Roger Linn Design AdrenaLinn III

This is a review for the Soundtower editing software that you can get for the Adrenalinn. It should be required with every purchase, as it makes creating your own sounds on the Adrenalinn so much easier.

The software is laid out in an intuitive fashion, letting you program just about everything: amp type, drive, level, EQ, effect type, rate, depth, mix, delay, reverb, compression, plus a few twists.

The twists are that you can choose the order of your effects (well not exactly, you can only have one effect at a time, but you can arrange the order of your effect, compression, delay/reverb, and amp), you can remap what the footswitch to 54 different possibilities, virtually anything that you want to do, there's MIDI, but I don't do much with MIDI, and of course there's the sequence editor...

The sequence editor lets you reprogram your effect type and drum beats, and it's fairly intuitive as well, and of course you can listen to your beats or effects as you edit them. Best of all, you can adjust the volume of the drum machine. I found the drum machine to be a tad loud when running direct, and being able to turn it down helps me get more use out of it.

Lastly, you can obviously load presets from the Adrenalinn, edit them, save them to whatever patch you want, and even rename them.

This won't make your Adrenalinn sound any better, save for the fact that you can refine your settings much more accurately and help you get "that sound," whatever it is.

It's software. Keep your registration code handy, store it on an online email account or write it down. If it crashes or if you have computer problems or change computers, just download another copy. I believe you can only have it installed on one computer, though.

Like I said above, this should be a required purchase with every Adrenalinn for how easy it makes the unit to program. The only downside is that when you use the footswitch with the drive/fx setting, it goes from clean and dry to dirty and effect on. There are times when I want to go from a clean chorus sound to a distorted uneffected sound, so if I could change one thing, it would be the ability to do that.

You have to read the manual but i experience it as easy to use
The setup is very logical and if you do not use it for a while it is easy to get working with it again.
there is also the windows editor , this works better, but you have to buy it from soundtower for $ 39.95(which I did)

Th sound is incredible, I updated from the first version which I nearly sold.
But this thing now sounds so much better , I'm very happy that i did keep it.
The audio -quality has improved like there where new AD/DA converters in it
I have played over it with Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster ,also Gibon SG 61
The amp models sound great,better than the pod for me, its more alive
On this point they did a great programming-job
also the effects like Wah, Vibrato,Chorus ,Flanger are super
I using it at the moment in my home-studio but I also want to use it in my band which I haven't tried yet

No problems yet, have the first version, never gone broke

I have had some questions before which were normally quickly answered
Also are they very involved with there product

I play (already 25 years) mostly Alternative Rock/blues but this thing is for all kind of music.
All the amp models sound different, It would be nice if you could chain the drumpatterns to get more variation when you jam with it, but maybe in the next version
If I lost it I would buy it again (if I could spent the money for it at that moment )
I sold my GT-6 and also will sell my pod 2.0 because the adrenalinn 3
sounds better and more realistic in my opinion

Is great overdrive! I really surprise when play it on the first time.
Very easy to operate.
To rock' roll is most indicate.
The sound got a "fat" whit wight but don't lose the definition of notes on the chords. Very good!
The manual of instructions is simple and wrighted with a direct lenguage.

I play a Fender Telecaster with a good brazilian amplifier: Classic Cristalino from Meteoro Amplifier. A have a GT 2 Sams Amp, Micro Amp from MXR. On my next album I intend to try the RotorPhaser from T.Miranda too.

Never hade a oportunity to play with X3 direct on mixer, but a believe that a can't got my sound without that.
X3 gave me possibility to draw my own sound.

Is very easy to get support from T.Miranda. No problem.

I play on a rock'n roll band for 16 years. CASCADURA, my band, have 4 albuns released, and a professional career of much success on brazilian independent rock scene.
I find my sound when a got a X3! Never found too good and efficient overdrive efect. If I lose it or somebody steal me (God, protect me!), I buys it again. Is my sound!

