MI Audio Tube Zone Overdrive

The Tube Zone is an overdrive pedal from MI Audio, handbuilt in Sydney, Australia. It is the brand’s most flexible overdrive, and it is designed to behave like an overdriven tube amp. It covers everything from light crunch and bluesy breakup up to searing high-gain distortion, and many players describe it as sounding like a high-gain amp in a box. It has true bypass and a Class A output stage. Newer revisions put six controls on the outside of the case, where earlier versions (v1 and v2) kept two of them as internal trimmers. A separate internal presence trimmer is not on the outside of the case in the version captured here. **Controls** Character: An unusual control found only on MI Audio pedals. It works as a bass control placed before the overdrive stage. Counterclockwise (less low end) keeps the sound tight and focused. Clockwise (more low end) gives more momentum, with a looser, more elastic feel. Gain (called Drive): Sets the amount of overdrive. It uses a custom taper to give fine control across the range. I found a very drastic transition point at about 4/10 or 10 o'clock where I like the pedal the most when using with a cleanish amp. I suggest starting with the "G4" captures. Apart from that I also captured a lower gain setting and a higher gain setting but with 3 character settings each. Volume: Sets the output level. There is plenty of headroom, enough to push an amp harder. Kept constant here. Tone: A high/low balance control. The pedal’s designer says it behaves like a tilt EQ. Kept constant here. Mids: A dedicated midrange control for shaping the body and voice of the overdrive. Kept constant here. Brightness: Controls the high-frequency content without affecting gain or overdrive character. It helps match the pedal to different amps. Kept constant here. Presence (internal trimmer, not on the outside of the case): Further shapes the top end. Kept constant here. I recommend watching Helmut Bibl's YouTube channel where the Tube Zone is used likely in any video. Other than that I also attached a link to a relatively old demo by ProGuitarShop (see below).