So, tell me about the TC Nova System...

[napalmdeath]

How does it do up front, rather than the loop? How does the OD work as a boost? I'm looking for an all-in-one rather than 7 pedals. It's getting to be a pain!

Wanting to run in front of a Marshall JVM.

 

[hthomas]

IMO, the ODs and Distortion was awful. Everything else was nice. Typical great TC effects.

 

[GCDEF]

In general, I prefer all effects except reverb up front, so the Nova System works well for me. I think the OD and distortion both sound good. The Nova System has a separate button for boost, but you can raise the levels on the distortion to give you a boost if you want to do it that way. I'm very happy with it overall.

 

[shadow070]

When i had it i really enjoyed it. I liked it in the loop. Im sorry cant help you with the od part but the effects where really good.
I had it in the loop of my herbert. Id might buy one again soon.
The delays and reverb where really outstanding. I tried it in the front but i preffered in through the loop.

 

[6string40]

It's a great unit for the money. Aside from the overdrive/distortion, which I never used, all of the effects sound great and they're fairly simple to dial in. I used it primarily in the loop since I wasn't using the overdrive/distortion features.

One word of caution if you do buy one...either buy a new one or make sure the used one isn't from the first production year. They had a ton of chip problems with the early ones. I had one with the chip problems and after giving up on the unit, I eventually migrated back to it and bought another unit a year or so later once the issues were resolved.

So, for what it's worth, even after having the first unit fail on me during a live performance, I still thought it was a good enough product to eventually use it again.

 

[rcm78]

I use one in the loop of my ecstasy but all of my patches have the distortion block programmed in just in case my amp goes down.

I programmed everything going into the front end of a 5150 combo set clean. I like the distortion block, but didnt spend much time with the overdrive block. The boost feature is a bit of a rip off. The unit attenuates your signal, and when you hit the boost it gives it all back. I have mine set to 0db boost so theres no attenuation at all.

The delay, reverb, octave, detune, and phaser all serve me well. Not a big fan of the chorus or flanger block. They seem to pull the opposing signal way out of tune. I'm sure I can tweek it but I'm inpatient.

Pete Thorn has a really good video of his Nova System...

 

[Chris O]

I had one for about a month. It was a PITA to use, and you couldn't use the drives in front, and the effects in the loop the way you can with a Line 6 M13. The M13 is a superior unit IMO. Way easier to use as well.

 

[GCDEF]

I had a M-13 too. It was more flexible and had a wider variety of effects, but I don't think it sounded as good, and Line 6 has always proven itself unreliable to me. I don't see the Nova as difficult to use at all.

 

[napalmdeath]

I had a M-13 too. It was more flexible and had a wider variety of effects, but I don't think it sounded as good, and Line 6 has always proven itself unreliable to me. I don't see the Nova as difficult to use at all.

Haven't heard the Nova to be difficult, myself.

 

[billm408]

I use my Nova through the loop as well. The few times I tried it up front, I wasn't impressed with the OD, but it was just an experiment so I never spent time trying to dial it in.
I think it's easy to use. Very intuitive UI, lots of options and very transparent. My only issue is that it's a big footprint on my board for the few effects I actually use anymore so I may end up going back to pedals.

 

[bigdaddyd]

I love the distortion and boost. They are all analog and sound fantastic. They are not heavy metal, scooped death sounds, and are not meant to be. Go listen to Pete Thorn or Soren Anderson demo them. They sound great boosting or thickening my driven Rivera, or into the clean channel. I am not sure what kind of tone you guys are looking for, but they are giving me the exact tone I want, which is exactly what both Pete and Soren get. As a matter of fact, not only do I use the drive from the Nova System, I have an additional Nova Drive on my board as well.

 

[kasperjensen]

I love it... Aside from the fact that you can't use it in front and the loop at the same time, it's a great piece of kit. And it's the same effects as the G System.

 

[rcm78]

To be able to utilize the 4 cable method would be fantastic, but it would obviously kill the GSystem... I wonder why the G System has so many buffer/tone sucking issues and the Nova system has none...

 

[bigdaddyd]

The 4 cable method might be fantastic but this is a $399 unit jam packed with quality goodness that was not meant to be an end all unit. It is worth it's weight in gold. The Nova pedals at the time were $250 each. This was never meant to do everything. It provides a ton of flexibility for a rock bottom price. The G System has a lot more flexibility for much more money. They left out 4 cable method, wah wah...and focused on quality. I for one am glad they did. It sounds way better than anything else in the price point. I had 3 of the nova pedals at $250 each, and still bought the Nova System for simplicity sake since they were all built in ( and then some.)

 

[guitarobert]

I'm leaning towards the "it's too difficult to use" opinion. I've had a Nova System for about a year and am going to sell it and try a Line6 M9.

The Nova System isn't difficult to use but it's "too difficult" to use for what I want it to do. For me it comes down to one issue. It's that you have to navigate through multiple screens to access all controls for several effects. That sounds petty, but it's annoying especially when there are 3 or more screens to go through. You turn the knob to move through the screens, but periodically it advances too far and skips ahead 2 screens. You find yourself barely tweaking that knob to only advance 1 screen at a time. And besides , it's just annoying that you can't see all controls on a screen with a dedicated knob all at the same time.

I like how the M9 and M13 show all controls on the screen at once, with an active knob for each control. We'll see how the effects stack up. But honestly, I haven't found the effects to be that impressive on the Nova System. The distortions aren't great. I don't use them at all - then again, I won't use the Line6 distortions either. It will be in the loop. The mods didn't blow me away either. And the non-boutique delay pedals I have sound better and are easier to dial in than the delays on the Nova.

It's not exactly a difficult unit to use, but for me it's annoying enough to tweak that I'll try something else.

BTW, in the past I had a Boss ME series pedal. I still think that has the best layout of anything! Multieffects with a knob accessible for each selected effect at all times. Great! But the sound quality was awful. Avoid it.