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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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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#CoffeeAndKlon 39: A Deep Dive Into The JRAD Archer Clean

#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.

Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride … until now. It’s time that I finally take a deep dive into (perhaps) the most unusual Klon klone that’s out there.

Today, I’m discussing the JRAD Archer Clean.

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First Impressions: LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 Overdrive As A Main Overdrive Pedal

This is a second (and lengthy!) look at the LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 that I recently bought.

Walrus Audio 385, LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 and Mad Professor Little Green Wonder on my pedalboard.

I’ve already written a First Impressions on the Dutch ’24. In that, I said that I’d briefly tried it as a main overdrive, and was a bit meh about it. (You should definitely go and read that post. I was very happy with how it helped me address the top-end of position 4 on my Strat.)

When used as a main overdrive, I’m finding the Dutch ’24 both incredibly familiar and – at the exact same time! – quite different too.

It’s been bugging me ever since.

So I spent a couple of evenings at the start of the week comparing the Dutch ’24 against other pedals aimed at the blues-rock market.

Along the way, I fell in love with how the Dutch ’24 is its own thing.

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Studio Diary #52: Level-Matching The 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.

Now that I’m done with the gain-staging, I want to quickly cover level-matching scenes within the preset. I promise: this will be a much shorter post!

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Studio Diary #51: Gain-Staging Through The 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.

I’ve dialled in the amps and cabs for my 57 Vintage, 65 Clean and JTM pedal platform presets. Now I want to (briefly) explore the topic of gain-staging, and how it impacts my pedal platform preset (if at all).

[It turned out not to be a brief exploration at all – Ed]

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