I'm with you, have owned this pedal for probably 10-11 years and even though I own a few other excellent OD/distortion pedals, this puppy never leaves the board. In fact, I leave the OD side with all pots on at 12 o-clock all the time, no matter the guitar. Going into a super clean Highes and Kettner Tubermeister 18, it warms the sound into a musical character the Hughes drive section can never do.
Hey! Thx for the comment. Yeah this really is an outstanding pedal. So capable. You know, at one stage I think I was playing this pedal into a Tubemeister 18 too. They are fantastic amps. Maybe a little HiFi though. So I can totally see how this would help.
@@TheGuitarEffect I finally gave in, ordered and got the Nobel's Mini overdrive, something I've hankered for for ages. Doubt if I can go wrong with this baby.
Great minds think alike; my MIDI controlled, predominantly bass board is built around this and the line 6 M5 running in the loops of a Boss MS-3 and it's relatively compact but a total swiss army knife, and it didn't bankrupt me either. It's a great pedal for bass because of the parallel and dry blending options. The TS side adds a bit of nose and clarity, the RAT side is huge in parallel with some clean.
To be fair to the nova with it set with ts side pushing the rat side going into a fender pro junior with a sm57 mic’d into the pa gives a fairly convincing cranked Marshall sound (early van Halen sound ish) coming out of the pa with my strat with thr Gibson humbucker in the bridge!
It is never far from my pedal board. In fact, I used it today before I even knew about this video. I swap it with the TC Electronics Dark Matter and the EVH Overdrive often. Age is not a problem because it is newer than some of the best guitar tones ever created - 3 Yardbird guitarists and many other folks, in fact. Thanks for the video!
Hey Muchotone. Nice username. Thx for the comment. I was just using mine last night on a Boss ES8 board I use. With different presets per patch. It’s really a fantastic pedal. I sometimes run the dark matter too. Also very much an unsung hero!!!
Thx again. Really glad you like our music. Would really appreciate it to f you took a look and a listen to our band. We are at 90 subs and really wanna push for 100. We can get a custom URL at 100 which would make sharing ten channel Soooooo much easier. youtube.com/@kampalaband4938
I have a pedalboard with this piece included. I've had it since was new and have thought it was one of the best devices ever produced for said purpose. I bought the accompanying foot switch that allows 3 presets in each of the lettered banks. I have yet to exhaust the possibilities of this pedal. I have three solid body guitars I use and have been trying to decide how to set it up. I look forward to seeing the other videos on this topic. Thank you.
Hi Michael. Thanks for your comment. Regarding the three guitars do you mean setting up the pedal differently to work with each one? Regarding other videos about this pedal I have one up where I use it with MIDI controlled by the Line6 HX effects. You can see that here:czcams.com/video/ct3lTHK87GY/video.html
@Rob, great video, new sub here from Cork, the nice drive is a bit of a beast alright! I use it along with a es5 (my es8 shit the bed back in early 2020 and it was cheaper to buy an es5 rather than fix es8 😥😥😥) ! Loving all the content, another handy dual pedal is collider. They are getting hard enough to find now! I managed to pick one up for 170€ from France in mint condition! Took a long time to find it though after years of not pulling the trigger on different ones on adverts for years!
Hey Billy. Nice to meet you hope w are things down in the capital!!!! I’m a kildare man myself. I’m living the Nova drive but I must admit I am considering replacing it with the bogner Blue which I use on my smaller board. It’s just the best dirt box I’ve ever played for my style. I’ve seen the collider a good few times before looks class alright.
Great demonstration. I had to order one of these after that Vertex video. Mine is a bit noisy with the factory power supply at least, but it may be better with something like a Cioks. Still a great pedal. Found your channel looking up MS-3 stuff. I think I'm going to pick one up for my Nano+ board. I'll be using either Synergy or a DSL40CR for an amp so the MIDI control of the Boss unit will let me change between 4 amp channels. Gonna throw that Keeley Tone Bender thing on the board as well and call it a day I think, though the Nova Drive might fit there instead... Once again, real nice video. I'll check out the MIDI one also.
Hey man. Thx for the comment. I have no noise problems with the nova drive and I’m powering it off a one spot CS12. The MS3 is just an outstanding piece of kit. Though I’m not sure you’d fit it and the Keeley tone bender and a Nova Drive on a Nano plus. But you’d have everything you need there. It’s worth it for the current number functionally alone.
