TC Electronic NDR1 Nova Drive Overdrive and Distortion Pedal

No longer available at zZounds
This overdrive and distortion pedal features an ananlog circuit with the convenience of digital controls, so you can tailor your vintage sound.

Guitarists everywhere, start your engines, because your tone is about to take a turn! Introducing Nova Drive, TC Electronic's dual engine, digitally controllable, true bypass overdrive/distortion pedal, that features the awesome analogue drive circuit ported from the acclaimed Nova System.

Nova Drive brings you the great sounding analog circuit from Nova System, with all the digital control that modern guitarists demand. The result: classic old school sound that ensures chills down your spine and a wide grin at every riff, lick and face-melter, but digital control options that enables you to integrate NovaDrive into your set-up and tailor the sound with total precision, resulting in more control, resulting in more confidence, and ultimately resulting in a better performance. Finally you have a place to create, store and recall all the distorted and overdriven sounds you could ever need: Nova Drive.

The Overdrive Section

The analogue, yet digitally controlled overdrive section of NovaDrive takes you from a clean boost plus a little extra oomph, through bluesy sting and smooth tube-like breakup to heavy, all-out crunch-a-licious goodness.

Nova Drive's overdrive section is also the perfect place to find added sustain for your existing sounds and to supercharge your already great sounds into instant classics. Its amazing analog tone will blow you and other tone purists away and though the overdrive is instantly recognizable, it doesn't mess with your original tone that you've read more spent so many hours creating, ensuring easy integration into your current sound.

The overdrive section features a dedicated 'mix' knob that allows you to mix in your original sound as you see fit, preserving the original character of your tone. The overdrive section of Nova Drive also features Level, Tone and Overdrive controls. Added to that, the pre-set and control options of Nova Drive ensure that you don't have to rebuild your set-up from scratch to use it, but a pedal that works to enhance your tone and rig. It integrates with your existing sounds so well, it's best described as adding another channel to your amp.

The Distortion Section

The dedicated analog, digitally controlled distortion section of NovaDrive's dual engine design gives you a wide range of distortion and tones from punchy subtle driving distortion to balls-to-the-wall screaming fuzz that'll drive you wild in the best way imaginable.

NovaDrive's distortion features a 2-band equalization section with Bass- and Treble knobs, allowing for precise shaping of your distorted sounds and added flexibility to your tones. NovaDrive's distortion character is best typified as raw, but like the overdrive section, it preserves all character of your own sound. Used as a primary distortion, it excels at classic arena rock rhythm tones and guitar-hero soaring leads.

Do you have a powerful amp with too much headroom to crank? Nova Drive nails that sweet spot where a tube amp goes from sparkly clean to warm overdrive, minus the earsplitting volume. Maybe you already love your rig's overdriven and distorted sound? In that case the Nova Drive distortion section is the perfect solution as a boost for solos, giving you all the extra kick you could ever need.

Flexibility

Both the overdrive and distortion in Nova Drive have gain ranges that will take you anywhere from creamy soulful blues to a 'chunky face-melter announcing the apocalypse' type distortion. Add the three different routing options when stacking the overdrive and distortion (OD > DIST - DIST > OD - Parallel) and Nova Drive is capable of delivering a very wide range of tones, arming you with awesome sounds wherever your creativity may take you.

Presets

So, what good is having a wide range of tones when you can only use one of them? That's right, no good at all! With 18 instantly recallable presets Nova Drive is the only pedal on the market that allows for actual use of all the different tones you have so meticulously crafted. Recalling them is easy and done on the fly so they are ready to rock when you are.

True bypass

Whether you go for the sound of the apocalypse or the sound of silence; Nova Drive is true bypass which means no sucking of your precious tone when the pedal is off.

MIDI

Nova Drive can be fully controlled via MIDI. It is possible to change presets, toggle the overdrive and distortion on/off, change routing and access all parameters in real-time with continuous controllers. This is made easy and straightforward, so even if you think Floyd Rose is Axl's younger brother, setting up Nova Drive to work in a midi-based setup is a breeze. This unique feature makes Nova Drive the perfect fit for any rack- or midi based setup - even those huge rigs you'd expect Batman to use if he played guitar.

