Tone. At Home.
#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.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 40: Using The MP Audio Blue Brit As A Second Boost Stage”I recently bought an Umbrella Company Hitchhike Drive pedal.
What do I think of it? Read on for my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Umbrella Company Hitchhike Drive”‘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.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #55: Tackling Noise In The Axe-FX 3 Pedal Platform Preset”I recently picked up one of the pedals on my bucket list: the Rockbox Baby Blues vintage distortion pedal.
What do I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Rockbox Baby Blues Vintage Distortion”‘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.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #54: The Challenge Of Keeping Up With Fractal Audio’s Firmware Releases”#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.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 39: A Deep Dive Into The JRAD Archer Clean”This is a second (and lengthy!) look at the LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 that I recently bought.
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.
Continue reading “First Impressions: LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 Overdrive As A Main Overdrive 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.
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!
Continue reading “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.
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]
Continue reading “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.
Most pedals that interest me will work best into a clean amp – either my 65 Clean preset or (for many tweed-tone pedals) my 57 Vintage preset. Every now and then, though, I take a look at a pedal that’s designed to run into a dirtier amp.
That’s where my JTM preset comes in.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #50: Dialling In The JTM Amp & Cab”