Hey man. I just saw that you siperthanked me £10. I didn’t even know I could be superthanked! Thx so much mate. Really appreciate that. First time it’s ever happened
It appears to be a feature of this pedal. I also own it second time now 😊 (now for the midi functionality which I didn’t use first time I owned it). The guy I bought it from had also owned one twice 😮
@@TheGuitarEffect I actually stumbled on your video because I was considering replacing the Novadrive with another midi enabled drive/distortion pedal. I like the functionality of the Novadrive but I have not been blown away by the sound. But as far as I could see the only alternative with similar full midi control would be the Strymon Sunset (which is pretty expensive) And seeing your video actually made me rethink that perhaps the Novadrive just hadn't had enough "love" - So I plan to rewatch you video in details with guitar and pedalboard in front of me and replicate your settings. And as I play a Tele too I hope I can "copy" some of your sounds
Hey Morten. So I still have my nova drive but I actually replaced on my board with the OD200 from Boss. It sounds excellent and has a lot of options on tap. I have a video on it and one where I’m using it with the HX Effects via MIDI. It’s brilliant in that setting. I had the sunset for a while. Made a demo of that too. It sounds really amazing but without being able to know what preset I was on I found the midi functionality pretty useless. So I moved it on. What are you trying to do with MIDI? It will influence which is best suited I reckon.
@@TheGuitarEffect I have watched your videos of both the Sunset and thes Boss. I like that Novad Drive is analogue - not that I can necessarily hear it, but my ecperience from modelling gear is that it gets to complicated to do adjustments on the fly (like in a room with different accoustics) and also that changes in-between "models" inside the modeller can be that "dramatic" that you risk someones hearing by pressing a wrong button. With analogue gear I find a more relieable connecting in-between turning knobs and the outcome - but perhaps I am just old fashioned ;-) But I gave the Nova Drive some more "love" yesterday and it was returned 🙂 I realised one can do a factory reset by holding down the Preset knob while powering the Nova Drive and it returned the 18 factory presets. Many of them are "more daring" than what I have tried to dial in myself and I had great fun al night playing with them Now I just need to select which ones to use for every song I play and get my Morningstar MC6 Pro recoded to match that selection. I am in general trying to go minimalistic so my gear chain is Nova Drive => Mooer 007 Preamp (it is digital I know, but I never turn any knobs on it ) => Plethora X3 => HOF Mini revewrb (always on) => Harley Benton GPA-100 (100W pedal board power amp). And then the Morningstar MC6 Pro that controlls the Nova Drive and the X3 with one song per bank in the controller, so I just shift bank and only thing I need to do during a song is to switch between rythm and lead sounds.
Hi Rob, great job!!!!!!!! I still have the Nova Drive and the TC Nova System. Don't you think that the distortion and overdrive of the Nova system are very similar to those of the Nova drive? Greetings and thank you very much from Spain.
Only thing missing for me is a 100hz or Tight knob. They should bring this back with that. My main drives have been a Buxom Boost and MXR M77 and can’t live without that control to tighten HB’s or fatten P90’s.
Hey Redbudd. I must admit while I can’t fault the sound or functionality of the Nova Drive I’d much prefer if it was a MIAB and a Klon circuit moreso than a rat and a tube screamer. But for those two sounds it’s really outstanding What genre are you playing and what amp are you using that you feel you need the high pass filter? You could just use an EQ pedal. If you are using midi with the nova tribe you could get the source audio midi EQ and control it with the same controller too
I’ll look into the eq, but I have eq’s and it’s not the same. Playing a 2204 converted Origin 20 thru a Mesa OS 4x12 or Egnater 2x12. Playing everything from The Hollies to Volbeat in a rock cover project. Also have a Peavey Ultra a B52 AT100 and a Kartakou Engl copy preamp. High pass filters work better for high gain amps that don’t need grit added (for me).
Interesting. I never get into high gain territory really so I really can’t offer any thoughts on the whole filter thing. Thx again for the comment. Appreciated.
