Roger Linn Design AdrenaLinn

Although some would have you think that that it takes a doctorate to operate this guitar effects processor, this is simply not the case. Once you spend a few moments reading the instructions which come with the unit (or from Roger Linn's webpage) one can use the Adrenalinn with ease. The matrix is relatively straightforward, although admittedly more complex than the two or three knobs most guitarists are used to having on their guitar pedals.

Many of the amp models sound pretty good, but I certainly notice a difference between the amp models and my tube amp. I typically use the bypass function and turn the pedal on for specific effects when I want them.

My Adrenalinn 3 actually had problems after about 6 months. Roger Linn's FAQ page online, however, indicated that some units were experiencing problems. After I contacted him telling him about my product failure, he quickly responded and mailed me upgraded chips which fixed this problem. I was very happy with the response time and the cordial interactions with Roger Linn.

I am confident in my product now that the chips have been upgraded.

Fantastic. Roger Linn personally emailed me within 24 hours of my contact with him. He mailed the replacement part the following day and I received them in a matter of days. All of our interactions were cordial.

This is an incredibly powerful tool. I consistently use it as a click track with my church's band, and often use an algorithm to add some nice texture to a song.

The Adrenalinn 3 is an inspirational music making tool which is much more powerful than I'm sure I even understand.

Like any multi-fx processor, it comes loaded with a bunch of presets, some of which are useful, and some of which are not. But that's where the similarities with other effects boxes stop. This unit comes with a built-in drum machine that can be edited for two measures (down to the 16th note) plus the filters and effects can also be edit in sync with the drum machine. Change the drum beat and your effects preset completely remaps itself to be in sync with the new drumbeat. This can change the most useless presets into something usable and vice versa.

Editing patches is next to impossible without some knowledge of filters and sequencers/synths or without a connection to a PC, save for the most basic of changes like adjusting volume levels or tempos. The manual is sufficient: if it were any bigger it would be overwhelming, if it were smaller it wouldn't be useful.

This is the first version with the headphone jack. One nice thing about the Adrenalinn line is that they are relatively easy to upgrade, just swap out chips.

I give it a 7 because if they made it easier to edit on the fly the pedal would be the size of a full pedalboard, but they do provide a way to edit via PC.

I don't know if I can get my favorite artists' sounds out of this box because it truly is like no other pedal. All the effects are at least passable, and the delay, chorus, talkbox, tremelo, and rotary are all good. The flange swooshes a little too much on the high end, but I bet I can edit that out. Some of the filters and autowahs are a bit odd, but those also can be tweaked to sound better, I just have to buckle down and learn how to edit. Plus there are a bunch of weird spaceship and old-school synth sounds that might not be useful but are cool.

The drum machine is cool. Lots and lots of usable sounds, even more useless ones. Some of the patches sound a bit fake, but I hear the upgrades have more sounds and more realistic ones.

I run a Fender Strat through a bunch of pedals into the Adrenalinn and out to a Fender Pro Junior. There is very little tone loss between my effects chain and running direct into the amp.

The sequenced effects sound better with open chords, no strumming, so the sequencer can handle the rhythm. So compression would be nice addition. Also, you can't get cool symth sounds without an octave effect, which is missing. But the upgrade chipset has better amp sims, better drum sims, compression, reverb, and an octave fuzz, so I will probably be doing the upgrade.

Seems pretty sturdy and dependable. Some of the knobs and buttons are a bit flimsy, but they're far away from the footswitches, so I am not worried.

I'd gig without a backup on this because I already have a board full of traditional pedals that would suffice for all but the weirdest sounds.

I've emailed their support line and gotten responses fairly quickly and they were helpful. The upgrade chips are readily available and seem easy enough to install.

I play mostly in a few different praise bands. I bought this so I could have an fx box with a drum machine. It will suffice for that and then some.

I already covered what I love about it and what I think it's missing, and the only other thing I wish it had was a tuner. The Adrenalinn III upgrade has almost all of those things.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably try and snag another Adnrenalinn I and upgrade.

There is a laerning curve here but it is not too bad considering the payoff.

I like the sounds this unit makes. I play through an amp and I sometimes go direct in to a pc for recording. It gives me more than I want.

no problems

N/A

With the complexity and usability of the many different sounds this unit combined with the drum beats, FX sequencing, and portable package, I love it.

