Studio Diary #58: Introducing The 65 Nashville 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.

Last time, I covered how I’ve split my old ’65 Clean’ pedal platform preset into two, by adding a new ’65 Vintage’ preset based on the two Deluxe Reverb amp models. Yeah, turns out there’s a bit more mileage to be had out of those amp models …

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Studio Diary #57: Splitting My 65 Clean Pedal Platform Patch In Two

‘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 recently took a look at Umbrella Company’s Hitchhike Drive tweed-in-a-box overdrive pedal. The whole blog post ended up being rescued by the Axe-FX 3’s Deluxe Reverb amp model. Since then, I’ve tried it with a couple of other pedals and had a similar experience.

A single ’65 Clean’ pedal platform patch clearly isn’t enough. I need to split it up into two separate flavours.

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Studio Diary #56: Selecting Delay And Reverb For My Pedal Platform Presets

‘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.

When I switched over to using the Axe-FX 3 as my pedal platform, I just dialled it in to sound as close as possible to my Neunaber delay and reverb pedals. Now it’s time to give it some proper thought, and make sure I’m happy with my choice of delay and reverb effects.

That’s what I’m going to be doing in this blog post.

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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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#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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