Category: The Hermit’s Cave

“The Hermit’s Cave” is my little home recording studio. This is a general catch-all tag for anything about me and my gear.

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#TweedTone: ToneX One Offers A Great 5e3 Tweed Deluxe Sound – At A Price

I’m lucky enough to own a physical Tweed Deluxe amp. I also think that a Tweed Deluxe amp rig for home use has become so expensive in 2023, it’s difficult to justify. So I’ve started looking at alternatives, to see how they compare to the real thing.

This time around, I’m looking at one of the most hyped products of 2024: IK Multimedia’s ToneX One profile/capture playback pedal, and a stock 5e3 Tweed Deluxe profile/capture that comes free with it.

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#CoffeeAndKlon 41: My Lesser-Heard Klones Roundup

#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.

This week, what was meant to be a very quick look at a recent klone purchase somewhat spiralled out of control … and turned into a (very brief!) catchup on all the klones that I’ve picked up in the last couple of years.

I’ve got a few more than I realised, especially considering that I (supposedly) stopped collecting them back in April 2020 when I got my Ceriatone Centura!

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#CoffeeAndKlon 40: Using The MP Audio Blue Brit As A Second Boost Stage

#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.

Today, I want to feature MP Audio’s Blue Brit Overdrive pedal, and show how it can be combined with a Klon klone to shape and craft a tone even further.

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Studio Diary #55: Tackling Noise In The Axe-FX 3 Pedal Platform Preset

‘Studio Diary’ is an occasional series where I talk about building a home recording setup for hobbyists and enthusiasts like us. I share my personal experiences, and the thinking behind some of the decisions that I’ve made along the way.

Fractal Audio have recently overhauled their amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 / FM-9 / FM-3. And my recent dive into the Orange Getaway Driver has shown me that I need to revoice my signal chain. I’m taking this as an opportunity to re-evaluate everything about the pedal preset I’ve built for the Axe-FX 3.

Back in July, I tackled the major cause of noise by sorting out the gain-staging for my pedal platform preset. However, that hasn’t completely eliminated all noise in the signal chain. (Some noise is inevitable.) What can I do about the noise that’s still getting through?

That’s what I’m going to look at in this blog post.

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Studio Diary #54: The Challenge Of Keeping Up With Fractal Audio’s Firmware Releases

‘Studio Diary’ is an occasional series where I talk about building a home recording setup for hobbyists and enthusiasts like us. I share my personal experiences, and the thinking behind some of the decisions that I’ve made along the way.

Fractal Audio have recently overhauled their amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 / FM-9 / FM-3. And my recent dive into the Orange Getaway Driver has shown me that I need to revoice my signal chain. I’m taking this as an opportunity to re-evaluate everything about the pedal preset I’ve built for the Axe-FX 3.

Today, I want to briefly talk about the consequences of (what is probably) Fractal Audio’s greatest strength: their regular stream of firmware updates to make their products get closer and closer to the real amps that they’re replacing.

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New Arrivals: August 2024

I had a (very minor!) bit of emergency surgery at the end of July, which really limited how much time I could spend with the guitar this month. At the time this is published, I’m pretty close to being fully recovered, and looking forward to getting a few more blog articles written.

I did pick up a couple of pieces of gear to try. It’s fair to say that I had mixed feelings afterwards …

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