This is one of the upgraded models with the headphone output. It is fairly complex to use, you really have to devote some time to experiment with it. This makes it enjoyable afterwards, as you have many parameters to play with. Getting 'normal' sounds (flanger, autopan, envelope follower, clean w/delay, amp modelling,...) out of it is quick and easy, though. The sequencer part can be a bit tedious, but i cannot see an alternative way of doing this except by having hardware controls for each seq step. The graphic with all the signal flow and modulation possibilities in the manual is very important, should be put in a separate card for quick reference.

I run it after several pedals (Line6 overdrive, zoom hyperlead, delay,...) and before a line6 reverb pedal, direct to board in stereo. Using Aria Pro II and Washburn guitars w/humbuckers. This unit sounds great. There's many sounds that can be useful in one setting or another. The sound is always interesting, and you can modulate it completely to suit your taste and needs. It is VERY powerful, there are many possibilities: just add the different filters, the possibility of sequencing, amp models, eq, envelope, delay, midi, tap tempo... Astonishing, and very well thought of. Many manufacturers charge a lot for just a couple of these features, and sound is not better (I had a particularly bad time recently with an EH flanger hoax, noisy as hell... being digital, the AL sounds a lot better and has an equally analog texture). You can have 3 different sounds at any given time for quick access in live situations (one selected preset, a variation when you press start and the sequence is triggered, one in bypass mode). The delay is kind of short, but useful. Pity that it doesn't include reverb, but there's only so much you can fit in in such a small package. It is not noisy direct to board (no signal on my desk when I am not playing). You can just turn it on and play for hours changing different parameters, and you can go from pristine clean sounds to totally whacked out sonic mayhem. Some amp models are very responsive to playing dynamics. And then, you also have the drumbeats. Overall, i am very impressed. An excellent unit, pretty unique. Through an amp, the unit loses part of its appeal, I highly recommend to run it direct to board.

Mine arrived with a faulty connector. However, I have used it live extensively with no problems. The pots tend to go crazy if you turn them too quickly, and the unit can freeze at start up occasionally (just unplug and plug again). Overall, it is such a magnificent sound that it really doesn't bother me much. Should have been less impressive, I would be pissed.

Friendly but a bit slow in responding.

I run an alternative band with two albums and a third one about to be released. I had used this unit at first and was daunted by the myriad of possibilities. Used it live a lot, sometimes just as foot controller for a sequencer. Then I went back to it recently and was impressed by how good it sounds, how much it has to offer, the uniqueness of sounds, the excellent design, how inspiring it can be. I love the customisation possibilities, how parameters interact with each other, the amount of useful sounds you can get. Would buy again. I think I could run a solo gig with this thing and some pedals. Recommended for those looking at amp modellers and multieffects units, if you plan to go direct to board. And sounds good with bass, too.

A lot of fiddling at first, but in the end: I had kind of the sounds and effects I wanted. Although the rhythm section is too simple too my taste. I often needed more sounds and 1/32 and 1/64 's.

Playing an vintage ibanez with dimarzio's I always had some nice sounds at hand. Not great, nice.

Well. To me it becam a bummer. After 8 months it broke down: dead, nothing. It was send back to the factory and it took about 3 months before I got it back in working order. 10 months later it again broke down, but now it's outside its guarantee. So, it is now dead forever.

Well as said before: quite slow (but heck: this is europe and thats a long way to travel ...). The second time we exchanged some email. Which went much faster (approx a week before an answer) and now: nothing.

Playing all kind of styles over 15 yr, this was a nice device. It had the sounds I needed. The sync of rhythm and effect sounded promissing but in the end it had to little to offer.

I would not buy it again for several reasons (sorry Roger).

Cuurently I'm using a PODxt with great pleasure. Hope it will stay alive :-)

The manual helps greatly, but very confusing. There are so many options. It is a powerful machine.

Effects are good, but the drum machine is excellent. I like the how the sound syncs to the durm beats. The guitar sound is a bit weak. But I made some changes to get the perfect sound. I first run Sansamp pedal through adrenalinn. On the adrenalinn, choose bypass as an amp, and wa-lah! The tones is completely awesome, and it syncs with the drum machine. A dream come true sound. My marshalls, Feders, and other various amps do not even come close to the warmth and the variety of sounds.

