TC Electronic NDR-1 Nova Drive

So easy to use, it wonderful. I took it to a jam session hours after opening the box, and I played the whole night with just minor tone adjustments to the default settings. Plug 'n' Play!

Compared to the confusing Nova Modulator, this thing is a revelation. This time, they got it right: the two switches become up/down switches in preset mode, exactly as they should. But I think most people will just leave this thing in "Toggle" mode, which works like most dual-channel amps. Lovely.

Simply put: this is THE BEST distortion pedal I have EVER heard. Period. This sounds, to me, exactly what overdrive and distortion should sound like!

I've struggled to find the right sound since returning to live playing, trying the distortion on my Dual Rectifier, Tube Screamer, Boss Dyna Drive...all disappointing. But I plugged this in and just loved it right away. I can hear all my parts and the distortion just sounds warm with a nice midrange bump that gives it a "classic" sort of tone, but with the balls of today. Overdrive is creamy; spongier at high settings, and the distortion is just really smooth yet heavy; very good for leads. Exquisite.

And boy, is it QUIET. Compared to the BOSS I was using, night and day. I challenge anyone to find a distortion pedal this quiet! This is a real pro piece of gear, and I think it's destined to become a classic. Or maybe it'll just be my little secret. ;-)

The TC Nova stuff is tough, highest-quality biuld. The pedal has a good heft to it, feels solid and can probably take a few licks. I don't foresee any problems with it.

Switching channels and presets has been smooth and flawless. The metal switches are durable but not stodgy and noisy like cheaper pedals; you can switch them with your bare/socked feet without discomfort.

What can I say? I doubt I'll ever talk to these guys about this pedal, other than to call them up and bless them for making this it!

I play a very wide range of music, but mostly alternative pop-rock. I always play with a bit of overdrive, even on clean sounds and ride the volume knob a lot, blues-style. But I like to use my BOSS Compression-Sustainer a lot, and it's great that this pedal ads no noise to the signal!

This pedal is a perfect fit for almost anyone. If you're having a hard time finding a distortion solution, I would urge you to try this out. It's been a very liberating experience, and I actually couldn't sleep tonight because I wanted to hear this pedal again! I know, it's sad...

Like I said: a classic in the making. TC really knocked it out of the park with this one!

I find it easy to use, and program. If you have ever programmed anything, you won't have any trouble with this unit, and the manual is pretty good also. The pedal has two sides, one for overdrive, and one for distortion. There are different modes you can select, but I find it best to use the 'Manual' mode, program both sides the way I want them, and then simply store that in a numbered location. You can repeat that process storing different settings to match different sounds you want, and store up to 18 user patches. You can also just leave it in Manual mode and use those settings in addition to any other patches you program.

I mainly use Strat Plus guitars, along with a Les Paul Special with hot P-90s. Amps vary from a Mesa Nomad to a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I find the pedal is very quiet except for the most extreme high gain settings on the Distortion side. Much quieter than most pedals I have used in the past. I love the sounds I can get from this pedal. Both sides allow a lot of the natural tone of my guitars to come through in addition to the overdrive/distortion sounds. The Overdrive side has a Mix control, that lets you blend the effect with the straight tone, as much or as little as you like. Very cool. The Distortion side has both Bass and Treble controls to dial in the tone you want. Most other pedals I have used suck the tone and especially the low end out of your sound with the pedal on. This unit is the best I have found in being able to maintain a great tone while using the effects. I really like and use both the overdrive and distortion settings. I don't know how to describe the sound quality of this pedal other than to say it just sounds GOOD, and you know it when you hear it. The only problem I found is that the pedal can make a slight 'click' sound when turning the patch selector knob, but only on certain patches. Not loud enough though, to be a concern, but I thought I should mention it.

It is heavy duty and solidly built, and sits on my pedal board. No problems so far, but since it is heavier than most pedals, make sure you have it securely velcroed/attached to your pedal board and it should be fine. The only small concern would be that the patch selector knob is fairly close to the Distortion footswitch button.

