TC Electronic Plethora X5 - HOTKNOBZ | Quick Guide, Deep Dive

Let's take a deep dive into one of the most user requested features for the TC Electronic Plethora X5, the HotKnobz. To follow this tutorial you need firmware 1.2, which you can download here: www.tcelectron...
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[@dijidave]

Thankyou so much, I think it's great that someone, (you) has the time/motivation to explore this stuff & explain it for us. TC Electronic seem to make great hardware, they seem to be very unwilling/unable to document the Plethora's features & operations which is quite frustrating.

[@PedalPlatform]

My pleasure! And as far as I am concerned, because I can't make the great hardware, I okay with them making that and me making the videos! 😆 Thank you for the kind words, though, really appreciated! 🙏🏻

[@dijidave]

@@PedalPlatform I love their great hardware & having got a bit of it I'm overjoyed that I've found your tutorials so that I can understand better how to delve into what may be the most complicated/comprehensively controllable pedal that I've had yet. It seems very strange to me that TC decided to abandon the idea of documentation before arranging a suitable alternative, (though I'm sure that some accountant somewhere has an incredibly good reason for doing so) . . . . . 8-) P.S. enjoy the Coffee

[@PedalPlatform]

I don't know that they've abandoned it entirely, but someone has to fill in the gap! 🤷🏻‍♂️ 😉 Thank you very much for the support! 🙏🏻

[@dijidave]

@@PedalPlatform The email they sent me said they were happy to answer specific enquiries but are releasing Quick-start guides only & exploring other options in the meantime

[@PedalPlatform]

Right, at some point we'll see what they come up with... I guess. 😉

[@PedalPlatform]

For more Plethora X5 related tips and tricks, take a look at the other videos on the channel, and hit subscribe / notification bell to be the first to know when the next videos come up!

[@SuperReverbious]

They have added display of the hot knobz values in play mode since this video. But it does seem if you turn the hot knobz on it will adjust every pedal on the board that has them enabled, all at once. That seems weird. I'd have thought it would only control ACTIVE pedals so you could pick one, adjust it, and then go back to turning on whatever you need to use. I can't imagine why anyone would want a hot knob to change all 5 pedals at once. Any comments on that? Is there a way to have hot knobs available on all 5 pedals on a board, but only change them 1 at a time in PLAY mode?

[@Franq85]

I have one question. How to unassign a parameter from a knob? I can't do this and I would like all the knobs to do nothing so as not to accidentally change the setting.

[@rodanrock]

Amazing video!!!

[@PedalPlatform]

Thank you!! 🙏🏻

[@peterhughes8699]

Another excellent video - thanks. Btw I've now relegated my Plethera X5 to my 2nd pedal board and returned to using individual stomps. Reason is I found putting the Plethora in my Mesa Mark V's loop was too complicated. Also I use the Hotknobs but due to lack of display in play mode I didn't know where the setting was most of the time when you change effect types. On a Flashback 2, for example, you can always see exactly where you are by looking at the pedal :)

[@PedalPlatform]

Yeah, I hope the hotknobz get a display soon, that would be very helpful. 👍🏻

[@carlosjuarez1892]

Greetings from Mexico, I would like to know how I can adjust the MS of the delay but in units, for example 563 ms. Manually it is impossible with the delay knob. Thank you.

[@ajlmirrormist]

First off thanks for all of your great YT Vids on the Plethora. I appreciate all the work you have put into them.... mood and style is cool and tutorials are sharp and to the point. Well done! The HotKnobs is scrambling my brain so my questions is; Three Knobs Five Pedals… can I control all three parameters of each pedal on a single board with knobs 1, 2 and 3? To give me 15 controls in total? … If I can i'll keep watching this vid until it registers in my brain. :)

[@PedalPlatform]

Thank you for the kind comments, really appreciated! 🙏🏻As for the hotknobz, it's even crazier than that: you can control all three "virtual knobs" of each pedal of each board with one single hotknob; and because each "virtual knob" can control up to three parameters in each pedal, you can control 45 parameters with one hotknob. 🤣 No idea why one would want to do that, but that might be a challenge 🤣 But back to the land of sanity, yes - you can tell each hotknob to control specific parameters of each pedal, in one pedal or all of them, etc etc. It's almost too flexible. 🤣

[@ajlmirrormist]

@@PedalPlatform Thanks indeed... Got there in the end (I think). Based on setting up 3 parameters for each of 5 pedals am I correct in thinking; all pedals except the pedal I am making adjustments for on the fly need to be switched off ? Or to put it another way… if all pedals are “ON” will the Hotknobz make changes to all the pedals at the same time. (not that i want it to do that btw). Kind regards.

