bigchiefbc wrote:I'm sure a lot of you know this already, but I'll say it anyways. Most people think they perceive a volume drop when using tremolo. This is because tremolos are at unity volume at the top of their cycle, and at less than unity for the rest of the cycle. That means that on average, the volume of the signal is lower than unity. But it does not mean that the pedal is causing a volume drop; its just a trick of the ear based on our perception. Many boutique tremolos overcome this perception by boosting the signal afterwards, to bring the average volume level back up to unity (which means the peaks are actually boosted higher than unity).
That makes sense, and that's what I'd figured, but.. regardless if there's an actual volume drop or if the pedal is perceived as quieter to the player, an audience still would hear it as being quieter, no?
Honestly, I thought the Stereo Pulsar was a pretty fantastic tremolo pedal. It can do really, really crazy things. I just don't use it live 'cuz I'm a lead guitar player and I need that tiny bit of gain/volume boost that the tremolessence gives me. That, and most of the time I play live, I'm tap dancing on my stompboxes.
Now that I know that, I always buy effects that have their own volume control.
Hope I didn't come off like a douche. I really didn't mean to.
