Unusual - but useful - pedal combination

[mrpinter]

Quite a while ago I ditched my oversize Pedaltrain Pro and downsized to a bunch of small boards, each populated with pedals that suit different musical moods I get into or objectives I want to realize. I've got one for funky stuff with a phaser at the end of the chain; another with chorus and reverb; another with a modulated delay; one for simplicity consisting of a tuner, overdrive and tremolo.

I just built out a new one, with the new Gray Channel dual overdrive and the Organizer, both by Earthquaker Devices (plus a pedal tuner, of course). The Gray Channel is a pedal with lots of different voicings - none of which sound like a TubeScreamer LOL. It's a pretty fantastic sounding pedal. And the Organizer is an up and down octave device and organ simulator. It is not at all a one trick pony, but can emulate lush and spacious church organ or B3-ish sounds, as well as do the octave thing very nicely. With a light touch of octaves and a little "choir" setting it is chorus-like. Together the pedals can sound huge, like an octave fuzz or a raging pipe organ. I am liking it a lot. Here it is:

Anybody else here like small, dedicated boards?

 

[Cagey]

I like large, dedicated presets with multiple scenes  :icon_biggrin:

 

[mrpinter]

I'm not sure what that means, but if I need more variety I can just put a couple of my little boards down on the floor. They each have Volto rechargeable batteries so they don't need any access to power. But, no presets.

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure what that means

I have an AxeFx II, which is a multi-effect/amp/cab modeller that allows me 384 "presets". A preset is a some combination of some number of all those things programmatically connected together however you'd like. Within a preset, you can have up to 8 "scenes". A scene is sort of a "group command", if you will, that allows you to turn on/off or modify parameters of any/all the devices within a preset with a single switch.

 

[mrpinter]

Probably nobody in a noisy bar would be able to tell the AxeFx from the real thing, but would you/do you record with it?

 

[Cagey]

You can, but as of yet I haven't.

I meant to mention in the earlier post that I think what you're doing with your pedalboards is a good idea. I think more people are going that route, if they don't do the multi-effect thing. I know one of my buddies has gone the multi-pedalboard route like you have. Has several of them, each set up to suit a particular instrument or gigging situation. Saves on carry weight and size, rather than lug around one big monster that does everything plus 8 things you don't need it to do.

 

[mrpinter]

One thing I'm struck by with these simple two or three pedal rigs is how versatile they actually can be - especially modulation units. I can often use tremolo instead of a chorus and be happy with that, and a delay can serve the same purpose as a reverb. The phaser, not so much, although it can get a sort of chorusy sound if set right. Using these mini boards forces me to focus more on playing, rather than just chasing after sounds.

 

[TBurst Std]

It's funny, I read the 1st post, and I thought 'this guy would love an AXE-FX'. Then Cagey beats me to it.  I will say the AXE-FX is hands down the single best musical purchase I ha e made.  By the way, my JH Audio Pro 16 IEMs are the second.

 

[mrpinter]

Interesting. I just watched (and listened to) a blind comparison of the Axe-FX II and three amps on Youtube - including a 5150, I wasn't familiar with the other two. They gave the answers to which was which at the end of the video. The sounds were impressively similar, but I picked the real amp in each case. Just sayin'.

Here is the link to that video (but be warned, the guy's language and even his tee shirt is offensive): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EtxHlJ2FPo

 

[Re-Pete]

Interesting. I just watched (and listened to) a blind comparison of the Axe-FX II and three amps on Youtube - including a 5150, I wasn't familiar with the other two. They gave the answers to which was which at the end of the video. The sounds were impressively similar, but I picked the real amp in each case. Just sayin'.

Here is the link to that video (but be warned, the guy's language and even his tee shirt is offensive): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EtxHlJ2FPo

Ha, that's Glenn Fricker.  Dude throws down a lot of attitude but at times his videos pop up some good topics. All from a metal slant however.

I'm sure you know of other formats around that also do amp sim work. Kemper, of course,  & now Line 6 have recently released a Helix system which has been getting good reviews.

A LOT of these comparison videos play on the metal high gain amp simulations. But I'd love to see some comparative work done on clean amp sims. The thing that got me about my Kemper is the clean amp profiles of the Fender Deluxe Reverb, Roland JC120 & Fender Twin Reverb amps.

That was a real surprise when I started working through the profile lists. I suppose, because I had physically heard these amps before, I was able to compare the profile easier and gain a greater appreciation of the closeness. Like many here, I haven't heard a Deizel or Engl amp up close so the profiles, while impressive, mean little to me in terms of accuracy.

Within the realm of pedals there's still the Wampler & Tech21 amp sim pedals to go to as well, if these more advanced systems aren't you're thing. And that's not even appraising what can be done 'in the box' with a DAW and an amp sim program.

 

[mrpinter]

I'm sure that the sim boxes are a lot better than they were even a short while ago. I guess when it comes to music gear I'm kind of old school. Funny, because I've converted to digital with my cameras - which I'm as picky about as I am with my guitar stuff. I find it kind of interesting and telling that these contraptions (sims) are all about replicating other - usually analog - gear, and especially anything with tubes. There is certain to be a lot of sonic territory that could be traveled digitally that the older technologies couldn't compete with. Are all the good sounds already the province of tube amps and stomp boxes?

 

[Re-Pete]

I'm sure that the sim boxes are a lot better than they were even a short while ago. I guess when it comes to music gear I'm kind of old school. Funny, because I've converted to digital with my cameras - which I'm as picky about as I am with my guitar stuff. I find it kind of interesting and telling that these contraptions (sims) are all about replicating other - usually analog - gear, and especially anything with tubes. There is certain to be a lot of sonic territory that could be traveled digitally that the older technologies couldn't compete with. Are all the good sounds already the province of tube amps and stomp boxes?

I think the tube amp sound kinda cornered the market for a large number of genres of guitar music. So the digital replicators head in that direction to maximise their dollars spent in research.

Mind you, there are digital replicas of the old analog synths, some even done by the original gear's manufacturer. Roland & Moog have certainly gone down that path with re-doing their old legends in a digital format.

You are right, there is a lot of ground that digital technology can cover that these guitar amp sims don't. But the players and public want certain sounds, and it seems that mostly (but not all) comes from a tube amp or a transistor solid state amp. I imagine, for example, that a pure FRFR hi-fi amp made for guitar would sound horrid. You would want to compress the headroom dynamics down and involve high & low frequency cuts to get rid of the 'noise' that electric guitars & amps normally don't amplify.