Voxing around

The little home studio I'm building is getting bigger fast. I found a great deal these last few weeks, and I managed to put my hands on a second hand Vox Tonelab SE. This processor is one that I had my eyes on ever since I heard it at one of my friends place, in the office of The 4th Floor branding studio.

The Vox Tonelab SE - out of production, into my collection.

So what makes this old, outdated, heavy and huge floor effects unit so interesting for me? It has a vacuum tube driven preamp section, powered by a lonely 12AX7, which makes all the difference in warmth of tone, fatness of distortion, you name it. It has a different vibe than anything I ever played before as far as processors go. Generously makes up for the lack of USB compatibility and whatnot. And what I like about it compared to it's newer generation buddies is the twin assignable expression pedals - a real treat for creating unique dynamics and effects.

I have it since Monday this week, but today was the first time had a little me time with my new toy, so I quickly dialed up some inspiring tones, made a few clicks to get a pretty groovy drum track going, and recorded a few tracks to see how the unit would do. And it did great, at least I am very pleased with it - unlike with my general skills in improvising a guitar solo, which is a story for another day. Clean sound, very nice tones from the factory patches, easy to tweak, so yeah, it was well worth the buck, even though it's missing a button, and generally has a noticeable mileage.

For anyone curious this is what tonight's fiddling sounds like: 

I really hope I'll get around to doing some serious recording with this unit. Thanks to everyone who was involved in getting this piece into my hands. Cheers!