Enigma Envelope Filter Bass Effects Pedal

I absolutely love the sound of this pedal.  If you are a fan of SUPER WET sounding envelope filters, this is for you.  It's not quite a Meatball/Meatwad, but it's about as close as you're gonna get without dropping $300+ or even $600+ for an actual Meatball.  But at the same time, it's so versatile, you can easily dial in a more subtle envelope filter sound like the 3leaf groove regulator. The reason I'm giving it a 7 is because the Enigma suffers from the dreaded volume-spike associated with most super-wet envelope filters.  Also, the amount of control the user has over the filter-sweep in this pedal makes it possible to produce very EXTREME sounds, some of which can be ear and speaker-damaging.  So be very conservative with the settings until you know how to tame it. Like most Q-trons, I'd recommend getting a limiter to put behind it in the chain.  It'll not only control the volume spike, but it'll make those more "extreme" settings less dangerous for your equipment (assuming you set up the limiter correctly).  Although, I don't like to limit it TOO much as I like a tad bit of volume spike when I turn it on, kind of like a soloing-channel. If EHX could somehow integrate a limiter into the pedal or give it a master volume... it'd be PERFECT!

Had this for about a month and have gigged it regularly.  I've never had a problem with any of my EHX products and I've owned a lot.  This particular pedal is put in the die-case XO boxes like everything else they turn out these days.  Built like a tank.  I don't perceive and problems with reliability. Also, I believe due to unbuffered outputs, the pedal will still pass your signal through should the power become disconnected.  I'm not entirely sure about the Wet output... but I know the Dry out does not even touch the pedals circuitry.  It is COMPLETELY dry.

Kind of hard to know what to put here in terms of a rating...  It really just depends on how familiar you are with Envelope Filters and their inner-workings.  There's an entire thought process behind setting the pedal up.  You have to realize that almost ALL of the controls are interdependent upon each other.  If you change one, it will often affect another.  It helps immensely to know what kind of sound you're looking to achieve.  Here are the controls: Blend:  Controls the amount of Dry/Wet signal you get from the pedal.  Fully CCW is 100% dry, fully CW is 100% wet.  This knob is a GOD SEND when using the Band Pass and High Pass modes as they suck out the low end.  Also very useful when using the built-in distortion as it can get a little overwhelming. Mode:  Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass.  Most of the time you're probably going to just want to leave it in Low Pass to keep all of your low-end sound.  However, when I'm using the built-in distortion, I like the Band-Pass with about a 66% dry sound.  Keeps the low-end and the distortion+envelope sounds very synthy. Attack:  Determines how quickly the filter sweep begins.  Fully CCW and the attack is immediate and very "quacky."  The more CW you turn it, it will start to produce a "swell-in" type of sound. Decay:  Determines how quickly the filter sweep ends.  Fully CCW and the sweep decays immediately and tries to reset itself for each note played.  The more CW you turn it, the filter sweep will kind of linger. Start and Stop:  Determines the starting and stopping frequencies of the filter sweep.  Fully CCW is 40hz, fully CW is 3khz.  So the widest sweep possible is one knob fullly CCW and one fully CW.  These knobs will also determine the direction of the filter sweep.  If you want an up-sweep, set the Start low and the Stop high, and vice versa if you want a down-sweep.  Much like the EHX Stereo Polyphase, there is kind of a "sweet-spot" in my opinion for the start/stop.  9 o'clock on one and 3 o'clock on the other, depending on if you want an up or down-sweep. Q:  Much like the Q-knob on other Q-tron pedals, this knob determines how "dramatic" the effect is.  The more CW you turn it, you'll hear more of that classic Q-tron "warble" in the sound. Sensitivity:  Again, like other Q-trons, the Sensitivity knob determines the triggering of the filter-sweep with regards to your playing.  With a high sensitivity (turning CW), the filter-sweep will trigger with even the most subtle playing.  Turning it more CCW will require harder playing to get the sweep to trigger. Distortion:  Unlike other Q-trons, the Enigmas has built-in distortion.  It can be incredibly overwhelming depending on your settings.  Fortunately there is an internal trim-pot that is clearly labeled for the distortion output so you can turn it down.  I find the distortion works best with a good bit of Dry signal blended in, particularly in the Band Pass mode.  The thinner sound of the Band Pass filter sweep combined with the distortion and the dry bass has a very cool synth sound to it, almost like an Akai Deep Impact Just to save people some headaches, here's my favorite setting for a classic up-sweep Q-tron sound: Blend: 3 o'clock (roughly 80% wet) Mode: low pass Attack: 8 o'clock or just shy of fully CCW Decay: 9 o'clock Start: 830-9 o'clock Stop: 3 o'clock Q: 1 o'clock Sensitivty: 1 o'clock

EHX is always helpful and usually quite fast in responding to any queries I have about products.  But honestly I've never had to use them for any "problems" since I haven't had any.

I've played in a variety of funk/fusion bands and if you play funk, funk/jazz fusion, jam rock, or anything inbetween, you'd be insane not to incorporate a good envelope filter like this into your effects chain. Note that if you switch up between Active and Passive basses, you may have to change the Sensitivity to accommodate.  At least, I did between my Lakland and my '78 P.