Now and then I get e-mail from people thinking about buying a G-Force, so I've written something about it here (you can still send me mail of course). Please note that other G-Force users may have completely different views. If you own a G-Force and disagree with something that I write here, feel free to e-mail me and I'll include your viewpoint as well.
There are a few web sites with G-Force reviews on the web, most of them written when the G-Force was new. Something to keep in mind with most reviews is that reviewers only spent a short time getting to know the product (say a couple of weeks), which is often too little in order to learn about the product's deeper strengths or weaknesses. After a year or so they might have come to a totally different conclusion.
TC Electronic offers the G-Force manual for download. While the manual is quite brief it will still give you an idea about the number of effect parameters, etc. Be sure to download the manual addendums as well, since they include improvements made since the first software release.
What is my own general opinion about the G-Force? For being a high-end multieffect I guess the G-Force is a good buy, but I still curse it regularly (just like I do with the rest of my gear). I did get a bad first impression due to a few annoying bugs in the early software versions. I might buy it again if I wanted an all-in-one digital multieffect with the same programming flexibility, but I'd also take a look at other effect processors that have appeared later.
When buying a multieffect you usually get more (and more flexible) effects for your money than if you'd buy them separately. On the other hand you can not handpick the included effects yourself, so you might end up with some effects you like and some you don't. In the worst case you end up with lots of bad effects and no good ones.
Usually you are able to save your settings into presets (memory places), unlike most effect pedals. This can actually be both good and bad, since you might end up with lots of half-finished presets that will only take up memory space. Saved presets can also make you stop evolving sonically (instead you just keep recalling the same old settings).
A multieffect usually means less equipment to carry around and setting up, such as cables, power supplies etc. But since they usually come in rack format you need to put them somewhere where they'll not get damaged. In addition many multieffects need a MIDI pedalboard so that you can easily switch between presets while playing, which is an additional item to buy and carry around.
In a live situation I'd probably not use much effects, if any at all, I'd rather concentrate on the playing. Creating a good live sound can also be hard as it is, using lots of effects can make it even worse.
In a home studio a multieffect might be useful, depending on how you work. As long as you add effects while recording individual tracks there's no problem, but when mixing you may want to add many effects to separate recorded tracks (like compression on the guitars, reverb on the drums and delay on the vocals). In a mixing situation like this it would be far more flexible to use several budget multieffects or effect pedals (one for each track) instead of buying only one expensive multieffect unit. Some studio effects produce only two effects at the time but with separate stereo inputs/outputs, which is also better in this situation.
Digital devices work by translating the audio signal into numbers in a A/D (analog/digital) converter, processing these numbers like a calculator and finally change them back into something similar to an analog wave form at the output's D/A (digital/analog) converter. This is done by breaking up the sine wave of an analog signal into discrete steps, like in a staircase, where the number of steps per second is called the sample frequency and the height differences between the steps is called the bit resolution. The sample frequency determines the frequency response while the bit resolution determines the dynamic range.
Analog effects may sound "smoother" because they don't have to divide the signal levels into a limited number of level increments. This limitation can sometimes be heard in digital effects, for example if an LFO in a digital synth or phaser effect does not move smoothly but appears to change in discrete, "grainy" step increments, or if an expression pedal does not appear to change level smoothly (the latter can have other causes, though, like an oxidized potentiometer or wrong calibration settings).
Once an analog signal has been turned into digital, it will not (at least in theory) be degraded in any way until it's converted back to analog again. This means that digital gear produce less noise and retain their dynamics and frequency responses better than analog gear. In all electronic components, "friction" between the electrons in the electric current cause noise to accumulate. This happens in digital circuits as well, but since these only use two voltage states (presenting digital On or Off state) like 0 volt and 5 volt, the noise will never make it over the 5 volt threshold level. But even in digital gear there can be sound degradation or distortion due to limited internal bit resolution.
When the digital signal is converted back into analog, special smoothing filters are used to make the staircase-like digital signal look more like sine wave. The quality of these filters also affect the sound quality.
The whole process of converting an analog signal into digital and then back to analog again will take about 1.5 milliseconds. This delay should not be noticed by the listener, as you get the same (or longer) delay at a listening distance of only 0.5 meter (sound travels through air at 330 meters per second).
A poor digital effect will sound bad just like a poor analog, but in different ways. If you prefer to deal with the different problems associated with analog or digital sound is perhaps a matter of taste (personally I'd rather use a noisy analog device than a harsh-sounding digital one, though). To some extent this might be a result of growing up with a certain sound, which you then define as the ideal. Personally I prefer the studio sounds from the 1970s and 80s before what's come after. The sound ideals of today appear too hard and compressed to me, with unnatural amounts of low frequencies and too much highs in an attempt to make sound both loud fat and clear at the same time. To me it's ironic when people demand higher dynamic ranges from digital gear only to waste it by compressing the signal, or when people demand higher frequency responses only to remove much of the highs in order to not make it sound "cold".
