00:10so this here behind me is the chroma
00:11console from hologram
00:25Electronics it's basically a mix between
00:27a bunch of vintage recording gear sounds
00:42twist it's very colorful it's easy to
00:44use once you kind of get a good layout
00:46of it and it basically has Indie music
01:00now I'm going to give this thing a deep
01:02dive I'm going to go over everything it
01:03does show you what all the knobs and
01:04buttons do I'll demo the individual
01:07sounds as well as combining some of
01:09these sounds together we'll talk about
01:10the coolest thing it does the weakest
01:12thing it does its biggest features does
01:14it play well with other pedals what can
01:16you use it for and most importantly is
01:35now if you end up enjoying any part of
01:37this video make sure to like this and
01:39subscribe to my channel because I post
01:40all sorts of videos exactly like this
01:42one also I guess I should mention all
01:43the gear that I'll be using in this
01:45video so all the guitar and bass sounds
01:46you hear are going straight through this
01:48pedal now the bass sounds will just go
01:50right through my doll and I'll use
01:51digital amps and for my guitar I'll also
01:54use that but I will also be using uh my
01:56tube amp the sheriff 22 for these like
01:59the tunes that that I play throughout
02:00this video the drums you'll be hearing
02:01are straight from Prism tape it's
02:03basically an indie pop drum software
02:05from Ava music group I'm using these
02:07because the drums right off the bat
02:09sound like they've already been mixed
02:10and a part of all that processes so it
02:12just makes the whole tracks that I make
02:14sound so much better so much quicker so
02:16to start off I'm going to dive into all
02:18the knobs and buttons and just show you
02:20how it works but if you want to hear the
02:22sounds of it already or whatever else
02:24then I have time codes for you so you
02:25can feel free to jump around so at a
02:27first glance it can seem a little bit
02:29over helming but let's just break it
02:31down real quick so to start off we have
02:32four different modules and each module
02:35has five of its own unique effects now
02:37each of these models will go as a b c
02:39and d especially the buttons now when
02:41you press each button it'll go through
02:43each of these effects uh it's color
02:45coordinated so this means it's off now
02:48we're at Drive sweeten fuzz and all that
02:51now you can do that for each of these
02:53and they also have an amount knob so all
02:56the way off is you get no effect all the
02:59way up you get all the effect obviously
03:00and then Midway through you get some of
03:02the effect now each also has its own
03:04other adjustments now there's primary
03:06and secondary controls for these three
03:09uh the primary for character module is
03:12tilt uh the primary for movement is rate
03:15and the primary for diffusion is time
03:17now the secondary for a character is
03:19sensitivity secondary for uh movement is
03:22drift and the secondary for diffusion is
03:24also drift now for texture you do not
03:27have another adjustment but these are
03:29are very crazy and fun effects so you
03:32really don't need this anyway the amount
03:34knob is just enough and we have our mix
03:37or our output level I always just keep
03:39this at 100% I can see why you would
03:43maybe use this but if you want to get
03:45the full whole sound of the chroma
03:47console I leave that mix all the way up
03:49now real quick to get back into the
03:51buttons you can see we have a few
03:52different button menus here now the
03:54primary controls of each of these
03:56modules is just you automatically turn
03:58this and that's in the primary if you
04:00want to enter the secondary you just tap
04:02these two quickly it it sets up these
04:04different menus and then you can adjust
04:06and you can see down here what level of
04:09the sensitivity you want and then when
04:11you're done you just double tap these
04:12again now there's other things like
04:14gesture which I'll show you later you
04:15tap the end to and you can control that
04:18um if you want to get into the effect
04:20setup you do it that way and then if you
04:21want to get into presets it's these two
04:23but like I said I'll get more into that
04:25later we also have a tap foot switch
04:27this has tap Tempo something called
04:29capture which get into soon and it can
04:31also navigate through the presets these
04:33are just the indicator lights that
04:34communicate various functions menus and
04:37feature navigation of course we have a
04:39bypass foot switch uh obviously a bypass
04:42is a signal you can hold this down to
04:44access the user presets and then you can
04:46also navigate the presets now something
04:48that I was going to mention in the cool
04:49features but I'm just going to mention
04:50it now uh when you first get this pedal
04:52you can calibrate it to the guitar that
04:55you're using so different guitars have