This thing does a TON of stuff! FX processor, amp modeler, drum machine, filters, and crazy sounds. And it only has a few switches and knobs, so there definitely is a learning curve on getting used to this. But it's laid out well, and has some computer based editing stuff too. Older versions had 100 non-editable presets and the same 100 as editable. The new version simply has 200 presets, all editable, a much better choice, because nobody is going to build a sound from the ground up with this thing.

The manual is good too. There's a full manual and a separate guide that has all the presets in it. I use this mostly, because it helps me select a sound and go.

My only gripe is with the tuner. It uses the system LEDs, and there are six of them. With an even number of tuner LEDs, it's hard to know if you're in tune or not.

It's hard to rate it for ease of use because there is so much you can do, but I give it an 8.

Sound is pretty darn good. No noise. This version adds reverb and fuzz, which is nice. There are your models of classic amps, plus a few categories of effects: tremolo, flange, filter, and delay. It can do chorus and phase, but they're pretty much variations of flange. The effects all sound at least passable, except for the rotary speaker sim. If all you had to get a leslie sound was a flange pedal, that is what the leslie sim on this pedal would sound like. But I have never heard a digital multi-fx pedal with a good leslie sim.

Some multi-fx units don't sound good when running pedals in front of them or when plugged into guitar amps, but the Adrenalinn bucks that trend. It sounds good enough that I don't have to change settings on my pedalboard, the Andrenalinn, or my amp (a Fender pro Junior).

I use it with my Fender Pro Junior when I play out and need a drum machine, and direct into a sound system if I don't want to use an amp. Sounds good both ways.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the uniqueness of the sounds. You can get some pretty crazy sounds from tremolo, delay, filter, and other fx that sync with the drum machine but can also be programmed with their own unique sequences (think a phase sound that swells up and down to a reggae rhythm for example) to touch-sensitive flanging, stuff you simply cannot find on other pedals.

As for getting your favorite artists' sounds, both Green Day and John Mayer have used this unit for some of their songs, and their presets are loaded into the new pedal.

Seems pretty sturdy. The footswitches are surface-mount, so don't stomp the hell out of this unit, but as long as you take care of it at least a little bit, you'll be fine.

The knobs tend to fall off a bit too easily, that's my only problem.

Fantastic. I bought a used model I from Music Go Round and it crapped out on me. I emailed the manufacturer, and was surprised to get a response from Roger Linn himself! He answered all my questions and although I couldn't resuscitate the old pedal, he was so helpful that I decided to buy a brand new Adrenalinn III. With such a complex pedal, this level of customer support is appreciated.

Also, I ordered some stuff from Musician's Friend when they were changing warehouses, and the shipment got delayed. As an apology, they sent me a coupon for 20% off, which was nice when buying this pedal.

I play in a church praise band and lead worship at a prison. Sometimes I need to either run without an amp, and I need a drum machine. This pedal does it, but does so much more. I barely scratch the surface. Other multi-fx units have drum machines, but this one is the only one that syncs with the drum machine so your effects are always on time.

If I could change anything on it, I would either make the rotary sim better or just take that effect out, it just doesn't add anything. More importantly, I would redo the tuner so that it's easier to see if you're in tune.

I already replaced this unit once (buying a III after my I broke), so I would probably do it again if it were lost or stolen.

Its as easy as the others to get sounds out of. The manual is extensive and helps. Its laid out in a useful manner.

Great sound. Improved greatly from the II. Well worth the upgrade. It has a compressor and a reverb now. Amp sims are great, bpm synced modulation rocks. I have reprogrammed a bunch of the presets for my own taste, but they give you a bunch of good ones to work with. You can save over all the presets now, which is awesome. It also has great sounding drums and they are much more flexible now. I've been using Ableton Live to sequence drum patterns via midi. Truly amazing.

heck yeah, This thing is solid. I've had no issues since I installed the new chip.

