UAFX Enigmatic

The pedal sounds fine. Not sure I'd spend $400 when I have just as good or better options in multi-amp modelers, or a real tube pedal like the Vox silk drive - which cost $100. I have nothing against UA, it's just I can't quite justify the cost of something like this.
 
Fwiw, just as a side observation (but defenitely something already crossing my mind several times before): Have you ever seen, say, a multi-amp modeler review going so much into the details on a per amp base as quite some folks (Rabea Massaad included) are doing with the UAFX pedals? Yeah, there's a video of John Cordy exploring the HX's Grammatico GSG pretty thoroughly, but that's quite the exception rather than the norm (within the FAS ecosystem it seems to be a little more common, I remember some videos going through, say, all M-style amps, all F-styles and what not).
What I'm saying is: It's not unlikely that quite some qualities of whatever "full" modelers are hardly ever covered whereas the qualities of those pedals with less functionality are explored down to the last minutiae.
I would even consider this to be expectable, pretty much just another aspect of option paralysis, but still, it's possibly food for thought. I mean, just by asking myself: How often did I actually explore the possibilities of the HX ecosystem's amps down to the last detail? As in checking all parameters, their interaction, using various cabs and mics, running them along with dirt boxes in front, etc. The answer is that I did that with perhaps just two amps (fwiw, the Princess and the L6 2204 Mod, which have been the ones I was using the most when I had the Floor). And not even all *that* thoroughly. It's probably not too clever not doing so for some of the others, because I certainly got a whole lot of mileage out of those I explored better (for the most obvious reasons of course).
As said, likely just another aspect of option paralysis.
 
Fwiw, just as a side observation (but defenitely something already crossing my mind several times before): Have you ever seen, say, a multi-amp modeler review going so much into the details on a per amp base as quite some folks (Rabea Massaad included) are doing with the UAFX pedals? Yeah, there's a video of John Cordy exploring the HX's Grammatico GSG pretty thoroughly, but that's quite the exception rather than the norm (within the FAS ecosystem it seems to be a little more common, I remember some videos going through, say, all M-style amps, all F-styles and what not).
What I'm saying is: It's not unlikely that quite some qualities of whatever "full" modelers are hardly ever covered whereas the qualities of those pedals with less functionality are explored down to the last minutiae.
I would even consider this to be expectable, pretty much just another aspect of option paralysis, but still, it's possibly food for thought. I mean, just by asking myself: How often did I actually explore the possibilities of the HX ecosystem's amps down to the last detail? As in checking all parameters, their interaction, using various cabs and mics, running them along with dirt boxes in front, etc. The answer is that I did that with perhaps just two amps (fwiw, the Princess and the L6 2204 Mod, which have been the ones I was using the most when I had the Floor). And not even all *that* thoroughly. It's probably not too clever not doing so for some of the others, because I certainly got a whole lot of mileage out of those I explored better (for the most obvious reasons of course).
As said, likely just another aspect of option paralysis.
I think Cordy and Leon Todd have made some videos exploring specific models. Maybe Cooper Carter as well. I agree it's not very common.

I think it's because you don't have to engage with all that. If you are not getting results you like from say the Helix Grammatico GSG, you can just put in a Litigator or any of the other models and see if that works for you. When you have a pedal that has one model (even one with as many options as the Enigmatic), you have a limitation you need to work with.
 
I think it's because you don't have to engage with all that. If you are not getting results you like from say the Helix Grammatico GSG, you can just put in a Litigator or any of the other models and see if that works for you. When you have a pedal that has one model (even one with as many options as the Enigmatic), you have a limitation you need to work with.

Oh sure. But you might still be missing out on quite some stuff because of that.
 
The included IRs are clearly well selected.

Such an important thing. And defenitely a great idea to have some professionally trained ears to do a preselection for you.
Out of interest, I just recorded a semi-driven open E chord and slapped each guitar cab of HX Native (using the factory defaults) onto it, then bounced a pretty short range, lined them up behind each other and listened. Observations (pretty obvious, but still):
- Some pretty huge differences.
- Some pretty small differences.
- Some absolutely unusable sounds.
- After just 5 minutes of dealing with it, I couldn't tell which sounds I prefered anymore.

And these are just 34 cabs with one setting for each.
 