@@TheGuitarEffect I imagine you’ve thought this through, and feel these two would gain-stage well with each other, not just that they are your two favorite drive characters independently
So yeah. I like the character of a Klon for pushed clean passages and I like the cleanup and amp like characters of MIAB pedals (the bogner blue in particular. I could use those for pretty much everything. Though I will say the nova Dri ace gets me 80% there as it is.
Hey. There are no analog drive pedals with midi switching that have a tube screamer and a Rat that I’m aware of but the Boss OD 200 Would be a good alternative
By the way, loved your work in the movie Gladiator. 😂
Yes I have heard that once or twice before. To be honest I’m fine with it!!!
Also worth mentioning (as you did at the end) - it has MIDI too, so you can control it from other devices. I use it with the TC Electronics G system.
Hey. Thx for the comment. Couldn’t agree more. Actually I made a video about the MIDI functionality.
czcams.com/video/ct3lTHK87GY/video.html
Oh my god, you haven't played around with routing!! You can get Overdrive + clean blend + Distorion all in parallel. Nothing beats that sound!!
Hey thanks for the comment. Sometimes I just don’t have the time to cover every feature but you’re right the position switch is very powerful
I'm with you, have owned this pedal for probably 10-11 years and even though I own a few other excellent OD/distortion pedals, this puppy never leaves the board. In fact, I leave the OD side with all pots on at 12 o-clock all the time, no matter the guitar. Going into a super clean Highes and Kettner Tubermeister 18, it warms the sound into a musical character the Hughes drive section can never do.
Hey! Thx for the comment. Yeah this really is an outstanding pedal. So capable. You know, at one stage I think I was playing this pedal into a Tubemeister 18 too. They are fantastic amps. Maybe a little HiFi though. So I can totally see how this would help.
@@TheGuitarEffect I finally gave in, ordered and got the Nobel's Mini overdrive, something I've hankered for for ages. Doubt if I can go wrong with this baby.
Great minds think alike; my MIDI controlled, predominantly bass board is built around this and the line 6 M5 running in the loops of a Boss MS-3 and it's relatively compact but a total swiss army knife, and it didn't bankrupt me either.
It's a great pedal for bass because of the parallel and dry blending options. The TS side adds a bit of nose and clarity, the RAT side is huge in parallel with some clean.
Hey John. Thx for the comment. Wow that’s very interesting. I hadn’t realized the paralell would help with bass. Must get my bass player to try it.
To be fair to the nova with it set with ts side pushing the rat side going into a fender pro junior with a sm57 mic’d into the pa gives a fairly convincing cranked Marshall sound (early van Halen sound ish) coming out of the pa with my strat with thr Gibson humbucker in the bridge!
Wow a pro Junior. I’ve heard great things but I couldn’t live with a 10” speaker.
Also I wouldn’t know a good Van Halen sound from a bad one I’m an alternative 90s kid myself!!
It is never far from my pedal board. In fact, I used it today before I even knew about this video. I swap it with the TC Electronics Dark Matter and the EVH Overdrive often. Age is not a problem because it is newer than some of the best guitar tones ever created - 3 Yardbird guitarists and many other folks, in fact. Thanks for the video!
Hey Muchotone. Nice username. Thx for the comment. I was just using mine last night on a Boss ES8 board I use. With different presets per patch. It’s really a fantastic pedal. I sometimes run the dark matter too. Also very much an unsung hero!!!
The rig doctor vid gave me the push to just get one of them!
Yeah I saw his video on MIDI drives alright. He’s a great creator. I like his stuff. Builds unreal boards too!!
Yr music sounded great ! I have this and the delay too.Although I do love the Boss OD's too.
You are an excellent player and host.Well Done !
Thx again. Really glad you like our music. Would really appreciate it to f you took a look and a listen to our band. We are at 90 subs and really wanna push for 100. We can get a custom URL at 100 which would make sharing ten channel Soooooo much easier.
youtube.com/@kampalaband4938
I have a pedalboard with this piece included. I've had it since was new and have thought it was one of the best devices ever produced for said purpose. I bought the accompanying foot switch that allows 3 presets in each of the lettered banks. I have yet to exhaust the possibilities of this pedal. I have three solid body guitars I use and have been trying to decide how to set it up. I look forward to seeing the other videos on this topic. Thank you.
Hi Michael. Thanks for your comment. Regarding the three guitars do you mean setting up the pedal differently to work with each one?