I think that multieffects are slow and un-intuitive to work with, even when they are designed with decent user-interfaces. This is because you must first select an effect, then select a parameter in it before you can begin editing its parameter values. On an analog effect each parameter has its own control, so if you want to change say delay level you just grab the delay level knob and tweak, which saves a lot of time. Staring at a tiny display is also tiresome in the long run.
Something that will probably become popular in future multieffects is better support for external MIDI editors, allowing the effect unit to be edited from a MIDI foot- or handcontroller.
The main features of the G-Force are in my opinion the following:
The basics of the G-Force are not very difficult to learn. The manual is quite brief, but is generally not needed much. However, some things are never mentioned that would be interesting to know (for example that several effects only use their left input, and more detailed explanations about the signal flow in the Quad Tap and Dual Two Tap Delays, as well as the workings of the ADSR internal modifier -see below).
Some advanced features do require a lot of thought, simply because there are so many things involved. This goes especially for when you use the internal modifiers, where you must edit both the effect itself, the modifier and the way they interact with another (jumping between these three sections is tedious and might have been quicker). In most cases you don't have to make effects as complex as possible, but there are cases when the G-Force could have been faster and easier to work with. For example, to get panning delays, dynamic delays or vibrato effects you must use the internal modifiers since these effects are not available by default.
There are no Compare or Undo functions in the G-Force.
The actual effects (called sub-algorithms) in the G-force are distributed among eight "effect blocks". For a list of all effect sub-algorithms, see the effect block pages or the manual. There is also a noise gate and a guitar speaker simulator. The speaker simulator can be turned off globally but its settings can not be saved into presets. You can only choose one effect at the time from each block, which is a disadvantage in some cases. For example, if you already use the wah wah you cannot use the parametric equalizer, since both are found in the Filter block. At least there is an additional simple delay in the Pitch Shift block, in addition to the ones in the Delay block, as well as low- and hicut filters in the Delay block, in addition to the ones in the Filter block. Furthermore you can use the internal modifiers to make panners out of the delay or pitch shift effects, or tremolos out of just about any level parameter.
The number of parameters vary between effects, but there are generally enough of them to satisfy avid tweakers (the Compressor might be an exception, since it lacks an attack parameter, the Phaser is quite spartan too). For a full list of each effect's parameters, see the G-Force manual.
Note that not all G-Force effects are stereo effects. The Drive effect is pure mono. The Phaser effect is in mono too (there might be a tiny stereo difference, that you can just barely make out in headphones). A number of other effects use stereo outputs, but block their right input signal.
The G-Force does not color the original sound too much. This of course means that it will ruthlessly expose a bad preamp- or guitarsound. In other words, don't expect the G-Force to save a sound that was bad from the beginning.
I will not comment too much on the sound quality of individual G-Force effects here, partly because I don't have enough experience with other effects to be able to compare fairly but also because other people might have completely different ideas of what sounds good to them. TC Electronic offer some sound samples. If someone knows of recordings with G-Force users, please let me know. If you have recorded something with it, on CD or mp3, I will gladly put up a link.
The eight effect blocks in the G-Force can be routed in any order and combination, but max four in parallell. If you really need this flexibility is of course another issue, many less expensive multieffects offer at least some alternate factory routings to choose from. In a studio you can also connect effects in different combinations with a patch bay. Note that G-Force software versions prior to 2.03 are slightly buggy, so some exotic routing combinations don't work well (such as drive after reverb, or pitch shift after reverb). It's possible to work around these bugs by inserting other effects in between, but the best solution is to upgrade the software version).
Despite this effect routing freedom, a preamp is normally connected before the G-Force while a power amp is normally found after, so you cannot get the G-Force's wah-wah or compressor before the preamp, and if you overdrive a tube power amp you'll ruin effects like delay or reverb. This is of course a problem with most multieffects (perhaps with the exception of the Lexicon MPX-G2, which features an effect loop -see similar products below).
Many of the G-Force's effect parameters can be "modified" (controlled) in real-time. Some important effect parameters like Reverb or Delay time cannot be modified, though (all effect parameters that can be modified are listed here).
The effect parameters can be controlled either by up to eight external MIDI controllers (pedals, switches or other MIDI devices) or by a number of internal modifiers (a pitch detector, an envelope follower, two LFOs and two ADSRs).