Roger Linn's company is great. I recieved my chip during that week long swarm of rain storms in October and somehow my box became completely saturated in water. Every thing in my box was drenched. None of this was Roger Linn's fault, but his company treated me like royalty when I phoned them about my situation. They sent me new stuff, no questions asked. I felt much better having a chip that hadn't been swimming for the last few days and I guarantee I will support their products well into the future. Its good to see a company that values a customer. I did send the water damaged items back to them, so they could evaluate them. Thanks Roger Linn.

A great company with a great product. Nice to see both of those in the same place.

Much better and clearer than the older version. The reason for my review is to help you upgrade yourself from the earlier versions. I just did it and want to point out a few things. If you are upgrading an early one like mine with no phone jack, be careful. For other versions, be careful too. Take your time and dont rush because there is a chance you can mess up the pedal. The nuts on the inputs/outputs should be undone gently and when refitting, I think handtight is enough. They are plastic threads.
When removing the old label, make sure you clean off any residue. At point 8 on the guide, those screws can be really tight. Do not attempt to undo them if your screwdriver is the wrong size! The most sensitive part is stage 11. Use the tool very carefully and get the angle exactly as the instructions or you will be ripping the plastic base under the chip! Take it really slowly here to get the smaller chip out. Its a tight fit. When pushing home the new chip, dont press too hard and make sure your fingers are also pressing evenly from the underside of the board as you press home the chip to avoid bending it.

Excellent selection of sounds

Built well. This is an upgrade to version 3. get the point!!!

They are ok. i didnt like the early guide co-written by Linn and Anderton. I emailed for some advice but they never replied.

Overall, this pedal is unique and is irreplacable. Some dont appreciate it so you can pick them up cheap used. Its a different baby to a pod so comparisons are pointless.

The sound out of the box, pun intended, is well, quite astounding. The amp models are now at a whole new level. For those who have heard the A2, GNX, line6, Boss or Zoom of recent years, the Adrenalinn 3 is really is another level up in amp modeling...really. That combined with the unique effects on the box really make it special.

Many of the presets are great. Maybe too much drum volume and maybe some gain tweak here or there, but very very good

The Matrix is very self explainatory. The knobs are easy. The LCD screen clearly states the effect or amps through clever 3 letter abbreviations.

For those who have previously had an Adrenalinn 1 or 2 you already know the matrix changes slightly on the upgrades but the basic funcitonality remains very similar.

Manual is written very well by Roger Linn and Craig Anderton whose name some will recognize for his contribution to guitar electronic gadgets.

Perhaps if you are looking to sound like your favorite artist this might not be the right box although this can be clearly achieved.

What makes this unit so great is the originality of tones you can get. If you use it just to get your favorite amp sounds you will be in for a treat.

This is where I will say perfection has not been reached. There are few glitches in the programming but very small and RLD has always provided at least one firmware upgrade per verison of Adrenalinn to resolve these issues.

They are fantastic. Quick response and honest response.

I play classic rock, to jazz, to some country and a some electronic style. This covers it all. I always wished the A3 had a tuner, reverb and a compressor. The A3 adds all three! Maybe and individual distortion box might have been nice, but it does have a fuzz and octave fuzz.

Yes it ROCKS!!

I just got my cute little chips here yesterday in my corner of Europe (Switzerland). So here goes my honeymoon review (which I'll be posting on Harmony Central too) of an effect that I've enjoyed since version one:

First of all, thanks Roger and the team for sending it so quickly. Its very cool to have the reverb, compressor, lots of killer new amp models and so much more.

After going through all the presets last night (long night... Roger owes me a night of sleep ;) I am very impressed.

I agree with the previous posts saying that there was a bit too much reverb in the presets, but that's why you can adjust them right?

Proportions aside, the reverb and compressor are my favorite additions to this pedal. My previous guitar setup had a compressor in front of the adrenn and a reverb after it... Those are no longer needed. Plus its nice to be able to flip the comp and other effects before or after the amp in each preset. Try doing that with external hardware stuff!