Regarding other videos about this pedal I have one up where I use it with MIDI controlled by the Line6 HX effects.
You can see that here:czcams.com/video/ct3lTHK87GY/video.html
@Rob, great video, new sub here from Cork, the nice drive is a bit of a beast alright! I use it along with a es5 (my es8 shit the bed back in early 2020 and it was cheaper to buy an es5 rather than fix es8 😥😥😥) ! Loving all the content, another handy dual pedal is collider. They are getting hard enough to find now! I managed to pick one up for 170€ from France in mint condition! Took a long time to find it though after years of not pulling the trigger on different ones on adverts for years!
Hey Billy. Nice to meet you hope w are things down in the capital!!!! I’m a kildare man myself. I’m living the Nova drive but I must admit I am considering replacing it with the bogner Blue which I use on my smaller board. It’s just the best dirt box I’ve ever played for my style.
I’ve seen the collider a good few times before looks class alright.
Great demonstration. I had to order one of these after that Vertex video. Mine is a bit noisy with the factory power supply at least, but it may be better with something like a Cioks. Still a great pedal.
Found your channel looking up MS-3 stuff. I think I'm going to pick one up for my Nano+ board. I'll be using either Synergy or a DSL40CR for an amp so the MIDI control of the Boss unit will let me change between 4 amp channels. Gonna throw that Keeley Tone Bender thing on the board as well and call it a day I think, though the Nova Drive might fit there instead...
Once again, real nice video. I'll check out the MIDI one also.
Hey man. Thx for the comment. I have no noise problems with the nova drive and I’m powering it off a one spot CS12. The MS3 is just an outstanding piece of kit. Though I’m not sure you’d fit it and the Keeley tone bender and a Nova Drive on a Nano plus. But you’d have everything you need there. It’s worth it for the current number functionally alone.
Thanks for all this great advice
Hey. Thx for the comment. Glad you find it useful. 👍
Hey man. I just saw that you siperthanked me £10. I didn’t even know I could be superthanked! Thx so much mate. Really appreciate that. First time it’s ever happened
Great combo of pedals there. Not sure I could get all the sound i need but it could sure cover some ground 👍
Yeah. I get you tube screamers are not entirely ideal. But the presets just make it soooo versatile. Thx as always for the comment mate.
I also had one back in 2010 and sold it years ago. Just bought it again. Lol
Hey. Thx for the comment. Yeah it keeps making its way back onto my board. Just a brilliant pedal.
@@TheGuitarEffect I’m gonna use it in conjunction with my Kemper stage
It appears to be a feature of this pedal. I also own it second time now 😊 (now for the midi functionality which I didn’t use first time I owned it).
The guy I bought it from had also owned one twice 😮
Hey Morten. Thx for the comment. Yeah it’s funny how people keep buying this, selling it and rebuying it. It’s a great pedal.
@@TheGuitarEffect I actually stumbled on your video because I was considering replacing the Novadrive with another midi enabled drive/distortion pedal. I like the functionality of the Novadrive but I have not been blown away by the sound. But as far as I could see the only alternative with similar full midi control would be the Strymon Sunset (which is pretty expensive)
And seeing your video actually made me rethink that perhaps the Novadrive just hadn't had enough "love" - So I plan to rewatch you video in details with guitar and pedalboard in front of me and replicate your settings. And as I play a Tele too I hope I can "copy" some of your sounds
Hey Morten. So I still have my nova drive but I actually replaced on my board with the OD200 from Boss. It sounds excellent and has a lot of options on tap. I have a video on it and one where I’m using it with the HX Effects via MIDI. It’s brilliant in that setting.
I had the sunset for a while. Made a demo of that too. It sounds really amazing but without being able to know what preset I was on I found the midi functionality pretty useless. So I moved it on.
What are you trying to do with MIDI? It will influence which is best suited I reckon.
@@TheGuitarEffect I have watched your videos of both the Sunset and thes Boss.
I like that Novad Drive is analogue - not that I can necessarily hear it, but my ecperience from modelling gear is that it gets to complicated to do adjustments on the fly (like in a room with different accoustics) and also that changes in-between "models" inside the modeller can be that "dramatic" that you risk someones hearing by pressing a wrong button.