Using modifiers is necessary in order to create certain effects (such as wah-wah, gated reverb, ducking delay or panning delay). They can also be used to create some effects from scratch (like extra tremolos or panners). Like the pitch shift effect the pitch detector modifier can only understand single notes.
While the G-Force in general is easy to program (for being a multieffect), the user-friendliness of its internal modifiers could have been better:
The G-Force allows you to switch presets without any dropouts between, and to let a delay or reverb tail continue into a new preset. This is not guaranteed to work however, depending on how different the two presets are (ideally they should have similar effect routings and sub-algorithms). If presets are too different strange noises may occur if you play during the preset change. This in turn can be cured by enabling an optional effect mute during preset changes, but then you'll of course loose the seamless feature.
Especially the early software versions had a few software bugs. Most of these bugs have been corrected in version 2.04 (see the separate page for a list on what still remains). It's definately worth upgrading the software if buy an older unit.
From what I've heard, the units seem reliable during live use. Power dropouts don't seem to cause any problems, which may not be a surprise considering that it's built to handle many different voltages. A couple of users have reported that one or two LED:s on the "Billboard" have died (which does not necessarily affect the G-Force's function). One user has mentioned overheating as a cause of temporary malfunctioning. I have no info on the effects of severe physical shock, temperatures, voltage spikes, fire, rain, condensation, dust etc.
It seems that the Value wheel (actually a rotary switch) can wear out a little over time, at least in the early production series (I had my own wheel replaced after about two years, while still under warranty). A worn wheel may still work, but the values on the parameter menu can go backwards or don't change when the wheel is turned fast. I don't know if this is unique to the G-Force or will happen to any effect with rotary switches.
If you want to buy a second-hand unit without warranty you can run its self-test program, which lets you check LEDs, jacks, battery etc. To start the self test program, hold down the Bypass button while powering up the G-Force, then select "Run test program". You need one guitar cable and one MIDI cable to check the jacks, and one empty PC card (PCMCIA type 1, not type 2 or 3) if you want to check the memory card slot.
I haven't tried any of the following effects, they may or may not be better choices than the G-Force:
The TC Electronic G-Major was released in the beginning of 2001. It's not as advanced as the effects mentioned above, and therefore doesn't really belong in this review, but since many people have been curious wether it's similar to the G-Force I'll mention it anyway (see also the G-Major manual, available for download at TC Electronic). Note that I have never tried the G-Major myself, this is just a comparison of specifications.
In short the G-Major is much less expensive, should be easier to program and has a couple of useful functions not found in the G-Force, like relays for amp channel switching. The G-Force is propably more suitable for those that demand as much flexibility as possible in one effect unit. Both units have useful features for studio recording, but not the same ones: the G-Major has balanced inputs and can accomodate different sample rates and bit resolutions, the G-force instead features a speaker filter, a (modest) drive effect and a memory card slot for preset backup.
Both units are said to offer the same digital sound quality. That the less expensive G-Major can sound as good as the G-Force is not implausible, since digital hardware has become much better and cheaper over time (compare with the general computer market). In addition TC Electronic might be able to reuse software from previous products in the G-Major.
| Feature | G-Force | G-Major |
|---|---|---|
| Number of simultanenous effects | Nine, excluding tuner and speaker filter. | Seven (with the parametric equalizer upgrade available for download at TC Electronic), excluding tuner. |
| Overdrive/distortion | Yes (but not meant to be used as a preamp) | No |
| Pitch Shift | Both "intelligent" and "fixed" | Only "fixed" |
| Ping-pong delay, dynamic delay and vibrato | Can be programmed with internal modifiers | Ready-made |
| Speaker filter/simulator | Yes | No |
| Effect routing | Any order (exceptions: noise gate and speaker filter) | Three ready-made routing patterns |
| Seamless preset change | Usually | Always(?) |
| Effect spillover | Delay and reverb | Only delay |
| External modifiers | Eight | Four |
| Internal modifiers | Pitch detector, envelope follower, two LFOs, two ADSRs | None |
| Modifiable effect parameters | Over 150, max 20 at the time (the available number ranges between roughly 40-50, depending on which effect sub-algorithms you use) | 30(?), max 20 at the time |
| Memory card preset backup | Yes | No |
| MIDI preset backup | Only bulk dump of the whole User bank | Allows dump of single presets(?) |
| Relay for amp channel switching | None | Two |
| Balanced analog jacks | Only the output (1/4 inch TRS) | Both input and output (1/4 inch TRS) |
| Sync to MIDI clock | No | Yes |
| Digital I/O | 44.1 kHz sample rate, no dither feature | 44.1 or 48 kHz sample rate, dither feature for connecting gear with different bit resolutions |
| Tuner modes | Only one | "Fine" or "coarse" |
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