Recording - July 2018 - 45

The third setting on side B is a JFET
boost circuit, a clean boost voiced from
the analog JFET front end. I like to call this
a 'more me' type of boost-a transparent
lift that helps drive the front end of your
amp that extra amount needed to let your
tone speak a little bit louder. Boosting the
Drive knob on this circuit thickens up the
signal and sounds very full and warm.

Riverside

The Riverside Multistage Drive features
the same hybrid combination of an
analog JFET front end with powerful
DSP. Its four cascading gain stages
provide an incredibly smooth and
natural-sounding tone. In addition to
its 3-band tone controls and standard
Drive and Level controls, there are
2-position Gain and Push switches.
The rear panel has input, output, 6 dB
boost switch and expression pedal inputs, and a Presence switch for brighter
top end. The Favorite stomp switch lets
you recall a particular setting of your
choice; if the Boost jack is connected to
another Strymon pedal's Favorite jack,
it can trigger both Favorites at once.
The Gain switch toggles between Low
and High gain channels. With all of the
EQ bands set flat, the Low gain channel
is really transparent, ranging from clean
boost to a medium overdrive. It emerges
from clean boost territory with a touch
of grit once the Drive knob approaches
the 10-12 o'clock range. It does a really
nice job of keeping the character of your
amp intact, while still fattening up the
tone and adding just a touch of drive-
it's a boost with a fair amount of bite.
With the Drive setting dimed, we arrive
in overdrive territory: harmonically rich,
while still retaining clarity, dripping with
vintage tube-amp saturation and a bit of
a looser bottom end. It's a very musically
inspiring tone for straightahead rock.
The High gain channel ranges from a
tight-sounding medium overdrive, all the
way into distortion. With the Drive all the
way down, it sounds just a touch dirtier
than the clean signal-very tight and transparent. Pushing up to the 12-1 o'clock
range gets us to roughly the same amount
of overdrive where the Low gain channel
maxes out, but with a much tighter bottom
end and a little bit less of the vintage tube
amp vibe. Pushing the Drive to the limits
creates an incredible amount of sustain

and saturation, very smooth and round.
It doesn't approach fuzz; it stays tight
and full, with tons of forgiveness for single-note lead lines, which makes it very
fun to play.
The Push switch toggles between Norm
and Mid, an aggressive mid bump just
after the JFET analog stage to push the
DSP stages harder and cut through any
mix. With all of the subsequent gain stages
getting pushed, it can send the pedal and
amp over the top for some extra gain.
A really unique feature of this pedal is
something Strymon calls "variable circuit
tuning", which is designed to keep the
circuit in the sweet spot across the entire
range of gain. This happens behind the
scenes as the Drive knob is adjusted, and
is accomplished by having gain stages in
the DSP domain. DSP wizardry aside, this
feature results in a huge sweet spot, creating extremely musical and detailed tones
with every incremental change of the Drive
knob. That feature is why this has been a
"do no wrong" kind of pedal for me-the
drive character and gain circuits sound full
of depth and detail from top to bottom.

Two great choices

Both of these pedals have unique
voices and accomplish different things.
With its diverse circuit arrangements
based on various topologies, the Sunset is amazingly versatile and its tonal
range is really flexible and inspiring,
easily replacing two overdrive pedals
on my board.
The Riverside is a lot of fun to play,
harmonically rich and dynamic. The EQ
is well-voiced for input tone shaping. The
sweet spot on that pedal is unlike any
other overdrive that I have ever used,
with an incredibly wide range of musical
tones available.
Both pedals are equally impressive
when it comes to responsiveness and
playability; the JFET input stage really
sets the Strymon overdrive pedals apart
from the rest, as the hybrid combination
achieves the best of analog and digital
capabilities. Strymon's introduction into
the overdrive world is most welcome!

PRICES: $299 each
MORE FROM: Strymon,
www.strymon.net
RECORDING July 2018

45
http://earthworksaudio.com/dm20 http://www.strymon.net
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