How To Run Your Pedalboard Direct

hey everyone i'm david with blackbird and in this video we're going to cover everything you need to know in order to run your pedalboard direct we're going to go over pros and cons of a direct setup as well as give you six different setup options at different price points now be sure to stick around to the end of the video because you have a chance to win a blackbird pedalboard along with one of the pedals we use in the video that'll help get you started in building your own direct board and without any further ado let's go ahead and get started [Music] [Music] [Music] to help us better understand how to run a pedalboard direct i am joined by none other than the ambassador of ambience casey tommerlin if you don't know who casey is you should check out his youtube page he does a bunch of really cool pedal soundscapes and ambient loops and everything he does is captured direct from his board so casey what we just heard was coming straight off your pedal board no amplifier i think we can all agree it sounded pretty good before we dive into how you're able to get such a great direct tone what are some of the pros and cons to running a direct setup some pros are running direct would be no more stage volume you don't have to worry about the sound guy or anybody else on stage telling you to turn your amp down because it's too loud this also can be an advantage for home use as well you can have late night jam sessions in your house without bothering your neighbors two would be a lighter carrying load you don't have to carry an amp around anymore and if you're like me that likes to run stereo or use multiple amps this can definitely save on your setup time and your back three is more control and consistency over your tone since you're not using an amp you can take the struggle out of getting your amp to that sweet spot or break up volume at different clubs or venues you also don't have to worry about tubes going bad or speakers blowing out all the maintenance that amps would need is no longer a factor when running direct some cons would be there is no immediate monitoring available so you'll have to use some studio monitors or a headphone amp to be able to hear what you're playing and two you won't have your exact amps tone if the majority of your sound is derived from your amp trying to emulate it might not yield a perfect match so as a small caveat if a majority of your sound is just a guitar running through a cranked amplifier running direct may not be for you this is more for musicians who are looking for a consistent low volume lightweight rig so if you're a giga musician and you play a lot of different gigs you're not sure what the back line is going to be or maybe you're playing in a venue or a church that requires a very very low stage volume running direct would be a good solution all right so we have a pedal board here this is what we're going to use to run direct this is like our baseline board it's got an overdrive chorus delay reverb pretty basic we're going to keep this consistent throughout the video and before we start running this direct this is what it's going to sound like played through a fender blues junior mic with an sm57 [Music] [Music] so [Music] all right let me take a shot at this if i had to turn this pedal board into a direct pedal board and i was playing live i think the first thing i would try is simple i would plug the output of the board into one of the house's di boxes if it works for acoustic and base it should work for electric too right [Music] no god please no no no no all right so that didn't uh that didn't work um sounded sterile kind of dead uh what did i do wrong well if you're not going to use an amp you really need a pedal or pedals that emulate what your amp does yeah okay i got it now [Music] so i need to replace my amp easy i'll just plug my board into an overdrive pedal and as drive level eq it's basically an amp at your feet [Music] oh [Music] okay so that didn't uh work so great either um better but not quite there uh what do i have to do to get a realistic amp sound out of my pedalboard well to replace your amp you really need to understand how your amp works and to do that we should go to the whiteboard to the whiteboard when you plug into an amp there are several parts working together to create your tone the first is the amplifiers circuit the circuit is broken into two sections the preamp and the power amp the preamp is where amp's voice comes from this is where your signal is colored and shaped to give it the amp's distinct sound from here your signal is sent to the power amp the power amp's job is to increase the signal from the preamp to a higher voltage and drive it to the speaker the speaker and cabinet are the last piece of the tonal puzzle the number and size of speakers as well as the construction of the cabinet can have a big impact on your tone so there's a lot more to a guitar amp than just making things louder when it comes to running direct you need to find pedals that can emulate each part of the amplification process you need a pedal that will replicate the voicing of your amps preamp as well as a pedal that can emulate the power amp pushing your signal to a speaker and a cabinet all right now that we know what we need in order to replace our amplifier we're going to go over six setups at six price points to achieve that now keep in mind there are hundreds of pedal combinations that can do this there are guitar processors modelers that will replicate your amps exact tone we're choosing these specifically because they can be added to an existing pedal boards that means they're in pedal form and they're pedal board friendly these are also some of our personal choices since we've either used them or had first-hand experience on them and i think these are gonna be things that will allow you to easily adapt your current board to a direct setup so our first setup is gonna be our most affordable one it's gonna pair any standard overdrive pedal with a di box with a built-in cabinet simulator for this particular setup we are using a joyo ac tone into a husing ketna redbox pro the ac tone is a vox and a box pedal that will emulate an ac30 and the red box is a solid di with a very simple cabinet simulator built in no bells and whistles here but being able to buy both pedals used for around 70 dollars and the ability to use an overdrive pedal you already own gives you a very affordable entry into running direct [Music] [Music] this setup