Empress Tremolo 2

Empress Tremolo 2

The Empress Tremolo 2 has an avid fan following. It came out well over 10 years ago, and has quite a few features built in.

The question is, are those features useful to you? That is something you'll need to evaluate and decide.

First lets go over the wave forms. The Tremolo 2 offers 3 different wave forms.

Triangle and Square are pretty self explanatory. Where things start to get cryptic is the tube setting.

The Manual defines "Tube" mode as "an asymetrical wave form modeled after Tube amp tremolo"

Well that's all well and good... Except that there were several types of Tremolo circuits in tube amplifiers. This seems to be a blanket statement meant to appeal to anyone who wants vintage Trem.

But rather than be cryptic, lets take a look at what it is exactly.

Tube Waveform at various Depth Settings

Now I've seen this basic type of wave form in only 1 other pedal, and that was the Boss MD-500 Modeling the optical Tremolo found in a Fender Twin. So I'm guessing they were going for something similar.

So we can see this mode has a smoother attack followed by a sharp drop off. So if you expect the Tube mode to be super deep and smooth, like "bias" modulated tremolo, you'll be disappointed. Triangle mode is the smoothest you are going to get on this pedal.

Triangle mode at various Depth Settings

 

 Square mode at Various Depth Settings

The square mode offers about equal on and off time in the cycle, and this cannot be adjusted.

I find the wave forms offered in the pedal to be a bit lacking. Especially the omission of any sine wave Tremolo.

The range on the Depth knob offers exactly what you expect and nothing you don't. 

There are several useful features under the hood that make this pedal pretty unique.

First, my favorite feature, is the "Break" feature. While the pedal is in knob mode, you can press and hold the tap switch and the Tremolo will start to slow down from the speed it is set with on the knob. 

You can also set ramping speed between presets so that when you change, you can choose to either have it abruptly start at the new speed, or control the time it takes to ramp up or down to whatever speed the selected preset is in.

My second favorite features on this pedal is the rhythm patterns you can select for your Tremolo. Pattern number 1 is simply regular Tremolo. Every beat is at the same volume level. Starting at Pattern 2, a certain beat in the cycle is emphasized. Below is a diagram from the manual, as well as a picture of the various pattern

You can also save and recall presets on the pedal. By default you can do 4 presets, but with a little tweaking in Advanced Configuration mode, you can up this to 8 if you need it. This is a big plus for those wanting to set and forget.

Pro's

  - Break Feature

  - Up to 8 Presets

  - Midi Control (Midi Clock, CC Messages, Program Change Messages etc...)

  - Output Volume Control

  - Rythmic Tremolo (Emphasizes Different Beats)

  - Tap Tempo with ration divisions

  - Lots of control options (Expression pedal, CV etc...)

  - Choice of buffered or True Bypass

  - 9v at 100 Ma (Not going to require a special power supply)

Con's 

  - Waveforms are lacking

I think the Empress packs a lot of features into a good sized package. It does some things that other Tremolos simply are not going to do. But then it also doesn't cover all the bases I want from a Tremolo pedal either. 

Make sure to evaluate the features and then decide how useful it will be in your particular case.