Reprinted from the October 2002 issue of Total Guitar magazine

AdrenaLinn
Amp modelling and effects in a drum machine with more filters than Starbucks
By Richard Riley

Drum machine? This is a guitar mag!

Okay, drum machine is just a part of it. What we have here is a guitar multi-effects processor designed by Roger Linn (of Linn Drum fame). Inside the box are modulation, filter and delay effects all tied together with a neat drum box, all of which enable you to create the kind of mad rhythmic sequenced effects The Edge is famed for. The really funky part is that the whole thing is MIDI controllable and slots into your home studio like toast into a toastrack.

Neat. But it's dead hard to control, right?

Nope Plug the guitar in and set your level with the input level control. Now just use the preset control to select one of the 100 factory presets, connect the whole thing to a guitar amp or mixer and away you go. The presets are arranged into groups, the best being in the sequence group. This is where the AdrenaLinn comes alive. A sequence of notes, pan effects or filters is triggered when you play the guitar and it's here that you find those funky staggered effects. All the presets can be edited and saved in 100 user memories. The entire memory can also be saved to a computer if necessary.

But where does the drum machine fit into all this?

On their own the modulation effects are fun and funky. But they don't start to make sense until you start the drum machine and play along All the effects are tempo linked to the drum machine or to an external MIDI clock. 50 the sequences, delays, auto pan and all the other effects are synchronised perfectly with your track and it's this function that makes the AdrenaLinn very special and rather fun to play with.

But I don't use MIDI on stage!

No problem the AdrenaLinn also has a tempo function. Just hold your foot on the second switch for a bar length and the tempo is set to the speed of your song. And if you have a drummer who drifts a bit, it's easy to get the AdrenaLinn back in time by simply tapping the footswitch once on the downbeat to restart the sequence

But what if I just want to use it for practising with?

Fine. The 100 preset rhythms are great for jamming along with and can be used as the basis for your own songs as all the patterns are fully editable. There are a couple of things to be aware of. Firstly, no built-in guitar tuner. Second, although the patterns can be edited and saved there's no chaining or sequencing function, so once a pattern is started there's no way to change it without restarting the AdrenaLinn. The best way to use it as a songwriting tool is to trigger it remotely using MIDI when using it becomes a piece of cake as it not only understands MIDI clock but song position pointers too, So it will always start in the right place in the bar

I'm not exactly into MIDI -are the amp models any good?

The dozen amp models are fairly standard stuff ranging from the usual Fender-style twang through Matchless dirt and onto Marshall and Boogie high gain. Through headphones they sound great for practising, although through a PA they do get a little thin, On the positive side, the AdrenaLinn has noise gating and the output can be tuned to suit PA or guitar amp

Sounds a bit technical. Can I use it down the Ferret & Trouserleg?

Sure. Just choose two presets that you like the sound of and use one of the AdrenaLinn's footswitches when swapping from verse to solo. Then bring the modulation in with the other footswitch when you feel like it. It's easy to get into because everything is controlled from the top panel. In performance mode the controls work in real time to adjust volume or presets. In the studio the controls are used to edit the internal parameters to suit your song The beauty of the AdrenaLinn is that it operates on many levels Just use it as a stompbox or get right into the guts of it, it's entirely up to you.

Anything else?

Apart from the ability to swap the delay for modulation in the signal path, the opportunity to create funky beatbox-style patterns by chaining the drum machine through the filters, the ability to choose anyone of ten modulation sources (five of them MIDI), sturdy plastic case in cool blue, momentary noiseless footswitching and big bold autograph on the top, that's about it.

And the bottom line?

The bottom line is that occasionally a new box comes along which someone, somewhere will use to create a massive hit and leave the rest of us thinking, 'I could have done that' This time buy an AdrenaLinn and don't let it be you.