Throwing a little funk into any practice session instantly sparks creativity and joy, to me, anyway. I’ve been testing a bunch of envelope filter pedals lately, much to my delight, and have found one that I just cannot stop clicking on every time I go to play. Coming to you straight from our friends to the north, Canadian company Tribute Audio Designs, this is the Tron III Envelope Filter.
This is not a plug-and-play pedal, really – you need to invest some time to figure out how she’s gonna play with your pickups, amp and other effects, first and foremost. There are also a TON of sonic options to behold with the Tron III, so the adventure most likely won’t be one that only lasts a few hours. I could see using different settings and trying out multiple combinations of the controls for years to come, honestly, as you never know what sound you’re going to get, or how it will interact with the rest of your gear.
Gain drives the filter AND the envelope portions of the Tron III, which adds in more overdrive to your signal, and well as more sensitivity to your playing dynamics. Peak is an intensity control that sets the top portion of the resonance of the filters, allowing for a vast soundscape of options, especially when mixed in conjunction with the Gain knob. Three toggles adorn the Tron III as well: Hi/Lo selects the type of filter sets being used, Range goes between Upsweep and Downsweep, and LP/HP/BP selects the Lowpass, Highpass or Bandpass filter type. You can truly coax Mu-Tron sounds out of this box, and it’s true bypass, standard 9V powered AND 1/4 of the size of the original, not to mention being eons less in the price department.
Full of options and great funk tones, sometimes when I’m playing the Tron III I feel like I’m channeling my inner Jerry, without the black t-shirt, though. This pedal will take you back to the era of funk, the days of disco and the decade of debauchery, and provide a sweet sonic option for almost any type of musical situation. Plus, there aren’t many of these in existence, so I feel like I really lucked out when this little beauty arrived in the mail. Thanks to Jeremy and Tribute Audio for sending this funk machine our way, don’t forget to check out their other great pedals HERE!.
Submitted by Mike B, Website
Demo Rock pedalboard by West Coast Pedalboard
