Joyo American Sound Pedal

Dooblay

New member
Being a man with limited resources and a seriously under-spec laptop to contend with, I am always looking for ways in which to free up processing power as much as possible.

This led me on the fx pedal in the thread title - the Joyo American Sound. As far as I can gather it's supposed to emulate a Fender amp (can't remember which one), and to my amateur ear it sounds excellent.

I've also recently added a Tone City Tiny Spring reverb pedal which I love. I'm now able to record some great sounding guitar on a very low budget.

So my question on this fine Sunday afternoon in Scotland is...what are your rigs for DI guitar tracking and have you used any of the pedals mentioned, or any others from the same manufacturers/series'?
 
My guitar player has a few Joyo pedals and has no complaints about them. I would have worried about reliability being an off-name brand and all, but in the 3 years I've played with him, they haven't failed.

For home studio stuff, I use a digitech RP150 to emulate stompboxes; i don't use the amp sims on it anymore. Nowadays, I go into my UAD Apollo and use either a Fender Twin amp sim or a Dietzel amp sim. Both sound wonderful.

For live gigs, well, I don't play guitar live, but that might change soon and if I do, I'll use the same digitech pedal then go into a Laney VC30. I do play bass live and for that, I just bought the Ampeg Opt-compressor. What a great little compressor!! It just sounds.... right.

I started using the RP150 many years ago for the same reasons you are; money, or lack of. Little by little I got some nicer stuff, but still have a use for the RP150.

:cool:
 
Some nice stuff in there Chili, the ampeg looks a cracking little unit. I've never had any bass peripherals, always just track straight into Reaper and do some light tweaking with eq and compression, maybe a little distortion.

But I suppose I should think about getting something similar at some point! I'm sure a bass version of the Joyo is out there if I look, and as with most things these days I'll probably find good quality for little outlay.

It's all fascinating stuff for sure ?
 
I've got a Digitech RP355 that I got from a friend. I've never used it for anything.... it just sits in a box next to my desk. I guess I'm just too impatient to figure out how to program the darn thing to get anything usable.

Whenever I have tracked guitars (and bass) direct, I have pulled out my trusty old PODxt. Its got all the effects needed, chorus, reverb, vibe. Its my main way of tracking bass. I usually pull up the Bassman model and play around with it a bit. Nothing fancy, but it works for me.
 
I had both a Joyo American and AC Tone pedals. Recorded some just using the AC Tone and my Tele into a 5" monitor (Behritone C50A) and it was a fun experiment. Used it for a couple DI recordings but they are lost in time. My friend got the American pedal. Pretty sure the Joyo pedals are probably partly responsible for Tech 21/SansAmp getting out of the Character Series business (unfortunately, a market they created).

My first emulator rig was a Tech 21 Trademark 10. That thing was a gas, and that series probably spawned the individual Character Series pedals. Pretty good when mic'd on some settings.

For a few years (playing in a church with "silent stage") I used a Line 6 Pod HD400. That was a very realistic pedal and had a great feel - better than the Joyo, but of course it was like 15 or 20x the price. Also came with a load of FX. Also had a Line 6 M5 I used for recording for a while. Also used a Line 6 MicroCube both mic'd and going direct from the headphone output. Not as organic as the models in the HD400, but fun. I can say that, IMO, used with a decent ear, they're all capable of giving a useful track. Even the amp/pedal sims in most modern DAWs are going to work for many tracks, though likely not satisfy someone used to pushing a real amp.

My ears can't take any of that anymore, so now I just struggle with trying to record a single acoustic guitar, and that's challenging enough...
 
rCan't say I'm recording anything at the moment, just noodling. But I do have the Joya American (ripoff of the Tech 21 Blonde) and a Tech 21 British (Marshall in a box). I think the actual Tech 21 does a better job, but thn I don't have the real Tech21 Blonde to a/b it with the Joyo. My understanding is the Joyos are generally noisier, and you're more likely to get a lemon. That being said, I still plan on getting some more Joyos just because I can't afford the real things. I want a Clean Glass, AC Tone, California (and a Vintage Overdrive - I've got the Sweet Baby). I still want a Tech21 SVT (it does a really good Keef sound). I could skip the Clean Glass if I could afford what I really want which is a Wampler '65 Blackface.

If you want a cheap Bass Di, get a Behringer BDI21. It's a clone of Digitech's Bass Driver, but it's dirt cheap and it's good. But I guess it depends on what kind of a sound you want.

I've got a few friends that have RP1000s and RP500s, and they love them. What I've heard of their stuff, I'm not impressed, but I think that might be more user error on their part.
 
Talisman - I've never used a pod myself, used to have a behringer v-amp pro back when I had college loan money and next to zero sense of how to spend it properly. I gather the helix stuff is where it's at these days, but not a chance I'd spend that amount of money on something like that.

Keith - Sorry to hear (no pun intended) the ears have gave up on you, seems like you had mega fun with all manner of different devices. I'm 37 and it's only the last few years that has seen me research stuff in any meaningful way, which now annoys me no end since I picked up a guitar at 12. Criminal really...

However recording acoustic guitar is something else I'll be delving into. It's 95% room and mic choice/placement from what I've come to understand, which is an art form in itself!

Cardio - That's good to know about the Behringer DI, actually seen that the other night scrolling through thomann but took no notice at the time. I always feel bass is the least difficult to get sounding decent in a mix, hence why I've never had the urge to get a dedicated unit.