[@PedalPlatform]

@AJL In Play mode, the hotknobz will always affect all the pedals that they're assigned to... it would be cool to have a mode as you suggest, similar to their behaviour in Edit mode, but that's not the case currently. 😕 Still fun to play with and change lots of stuff at the same time 😁

[@jesterraj]

HI how do u do a quick swap of the effect order?

[@adrianoreis2396]

Thanks a lot for the time and energy you put into these tutorial videos, very helpful! I like to use rotary sound (like Vent 122 pedal), do you know if TCE is working on getting a toneprint for that? Also, have you ever tried to get MXR Phase 90 and EH Electric Mistress sounds with available phaser and flanger toneprints? Thanks a lot!

[@PedalPlatform]

You're very welcome! You can kind of get some rotary sounds out of the Viscous Vibe, and I believe there are some toneprints that attempt to come close to the MXR and EHX... look for the ones named vintage, or whose name resembles the originals. Don't forget to look under the Artist section too!

[@alexguitarpick]

That's so cool guys! Are you going to include an overdrive or distortion pedal someday? Building my pedalboard around plethora, but prefer to know first if you're planning to include a distortion or overdrive pedal.

[@elcoyotes]

No, it will never happend. This is clearly modulation unit ;)

[@alexguitarpick]

@@elcoyotes thanks for answering. Now thinking about best distortion/overdrive pedals to join my plethora in my pedalboard ✌🏼

[@PedalPlatform]

In fairness, it's not officially confirmed if the Plethora will have drive pedals or not... TC have left that door open in case there is enough interest to justify it, but I'd say it's safe to assume it won't happen anytime soon. So yup, let the hunt for a great drive pedals begin. 😆

[@danielhenry4614]

What are hot knobs I’m still new to this

[@PedalPlatform]

HotKnobz are a way of tweaking certain parameters without having to go into Edit mode all the time. With hotknobz you can assign some parameters to the tweak directly in Play mode.

[@ChristianSurieux]

Thanks. Domamge that these hot knobs 'travel in the dark' :( , just as the expression pedal. Whould have they included the Bypass/Engage effect action in 'hot knobs' saving process we could have retrieved our board in the same engaged/bypassed status each time we recall it ... what a mess this saving or not process.

[@PedalPlatform]

I actually prefer it this way with the HotKnobz, to be honest, because it means whatever I do, there's always a base point to go back to. But it might be a cool idea to add the possibility of instant saves as a global setting for users that prefer everything to be instantly saved / recalled! 👍🏻

[@ianseward9928]

Is it possible to map hot knobs to echoplex wow and flutter

[@PedalPlatform]

Yup, takes a few steps and you'll have to choose two other parameters to keep on a fixed value, but it can be done: - Connect the Plethora to the TonePrint Editor; - Pick the Echoplex template (I believe it's on the Plethora / Flashback tab); - On the knob mapping tab, map the wow and flutter to the two knobs whose parameters you won't mind keeping fixed; - Set those other two parameters to the values you'd like to use; - Save the TonePrint with an unique name so you know what it is; - On the Plethora, pop to settings, board, hotknobz, and map those parameters to the knobs you want to use. It's easier done than explained on text. 😉 If you don't know what I'm talking about with mapping parameters and stuff, I go into it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3K2YXV3mrKqirM

[@FABRIZIOCORTE]

Amazing, thank you. Is it possible to control the Plethora with a midi foot controller (I have an Axess Electronics fx1)? Maybe put the Plethora in a rack and do everything with midi program?

[@PedalPlatform]

It is absolutely possible, and the CC Table is in the Settings menu, so you can check directly the CC commands you need to use to switch boards / turn effects on and off, or even control the hotknobz or the looper. It also responds to PC to switch boards directly by number, rather than page up / down. What it doesn't do at this point is respond to MIDI clock / tempo, but if you don't need to sync it to another device, you're golden.

[@FABRIZIOCORTE]

@@PedalPlatform Thank you so much. So it's for me. I don't need MIDI clock. It's possible to switch on/off also the loop for external pedal it has?