Well, not really. With all the "alt" and app-only functionality, this is fundamentally different from how I'd treat an amp already.
Oh I’m on your side here but we all know what the industry is like. Someone’s job depends on stuff selling well, making a profit etc. Basically everything that is marketed to us is meant to make us think what we already have isn’t adequate and they can fix all our problems and THEN we’ll all become famous rock stars. The whole industry and thousands of people livelihoods depends on this, and all companies are part of it (at least to varying degrees). They have constraints to work under and eventually they have to draw a line under things and get them selling. If they don’t make sales and turn a good profit then nothing works. Sucks but it’s the nature of the game. We like to think some companies are the exception sometimes but that’s more on our perception than reality.
Because not everything is about milking the last drops out of whatever it might be. And yes, I'm serious. The world would be a much better place in case people wouldn't always do so.
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about UA's financial status, so it might as well be that they just need to do things as they do.
I don’t disagree either although things like mods, bias and even different input sockets aren’t really things I adjust much on an amp. I’m not saying UA’s implementation is good but I can SORT OF see their justification. Ultimately it either needs to be dumbed right down to the very essentials and make cut through design decisions, or the interface needs to be better. It’s in that fumbled not one nor the other stage that is bad.
 
It's weird to me that companies will not only allow their product in the wild without a proper demo by someone that actually understands the gear or has experience with the gear the product is emulating; they will actually encourage it by sending to a bunch of people that have no clue about the most common use cases.

Ultimately I think it's unfair to blame the guys doing the demos. If I made a Fuzz Face and sent it to Ola to do a demo it's on me if he doesn't pull off the typical Fuzz Face thing that's expected. (I'm 100% assuming he isn't familiar with this style of tone like he is with the metal stuff)

I think it's cool to have a couple of demos from guys learning on the spot, gives a different perspective. But before that I want to see it doing the regular stuff. About this one pedal in particular, I want to listen it doing the slide Lowell George/Landreth thing, the SSS Vaughan/EJ, the fusiony/blues lead Carlton/Ford. Add some big fat clean John Mayer style, a gainier thing like Bonamassa would be cool also. I want it see/hear the pedal doing those first and foremost. Maybe after that I could be ok watching some guy going over the knobs tweaking just to see what it does.

That said, the fact I didn't like any demos so far don't make me want the pedal any less. Owning the Dream and Lion, they are head and shoulders above the competition IMO. Having also tried other pedals from them, I have zero reason to think this one is going to be anything other than great sounding. Being a fan of the Dumble thing I'm getting one as soon as I can.
 
Last edited:
It's weird to me that companies will not only allow their product in the wild without a proper demo by someone that actually understands the great or has experience with the gear the product is emulating; they will actually encourage it by sending to a bunch of people that have no clue about the most common use cases.

Ultimately I think it's unfair to blame the guys doing the demos. If I made a Fuzz Face and sent it to Ola to do a demo it's on me if he doesn't pull off the typical Fuzz Face thing that's expected. (I'm 100% assuming he isn't familiar with this style of tone like he is with the metal stuff)

I think it's cool to have a couple of demos from guys learning on the spot, gives a different perspective. But before that I want to see it doing the regular stuff. About this one pedal in particular, I want to listen is doing the slide Lowell George/Landreth thing, the SSS Vaughan/EJ, the fusiony/blues lead Carlton/Ford. Add some big fat clean John Mayer style, a gainier thing like Bonamassa would be cool also. I want it see/hear the pedal doing those first and foremost. Maybe after that I could be ok watching some guy going over the knobs tweaking just to see what it does.

That said, the fact I didn't like any demos so far don't make me want the pedal any less. Owning the Dream and Lion, they are head and shoulders above the competition IMO. Having also tried other pedals from them, I have zero reason to think this is one is going to be anything other than great sounding. Being a fan of the Dumble thing I'm getting one as soon as I can.
Fwiw after ordering and seeing the vids my expectations were really lowered.
And I was tempted to cancel.

Good thing curiosity won out.

About the vids... You have guys that can't figure out that mid and deep on the alt function are like the bright cap function.
A switch on the amp and just like that aren't a sweep-able control.
Worst they're tone stack dependent.

Or the one that thinks ratio it's compression rather than just OD circuit output level. As in boost.

