The AdrenaLinn: The Swiss Army Knife of Guitar Stomp Boxes - Page 2

For the guitarist who enjoys home recording, the AdrenaLinn could be a very welcome addition. Its effects could add a level of polish and sophistication to home recordings that would otherwise require a pretty fair chunk of change to replicate. Its sequencers and sweep patterns can make an ordinary chord sequence sound radically individual.

It's not too difficult to think of the AdrenaLinn as a drum machine with a digital modeling chip. Its drums sound very good, and have some great pre-set patterns (this unit was designed by the guy who gave us the Linn Drum Machine after all). For those who record on a hard disk, it would certainly be possible to make loops of these drums, and then paste them in when necessary when recording, for more flexibility. Otherwise, the drums are nice for practicing, or for a solo gig.

What Does It Sound Like?

A few weeks ago, the chips to upgrade my original AdrenaLinn unit built in mid-2002 arrived from Linn Design. Following their instructions, and using a screwdriver and a socket wrench, I installed them and powered the unit up.

I had been in the process of recording a new instrumental; I had laid down a variety of Sonic Foundry's Acid Loops, but only a few guitars. So I plugged my Les Paul Custom into the AdrenaLinn and started experimenting. I had planned to play some keyboard synths, but figured the AdrenaLinn would be more fun to experiment with it--and for me, playing guitar is much more fun than playing keys.

Listening to the finished instrumental, the bass string riff on the first two verses was run through the AdrenaLinn's "Cars Filter" patch, which recreates the familiar "bow-bow-bow" sound heard on many a Cars' song. The sequencer-sounding bits between the bass string riffs were just single chords held for a whole note, and played through the Sample & Hold patch. The solo on the second verse was run through the auto-wah patch. And that quiet, weeping-sounding guitar was the Les Paul processed with the AdrenaLinn's Guitar Synth patch.

Smoothing out the Learning Curve

While there are some fun new sounds in the AdrenaLinn II, perhaps the biggest improvement is a simplified interface, which greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to get a handle on the unit.

Previously, because the original version of the AdrenaLinn had so many settings, all controlled by four knobs and three buttons, programming the unit beyond those presets required somewhat of a steep learning curve.

Article Author: Ed Driscoll

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