tc electronic Plethora X1

The sound is truly beautiful, as you'd expect from TC Electronics. But the user-friendliness leaves much to be desired. The USB connection to the computer is often not recognized, and Bluetooth is truly useless, more often than not failing to connect. There's also no synchronization between various apps on your phone, desktop, or iPad, for example. It's handy as a backup, but it hasn't become a permanent part of my setup, and unless the user interface and user-friendliness are updated, it probably won't be.

I was one of the first lucky ones to receive it, I ordered it as soon as it was available on the site. As soon as I tried it, the impression was not very good: the pedal had an annoying high-pitched noise in the background. It was powered via daisy chain: as soon as I connected it apart with a Boss PSA the problem stopped, so consider that this pedal is very picky with power supply and daisy chain. Another problem was connecting it to the app: it was not possible to connect it via bluetooth, no problem instead via USB C (but only with the penultimate 2024 version of the software, not with the latest 2025 release). The pedal seems to be still in beta (I once had also a bug and I was forced to restart it) and so are the app and the software (for example, from the PC the artist's toneprints are not available, only via the app; even via app the Petrucci's toneprints – only that! – are not available, who knows why!). Furthermore, there are some atypical choices such as the possibility of switching between A and B (the only way to have 14 slots instead of 7). But let's move on to the sound. With the right power supply and true bypass the pedal is very quiet when it is off (tested with a loop box, it is really a true bypass), when you press the switch to turn it on you can hear the action of the relay, just a hint of hum added but tha'ts true for almost every digital effect. The sounds are typical TC Electronic. I was able to directly compare it with a Flashback 2 that I already own: the 2290 delay is identical (also , the "analog" delay unfortunately is not (in the Flashback it is warmer and darker) and the other models also change a bit: they sound good but they do not sound identical to those of the original Flashback. Maybe I should download the corresponding toneprint and adjust it to match, but it is a lot of work! (I remember that each of the seven slots has six sound variations of the effect plus a toneprint chosen by the user: unfortunately in the delay there is no looper option). The reverb sounds are very nice and the modulations are not bad either, maybe generally a bit cold (the preloaded models all seems to have very modern sounds, no chorus like the CE1 to be clear), but in my opinion the pitch shifter sounds very fake (someone might like it). Ultimately: it is an excellent all-purpose pedal, a Swiss army knife of sound, suitable for tinkerers or for a light setup, but probably the dedicated pedals are better and more practical. However, for a price slightly higher than that of a Flashback or a Hall of Fame you get both of these pedals plus the choruses and flangers and phasers and several others... For this alone it's worth the purchase!

This is a great idea: Put all the toneprint pedals into a single pedal with analog dry through (something the X3 and X5 doesn’t have).

I bought it mostly to have a single pedal that does phaser, vibrato, tremolo, etc. Effects I almost never use together. And it was the only pedal I found of this type with an analog dry through, which is important to me.

It has the potential to sound great, but is tricky to set up to do what you want.

If you have an toneprint you made earlier for another toneprint pedal you can’t use it directly with the Plethora X1, which totally makes no sense. Why?

It also sucks that you can’t adjust the artist toneprints. Some of them are nice, but why shouldn’t we be able to make adjustments to them? There are some nice delay toneprints I tried where the control ranges was just unusable. On one of them the delay was barely audible, so I turned the knob 1 mm. Then it was way too loud…

The toneprint editor could also generally be more user friendly.

There was a QR code on the box for the manual. That didn’t work. So no manual, I guess? There was also a strange message from Uli Behringer written inside the box. I wish there wasn’t. I would like a working manual instead. I found a “manual” online that another X1 user had made. Without that i had been lost. Looked for the manual on tcelectronic.com now, and it seems like they have removed the X1 from their website…

The delays sounds nice
Tremolo sounds nice
Pitch shifting is good, can make some cool sounds
Harmonizer seems ok
Phaser is nice, but not as organic as an analog phaser
Vibrato is good
Doubler sounds bad, like you are having some weird phase issues

The reverb CAN sound nice, but it often does not. The reverb tail is often kinda grainy, in a bad way. Fiddly to adjust to get a nice sounding reverb out of it. After much trial and error I managed to make a toneprint for the Hall of Fame pedal that I could live with. It would be nice if I could use that one on the X1..

The analog dry through sounds good, doesn’t color the sound badly.

I wish there was a dedicated on/off LED. The display doesn’t make the status of the pedal that obvious. Maybe a firmware upgrade can make the “Mash” LED act as an on/off indicator?

Build quality isn’t perfect, mine came with paint blemishes, and the build quality doesn’t feel as nice as my Flashback mini, Spark mini boost, and PolyTune mini. It had a more matte finish, and especially the toneprint selector doesn’t feel nice to use (I think they just used a potentiometer with some detents instead of a proper rotary switch?). On my pedal it is hard to get to the “Connect” button, don’t know if that is the case always. The printing for the power input reads SV instead of 9V…

It would be cool if it was possible to run it as a audio interface via usb, and have the analog dry through available for use with plugins for delay/reverb. A mini version would be great as well.

It is not an expensive pedal for what it can do, but I really wish TC fix the editor/toneprint flaws and get me a dedicated on/off LED.