Another that has not idea what the FET input is and pronounces it Phet

But hey it is what it is
 
Such an important thing. And defenitely a great idea to have some professionally trained ears to do a preselection for you.
Out of interest, I just recorded a semi-driven open E chord and slapped each guitar cab of HX Native (using the factory defaults) onto it, then bounced a pretty short range, lined them up behind each other and listened. Observations (pretty obvious, but still):
- Some pretty huge differences.
- Some pretty small differences.
- Some absolutely unusable sounds.
- After just 5 minutes of dealing with it, I couldn't tell which sounds I prefered anymore.

And these are just 34 cabs with one setting for each.
Dialing in a speaker simulation can be an enormous impediment to making music. My method is to have a few IRs that I like and then stick to those. If I can't get a sound that I like with my set of known good IRs then I move on to another amp model or I put the guitar down and go do something else.
 
My method is to have a few IRs that I like and then stick to those.

Same here. For live, I haven't used anything else but 3 IRs during the last - what? - 6 years. When fooling around and recording at home, it's a bit different occasionally, but I usually stick to my live sounds there as well.
I still have around 37k (!) "active" IRs on my machine (active = converted to Space Designer presets so I can access them as quickly as possible), so every once in a while I'm sitting down and find a new mix or so. But the usual suspects hardly ever get replaced, it's really more like an exercise thing.
 
I’ve ignored most of the release demo videos because I know they won’t really answer my questions…

I really want a James Santiago video explaining the amp topology, what they found modeling it, and cool things to pull out of it.

The dumble stuff is just so different from everything else, and I’ve yet to find someone really explain it well, or at least in a way where I really feel like I understand the amps and how to get the most out of them.

None of the dumble models I’ve played did much for me until the GSG model and the Fractal model of their real dumble. Of those two I preferred the GSG. I’m still just fumbling around though and finding my own thing in it. I don’t really understand how to get the most out of what the amp topology offers.

D
 
Fwiw, triggered through this thread, I started exploring the HX' Grammatico GSG a bit more - and wow, what a fantastic model. Easily the most flexible model and lots of that flexibility is actually ending up in very useful sounds. Can sound tight, can sound flubby/bloomy, can be rock, can be jazz, can be funk, can be fusion, deals incredibly well with pedals, works fine through plenty of different cabs, you name it.
No idea why I didn't spend more time with it so far, but I guess that'll happen now.
 
A nice side by side comparison of the FM3 vs the Enigmatic.



I find these sorts of comparisons frustrating because it's a flawed setup if you put something in the loop of the one device (the FM3), because it now means that the UA pedal is going through an extra conversion :facepalm

He should have just recorded both into a DAW with levels matched as close as possible and then applied the IR.
 
I find these sorts of comparisons frustrating because it's a flawed setup if you put something in the loop of the one device (the FM3), because it now means that the UA pedal is going through an extra conversion :facepalm

He should have just recorded both into a DAW with levels matched as close as possible and then applied the IR.
I don't know if it's the conversion alone. The input impedance for the UA pedals is 500k, not the usual 1M. That alone will change the tone. It was the reason why I couldn't use my Sparkle Drive in the loop of the HX effects and why I avoid it on my HX Stomp because it needs the impedance change to sound "right".
 
Was checking out this video, and zoned out to work over Cordy's intro solos.

For my life, i didn't even realize he was switching devices.


I left the video playing in the background as I type this post and honestly I could not tell where the switches were or which was which.

This pretty much matches my experiences. If you do a good job at matching the tones and levels, and make the signal chain as reasonably close as you can, they sound so close that other features should matter more. I'd take a HX Stomp over the UA pedals any day because it does so much more in one box.

I find these sorts of comparisons frustrating because it's a flawed setup if you put something in the loop of the one device (the FM3), because it now means that the UA pedal is going through an extra conversion :facepalm

He should have just recorded both into a DAW with levels matched as close as possible and then applied the IR.
I don't think it's flawed at all, but instead minimizing variables and making switching and setting up much easier.

I haven't found that running e.g a "tube amp -> reactive load -> DAW -> VST plugin IR" vs "tube amp -> reactive load -> Fractal -> Fractal cab sim using the same IR" to produce any real difference in results.

If you record a DI track or loop of your performance with whichever unit you prefer, piping that DI through the pedal and modeler any "feel" is already out of the equation because you're no longer playing directly.
 
Back
Top