All interesting stuff here chaps, when I get round to recording some stuff with the joyo I'll be sure to post some clips and hope they do some justice to the vast experience present on the forum ?
 
Well, I've got an original POD, and a V-Amp 2 (and a Johnson J Station, yes i was an early adopter) but I'm sure those have been left in the dust by modern stuff.

I do like noodling with them though, because you turn on different presets and are presented with some pretty bizarre sounds that you would never come up with yourself.

Yeah, that doesn't make for much in the way of recording, but it's just fun to play with and you really can get creative.
 
Yeah I remember some of the madness saved on the presets...'aye ok behringer I'm not trying to record piper at the gates of dawn' ?

I probably only used a couple of different sounds from the v-amp pro, again I wish I had the interest in gear and 'a sound' back then as I do now. I'd put money on this joyo having a far superior sound to that chunky rack-mount pain in the hole.
 
See, I love sound, and always looking for that ultimate, but I also love exploring the weird 'early Floyd-esque' sounds.

Sometimes I just like to set the controls for the heart of the sun.
 
If you want a cheap Bass Di, get a Behringer BDI21. It's a clone of Digitech's Bass Driver, but it's dirt cheap and it's good.
Naw, man. It's a (near) clone of the Tech21 SansAmp Bass Driver complete with the XLR output but missing a couple of the switches. I have never tried the original of that specific unit, but most of their clones are pretty much nuts on. I bought it hoping it would give me a decent SVT emulation without having to carry my old V-amp rack mount or my computer, but there's something it does in the top end that I don't love. The emulations of the SansAmp thing that I've tried do similar, so I don't think it's Behringer's fault. In fact, the last time I needed a portable bass rig, I ended up just bringing my Behringer TM300 which is their clone of the SansAmp GT2 which was my first "proper" amp sim back in the late 90s. I used the original GT2 for years on both guitar and bass and got really decent results, but it's getting really old and acting like it. The Behringer is indistinguishable to my ears, and I use it fairly regularly. Just that and a powered PA speaker, and I'm ready to rock.

My actual first "amp sim" was a Korg G4 Leslie Simulator, which was pretty sweet and made a distinctive sort of amp overdrive even when the swirly part was stopped. After that, I got the GT2. I also had the SansAmp Tri-OD which actually had the same 3 amps as the GT2, but each had its own knobs and you could switch from one to the other with a stomp switch kind of like a multi-channel amp. Around the turn of the century, I moved to Behringer V-amps. I actually shot out the original in the store against one of the early Pods and some other unit and decided I liked its Vox sound best. They sent me the chips to upgrade it to the V2 for free. Later I added the Bass version, and a little bit after that I got both of them in the rack-mount versions.

Nowadays, though, I just plug into Reaper and use software amp sims, both in the studio and live, except in those instances where I can't be bothered to carry that whole rack so I just grab the Behringer pedal and go.
 
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If you want a cheap Bass Di, get a Behringer BDI21. It's a clone of Digitech's Bass Driver, but it's dirt cheap and it's good. But I guess it depends on what kind of a sound you want.

I got the BDI21 last week Cardio, had a couple of hours with it last night on Reaper. First thoughts were decent but forget about using it for distortion, but I'm not too fussed about that considering it's price.

The bass part I was recording didn't turn out too well, but that's probably because it's a very intense, funky sort of bass line. Hammer on-s and sliding from F# to B did not take too kindly, but maybe I was too aggressive with the settings.

That aside I think it will be a good addition on more simple/laid back parts. So thanks for the recommendation.

Think I now have the pedal bug so I will upgrade in due course :)
 
Well, I'm not a distortion guy, but I thought I could dial in a fairly -SVT-ish sound if I wanted, and that's about as close as I get to distortion.

Mainly, it just warmed it up a little to sound somewhat tube-like, which is what I wanted.

There's also the Tech 21 VT.
 
Overall the BDI21 is pretty decent, even in distortion, except that it’s got some extended high frequency response that puts out just a bit too much sizzle and fix for my tastes. You could lowpass around 8K I think and make it a lot better, but that means it’s not exactly all-in-one which is quite a bit less convenient for me. And I mean, I bought it kind of specifically for a Big Black tribute set which is kind of supposed to be trebly and harsh, but not quite like that.
 
I personally have never pushed it to that, and my needs are simple. And my ears are shot.

I've got something more expensive, a Groove tubes Brick, that some guys rave about for a bass DI, but that's only for really clean sounds, and I don't even like IT as well as the cheapie BDI21.
 
That's about what I'd be looking for aswell, just a nice slightly hot bass signal. The Tech 21 stuff is a bit pricey at this stage, but I did see the Eden WTDI for under 100 GBP. That looks like a winner considering it's labelled as a bass AND acoustic DI.

Anyone any experience of the Eden?

EDIT - This was in reply to cardio 3 posts back
 
Overall the BDI21 is pretty decent, even in distortion, except that it’s got some extended high frequency response that puts out just a bit too much sizzle and fix for my tastes. You could lowpass around 8K I think and make it a lot better, but that means it’s not exactly all-in-one which is quite a bit less convenient for me. And I mean, I bought it kind of specifically for a Big Black tribute set which is kind of supposed to be trebly and harsh, but not quite like that.

I'll certainly spend more time with the unit and figure out the best way to suit it to my music. The 8K low pass is noted, thanks for that.
 
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