The Search for Guitar Amperfection, Part 1

Intro

I will cover my own search for studio recording guitar amperfection: magical, delicious tone that feels authentic, satisfies the ears, and records well. I have hyperlinked a lot of information in this post, in case you're interested in following the white rabbit.

Purists

I am NOT a purist. Tone is tone, regardless how it was created. My only combo guitar amplifiers -- ever -- have been:

1. Peavey Backstage 30 (high school)
2. Peavey Bandit (Saturation!)
3. Roland JC-120, which I used for a decade
4. Johnson Amplification JM60
5. Gibson Goldtone GA15

Only one or two are considered "real" amps, depending on your level of snobbery. All of them were sold or given away a long time ago. The JC-120 and the Goldtone were gems. Both have gained a lot of respect over the years. (Roland still makes the JC-120!)

I will gloss over the amps I've listed above, since I recorded so little with them. They were great live amps. The Goldtone is the only one I still wish I had, and would likely use it in the studio today if I still owned it. This post is more about finding amperfection for recording in the studio.

Simulators: A Sonic Shortcut

I first started using "modeling" technology with the purchase of the Yamaha FX770 rack multi-effects processor, which included amp simulation. I recorded two albums worth of guitar-based music with it. The guitar amp/cabinet simulations were quite musical. The stereo effects were great, and the interface was easy-to-use. And, as with many other pieces of gear I've owned, I didn't realized how spoiled I was until I sold it. It was a piece music-making gold I abandoned for greener pastures.

Amp Modeling: The Next Generation

Next, I purchase a Line 6 POD 2.0. I owned it during a recording dry spell. I only managed to record one song called "Thrusters" (under the Goocher moniker). This was also during a financial dry spell: I sold the POD. I liked it a lot, but I parted with it for bread.

Soon after, I bought a much less expensive knock-off called the Behringer V-Amp, which turned out to be surprisingly useful and well-made. I recorded one song with it called "Oliver's Travels, Part 2" (again, as Goocher).

During the same period, the Johnson Amplification J-Station tabletop amp modeling unit was on sale. Johnson couldn't realistically complete with Line 6's juggernaut POD amp modeler, so they were selling the J-Station at fire sale prices during this period. The J-Station was built like a tank! A musical acquaintance from the (original) MP3.com days, Jeffrey Ryan Smoots, used a J-Station on one of his instrumental albums.  I was inspired.

Like the kidney bean-shaped POD of that era, the J-Station imposed odd limitations on the simultaneity of certain effects, like compressor and chorus... or something along those lines. I suspect this was a limitation of the DSP horsepower of the day.

Attack of the Floor PODs!

Let me get this out of the way right now: I am HUGE fan of Line 6. Huge! Their products have always been well-designed, intuitive to use, and powerful.

Starting with the POD XT Live, I have owned all of the top-of-the-line floor POD models in succession. The last two -- HD500 and HD500X -- weren't as sonically impressive to my ears. However, the incredible routing power and flexibility of the HD500s still makes my head spin. They are amazing works of engineering. (I suspect the forthcoming Line 6 Helix will make up for what the "HD" models lacked in sonic nuance and dynamism. The Helix seems to be a VERY powerful floor unit within its price range. Looks sexy, too.)

O.M.G. = The Axe-Fx Ultra

I don't remember how I first heard about the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra. Perhaps the shock of owning, hearing, and recording with an Ultra wiped out my memory.  I remember listening to YouTube videos, and reading artists hype it and describe using it. So, I took the leap, and ordered the Axe-Fx Ultra directly from Fractal Audio.

This cannot overstated:
If you have never experienced the Axe-Fx, you truly do not know what you are missing. I am at a loss how to follow-up that statement with descriptions of how awesome the Axe-Fx Ultra was. Receiving it, setting it up, then finally plugging in and using it was a mind-bending experience. I had never heard such amazing, dynamic, breathing, perfect tone. I'd say "unbelievable", except that I actually owned it and was hearing it with my own ears.

Since my Yamaha FX770 days, I have tended to build amp/cabinet + effects patches from the ground up. I very rarely start with a factory preset. Because of this, and the fact that I never found optimum placement for the Ultra, I ended up using it much less than I intended. It was the Porche of guitar amp modelers + effects, and I was treating it likewise: "parked" in my studio, kept in pristine condition, and very rarely "driven".

O.M.G. x 2 = The Axe-Fx II

When the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II was announced, I impulsively decided to sell the Ultra so I could "upgrade". (A friend bought my Ultra. Only now -- in late-mid-2015 -- he is appreciating the sonic power he possesses in the Ultra. He wants to buckle down and learn how to program it more completely.) Again, I ordered directly from Fractal Audio -- the only channel through which I could purchase one.

The Axe-Fx II was like the Axe-Fx Ultra on steroids. If the Ultra was perfection, then the II was super perfection. Amazing, wonderful tone. Every single patch -- even crazy, weirdly-wild ones -- breathed like they were alive. (You don't master an Axe-Fx; you respectfully partner with one.)

I used it live on several occasions and -- predictably -- received compliments and queries every time. I used it minimally in the studio, because I was not actively recording at that time. Shame, really. What a magical piece of technology.

"I've Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription Is..."

A home studio. I decided I needed to invest in my home studio so I could record. I sold my Axe-Fx II and a ton of other music gear and bought what I needed (sound conditioning, rack gear, decent monitors, etc.). Oddly -- and now thankfully -- there were a handful of items that would not sell. Among them, the Line 6 M13 Stompbox Modeler and the BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion (which I will cover in Part 2).

