Like the Terra Nova amp heads, Eden’s Terra Nova ‘Module’ keeps the funky aesthetics. Industrial and slightly retro computer looking (thanks to the knobs and buttons), the preamp is housed in a tough metal casing with a non-slip rubber padding on the base. Side mounted input jacks cater for both active and passive instruments while the rear of the unit has left and right outputs, a DI out, effects send and return, dedicated tuner out, aux in and phones out. Added to this are switches for DC polarity, ground lift, DI output level and DI pre/post which should keep most players happy. Three footswitches for mute, enhance and loop are nicely spaced along the slightly angled front of the module making them easy to engage without hitting other controls.
As a preamp the Terra Nova Module takes the front end of the 226 and 501 and whacks it into pedal format. Both the input gain and master controls have a ‘clip’ light to indicate levels, and these work nicely in tandem to balance your volume and amount of grit. Through the EQ section, treble and bass controls are joined by low mid and hi mid which have additional controls for specific frequency tweaking (30 Hz – 300 Hz and 200 Hz – 2000 Hz respectively). It’s pretty easy then to run from clean pristine sounds into warm and round vintage tones. The bass boost switch adds more pronounced low end if needed, and the enhance control is an EQ sweep that adds bass, upper mid and high frequencies whilst cutting lower mids – handy for adding some focus if you want to fit into a mix. Of course you can then punch in/out the effects loop and enhance setting for added tones when needed too.
Remember, the module is a preamp/DI pedal firstly and is a very good unit for working your tone. The onboard compressor is a bonus, but obviously if you want more control and options you’d add something standalone to your rig/pedalboard. Some players might flinch slightly at the size of the Module, which is by no means huge, but looks sizeable in today’s climate of mini everything pedals. Take into account that it’s a preamp with effects loop and it could be doing the job of more than one pedal on your board – or indeed a heap of your whole rig – and you won’t worry. Live, studio, whatever – good stuff, Eden.