Pimp your G-System

Nova Drive is the ultimate G-System accessory. A connected Nova Drive will automatically be discovered through plug-and-play technology. Once they are matched like Brangelina, you get full access to all Nova Drive parameters, preset select and routing from the G-System menu as if Nova Drive was an internal G-System effect. This even includes modifiers, making it possible to control the amount of distortion or overdrive in real-time using your G-System's expression pedal.

4 applications

Nova Drive can be used as a stand-alone pedal, with a G-Switch, in a rack setup or with a G-System. Whether you're a straightforward "less squawkin', more rockin'" -stompbox guy or into freaking around with hi-tech rack setups, Nova Drive is guaranteed to integrate perfectly into your existing rig, or that "I am SO getting that once I get me some cash" dream rig of the future.
read less

-Analog overdrive and distortion with digital control
-True Bypass
-MIDI
-2-band EQ
-Level, Tone, and Overdrive controls
-18 instantly recallable presets
-Full plug-and-play compatibility with G-System
-Inputs 1 x Instrument, 1 x MIDI
-Outputs 1 x 1/4"
-Power Supply Included:
*Yes
-Dimensions:
*Height 2.16"
*Depth 5.1"
*Width 5.1"
-Weight 1.68 lbs.
Manufacturer Part Number 960640011

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Web: https://www.tcelectronic.com/service.html

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars. (13 ratings)
Submitted June 17, 2011 by a customer from gmail.com

"Amazing sound and versatility in a powerhouse of a distortion/overdrive pedal!"

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Until it or I die (whichever comes first).

Sound
This pedal can produce such a variety of sounds that I will be playing with the combinations for many months to come. TC Electronics married overdrive with distortion into a pedal that allows you to choose which portion of the pedal drives into the other *and* the ability to drive both sides in parallel and mix it on the way to the amp. The parallel gain stacking provides a tone I have not heard before. I have been playing with it a couple hours now and it allows me to play distortion and overdrive from mild to heavy, smooth to grate your ears and everything in-between!

Features
Unit comes with a 12V adapter. Unfortunately, that complicates my wiring for my pedal board, but I understand why and am glad they included it with the unit. There is a richer sound to this pedal for overdrive and distortion that still allows individual notes and each note in a power chord to be heard. This appears to be due to the higher voltage the pedal is using

Ease of Use
Switching through the presets, setting my own and just all around playing with the options is drop dead simple: Turn some knobs, press some buttons and play. The presets and user modes allow me to find those settings lightening fast when switching between songs. Took me all of 30 seconds to dial in a Judas Priest sound and another 15 seconds to save it to a preset. I then spent read more another 30-45 seconds dialing in a Lynyrd Skynyrd setting and saved it to a preset in a few seconds. Discovered that some of the default presets already have a close approximation for AC/DC, Aerosmith and other 80's band sounds. That said, it was nothing for me to switch to the correct preset when I changed the song I was playing.

Quality
Upon opening the box, I noticed the unit is well packed and was not just loosely sitting in the box. The pedal was covered by a sealed plastic bag that had to be cut open. The pedal is unmarred and assembled well, with no loose parts. Construction appears to be fairly durable, like it was meant to hold up to a lunatic guitarist. The foot switches do not require much pressure and can be operated by finger press or foot. Pressing at an angle works, unlike some other foot switches that require a direct up and down movement.

Value
I believe this pedal is worth much more than what I purchased it for. It is hard to compare this to other pedals as there do not appear to be other pedals that can do the same things this pedal can. Prior to purchasing the Nova Drive, I was using a Lovepedal Distortion and a Hardwire Overdrive (both excellent pedals on their own). I am now planning and budgeting for my next Nova pedal purchase.

Manufacturer Support
I have not had to deal with TC Electronics for support on this pedal. I will say that their support is fairly helpful, as experienced with some of their other products and they were able to pinpoint the issue and help me find a resolution over the phone.

The Wow Factor
The Nova Drive is aesthetically pleasing to me. The layout of the buttons and knobs make it easy to use. The only downside would be the remaining pedals on my pedal board - they just don't match! Based on what I experienced with this pedal, I may just replace all of the other pedals with comparable ones from the Nova line.

Musical Background:
Hobbyist

Musical Style:
Classical, Rock, Jazz, Metal and Folk
read less
12 of 12 people (100%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!