Riverside on That Pedal Show

hotpickups

Teetonetal said:

It's not me going by that demo too. I guess I'm not the target audience

TimmyO

I've watched the TPS vid again (paying attention this time rather than in the background) and it's an uncomfortable watch. 

I get the impression they like it even less than they indicate

digitalscream

You know, it's pretty damning on TPS when their demo of it shows less of its capabilities than the mostly-for-entertainment Andertons demo.

I've found TPS demos to only be particularly useful if you're after that bluesy, clean-to-mid-gain sound. They have reasonably good knowledge, but anything else genre-wise is so far outside their wheelhouse that it either doesn't get a look-in or they just don't understand how to get the best out of it.

With that said...I'd go so far as to say the Riverside sounds quite good - in comparison with other pedals I've heard on YouTube - but the Bogner Red knocks spots off it for mid-to-high gain.

crunchman

It's difficult to say from a Youtube video.

It's definitely versatile.  If you have your sound that you play all the time and another pedal gives you that then fine.  If you want a drive pedal that covers a lot of ground then this could be really good.

From some of the other videos I've watched, the biggest thing with this pedal is that you can control parameters from an expression pedal.  If you can make use of that, then that would be where it shines.  You could go from a flat eq low gain rhythm sound to a mid boosted solo tone, with all points in between available depending on where you set the pedal.  With the favourite setting as well, this could be three pedals in one.

EricTheWeary

Watching the Andertons video. Admittedly, like the TPS one, I'm not concentrating all that hard but I'm getting a bit more of the sense of the versatility, although mostly I'm trying to decide what I feel about that strat. By the time you've got a mini switch and an expression pedal there's some versatility there but not only more money but getting a quite big set up. The link to another Strymon using the Favourite switch is quite cool so if you already have a Strymon Something it makes a bit more sense. 
If you intend to embrace the extra features it's interesting but as an overdrive I'm still inclined to think you could spend £300 more wisely. 

Octafish

BintyTwanger77 said:

Cork sniffers the lot of ye!

I'll only sniff an analogue cork!

Octafish

TimmyO said:

I've watched the TPS vid again (paying attention this time rather than in the background) and it's an uncomfortable watch. 

I get the impression they like it even less than they indicate

Yeah, that's my impression. They seemed totally unimpressed to me, shame they couldn't just say 'we're not impressed and it's not worth the money', why so coy - endorsement deals?

crunchman

EricTheWeary said:

Watching the Andertons video. Admittedly, like the TPS one, I'm not concentrating all that hard but I'm getting a bit more of the sense of the versatility, although mostly I'm trying to decide what I feel about that strat. By the time you've got a mini switch and an expression pedal there's some versatility there but not only more money but getting a quite big set up. The link to another Strymon using the Favourite switch is quite cool so if you already have a Strymon Something it makes a bit more sense. 
If you intend to embrace the extra features it's interesting but as an overdrive I'm still inclined to think you could spend £300 more wisely. 

I've got 3 different drive pedals on my board at the moment.  This looks like the closest I've seen to a single pedal that could replace all three.  2 of those I built myself, but I would have been looking at a bill of over £300 if I'd bought the pedals they are based on, plus the third pedal, new.

The ability to just have one drive pedal on your board instead of 2 or 3 is the selling point.

The question is what the sound is like.  From that video it doesn't sound great - especially against the OCD which seemed to have something they couldn't replicate.  It might be completely different in the room though.

TimmyO

Octafish said:

TimmyO said:

I've watched the TPS vid again (paying attention this time rather than in the background) and it's an uncomfortable watch. 

I get the impression they like it even less than they indicate

Yeah, that's my impression. They seemed totally unimpressed to me, shame they couldn't just say 'we're not impressed and it's not worth the money', why so coy - endorsement deals?

I know Mick (a bit) and he really is an honest guy - maybe they were just thrown by it and it was different (rather than better or worse) than expected? 

Sometimes these videos have unintended consequences - their Blues Jr vid turned me right off them, and this video will probably sell a few Fulltone OCDs - but that's great too. 

andyoz

dindude said:

Unless wrapped up in a multi-fx unit, I genuinely don't see the point in digital overdrive / distortion. Delay/Reverb etc. totally get it, you can do things you just can't do with analog tech, but overdrive? Takes up less space? No. Sounds better? No, just different. Cheaper? no. Versatile? As it comes you can footswitch select two sounds, just like if you had two drive pedals then.