04:57different pickups some have humbuckers
04:58some have mini humbuckers some have have
05:00uh single coils basically set your head
05:02room level uh from low medium high or
05:04very high uh so the automatic
05:06calibration will just pick up that level
05:08uh that the pedal deems the most
05:10appropriate for the input material it
05:12samples but of course you can also
05:14experiment with this and choose uh your
05:16own Headroom level and how you do that
05:18is just you hold down both of these foot
05:19switches now you'll hear all of these in
05:21a second but for the character module
05:23these are our drives our boosts our
05:25compressions fuzzes so Drive sweeten
05:27fuzz howl and swell as well for movement
05:30this is more of our modulations we have
05:32the double for like that double tracking
05:33sound of vibr phaser tremolo and Pitch
05:37diffusion is more of our reverbs and
05:39delays we have Cascade reels space uh
05:42collage and reverse and then texture
05:45which is just so fun we have filter
05:47squash cassette broken and interference
05:50now how we have this pedal set up is we
05:52have the drives going to the modulations
05:53the modulations going into the wet
05:56effects Reverb and delays and then that
05:57is going into the texture effects now
06:00the insane thing is like let's say we
06:01have phaser here we have drive here we
06:06have a Reverb which is space and then we
06:08have uh let's just say we have broken we
06:11can flip and mix match these in whatever
06:14way we want so when we go into that
06:15effect setup we can have the texture go
06:18first and then we'll have the drive and
06:22then we'll have the diffusion and then
06:23we'll get into movement and then this is
06:25our new signal and this can just we can
06:30get so deep into this and experiment
06:32with all these different sounds it's
06:33insane and I'll show you more of this in
06:35a second all right let's now jump into
06:36each of these individual sounds and I'll
06:38start with the character module so this
06:40is where I'm at for my clean
06:44tone first effect we have is uh
07:01so next we'll check out sweeten which is
07:12compressor honestly The Sweet Spot for
07:14me is like right around here I like to
07:16keep it a little extra warm
07:22too now jumping into
07:56all right now we're looking into
08:07how sort of like a mix between drive and
08:10fuzz you can get some really cool like
08:13Black Keys kind of like Blues tones with
08:28thing then moving on to the next we have
08:44swell basically what swell does is just
08:47once you strum a chord it slowly pans
08:52so now the secondary controls for the
08:55character module basically increase the
08:57sensitivity or decrease sensitivity um
09:00the further you have it up here the
09:02louder and more sensitive your drives
09:04and fuzzes are going to be so this is
09:06like for Max drives and things like that
09:09or if you don't want it that that strong
09:12these drives and fuzzes you bring it
09:13down a little bit and that's how you can
09:15adjust and you can see by the lights
09:17here this is where it'll start uh this
09:19is the standard it comes with the pedal
09:21right in the middle and then when it's
09:22all the way up you have the sensitivity
09:24cranked all right now moving on to the
09:26second module movement and we will start
09:37doubler next we have
09:48vibr so the rate increases the speed of
09:52the um vibr bring it all the way
10:03now this is getting kind of almost
10:06pitchy bring this all the way down you
10:09get no effects at all next we have
10:20cool it can get very very chewy when you
10:23crank the amount knob and bring the rate
10:30and it gets super wacky when we bring it
10:36up all right next we have
10:49tremolo basically Cuts in and out when
10:51the rate's all the way down and the
11:05full this is where I like to have it the
11:11best and then next we have
11:29that's normal this is down a little
11:42bit we're getting very eight bitty nion
11:45cat now for the secondary effects on the
11:48movement module we get a drift sort of
11:51effect and I will show you what that
11:53sounds like so let's jump into
11:59this is all the way up for
12:05drift and this is all the way
12:14down it basically makes it a little bit
12:18stuttery and then we're actually also on
12:23phaser so it pretty much does something
12:25similar uh to the rest of those effects
12:27in the movement module all right now
12:28next we have our defusion module here's
12:41tone that's our Cascade kind of delay
13:03this decreases our delay
13:18time super fun I got to stop cuz I'll
13:21keep going now next we have
13:25reals which is also like a delay
13:49all right now moving on to space which
14:04so this is just the mix of how much
14:08want this is less uh Reverb Trail
14:13time like a that's like a short hall or
14:17like short room and this is probably
14:43and now we're moving on to
15:15it's definitely much more sporadic than