That said, I would like a little more flexibility on the compressor (ratio, attack, etc?), and the reverb is really good but not overwhelming... The treble control after the reverb makes it very practical though. I still need to dig a little deeper cause I think there are several reverb types and I couldn't figure out how to change that without reading the manual (lazy musician). Regardless, it will certainly get a lot of use as the main (only?) reverb in my live guitar setup.

The noise gate is 100% better and much more transparent.

AMPS!! Wow, there is a lot of improvement here, especially in the domain of slightly saturated and clean tones (which seems lacking in the POD XT and many other simulators). I LOVE the fender and vox sims. I was also surprised to find myself spending a lot of time playing with the high gain amps (Soldano especially) which is not usually my thing. Very nice and usable for solos and chunky power chords. The new gain structure helps all of the amps (can use the comp volume to boost the input section or use the more ample post amp volume to make cleaner settings cut through better).

FILTERS and MOD effects: As always, this is the most innovative and amazing part of the adrenalinn. The new arpeggiator sequencing features make it more useful. The Panning effect is so nice and the extra pan control for the filters, etc. was so needed. I'm so glad they added this. I haven't used the wahs much yet since I didn't have my expression pedals setup, but from the looks of things they should be much more accessible than before. Even on the Adrenn II I was using the filter sweeps with my expression pedal in lieu of my external wah pedals... So the new wahs and assignability features should make this even better.

DRUMMERS read this part: One of the really cool features that my percussionist will like : Now it can be used as a midi sound module for the internal drum sounds (really hi-rez 32 bit samples - many drum machines are still on 16 bit CD quality level sound)! So you can just plug the midi drum trigger setup into my pedal and play some really huge sounds. I could see drummers being able to use the Adren III as a stand-alone solution to provide live midi clock, midi drum module and for interesting and easy to program rhythm loops.

For my band, it will also be a nice backup in case something goes wrong with ableton and we have to restart in concert... no downtime, we'd just play a song or two off of the adrenalinn sounds.

While I'm on the drums... its SOOOO nice to have separate controls for the drums distortion and reverb. Makes it a lot more usable and independent of the guitar setup.

Ok enough about the drum stuff... I'm a guitarist anyway!

I am a bit disappointed so far for the tuner. Too hard to read for live and not precise enough for studio work... maybe not useable. Plus it should have the option of muting the signal completely instead of sending the bypassed clean signal out. Oh well can't win them all.

While I'm complaining, I don't like the autowah and talk box effects... Nothing personal, since I never like these effects on ANY effects box - waste of space. At least I know which presets to save on top of :)

Bass Amps... AMAZING! I am totally amazed by these new sims... especially the Ampeg. It's a little early for me to say, but I think the Adrenalinn III's ampeg sim would be comparable to my previous studio experience with my bass player's SVT2 PRO and SVT4 PRO. Definitely more flexible. Of course you'd need a wall of speakers to get the same feel in concert, but the tone and saturation was very believable - even with my cheapo Jackson bass. The SWR and Acoustic sims are nice too... I think the Adrennalinn III would be a viable (ideal?) multi effects for many bass guitar players. Where else could you get killer bass amp sims with time synched tremolos, filters, and a drum machine to boot?

I have never used or needed a backup for my adrenalinn pedal...

Excellent, personal and professional support. 1/2 the times I've called I spoke with Roger Linn himself and I've always gotten prompt answers and solutions to my requests.

Ok this is getting a bit long, but the boys at Roger Linn Design packed a whole lot into this new version. If you haven't upgraded, do it! You won't regret it. If you don't have an adrenalinn yet, this it the time to get one... period.

I should have some samples up soon at : www.thealivewire.com (my band site with free mp3's and video, etc.)

I started off with the "original" AdrenLinn I, upgraded to II and now to the actual version III. And, using this little thing got very easy by now.

All parameters can be chosen via the 4 x 8 matrix. All "most needed" parameters can be controlled directly, but the deeper editing is not more difficult. Just two buttons to push and you are there. So editing sounds is easy and can be saved fast.

To make it more easier I use the editor from SoundTower, which makes all parameters more "visible".