I thought about updrading to adrenalinn II, but it does not have the bypass mode, and I don't like the amp sound of adrenalinn. It sounds to artificial. The amp sound is completely awesome with Sansamp. Mr. Roger Linn, think about it, and get some ideas from Sansamp as to the amp sounds, but the effects and drum sounds are very good.

If the arenalinn had midi foot controller, it would be fantastic in live situations. For recording Samsamp and Adrenalinn is a winning combo. Sound like a couple thousand dollar equipments.

The thing is built like a tank.

Never had to call, so I can't comment.

Sansamp amp simulators and adrenalinn. Winning combo for guitar recording.

if you want to use this fx as should be you might understand some conncepts of filters, just tweaking knobs will dissapoint you in the search of new sounds.

i think it have the right texture for musical experiments, i also have a triaxis with a dynawatt and a mesa cabinet (the real stuff). not sound the same but they combine in a way i like so much.
besides the tonal texture of the adrenalinn could be the only one guitar sound if you play indie/pop, electronic or experimental tunes.

i use the adrenalinn live, i use and ABY box, using a "normal" guitar sound (amp, cabinet, mic, etc) and the adrenalinn conected as a keyboard direct to the mixer (it is when you can obtain the best adreanlinn sound)

now i'm upgrading to adrenalinn II and have to do a work that i not recommend to common people (you have to change two chips). but they offer the opportunity to upgrade to adrenalinn II

i've played from metal to progressive and now to electronic music. i own my home studio and i'm always looking for "recordable sounds". i've playing for 18 years (i'm 32). definetively if stolen buy again and again, it's a piece of gear that can't offer you the "normal" fx such flanger, chorus, etc. but can offer new sounds yo can't obtain in any other multi fx. the drum box sounds good, but i have to resample the adrenalinn sounds and use them in the redrum machine (with scream) in Reason to obtain a sound that could be the principal of my tunes. for looping patterns just the adrenalinn with the filters is great!!!! I assume adrenalinn II will have the improvements i expect for

Setting sounds is a bit of a pain, but do-able. It's a small unit with knobs for navigating around. It took me a while to figure out just how to by-passs the effects. Definitely need the manual, and an external midi pedal to control it would be a help. The Adrennalinn is what it is - a guitar gadget. Very cool sounds, but IMO more useful for generating sounds at home or for recording, not so useful for live use. In fact, totally unusable for live use for me. Too much monkeying around required. This is one of those pedals that distracts you from playing because you end up going through all the sounds listening to all the oddities, and next thing you know you're out of time and have to put the guitar down...but you never really *played*

I was surprised how good the amp models and distortion-type sounds are. Much better than Roland's COSM-based models (I own three units that include COSM). The quality of the effects is good too. Lots of way wacky sounds in this box, and the sync feature is outstanding. The drums sounds aren't that good to my ear, but I only tried them through a guitar amp which is less than ideal.

Seems solid. Never broke, but I never used it hard.

Never used. don't know.

I like the box, but you have to be aware of what it is. It's a noise-maker that can do some phenominal things. I would not attempt to use this as a substiture for some basic effects pedals, or even for a multi-effects unit. Even though I think it's a high quality pedal and sounds good, I sold mine because when I used it I got away from actually playing the guitar and ended up playing the effects box.

With a quick review of the manual, understanding whats what is pretty easy. Given the size, only a few controls are offered, so navigation is a little taxing. EQ does affect the sound, but not very traditional. Compared to other units, there are no lights or 'names' for quick reference to what you are using - you have to remember what preset # is what.
With all of the downsides to its size, its fits my rack desk perfectly, and can be easily mounted to a pedal board.

I'm rating this strictly as a direct recording unit for guitar - I use several different guitars into a Zoom hard disc recorder(with some decent effects of its own) and listen back thru a powered monitor system.
For those who have tried everything else 'direct' - I highly recommend trying this unit - and don't settle on the factory presets (cool for some effects, but doesn't do the models justice).
I wish the EQ was a little more intuitive, and had a little more range, but otherwise I'm very impressed. I have, or have had the Line 6, Behringer, Zoom, Vox, Digitech, H&K Tubeman, ADA spkr em. etc. - in fact I've been in GAS mode for a while, and may finally be done after finding this unit.
Most of the others are better and virtually interchangable for a heavy 'Boogie' tone (the Vox bests out some in other areas, but running a tube preamp in front of the others can yeild similar qualities), as well as a Roland JC(although I understand the II has a good one), but as far as a Fender, Marshall, Vox(good on the Tonelab too)and any old-school or blues/rock sound go - I find that the Adrenalinn direct is heads above better than any 'direct' combination I have tried - and I've tried too many. In fact its the only unit that I haven't felt the need to use a tube preamp with. The 'console preamp' is also the best 'model' I've heard - great for acoustic, but I still prefer a real tube preamp for most applications (haven't tried a bass yet).
Overall, the models direct are very believable, and are unlike any other unit I've tried.