is great for those looking to start learning direct on the project but you do lack a lot of control with the simple plugins setup number two is for those who have very little room on their board and are looking for an all-in-one solution to running direct this is the daytripper from muer's micro prem series like the joyo this one also emulates a vox ac30 but this pedal has a built-in cabinet simulator moore makes a bunch of these handy pedals voice after iconic amp circuits and at only a hundred dollars this tiny pedal can easily be added at the end of your signal chain to achieve a classic amp sound heck you can even add two for a simple direct stereo rig [Music] like the red box setup these mirror preamps do not give you any control over the cabinet simulation but get you a very usable direct tone in my experience it's fairly easy to get a good preamp sound out of a pedal it's a lot more difficult to get a convincing cab sound out of basic cab simulator capturing the nuances of what your cabinet does can really help sell your direct tone so yeah that brings up a new topic which we haven't talked about which are irs ir stands for impulse response and it's basically like a digital snapshot of your cabinet the speaker microphone and even the room in which you're playing those components through now with the rise and affordability of digital processors you're seeing a lot more irs in pedal forms and they really provide a very convincing cabinet sound that can really fool even those discerning ears so with that in mind for setup number three we're going to introduce an ir loader to our direct signal we will still use the more day tripper for our preamp but this time add in a more radar pedal to the mix the radar has 30 speaker models 11 mic models 4 power amp models and even the ability to load custom irs into it via its usb connection for 250 combined the extra control and depth the ir brings to your signal can allow you to sculpt a much more believable tone here's how the setup sounds through a few the radar's presets [Music] [Music] an ir will allow you to emulate some really high in gear but one knock on irs is that you do not have any on the fly control [Music] now let's move on to setup number four this time we are going for ultimate cabinet control unlike irs where your settings are locked in the new neighbor icona class gives you an almost unlimited amount of tweakability in real time the iconoclast is a hands-on speaker emulator with an even deeper amount of control through new neighbor's included software you can control everything from eq and cabinet size to how the speaker interacts with the amplifier as an added bonus it will also allow you to run in stereo we'll pair this with a couple different types of overdrives to show just how much the iconic class can shape your sound for between 300 and 400 these combos will give you maximum control at a small footprint on your current pedal board [Music] so [Music] [Music] one thing i love about this setup is the stereo inputs and outputs you can get all of the benefits of a stereo rig without having to lug around two amps [Music] setup number five is a very popular choice for an all-in-one solution it is the strymon iridium amp modeler and ir cabinet the iridium offers three iconic amp simulations and a total of nine ir speaker cabinets by having all controls in a single box you get impressively realistic amp tones at a very small footprint you can even load in third-party irs through strymon's included software at only 399 the iridium is the perfect blend of size and control for running [Music] [Applause] direct [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Applause] the iridium is great because you can't get a bad tune on it sherman has paired each amp model with matching cabinets to make it incredibly plug and play without having to dive into menus to dial in a great tone now we're on to our final setup this is going to push us a little further down the tonal spectrum giving you an almost unlimited amount of control over your direct signal it is the line 6 hx stone coming in at 600 the stomp gives you the full use of the coveted helix guitar processor in a smaller compact size perfect for pedal boards you can have up to eight amplifier cabinet and effects blocks running simultaneously with dozens to choose from and have the ability of patching in a wine range of presets and third-party irs from classic amplifier models to stereo effects loop the sky is the limit with the hx stump [Music] yes [Music] this is what i personally use on my pedal board and i feel it gives you the most control over your sound as you can get past the price tag it is hard to beat the stomp in functionality and tunnel all right there you have it that's six direct setups at six different price points now to give you a point of reference what we're gonna do is we're gonna play all six setups back to back so you can kind of see how those compare [Music] so which setup do you prefer is there one that really kind of sounds the best to you casey i know you're biased you would choose the hx stump right so leave a comment of which one you think is the best one or maybe we left one off that you're currently using that you do like now if you've always wanted to build a direct pedalboard but you haven't started yet we've got a pretty cool giveaway if you click the link in the description it'll take you over to an entry form where you can win a 1224 blackbird pedalboard with gig bag along with the strymon iridium that we use in this video so between the two you can probably put together a pretty cool direct setup this is not a sponsored post this is us just spreading some pedalboard love to the gear community so be sure to put your entry form in also to subscribe to our channel we're going to be doing more videos and hopefully more giveaways so you want to make sure you're on top of that my name's david that's casey thanks for watching and remember love your petals

Channel: Blackbird Pedalboards

Views: 26,758

Keywords: pedalboard, blackbird pedalboard, direct pedalboard, run direct, direct setup, strymon iridium, chase bliss audio, neunaber, iconoclast, guitar pedalboard, pedal board, hx stomp, line 6 stomp, mooer daytripper, mooer radar, red box pro, ambient, lofi, reverb, delay, sublime guitars, fender blues jr, boss dd-7, strymon sunset, chase bliss warped vinyl, warped vinyl, giveaway, gear giveaway, guitar giveaway

Id: HTSytMzGyRU

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021