Tone. At Home.
I wasn’t supposed to buy anything at all this month. Christmas is fast approaching, and I’m one of those people who gets their Christmas shopping done super-early. Which, indeed, I have done 🙂
Then I found a couple of real bargains, and decided that I didn’t want to pass up those opportunities. Oh, and I needed a new power supply for my pedalboard too.
(And I got a sneak peak at a very special guest that’s coming before the end of the year!)
Continue reading “New Arrivals: October 2024”Earlier in the summer, I went out and bought Apple’s Logic Pro (in part) because LUNA lacked support for virtual instruments (like drum plugins) that had multiple output channels.
A couple of days ago, Universal Audio released LUNA v1.7.0. The big feature? They’ve finally added multi-output plugin support.
My other reason for moving away from LUNA still stands. UAD’s plugins are prohibitively expensive for an amateur band like ours who collaborate remotely.
But for my solo projects (if I ever actually get round to them … 🙄)? I do love tracking guitars in LUNA …
I’m just prepping the audio for an upcoming blog post, and I thought it would useful to document how I go about it …
… because there’s a couple of gotchas that I’ve run into, that I don’t want to forget about.
And if I didn’t know this, maybe it’ll help someone else who needs to do the same thing? Or maybe someone who knows better will see this and leave a comment with helpful advice?
Continue reading “Studio Diary #43: How I Level-Match Demo Tracks In Universal Audio’s LUNA”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m doing a rundown of what home studio gear I’ve used this year, and why.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021][2022]
Continue reading “2023 Review: Home Studio Gear”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m writing up a rundown of what pedals I’m using, and why.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021][2022]
Continue reading “2023 Review: Pedals”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.
Last time out, I sat down and built a preset for my Axe-FX 3 that gets pretty close to the speaker emulation in the UAFX Woodrow amp+cab sim pedal. My real Tweed Deluxe amp sounded really good through that.
Today, I want to continue tweaking the preset, to see if I can get my real amp sounding even better.
Continue reading “#TweedTone: Can I Dial In A Better Speaker Emulation For My Tweed Deluxe Amp?”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’ve got a different kind of question that I want to explore. Can I recreate the UAFX Woodrow’s speaker emulation in my Axe-FX 3, using only the stock cabs?
And why would I want to?
Continue reading “#TweedTone: Can The Axe-FX 3 Reproduce The Speaker Emulation Of The UAFX Woodrow?”‘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.
This time around, I want to answer a question that nobody has asked me. Why am I using DAW plugins for delay and reverb, instead of my Axe-FX 3?
Read on if you’re interested in my thinking behind this decision. And if you’re not interested, no worries 🙂
Continue reading “Studio Diary #39: Why I Use DAW Plugins For Delay And Reverb On My #TweedTone Comparisons”I’ve just finished writing up both my First Impressions of the NUX Sixty-Five and my look at Universal Audio’s UAFX Woodrow Tweed Deluxe amp simulator pedal. Seeing as both are on the board at the minute, I thought: why not get some Strat tones out of both, and see how they compare?
I think this is worth doing. As much as I love tweed tone, there might be times where something else is a better option for me. And clean-ish Strat tones just might be one of those times.
Read on to find out what I think (with audio demos!).
Continue reading “#TweedTone: UAFX Woodrow vs NUX Sixty-Five For Stratocaster Tones”This month, the second-hand market has completely taken off. After what seems like years of me saying that there wasn’t much interesting stuff out there (well, interesting to me, anyway), I saw at least twenty different pedals that I would have loved to experience.
In the end, I got precisely none of them. I’d already picked up a couple of extra items back in September that I didn’t get to use until this month. And they’re both pretty fine, in my honest opinion.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: October 2023”