Still new to me, but have no reason to doubts its quality - 2 year warranty with online registration.

I like the website, and am considering the direct upgrade.

As far as getting a good 'old-school' tone direct to disc, I've not come close with any other combination, let alone a stand alone unit.
Speaking strictly on 'tone' - if you're into strictly metal or Jazz, - this unit is probably not for you - but if you've had trouble finding that 'sound' going direct, or are looking to expand you library of sounds, chances are this is unlike anything else you've tried.

The learning curve isn't as deep as some people say, but it's not as simple as a delay pedal. If all you want to do is hear the presets, just hit Start, and you're set. After that, you'll only get so far twisting knobs, unless you read the manual. It helps if you've ever programmed a synth with a modulation matrix.

You'll want some kind of Midi footswitch to send program change commands, unless you want to stop and lean over every time you want to change presets. If you already have an effects rig with a Midi out, you should be able to send program change commands from from your other Midi gear.

The manual is pretty good, but considering that Craig Anderton helped write it, pretty good isn't what I expected. There's no Midi Implementation Chart and no spec sheet. There are some slightly grainy screenshots of SoundDiver's editors for the drumkits and sequencer, but not a lot of progamming help.

My AdrenaLinn is one of the first batch, with no upgrades, no headphone out.

My main guitars are all mahogany planks, with humbuckers. Although I'm a fiend for effects and signal processors, I tend to use the AdrenaLinn by itself, or with a delay/looper after it. For some reason, the AdrenaLinn does not always play well with others. It sounds kind of harsh if you're using another device with a pre-amp, or amp modeler, like POD, or any of the current Boss/Digitech/Korg/Zoom all-in-one pedalboards. It also seems to like a really clean amp, like a PA or a keyboard amp, for output; plugging the AdrenaLinn's outputs into the return jacks of an amp's effects loop, as one reviewer suggested, is probably a good workaround. I also use it in the EXT OD loop of my Boss GT-3.

The delay effect is nothing amazing, but it's a nice addition.

You can get rid of the drum sound by dialing up drumbeat #99. That should be on the first page of the manual.

The AdrenaLinn's amp models are pretty limited, not bad, just limited. It's more like an early SansAmp, than a full-bore amp modeler. I tend to use the Clean setting (#12), or turn the AdrenaLinn's amp modeler Off.

You can use the AdrenaLinn for simple chorus and flanger effects, but why? The Filter section is the heart of this box, and when you kick in the sequencer, the AdrenaLinn is like a new instrument. I know, lots of effects boxes have made that claim, but the AdrenaLinn really is different. Dial up one of the sequenced flanger effects, and hit a chord, any chord; if you're not impressed, you don't need this box.

None of my favorite artists use this box, as far as I know. I heard John Mayer using one on SNL, and thought it was an amazing sound.

It's plastic, which always makes me nervous, but I can't afford a backup. I'll have to see.

I play electronic music, with the guitar as my main instrument; it's not Techno, nor is it really Trance music. Think King Crimson meets the Residents, with Mickey Hart sitting in. I've been playing since the dawn of Surf music, before BBD's. I love things that twist and tweak my sound, and I can always use another weird filter. The AdrenaLinn is like nothing else made for guitarists. You'll either think it's one of the coolest things you've ever heard, or you'll wonder why anyone even built it.

If something happened to my AdrenaLinn, I'd have to think about buying another one, because nothing else sounds like it. I love the filter and sequencer, I've been able to have some fun with the drumbeats, and I can live without the amp models; there's nothing about this box that I hate. The only comparison I made was between the price of the original AdrenaLinn, and the new, improved price of the AdrenaLinn II; I'm happy with my choice.