Only reason why I give it a 9 is, that programming Drumbeats and Sequences get??s a little complex. But you have to remember, that you only got 4 buttons and 4 knobs. And for that it is made easy enough.

I mostly use singlecoil-guitars (Stratocaster, Godin LGX III, Tele) and all ampmodels react, as they should. They are clear, crisp and dynamic. They react to attack and volume-control and, yeah, behave like tubeamps. Version III is a great improvement in all ampmodels. Now you can get absolut clean and crunchy sounds and, if you wish, go for never ending sustain. But specially the clean settings are fantastic and realistic. Very fine thing is the "boost", which pushes the amps to overdrive/distorion. All off that was what I missed in the former versions. And now reverb/room and an compressor has been added.

The quality of the effects and especially the number of parameters to tweak them are great. And, what no other modeler would give you: They all are inspiring !!

Even the drums are more realistic than before and now can be distorted or tuned to lo-fi or routed to the effects, which is inspiring again.

At least all presets are well programmed. Usualy the amp-sounds drown within multieffects. Right now you can use a lot of settings right out of the box. Perhaps a little tweaking for your setup, and that??s it.

Can??t tell about the quality in front of an amp or an PA, as I mainly use it for recording. And for that it is the best tool you can get.

Ah, and all things can be controled via MIDI and all effects can be synched to the drums or external BPM. No more tremolo or flanger stepping out of the beat.

Heavy metal build. Seems to last for years.

Service is absolutly great. You allways will get respond from Roger and his team.

Nowadays I mostly play music for myself (married, two kids ;-))

Styles vary a lot (from Rock to Psychedelic, Soundscapes, Loops, ...). I used a lot of modelers before, but the AdrenaLinn III replaces them all (and some stomp-boxes, too).

So this little thing now has become my alltime favorit, because ...

... it has all the amps I like ...
... it has nearly all effects I usualy use ...
... it is absolutly inspiring !!!

The previous review from 8/6/07 gives an excellent overview of what this unit is and can do so I won't repeat the same information. I agree that the vast majority of the presets sound good as they are but the Adrenalinn III allows deep editing functions. This can be a little more complicated than a PodXT, as an example, but with the new software editor from Soundtower it looks like deep editing won't be too difficult.

I tried the Adenalinn III through a Marshall JCM 2000 half stack, a Roland Cube 60, as well as my PA system. I tried it with a Schecter C-1 Classic and Fender American Strat guitars and also an MTD 535 Bass running through the PA. In comparison to a PodXT or anything else I have ever tried the Adrenalinn III blows them right out of the park. All 40 amp models sound great. Most modelers sound good at low volumes but I cranked the Adrenalinn III up to large club volume and it was almost beyond words how much better the Adrenalinn III sounds than anything else I have ever tried. At high volumes the PodXT sounds very flat and two demensionable while the Adrenalinn III has harmonic overtones and a much more three demensionable sound. The Adrenalinn can also produce sounds that you haven't even imagined could exist in this universe. Not like cheesy useless sound effects that are usually thrown into other units but very musical sounds that are unlike anything you have ever heard. I upgraded from an Adenalinn II and it is a quantum leap in sound quality although I though the Adrenallinn II was pretty good also. Just not in the same league as the Adrenalinn III. Basically the sound quality went from very good to the greatest of the great. I would definitely encourage anyone to try one of these yourself and see what you think. Roger Linn Design has hit a home run with this one.

I bought one of the original Adrenalinn's and then upgraded to an Adrenalinn II and now the same unit to an Adrenalinn III. It's never given me any problems at all and I don't expect it to. It's made of metal and is built like a tank. The upgrade is really easy to do yourself. I did it in less than 15 minutes and I was taking my time.

I've never had to contact them but from what I've read it seems like support is really good.

I do all kinds of music but primarily Electronic, Rocktronica and Heavy Rock. The Adrenalinn definitely helps me come up with new ideas. You can use the guitar amps to just play straight guitar or the synced effects to create sounds you've never even imagined.