I purchased this product to improve the quality of my vocal sound for rehearsal and live applications. I have a somewhat skeptical disposition toward taglines such as the one present with this this product in which it describes itself as 'a sound man in a box', and whilst I'm loath to become a vehicle through which the promotional message can perpetuate itself further into the zeitgeist, alas with this product it is a pretty accurate summation!
Its not a replacement for a sound man and good equipment, however it tightens up vocals for live applications when a soundman is not present and perhaps you dont have time to fully optimise your sound, it incrementally improves your sound, and live sound is all about marginal gains. This pedal in conjunction with a little reverb and a basic understanding of what is required to gain stage, eq and compress vocals will provide a remarkably good basic sound with very little knowledge.
For live shows I presently sing through an EV RE 20 mic which is amongst the smoothest and roundest dynamic mics going in my opinion. This product enhances even that mic, takes its best qualities and tightens it up. Its also a mic preamp so gives a good boost to low output dynamic microphones.
It does what you would expect of a compressor, evens out the signal so thus evens out your voice, removes the peaks and dips and makes your voice feel more controlled. It brings out the detail in your voice when singing softly and keeps a lid on you when you are belting. Of course that is compression in general, but the pedal does it nicely, you have good control in a portable package.
The adaptive eq provides a very nicely balanced knob in which you can fine tune your tone from more bottom end to top depending on your preference. The compressor/de esser obviously gives you the choice of either less or more of the effect, this is simple to dial in.
The warmth button is a nice feature, its basically a bass boost but its obviously balanced so as to not sound muddy. If it is sounding muddy, chances are you have not eq'd the pa correctly and already have too much bottom dialed in. I particularly like the button as it adds a little thickness to the voice.
This is a subtle product, good value, sturdy build quality, I got it cheaper on Thomann as always service was top quality.
