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Recorded LIVE! Weds at 4pm GMT

News / Stomps

AMPED: Eventide ModFactor Stompbox

Modulation effects for studio or live 05-Jun-09

No flash plug

Sonic LAB: Eventide ModFactor

7:57 mins

Streaming:
QuickTime (MP4) | iOS MP4 Windows Media

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The ModFactor is one of three new Stompbox effects from Eventide, who bring their studio quality effects down to earth - literally, by putting them on the floor in stompbox format. However with stereo IO, MIDI and additional pedal connections, the ModFactor will be at home in the studio or live. Heavy Duty
First thing to mention is that this is really well built, chunky, with plenty of connections for the live and studio setup which are all case mounted for strength.

Connections

stereo/mono input - switchable line/gtr level
stereo/mono out - switchable amp/line level
aux footswitch input (up to three using stereo plug) - assignable
expression pedal input - assignable
USB - for OS updates
9v DC standard power connection
MIDI in Out/Thru

With 10 basic modulation effects (okay so filter is a bonus), you've got pretty much all the bases covered, with all effect algorithms having additional types for plenty of variation. The large dotty LED display also gives you a pretty clear indication of what is going on at any given time, with a transfixing modulation depth/speed display too.

Chorus - Liquid, Organic, Shifter
Phaser - negative, positive, feedback, biphase
Q-Wah - wahwah, voc-wah
Flanger - positive, negative, jet, thru-0
ModFilter - lopass, bndpass, hipass
Rotary -standard, giant
TremoloPan - bias, opto
Vibrato - modern, vintage, retro
Undulator - pitch, feedback
RingMod - ring, string

The unit operates in two modes PLAY and BANK. In PLAY mode, the three footswitches operate as bypass, speed/brake and tap tempo and in BANK as preset switching for live work, footswitch 1 loads the first patch in a bank (each bank has 2 patches) and bypasses, footswitch 2 loads patch 2 and the third footswitch increments through the banks. In practice, this was a little annoying as you can't increment down, so if you miss your patch, it's tappitty-tap to cycle back round. There are workarounds - you can deactivate banks to give a smaller selection of patches to cycle through, or use one of the the Aux switches (you can connect up to three) to decrement banks. Patches
One thing to note about the factory presets is that they are pretty tame compared to what the ModFactor is capable of, I would recommend getting stuck into full-on knob twiddling to see what this can really do. With so much to play with, this Stompbox is actually a pretty complicated piece of kit and that may be where it actually has a problem, there's so much too it, that you'll need to have manual handy to set it up right - even after you've got the hang of it - say at rehearsal. All in all, the ModFactor is a pretty comprehensive mod stomp, though it might be said that it doesn't have a really killer character. However, with so many mod type effects to choose from and the large amount of external control possible you'd be hard pressed to get so many features out of a regular stompbox and this unit could give you most of what you need from a mod effect unit in either a live or studio situation. Available now £389.99/ $399.99