15:17a basic delay and the final one of
15:19diffusion module we have
15:49now for the diffusion module it also has
15:51drift it does the pretty much the same
15:53thing as the uh movement and I guess we
15:55can listen to that and we'll use the uh
15:57reels setting for this
16:08so still makes it like it's more
16:12sputter more modulation kind kind of
16:16on very cool all right last but
16:19certainly not least the texture module
16:40it gives it almost sort of like a old
16:56FS now next we have squat
18:01this is just like crazy
18:08Madness then we have
18:12interference which is just more
18:17insane basically just breaks up similar
18:22Broken a little tremo it's like kind of
18:24in and out like you have broken your
18:26cables a little messed up
18:35so now I want to get into does it play
18:38well with other pedals now this pedal
18:39can sort of be compared to something
18:41like The stman Deco a lot of people ask
18:43where to put the Deco in their pedal
18:45chain because it does like eight
18:47different things there's modulation
18:49there's overdrive tape saturation tape
18:51delay there's flange chorus and all that
18:53now where you place that and the chroma
18:55console in your pedal board definitely
18:57matter and that all depends upon what
19:00you're mainly going to use it for so
19:02let's say that you're just going to use
19:03it for mainly modulations and then maybe
19:06you'll use it for like a slight
19:08compression here and there I would place
19:10that in your like modulation pedal
19:13section but make it the first one of
19:15that section now where it can start to
19:16get tricky is that let's say you want to
19:18use it for basically everything that it
19:20does and which you have every right to
19:22say that because it does all of these
19:24things very well when I recently played
19:26a gig I used it for the first time I was
19:27a little like I don't know where to
19:29place it but I ended up placing it so I
19:31had my tuner compression drive or boost
19:34pedal then the chroma console then I had
19:36The Deco my modulations and then my
19:39delays and reverbs now granted I'm also
19:41in like a rock band so like I'm not
19:43playing very ambient sort of stuff so
19:45I'm really not utilizing the reverbs and
19:47delays within the chroma console now
19:49personally I think the chroma console
19:50shines its best when you play it with
19:53other cleaner pedals when I started
19:55mixing in a few more Drive pedals and
19:58boost pedals and all that it didn't
20:01sound as great as it does by itself I
20:04would honestly maybe use like a boost to
20:06just enhance the tones that uh are
20:08coming from this pedal now we can
20:10completely scratch everything I just
20:11said and you can put this pedal wherever
20:13you want to really experiment with its
20:16sounds cuz after all this pedal is all
20:18about experimenting so at the end of the
20:20day you really have to figure out what
20:22sound that you want then you place your
20:24pedal accordingly if you have a bunch of
20:26other pedals which I'm assuming you do
20:28all right so now what I'm going to do is
20:29mix some of these effects together so
20:31you can hear them in unison of one
20:33another and I will show you the one that
20:35I use on one of these uh tracks in the
20:38mix of songs I did uh in this video I
20:41think I use a little bit of compression
20:44sweetness movement I went to phaser
20:48bring that rate all the way down amount
20:51right about one two o00 diffusion I used
20:57sound out there and then I
21:01used the cat the cassette for this
21:05too all right so here's my clean
21:26tone it's now this is the very tame
21:29andala thing uh that I was talking about
21:31earlier when I turn this off this just
21:33gives me like less of that compression
21:37gives this is much more
21:52clean now let's hear some Reverb uh
21:56tremolo and maybe some let's go
22:01how and then we're going to not use the
22:03texture let's see how this
22:32now what we'll do is we can get really
22:35really clean with some really crazy fun
22:39effects we'll just go to a vibr now
22:42we'll have the swell on character let's
22:45go about here I'm going to blast all of
22:51collage blast that then we'll go
22:56to let's go to cassette said
23:13again craziness is mainly coming from
23:16collage so I'll turn that off and this
23:22got all right now getting into the
23:24insane feature of switching these
23:27modules so how the module is it goes
23:28character movement diffusion texture
23:29that's the pedal pedal chain so now what
23:31we're going to do is swap these and I'm
23:33going to make something up real quick so
23:34this is what we have going in
23:42order now we're going to switch this all
23:45together so we're going to do this get
23:47into the effect set up we're going to
23:48have filter going first going into
23:50phaser then Reverb going into drive so
23:54this is what this now sounds
24:04it gets a lot more muddy because the
24:06drive is going uh after the Reverb which
