Experiences with TC Electronic Plethora X3 Effect Pedal and Synths?

I’m in the process of creating a small setup for traveling or outdoor jams and
came across the TC Electronic Plethora X3 multieffect pedal.

I would be interested to know what your experiences are with this device in connection with synthesizers?

it looks robustly installed and the abundance of effects/ concatenation options makes it very attractive.

The X5 is my sleeper dream effects device … naturally that means i won’t be sharing why, it allows me to make my special sauce and it effects devices like no other … it can have lots of character … and the killer feature is the control inputs and configuration options with Toneprint for setting it up a bit like an octatrack crossfader

There’s a lot to dislike about its Toneprint paradigm, and also with their failure to deliver on a promise to update it regularly and to bug fix in a timely manner (there’s still one affecting AlterEgo Tap tempo which reboots the device i got confirmed months ago)

I see it as a character delay/looper/verb and i like how deep it is - it’s possible to make it do much more creatively if you want, but it means setting up all the control/mash/switch inputs to do fun morphs to your taste

It does seem to clip a bit with hot synths so keep that in mind, it’s a bit too weighted to the guitar community and that’s why i think it’s not especially well put together by hi-tech-gear standards, it misses a few tricks that a different community may have pushed it towards, it feels a bit too simplified and convoluted where it comes to Toneprint editing which can be very frustrating

No ability to export presets, no ability to edit a preset you made on a different device, so if that old ipad you used to make them dies you are stuffed - lots of silly things which hamper it, but despite that i like and respond to its results, at least in terms of how i set up my toneprints

It’s something i am very happy to have despite some niggles, it takes me in directions i like and can’t do otherwise with usually just one synth/device or guitar, but it needs Toneprint editing to make the most of it for my particular wants

an X3 would just about suffice for most of my needs in terms of 3 effect blocks, but i like having the X5 for its extra potential/ports etc - waiting and waiting for TC to make good their promise to update and release their infinite ‘freeze’ pedal for it

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Thank you very much for your detailed info!

I almost think I’ll just try it out and then see how I can integrate it into my flow
and what sound quality the whole thing has.

It’s still a different price range than the Eventide H90 :slight_smile:

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