Members companyman Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 [video=youtube;o4wX0Z1f5Gk] anyone use one? Do you like it for basic compression, or more for tremolo and slowgear sounds? The blend control seems pretty flexible in the PGS demo. Is the dirt any good for low gain sounds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted January 25, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 man the sounds at around 8:00 are so cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brianeharmonjr Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 I sold mine and got a Philosopher's King when they came out, but they're both incredible pedals. I use/used them mostly for the tremolo/slow gear/attack/release sounds since I've got another compressor (Retro-Sonic) on my board for straight-ahead compression. If you want to just use it for compression, it's a helluva compressor, but it can do so much more cool stuff. All the Pigtronix stuff is killer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 I don't use it for compression or tremolo FX, since I have those FX in dedicated pedals. I use it for Attack Decay/Slow Gear/Tape Reverse/volume swell FX only. For those purposes, it's the best thing I've tried. I like the volume swell on the HOG, but the HOG digitizes the signal. The Attack Sustain is all analog and fat sounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted January 25, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 I don't use it for compression or tremolo FX, since I have those FX in dedicated pedals. I use it for Attack Decay/Slow Gear/Tape Reverse/volume swell FX only. For those purposes, it's the best thing I've tried. I like the volume swell on the HOG, but the HOG digitizes the signal. The Attack Sustain is all analog and fat sounding. I am thinking about a trade, Attack Sustain for my Black Finger + a little cash...am I crazy for considering it? I love the Black Fingers compression and touch sensitivity, but the compression sounds pretty darn good on the Pigtronix, and the Trem/slowgear sounds are really tempting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Poltergeist Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 holy {censored}, that's amazing. gotta keep my eye out for a used one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 I am thinking about a trade, Attack Sustain for my Black Finger + a little cash...am I crazy for considering it? I love the Black Fingers compression and touch sensitivity, but the compression sounds pretty darn good on the Pigtronix, and the Trem/slowgear sounds are really tempting! I'm probably the wrong person to ask, because if I could only own 1 pedal, it would be the BlackFinger. It is fundamental to me and for the tone I want from my guitars/amps. I've never done a side-by-side comparison of the compression between the 2 pedals, but I reckon that we're talking about apples and oranges here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted January 25, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 I'm probably the wrong person to ask, because if I could only own 1 pedal, it would be the BlackFinger. It is fundamental to me and for the tone I want from my guitars/amps.I've never done a side-by-side comparison of the compression between the 2 pedals, but I reckon that we're talking about apples and oranges here. yeah, I love the Black Finger as well...but I am really interested in the other functions, in addition to the compressor. I have little money these days, and am looking to maximize the effects options of the pedals that I hold onto....for instance the SMMH is staying because of the staggering number of sounds and functions in it. I am looking at it like this, Black Finger does one thing amazingly well...the Attack Sustain does at least three things equally well......hmmmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JRBain Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 Paging Phil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members conky Posted January 25, 2011 Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 I hated mine when I had it. The compression sounds good, and the Slow Gear settings sounded good, but the dirt sounded really thin in my setup. I know its one of those pedals that you have to really dive into but I just couldn't find a setting that justified taking up all of that real estate on my board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I don't use it for compression or tremolo FX, since I have those FX in dedicated pedals.I use it for Attack Decay/Slow Gear/Tape Reverse/volume swell FX only. For those purposes, it's the best thing I've tried. I like the volume swell on the HOG, but the HOG digitizes the signal. The Attack Sustain is all analog and fat sounding. Pretty much This. It's a good pedal, but I mainly use it as described above. I do occasionally use the compressor on it, but rarely the dirt or as a tremolo. I have other things that I prefer to use for those tasks. The only way to get one now is used... they have been discontinued, and were replaced in the Pigtronix lineup by the Philosopher King. http://www.pigtronix.com/products08/philosopherking.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted January 25, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 well I am trying to downsize, the number of pedals I need to 4 and a tuner, the AS would be like 3 effects in one, and I really love tremolo, and slowgear. The Black Finger is the best comp I have tried (although the Hartman comp was close, and much smaller) , it is a feel thing more than anything I think. I'm not gonna start on a tube comp crystal lattice tangent, but I do think it adds a tube rectifier sag thing to my GA-15 that has a soildstate rectifier, I dig the sounds too but mostly the feel. I tried the Attack Sustain in a crappy store rig before in the past, and thought it was pretty great sounding for comp alone....the blend is very tweakable...I barely touched its other attributes, but did find a cool random trem sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 It really is a cool pedal IMO. I used to be a Slow Gear guy back about 20+ years ago, but I prefer the far more versatile Attack Sustain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted January 25, 2011 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2011 Phil, would you say that the Philosopher King is a huge improvement, sound wise...or just added features? