will indicate “dS.” (EN enables it)

The setting to enable or disable the auto power-off function is saved even when the power is turned off.

 

 

There is another setting in there you may want to check too. It lets you switch from line level, amp 1, 2, or 3.

Line level is for direct recording or putting the unit in an effects loop.

 

The other three are for a small combo, medium sided amp or large amp. These make a global change to all the sounds and EQ the unit to the amp size to sound best. You'll get to them by turning the first rotary switch clockwise to the next to last setting before your user settings. Then you hit the edit button, then turn the knobs. I believe you set the global volume with the right knob and the left selects the line/amp type.

 

You may want to match the global volume so the pedals effect volume when engaged matches the volume when the pedal is bypassed. If you have a weak amp and always run the amp with the pedal running then you could boost the pedal output to act like a booster. I just set it 1:1 and leave it that way.

 

[jayjay1010]

Thanx for the advice.I've had the stomplab a wee while now and i really like it and youre advice has made it much more enjoyble infact that enjoyable that its took me ages to reply to youre reply cos ive bn playing around with the stomplab non-stop lol..