Ah, they can whack it into their MFX unit when they finally do one...

digitalscream

andyoz said:

dindude said:

Unless wrapped up in a multi-fx unit, I genuinely don't see the point in digital overdrive / distortion. Delay/Reverb etc. totally get it, you can do things you just can't do with analog tech, but overdrive? Takes up less space? No. Sounds better? No, just different. Cheaper? no. Versatile? As it comes you can footswitch select two sounds, just like if you had two drive pedals then.

Ah, they can whack it into their MFX unit when they finally do one...

To be fair, it's not a purely-digital unit - as mentioned in the Andertons video, the gain stages are all JFET. It's only the tone stack which is digital.

Still, it only sounds average to me.

Octafish

hotpickups said:

Teetonetal said:

It's not me going by that demo too. I guess I'm not the target audience

Me neither, some not bad sounds there, but a bit too much bumble bee fizz at points and £150 for the power supply, £59 for a booster switch, that's getting on for £500 all in which i.m.o is taking the piss for some overdrive....

digitalscream

Octafish said:

hotpickups said:

Teetonetal said:

It's not me going by that demo too. I guess I'm not the target audience

Me neither, some not bad sounds there, but a bit too much bumble bee fizz at points and £150 for the power supply, £59 for a booster switch, that's getting on for £500 all in which i.m.o is taking the piss for some overdrive....

Consider this: with a couple of AMT preamp pedals and a loop switcher from Bright Onion, you could get similar functionality for about £200, and it would arguably sound better.

crunchman

Octafish said:

Me neither, some not bad sounds there, but a bit too much bumble bee fizz at points and £150 for the power supply, £59 for a booster switch, that's getting on for £500 all in which i.m.o is taking the piss for some overdrive....

It should run off of any standard power supply with enough mA.  All other Strymons do.

You can also buy alternative favourite switches for a lot less.  Buying the Strymon version is like buying branded cartridges for your printer.  Only in this case as it's only a simple switch there is very little to go wrong with the cheaper version.

Octafish

digitalscream said:

Octafish said:

hotpickups said:

Teetonetal said:

It's not me going by that demo too. I guess I'm not the target audience

Me neither, some not bad sounds there, but a bit too much bumble bee fizz at points and £150 for the power supply, £59 for a booster switch, that's getting on for £500 all in which i.m.o is taking the piss for some overdrive....

Consider this: with a couple of AMT preamp pedals and a loop switcher from Bright Onion, you could get similar functionality for about £200, and it would arguably sound better.

Don't know what any of those are, but sounds good

Octafish

crunchman said:

Octafish said:

Me neither, some not bad sounds there, but a bit too much bumble bee fizz at points and £150 for the power supply, £59 for a booster switch, that's getting on for £500 all in which i.m.o is taking the piss for some overdrive....

It should run off of any standard power supply with enough mA.  All other Strymons do.

You can also buy alternative favourite switches for a lot less.  Buying the Strymon version is like buying branded cartridges for your printer.  Only in this case as it's only a simple switch there is very little to go wrong with the cheaper version.

Yeah sure, bit like Boss insisting you must use their overpriced crappy wall warts. Having to buy an extra switch for the boost (even a cheap one) is very poor though. For £300 I'd want the switch included, preferably in the actual pedal. Having to accomodate an extra switch on pedal board etc is tiresome.

Grumpyrocker

Crikey £300 for a drive pedal. I must admit I've been tempted by the Amptweaker Big Rock Pro, and that's £250, but it seems to offer a lot of functionality for the money.

hotpickups

Grumpyrocker said:

Crikey £300 for a drive pedal. I must admit I've been tempted by the Amptweaker Big Rock Pro, and that's £250, but it seems to offer a lot of functionality for the money.

I think we have to blame brexit and the poor pound value for the pricing not Strymon

Grumpyrocker

hotpickups said:

Grumpyrocker said:

Crikey £300 for a drive pedal. I must admit I've been tempted by the Amptweaker Big Rock Pro, and that's £250, but it seems to offer a lot of functionality for the money.

I think we have to blame brexit and the poor pound value for the pricing not Strymon :(Maybe, 

Maybe, and once A50 goes through that £300 will seem like a bargain.

andyoz

Fair play to Mick for not gushing about something he clearly wasn't convinced about.

The only positive comment was at the end where he said he'd 'play it' and had never felt that way about a digital OD pedal.  I took that to mean that if he had to play a digital it would be that one but what's the point when analogue does the job.

I wonder what the R&D spend was like on the Riverside.  Did Strymon they get it to point where management said something along the lines ..."lads we have to ship this one and v2 will be better in 3 years time?"