mixing with guitar pedals

dadikinwa

New member
Hi guys i just joined, i am starting a demo studio and wanting to build it up into maybe a release studio over time.
I am thinking of using guitar pedals as outboard effects.
Particularly a good reverb pedal like strymon or a spring.
Also ts 808 for distortion into an amp sim for bass etc.

Do you think it is worth the time over plugins.??

I am doing ala Black Keys indie blues for myself and recording local indie artists.

mostly the reverb i am using Arouser EL plugin for compression
but i feel pedal reverb might be better for a vintage purer sound over plugins?
I am using Hreverb waves atm
 
I think you should let your ears be the judge. No reason not to try.

I'd be curious to know if using pedals would create some artifacts in the sound or add to the noise level. You may still need to run a plug-in or two to clear up the final output when all is said and done.
 
I have tried this a few times but was not crazy about the results. In all fairness, I didn't keep at it enough to work some of the kinks out. I was using a Scarlett 18i20 and routing a track I had recorded out of one of the line outputs. Then into a pedal and into the a line input in the scarlett routed to a new track in my DAW. The result was sometimes cool but pretty damn noisy. Important to note though is that I skipped a lot of steps in doing this the proper way. I would imagine routing out of your interface, into a reamping box, and then into pedals would yield better results. There's a bunch of videos on youtube showing how to do this.

Something I've always wanted to try is manual-wah pedal on vocals. Anyway, I say give it a try. My guess is that you'll find you still need plugins because guitar pedals on anything besides guitars and a few other instruments will have a very distinct sound that may not be something you want on each and every song.
 
I would say only as a parallel effect track as pedal levels, etc aren't really designed for this use. If you're talking about a room type reverb for multiple tracks I think the results will be better if you pick up a pro or semi pro quality verb, either software or hardware. I never say no to trying stuff though. The Black Keys definitely have a White Stripes type of distortion on everything vibe so it might be perfect. I would probably high pass it to avoid mudding up the mix.
 
I had a Strymon blue sky reverb. I always wished they made that in a rack mount version. The plate reverbs were some of my favorites on snare. Quiet too. Really quiet. I always had it on an insert channel on my console.
But keep in mind this was an analog setup.
 
I had a Strymon blue sky reverb. I always wished they made that in a rack mount version. The plate reverbs were some of my favorites on snare. Quiet too. Really quiet. I always had it on an insert channel on my console.
But keep in mind this was an analog setup.

BbbBut the Blue Sky is digital! 96kHz DSP. Ok, IKWYM. That reverb pedal cannot be battery powered, pulls 1/4 of an amp so it can use high current, low impedance techniques to achieve much lower noise level than bog standard, 9V battery fed pedals.

In general, because pedals are neg ten devices for the most part, unbalanced and have poor to ***T noise floors, plugins all the way.

You don't really appreciate the noises you get with 'guitar kit', amps and such until you put them up against a 100dB dynamic range recording system in a quiet place.

Dave.
 
Which console?

What did you do about the mismatch in the impedance? Didn't this make quite a bit of noise?

Tascam m520.

Noise? Nope! Quiet as a church mouse. :D

Either I'd be running tape through the mixer or protools stems into the desk.
 
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