24:09always gives you that like cool muddy
24:17mess now let's say we want a cleaner bit
24:20of that so we'll go back into the effect
24:21setup we'll still have filter go first
24:23we'll have still phaser going but now
24:25we're going to put the drive before the
24:27re and this is what we
24:40get I'll turn filter
24:46off it's not as of a washy mess with the
24:50drive before the Reverb
25:01so that's just another insanely cool
25:03feature and like I said you can there is
25:07so many effects and so many ways you can
25:09alter all this to get crazy sound so
25:11definitely can experiment with it so now
25:13I'm going to quickly go over some of the
25:14extra features that this thing has so
25:16the first one is a gesture function this
25:18basically allows you to record and loop
25:20knob movements of its primary controls
25:23so it literally picks up the mo knob
25:26movement so you don't have to adjust it
25:29get that cool effect that people
25:32actually want with their pedals but they
25:33would have to manually do now you don't
25:46have now another cool feature is
25:48something called capture this is a
25:49sustainer and Looper with up to 30
25:52seconds of recording time this can
25:54create droning pads or other musical
25:56phrases with the Press of of a single
26:40then if you want to exit out you just
26:41simply tap that again chroma console can
26:43also store up to 80 presets it's dual
26:46bypass it has expression control mapping
26:48it has tons of little changes in the
26:50global parameters or global settings for
26:52Peak functionality and all that stuff so
26:54whatever you're really into it can
26:56really handle a lot now now what I'm
26:57going to mainly use the chroma console
26:59for is for its insanely good sounding
27:03modulations and fuzzes and anything that
27:04will give you that psych Rock sound
27:06which I know is so obvious because this
27:08is what basically this pedal is kind of
27:09built around I shouldn't say built
27:11around it's just that a lot of Psych
27:12rock bands and artists they they want to
27:14use a lot of those vintage recording
27:16gear which is what this pedal is based
27:17off of I absolutely love the fuzz the
27:20delays the reals sound that it has on
27:23here a lot of it sounds are very tame
27:24and paaes especially his like first two
27:28records and that makes a lot of sense
27:29because Kevin Parker likeed to use an
27:31experiment with vintage Recording
27:33Technology gear whatever you want to say
27:35and if you love that sound then this
27:36pedal can mimic that extremely well now
27:39the one honest thing that I will say
27:40about this pedal is that I'm really not
27:42super into the Reverb so if you're
27:43getting this pedal because you think the
27:45Reverb will sound great just for the
27:46Reverb which I don't know why you would
27:47get this pedal just for the Reverb uh I
27:49I don't think it's for you but like I
27:51said you could like it it's just my
27:52personal preference so now I'll get into
27:54who is this pedal for and is it right
27:56for you so honestly when I do this part
27:58in all the gear demos I do I have like a
28:01specific person in mind for who that
28:05piece of gears for but this one is a
28:08little tough It's just so fun and
28:10experimental and I can see a lot of
28:12different people who like different
28:14genres of music really use this thing to
28:18its full potential for whatever they
28:19want to use it for now it's clearly
28:21centered around like that lowii Indie
28:24pop psych rock kind of vibe and if
28:26you're into that then this thing is 100%
28:29no doubt for you but if not there's
28:31still so much you can do with it as just
28:33a standard like rock player that like
28:35modern hip-hop like jazz kind of thing
28:38and just like a bunch of other genres
28:40within that sort of Realm it's very
28:42experimental so if that is your sort of
28:44vibe and you love to just mixmash
28:47different things and try get new sounds
28:49this is for you someone who loves just
28:51putting a bunch of different sounds
28:53together to try and form something
28:55really cool and neat and unique and and
28:58things like that the chroma console is a
29:00brilliant idea from the Giants over at
29:02hologram electronics and this is my
29:05first pedal from them so now I'm going
29:06to have to go back into their catalog
29:08and check out some of their other stuff
29:10that they have had it's insanely
29:11inspiring super fun to play and the $400
29:15price tag can be justified because of
29:17all the different effects this thing
29:19gives you and you can tweak all of them
29:21to just get an endless amount of sounds
29:24if you have the cash and you want
29:25something that's just very different
29:27from everything on the market that can
29:29seem pretty mundane at times then I
29:31definitely consider getting this so I
29:33will leave you with that so thanks as
29:34always for watching and I'll see you in