Saturday, September 17, 2022

BOOST- WALRUS AUDIO Emissary Parallel Boost ...the TS for TS haters

WALRUS AUDIO| EMISSARY PARALLEL BOOST 
$170.00 US
This little box of Tylenol has been around for 4 years. The biggest selling OD is the Tube Screamer. From the get go it was designed to be just a dirty boost. Guys were having SRV syndrome. Their Fender combo was just much too clean but if it wasn't they still needed  them left clean because they needed a cleanish sound to play all those chords accompanying the vocals. 
The Tube Screamer removed the lows and put a poke at around 1k in the upper mids that gave you cut and definition. The actual dirt part of the pedal was however symmetrical distortion only pushing the even order harmonics which is unnatural as the tube amp is all about asymmetrical distortion pusing all the harmonics. It was also a bit muddy sounding. 
Guys like SRV fixed that by cutting all the gain but boosting the level. He got basically a Boost pedal with a 1k poke and any muddy lows removed. 
Shortly after the ts came out many players discovered the Marshall stack which when cranked had the same problems, muddy lows and not enough poke. So everyone was happy with their ts. Well almost everyone, OK many were and are not.
The Walrus  boost simply takes the basic dirt out of the game and gives you that 1k boost. It also adds a lot of sparkle/presence to the highs. 
Part 2? Some guys are happy with their rig but like most of us some sparkle never hurts. They are however disappointed that their sound is bit thin. The 800Hz aka Mr. Fat comes to the rescue. 
Either way you won't need the tylenol any more, lol.
Yes on paper a good graphic EQ can solve much of this and give you many more shaping options, but it is not problem specific, easy to use or is even meant to kick in a bit nasty breakup like many boosters do. 
Then of course some guys are happy with their rig as is but when it is time for a solo they need to push that guitar up in the mix.
CONCLUSION
Many players will find even just a bit of boost hard to live without. Whether you use it as something to punch your way thru the band or even as an always on pedal to make their entire sound pop. Other boost brands often give you a fixed voice and as often as not use a good dose of these frequencies but I like the academic and honest tech here. In short your problem is in these two basic frequencies so ...here you go ...just fix it.
I picked 2 vids. The first is more of a DIY fix the problem. The second is a "I need to be heard!" "So stand back!" 



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