In spite of my early
annoyance, I can confirm
the Cerberus sounds great.
The overdrive is bright
and clear, the distortion
is surprisingly full and
throaty, the modulation
effects (especially the trio of
choruses) were gorgeous,
and the reverb and delay
were spaciously beautiful.
That said, it felt like having
the controls to the preset
bank be the same as the
individual effects cluttered
the interface, and dialing
in new sounds was less
intuitive than you would
think. Early on the only
way I could get anywhere
was using the presets,
because it would default
to bizarre sounds like an
oscillating feedback delay
that wouldn’t stop unless I
powered down the unit.
The more time I spent with
the Cerberus, the more I
started to think about its
unrealized potential and I
couldn’t help but compare it
to other multi-effects units
available on the market. I
felt there could have been
a better way to divide the
mod section and both delay
and reverb effects rather
than map two to one switch
and just manually turn one
down if you don’t want it.
Also, while there’s not a
problem per se with the
Cab Sim running out of the
second quarter-inch output,
would an XLR output have
been too much to ask?
Plenty of effects units offer
that now, and the potential
for Phantom Power could
bypass the power supply
issue completely. Or why
not have the USB port
connect to music software
instead of having it to
download more patches?
Many would kill for an
analog tone they could
easily record digitally.
While it’s nice to have the
bank of presets, part of the
fun of a multi-effects unit
(especially an analog one)
is just reaching down and
adjusting the effects on the
fly. If the MIDI integration
was that much of a priority
for me it would arguably
make more sense to invest in
a rack effects unit rather than
a floor unit like this one. With
the emphasis on presets, it
feels like I’m playing by the
Cerberus’s rules rather than
inventing my own.
WHAT WE LIKE
With great tone and a
plethora of options, the
Nux Cerberus offers great
sounds in a tight package.
CONCERNS
Dialing in tones on the fly is
less straight-forward than it
sounds. Also, the lack of a
power supply with the unit
is just too big to ignore.
ToneReport.com
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