So far have not had to use customer service, so I can't rate this one.

I play mainly 50s -60's up to 80's music, and this pedal gives me the sounds I need for all types of music. Very flexible and if you are a tweaker like I am, you will love the ability to program in a bunch of your own favorite sounds. I usually use the 'Toggle' mode, where you if you are currently on the Overdrive sound, and then step on the Distortion footswitch, it will toggle off the OD, and give you the Distortion sound. You can go back and forth like that, or bypass with one touch. My normal way to use this is to have the Overdrive on most of the time with a clean or slightly overdriven amp, and then hit the Distortion button for a hotter lead tone. Again, I love the sounds I get from this pedal. You name the OD or Distortion pedals out there and I have problably used them all, from Tube Screamers, to Fulldrives, to BOSS pedals and so on. To my ears, this pedal sounds as good or better than anything out there, and couple that with the ability to have multiple pedals in one unit, AND the digital programming functions and it just does everything you want a pedal to do and more. If this were ever stolen, I would buy another one in a heartbeat. I am surprised there are so few reviews so far, I guess it is fairly new on the market, but this pedal has rocked my world and let me replace two other pedals on my pedal board. I highly recommend it.

It's pretty easy to use. Overdrive has basic controls for overdrive, tone, level and mix. Distortion has controls for distortion, level, bass and treble. You can also choose order of these two effects with "switch mode" -knob. There are three options: Dist->Drive, Drive->Dist. and parallel.

You can save up to 18 presets and change them by stepping the pedal or use the pedal like basic distortion pedal by stepping effects on or off.

My setup is: Hand made Stratocaster with Duncan classic stack pickups-->Boss tuner-->Diamond compressor-->Crunch box-->Nova Drive->Marshall Silver Jubilee jcm2554 amp-->Matamp 2x12 semi-open back cabinet loaded with Celestion V30 speakers. In the amp's effect loop I use: MXR Micro amp for boosting volume, EHX Small Clone Chorus, TC Electronic Vintage delay.

I'm comparing this pedal to MI Audio Crunch Box and Marshall silver jubilee jcm 2554's amp distortion.

On their own, both distortion and overdrive in this unit are too weak for my tastes. I mean, when you put them in front of a clean amp, they just sound harsh and cheap. But when you put them in front of a cranked or already distorted tube amp this pedal comes alive! That's the way I always use these pedals: Take the overdrive/distortion from a good tube amp and push it with a pedal to get that punch and crunch.

The distortion side is my favourite and will take the place of the Crunch Box in my pedalboard. When I put it in front of my slightly distorted Marshall it sounds a lot of those fat 80'-90's distortions a'la Steve Lukather, Gary Moore and with less distortion you can find those GNR and AC/DC sounds aswell. Bass and Treble knobs are very effective. I usually set them both 12:30 and they make huge different comparing to the zero setting when they are at 12:00 o'clock.
Distortion side is good for rock and heavy rhythm guitar parts and some dirty guitar solos/riffs. Comparing to my Marshall amp's distortion this is very similar type of distortion with same kind of voicing and crunch. Marshall is of course more natural and so on.

Overdrive is not so spectacular. Alone with my slightly distorted amp it can do some Clapton and other "vintage" blues stuff. But I just like my amp's overdrive much more than pedal's.

When you use distortion and overdrive together this thing really shines and also the overdrive side comes very useful.
When using it in overdrive into distortion -mode you get those fat and juicy solo sounds a'la Gary Moore and others. It's great for classic and modern rock. Hardest stuff I play is TOTO and GNR style stuff so I can't say how this pedal works in some serious heavy metal riffs. Also this mode is very similar to a MI Audio Crunch box's -tone. I think Crunch box has less treble and a bit muddy low-mids comparing to Nova Drive. Nova Drive has wider range of usable tones, so it never gets harsh or muddy. Amount of gain is pretty much the same in both pedals (which means a lot of gain!).

Parallel mode is very cool especially for rhythm playing. You get the effect of using two different amps together so they don't affect each other.