With analogue gear I find a more relieable connecting in-between turning knobs and the outcome - but perhaps I am just old fashioned ;-)
But I gave the Nova Drive some more "love" yesterday and it was returned 🙂 I realised one can do a factory reset by holding down the Preset knob while powering the Nova Drive and it returned the 18 factory presets. Many of them are "more daring" than what I have tried to dial in myself and I had great fun al night playing with them
Now I just need to select which ones to use for every song I play and get my Morningstar MC6 Pro recoded to match that selection.
I am in general trying to go minimalistic so my gear chain is Nova Drive => Mooer 007 Preamp (it is digital I know, but I never turn any knobs on it ) => Plethora X3 => HOF Mini revewrb (always on) => Harley Benton GPA-100 (100W pedal board power amp). And then the Morningstar MC6 Pro that controlls the Nova Drive and the X3 with one song per bank in the controller, so I just shift bank and only thing I need to do during a song is to switch between rythm and lead sounds.
I would love to hear you demo an RJM Overture Overdrive!!
Hey. Thx for the comment. I think I saw that on a vertex video. Nice pedal. I do the boss OD200 recently. same idea. Very impressive
Hi Rob, great job!!!!!!!! I still have the Nova Drive and the TC Nova System. Don't you think that the distortion and overdrive of the Nova system are very similar to those of the Nova drive? Greetings and thank you very much from Spain.
Hey. Thx for the comment. Yeah I think they’re the same analog drive circuits. Such a great great pedal this. Love it.
@@TheGuitarEffect Thank you!!!!!!!!
Only thing missing for me is a 100hz or Tight knob. They should bring this back with that. My main drives have been a Buxom Boost and MXR M77 and can’t live without that control to tighten HB’s or fatten P90’s.
Hey Redbudd. I must admit while I can’t fault the sound or functionality of the Nova Drive I’d much prefer if it was a MIAB and a Klon circuit moreso than a rat and a tube screamer. But for those two sounds it’s really outstanding
What genre are you playing and what amp are you using that you feel you need the high pass filter? You could just use an EQ pedal. If you are using midi with the nova tribe you could get the source audio midi EQ and control it with the same controller too
I’ll look into the eq, but I have eq’s and it’s not the same. Playing a 2204 converted Origin 20 thru a Mesa OS 4x12 or Egnater 2x12. Playing everything from The Hollies to Volbeat in a rock cover project. Also have a Peavey Ultra a B52 AT100 and a Kartakou Engl copy preamp. High pass filters work better for high gain amps that don’t need grit added (for me).
Interesting. I never get into high gain territory really so I really can’t offer any thoughts on the whole filter thing. Thx again for the comment. Appreciated.
Nice demo and playing! Question: can you recall presets via Midi?
Hey. Thx for the comment. Yeah you can. There’s 18 presets that can each be recalled via a MIDI PC command
If you were designing a similar concept pedal, which two drive characters would you use?
Great question. A Klon and a guvnor/drivemaster kind of thing.
@@TheGuitarEffect I imagine you’ve thought this through, and feel these two would gain-stage well with each other, not just that they are your two favorite drive characters independently
So yeah. I like the character of a Klon for pushed clean passages and I like the cleanup and amp like characters of MIAB pedals (the bogner blue in particular. I could use those for pretty much everything. Though I will say the nova Dri ace gets me 80% there as it is.
Hi, I've been looking for this pedal but I think it's no longer in production, can you recommend a very similar pedal or a clone?
Hey. There are no analog drive pedals with midi switching that have a tube screamer and a Rat that I’m aware of but the Boss OD 200 Would be a good alternative
@@TheGuitarEffect ok thank you very much
The chase bliss brothers is a similar concept, different specific drive circuits
What other pedals of tc eletronics are like overdrive and distortion of nova drive?
Hey Acnof. Thx for the comment. The cinders is a tube screamer clone and the magus is a rat clone.
@@TheGuitarEffect Yes I have the cinders but I read that it is a clone of blues driver....Thank you
Sorry yes you are right. The El Cambo is the TS style drive
@@TheGuitarEffect The Grand Magus is not a rat clone. But the Magus Pro does have a lot in common with three different versions of the rat ;)
What power supply do you use
Hey. Thx for the comment. I use the truetone CS12