Tone. At Home.
“The Hermit’s Cave” is my little home recording studio. This is a general catch-all tag for anything about me and my gear.
When I started building my own pedal platform presets for the Axe-FX 3, my goal was to recreate the sound of my old valve amp rig. I really wanted to demonstrate how these pedals might sound if you put them through your own valve amp at home.
I’m not trying to do that any more.
In this blog post, I’m going to do my best to explain why. Grab a drink, there’s a lot to talk through!
Continue reading “Studio Diary #46: My Philosophy For Building Pedal Platform Presets For Digital Modellers”Today’s the day I waved goodbye to my PreSonus Studio One subscription, and finally bought Apple’s Logic Pro to be my next major DAW.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #45: The Logic(al) Next Step”Today, I want to answer one question: can vintage profiling tech recreate the sounds of vintage amps?
Read on to find out.
Continue reading “Can The Kemper Profile Tweed Tone?”This month, I’ve picked up a couple of bucket-list tweed-tone pedals, a couple of new instruments to learn … and hopefully a replacement for one of the biggest disappointments that I’ve ever bought.
What did I get? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: May 2024”I recently bought a ToneX One pedal.
What do I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: ToneX One Modeller Pedal”‘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.
Before I get into detail about dialling in each amp and cab, I want to first discuss some more general things I’ve learned about impulse responses (IRs for short), and how that’s led me to some key decisions (or, if you prefer, design constraints) that I’m going to use to guide me as I dial in the amps and cabs.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #44: Key Decisions About Cab IRs”I’ve just bought a DanDrive Tweedy 5B3 overdrive / amp-in-a-box pedal.
I’m in shock over how good this pedal is (for me). Read on to hear why.
Continue reading “First Impressions: DanDrive Tweedy 5B3”Earlier this month, I picked up something a bit different – a new (to me) bass.
Talk about becoming a fish out of water! I am a complete beginner here, but as you’ll see, I think this might be one of the most important things I’ve tried for a long time. Why? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Spector Euro 5 RST Bass”I’ve just bought a Tweed Drive by True North pedals.
What do I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: True North Pedals Tweed Drive”#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, I want to share a new (to me) way of using Klons and klones. I’ve just given it a go, and I just have to write up the results for the blog. I think they’re very promising!
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 38: Using The Klon To ‘Fix’ Other Drive Pedals”