Shaper

From Guide

TripWire is a complete multiband compressor/distortion effect. The tone you can get out of this unit is almost limitless.

Simple EQ: In its most basic form, you can use TripWire as a basic 3 band EQ similar to the classic bass/mid/treble EQ effects. But even in this, TripWire is very configurable because you can set the width of the different bands. Turn all 3 COMPRESSION knobs down (to the left) to turn off any band compression. Also make sure that the 3 DISTORTION switches are turned off.

Now you can just use the 3 LEVEL knobs to control the amount of Lo, Mid, and Hi signal you want just like you're used to. Where this gets really cool is that you can change the frequencies at which the EQ bands transition by using the 2 CROSSOVER FREQUENCY knobs. The left one controls the Lo to Mid point and the right one controls the Mid to Hi point.

For example, lets say I want to add a little mid scoop to my bass layer. I can reduce the level of the midrange by turning down the MID LEVEL knob. This will scoop out the mids, but maybe it is taking too much of the upper bass with it. I can get that range back by turning up the LO to MID (left) crossover knob. The ability to control the crossover points of the 3 band EQ is simple and extremely powerful to shape your tone just the way you want. Listen.

Multiband Compression:You are already familiar with the 3 band nature of TripWire, but now we'll throw in the first twist. If you are new to compression, here's a quick and dirty introduction. If you turn up the COMPRESSION on a specific band, it will decrease the volume of the peaks and leave the quieter sections alone. You can essentially smash the dynamic range of the signal by turning up the compression and adjusting the band levels to what sounds good. This is useful in a lot of situations. It can make your guitar have more perceived sustain. It can smooth out your vocals. It can warm up your guitar. Compression is a very useful effect in making great sounding recordings. Usually, compression is applied to the entire signal, but with TripWire you can set different amounts of compression for the different bands of a signal.

So how would you use this? Well, lets take a guitar sample, Listen, and try to smooth and warm up the overall tone without using the level as an EQ. Now we will turn up the LO COMPRESSION to smooth out the huge transient peaks in the low frequencies. When we take out the dynamics in this range, we can create an almost constant bass level in the layer that will have an overall warmer tone to it. If we just turned up the low level control those bass transients will pop and thump when you hit the strings hard. The Compression tames those transients that allowed us to bring the overall bass level up without the downsides. Listen.

Multiband Distortion:This is where things get crazy. We can take our complete tone modifying effect with EQ and Compression and add different distortions to each band. You turn on the distortion by flipping the DISTORTION switch to the ON position for the band you want to distort. You then select the type of distortion you want to apply to that band using the SHAPE popup. Finally, you can decide how much distortion you want to add with the DRIVE knob.

There are several shapes in the menu. FUZZ is a basic distortion like you would find in a stomp box. The others are unique because they actually change the pitch of your signal. When using this on one band you create a harmonized signal of what you are actually playing and the pitch shifted version. DOWN shifts the signal an octave down. Listen. DD shifts the signal two octaves down and can sound completely outrageous with the right notes. UP shifts up an octave - this sounds good on just about everything when well balanced with the other bands. The others are trippy because they shift your notes by a 3RD, 4TH, or 5TH. Try soloing with one of these set on the MID band. Listen.

Check out some of the factory presets for TripWire to get a glimpse of what is possible. It is a complete "design your own pedal" kind of effect with full harmonizers, distortion, compression, and EQ. This one is a lot of fun...