Distortion into overdrive is not so cool effect. I can't find any use for it. It sounds pretty bad for my tastes.

For the setup I use this pedal, sound quality is awesome! It's perhaps not for those who wants to use it in front of a clean amp or with transistor amp.

It's very well built. I think you can't break it during a gig, unless you throw it on the wall when you miss a note in the guitar solo.

I haven't dealt with them.

I have been playing for 9 years now and have had a lot of different pedals, amps and guitars. I play mostly classic and modern rock, funk, pop rock and even some jazz. So far, this is the best distortion pedal I have ever had. I have had MI audio crunch box, Ibanez tube screamer with Keeley mod, Damage Control Liquid blues, Maxon rod-881 and Xotic BB-preamp. Nova Drive beats them all.

It's easy to use, the knobs are right there in front of you like any old pedal.

Digitally-controlled analog distortion and overdrive in one box, 4 knobs for each. 18 presets. Distortion and analog are stackable, reorderable, and can be used in tandem (parallel).

Requires 12V power. Provides MIDI control and integration with TC's G-System.

Let's say you've stored a preset and want to remember your distortion level - you select the preset and start tweaking the distortion knob. Two light indicators show when you're right on the level stored in the patch, just like a guitar tuner. Easy, simple, useful for tweaking and remembering (or sharing) your presets. Back when I had a Line6 DL-4, I can't remember the number of times I cursed it for not having the ability to report my stored settings back to me.

Excellent dynamics. Analog drive with digital control and patching with midi integration is an excellent feature, but parallel distortion and overdrive is just a killer KILLER feature and it sounds great through a tube amplifier. All the compression and sustain of distortion, all the dynamics and pick characteristics of overdrive on top. In addition to the stacking/routing options for overdrive and distortion channels, overdrive has a mix knob to send an overdriven signal in parallel with the clean one. HUGE choice of tone characters as a result of these features that are uncommon for a distortion or overdrive box.

To my ears, at minimum overdrive gain settings and max mix, 11:30-ish on the level knob is unity gain. 12-ish is unity tone. On the distortion channel, level at 12 o'clock is unity, treble and bass controls are capable of cut and boost with 11:30ish being unity.

I'm no corksniffing overdrive or distortion monkey. Give me any fuzz, overdrive or distortion box and I'll find a usable tone in it. This pedal provides overdrive, distortion, three choices of routing them and 18 saved presets. You do the math. I think anybody can find 18 usable tones out of it.

The Nova Drive is smoother and less metallic sounding than my GT-500 and Fulldrive 2 - two other pedals I rate very highly. This pedal has the range I was looking for.

I purchased this pedal to serve as a pre-preamp and provide some slight coloration of the other dirt pedals in my G-system. It looks like I'm going to use it for much more than just coloration because it sounds great even at its extreme settings.

I think it's going to be fine. I'm an early adopter but it looks solidly built.

Unfortunately, TC hasn't released a midi splitter cable for integration with the G-System yet but they sent me the G-System beta software update that will work with the Nova Drive already. Customer support is serious and responsive.

I purchased this pedal to serve as a pre-preamp and provide some slight coloration of the other dirt pedals in my G-system. It looks like I'm going to use it for much more than just coloration because it sounds great even at its extreme settings. Exceeded all expectations.

This pedal goes from light, barely there overdrive to microphonic. I can coax it into feedback with my amp at low volume levels by diming the overdrive and distortion gain and output levels. Plenty extreme.

I liken the overdrive a bit to a Rat. The distortion is about black sabbath in character. Stack with overdrive and you're in Barzum territory. It can get noisy and ugly quick.

I don't like spending more than $100 for overdrive or distortion (although I've spent a LOT more on overdrive and distortion pedals, too). The boutique pedal builders are often charging a lot more for less than half the features. At $250 this pedal is a fantastic value, especially if you have the means to switch presets for it via MIDI. Highly recommend. Right now, this is a sleeper. It shouldn't be.