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted February 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 so another question about the Attack Sustain, are there volume drops/jumps when you are using the compression as an always on kind of compressor, and you kick on the attack and decay functions for swells or tremolo effects? Or is there a unity gain between them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 so another question about the Attack Sustain, are there volume drops/jumps when you are using the compression as an always on kind of compressor, and you kick on the attack and decay functions for swells or tremolo effects? Or is there a unity gain between them? I'm not sure I fully understand the question... you can set it for unity gain, or adjust the volume however you want it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members conky Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 well I am trying to downsize, the number of pedals I need to 4 and a tuner, the AS would be like 3 effects in one, and I really love tremolo, and slowgear. The Black Finger is the best comp I have tried (although the Hartman comp was close, and much smaller) , it is a feel thing more than anything I think. I'm not gonna start on a tube comp crystal lattice tangent, but I do think it adds a tube rectifier sag thing to my GA-15 that has a soildstate rectifier, I dig the sounds too but mostly the feel. I tried the Attack Sustain in a crappy store rig before in the past, and thought it was pretty great sounding for comp alone....the blend is very tweakable...I barely touched its other attributes, but did find a cool random trem sound. I thought this too, but your rate will be the same for all three. So it's really limited if you're gonna use it that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted February 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 Haven't really tried the Philosopher King yet, so IDK... I'm not sure I fully understand the question... you can set it for unity gain, or adjust the volume however you want it... ok, say I have the compression set up to play with it on all of the time, at unity gain when the comp is turned off. If I kick on either the attack or decay switches for tremolo or slow gear sounds, will there be volume drops in those sounds? Or will they be at unity? Sorry, kind of hard do describe what I mean. In the PGS demo at the beginning, it seems like Andy plays the chord stuff, then switches in the slowgear sound, and it is at the same volume, just wondering if this is true for tremolo and all the settings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted February 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 I thought this too, but your rate will be the same for all three. So it's really limited if you're gonna use it that way. yeah...I realize the rate is universal for it. I think I could live with that, probably wouldn't use slowgear and tremolo in the same songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 ok, say I have the compression set up to play with it on all of the time, at unity gain when the comp is turned off. If I kick on either the attack or decay switches for tremolo or slow gear sounds, will there be volume drops in those sounds? Or will they be at unity? Sorry, kind of hard do describe what I mean. In the PGS demo at the beginning, it seems like Andy plays the chord stuff, then switches in the slowgear sound, and it is at the same volume, just wondering if this is true for tremolo and all the settings? You do have a Sensitivity control for dealing with the attack dependent stuff... that allows you to adjust it for your style of playing. It's an envelope pedal, so it functions off the levels coming into it in terms of triggering the envelope aspects of it. Having said that, outside of the (to be expected) volume drop at the start of the note as it swells up, the max note level seems to be unity to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted February 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 cool! Thanks for the input Phil, it has been very helpful! I think I am going to pick up the Attack Sustain tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted February 1, 2011 Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 cool! Thanks for the input Phil, it has been very helpful! I think I am going to pick up the Attack Sustain tomorrow. According to Pigtronix the Philosopher King is just an Attack Sustain and a Philosopher's Tone wrapped into one pedal, i.e. a more fully featured version of either pedal. I own a Philosopher King if you have any questions about it. I don't have an Attack Sustain though, as last year's NAMM had happened by the time they announced the PK. I just held out for it instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted February 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2011 According to Pigtronix the Philosopher King is just an Attack Sustain and a Philosopher's Tone wrapped into one pedal, i.e. a more fully featured version of either pedal. I own a Philosopher King if you'd have any questions about it. I don't have an Attack Sustain though, as last year's NAMM had happened by the time they announced the PK. I just held out for it instead. cool, thanks. Do you put the Philosopher King first in the chain? Use the harmonics/grit as low gain etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheHarakiriEnd Posted February 2, 2011 Members Share Posted February 2, 2011 The PK has cv i/o? If so this is actually really close to what I have been looking for. Moog Freg Box, Moog Lpf/Robot Factory Ms-20 filter, Moog Ring Mod (even better if you could get s&h along with noise), Gristleizer vca, PK asdr, Geiger Counter for wavetables (and/or bitcrushing) and possibly a couple of other fx would make for a very tweakable guitar synth setup. In a way much like an actual modular synth. I have been working towards that for awhile and I really need to look into this more. Sausagefoot, how are you using the Pk's cv? Along with your Freq Box or...? BTW, if you had a Goatkeeper as well it could function like a pseudo sequencer (vca I know). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted February 4, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 4, 2011 I just picked up the Attack Sustain today. I have to say I am really impressed with the many subtle Tremolo sounds that are available. The key seems to be the blend knob. The compression can be very squashed sounding if the blend is above 10:00, which is where the slowgear type sounds are available (if you use the harmonics control with the slowgear stuff, it is Frippertronics city! I am loving it. I find for a transparent compression the high boost switch should be on, at least with my rig, and the blend set to about 9:00, very sweet and articulate. As far as the compression sound quality, I think the Black Finger sounds a bit better, but not that much better. The added functions of the Attack Sustain are a gigantic, fun bonus. The synthy sounds are really unique, especially with the GERM4 starved voltage, Fuzzface sounds. One question for you Attack Sustain users, the release LED on my unit lights up even when the pedal is in bypass, is this normal? It makes me think it might not be true bypass..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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