Enter The Amp Farm

I will end Part 1 of this series with a picture of the "amp farm". It is simply a tabletop (thus easy-to-reach!) arrangement of guitar effects and amp emulators I use in the studio these days. With this setup, I can achieve the sounds I hear in my head. I will go into more detail in Part 2.

The "Amp Farm"

A tabletop arrangement of effects and emulators.

The Big Bad BOSS vs. Behringer Battle!

Intro

I have owned a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra (long sold) and I currently own an Axe-Fx 2. I bought the Axe-Fx 2 several years ago. If you haven't experimented with an Axe-Fx personally, then it is difficult to understand how superior it is to everything else. I don't mean "slightly better than a Line 6 POD HD500X". I mean the the Axe-Fx is in a category which it alone occupies. It is that much better. Really. The subtle and complex sonic detail, the incredible dynamic depth (every patch "breathes"), the amazingly nuanced and faithful amp modeling, the signal quality (which reflects the top-of-the-line components comprising its innards), etc. If you have been skeptical about the Axe-Fx, you are justified, because there is nothing against which it can be fairly compared. I bought the Line 6 HD500 when it was introduced. I already owned an Axe-Fx. By comparison, the HD was a piece of crap. (I'm a huge Line 6 fan; owned and loved the X3 before owning the Axe-Fx Ultra.) I updated the HD's firmware faithfully, but really it never had a chance. It lost the "battle" before I bought it. No firmware upgrade changed its fundamental sonic character, anyway. Perhaps the Eleven Rack comes a little closer, though I doubt by much.

Exposed to the phenomenal Axe-Fx, why would I create an old-fashioned pedalboard comprised mostly of the cheapest effects pedals money can buy?! (Though, notice the BOSS pedals creeping into this pedalboard! What can I say? BOSS is king of pedals, as far as I'm concerned.) I wanted to tweak a chain of old school pedals, where, sonically, every physical adjustment "fixes" the sound, and every tweak is a one-to-one relationship between knob and effect.

And, I felt like a kid in a candy store while building it!

Chain

The signal path flows from lower right to upper left, in the shape of a Z. I will review separately each of the following pedals. For this entry, I focus on the ordering of the effects in the chain, with only cursory discussions of each pedal.

BOSS FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster (not shown) -- mono in / mono out

-=[{ Start: Behringer PB1000 Pedal Board }]=-

BOSS TU-3 Chromatic Tuner -- mono in / mono out

BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion -- mono in / mono out

Behringer TM300 Tube Amp Modeler -- mono in / mono out

Behringer NR300 Noise Reducer -- mono in / mono out

Behringer SE200 Spectrum Enhancer -- mono in / mono out

Behringer SP400 Super Phase Shifter -- mono in / mono out

Behringer CD400 Chorus Space-D -- mono in / stereo out

Behringer FL600 Flanger Machine -- stereo in / stereo out

Behringer TP300 Ultra Tremelo/Pan -- stereo in / stereo out

Behringer EM600 Echo Machine -- stereo in / stereo out

Behringer RV600 Reverb Machine -- stereo in / stereo out

BOSS TE-2 Tera Echo -- stereo in / stereo out

-=[{ End: Behringer PB1000 Pedal Board }]=-

Focusrite Scarlette USB (not shown) -- stereo in / USB-to-computer out

Build

The Behringer PB1000 Pedal Board is equal in quality to BOSS'es plastic pedalboards (I own both). Without modification, it can house 12 BOSS-sized pedals. The PB1000 comes with enough connectors to handle most scenarios, though my setup was stereo-heavy which required ordering extra patch cables (Hose 3 inch right angle patch cables, via Amazon). The foam, which covers the floor of the pedalboard and comes with 12 cut-outs, each the size of a BOSS pedal, can be modified by cutting shapes for differently dimensioned pedals. I did not need to modify mine, since I intentionally bought pedals that would fit.  When I replace the Behringer TM300 Tube Amp Modeler with a Tech 21 SansAmp GT2 (which Behringer blatantly copied), I may need to carefully modify the foam to accommodate the GT2's width.

The build of the pedals (i.e., BOSS vs. Behringer) cannot be effectively compared. Please see my reviews of the BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion and the Behringer TM300 Tube Amp Modeler where I discuss build quality in detail.

Sound

Surprisingly, Behringer has created a series of gems. Most of the Behringer pedals seem to be answers to much more expensive pedals with similar (and, in some cases, identical) features. The Behringer pedals you see on my pedalboard are the best pedals Behringer offers, in my opinion. They all do their jobs very well, and they sound great. I "weeded out" other Behringer pedals I deemed too noisy or disruptive (e.g., clipping)--even with effect turned off--to keep in the signal path. A few others were too generic in nature to be useful to me.  Others I simply replaced with superior pedals. * Of course, BOSS pedals are always high-quality. Every BOSS pedal I've placed in this board will probably never leave it. What you see (pictured) is as close to sonic perfection as I could get... on a budget. It really is a blissfulicious configuration.

0) BOSS FB-2 Feedbacker /Booster: Wonderful as a booster, especially with its dialable tone center. I use it primarily to add a touch of sparkle to my sound, to liven and define the guitar signal. I also use the Feedbacker feature occasionally, which creates natural feedback even at low volumes.

1) BOSS TU-3 Chromatic Tuner: Best, most user-friendly, and toughest, chromatic tuner money can buy in its price range. It adds no coloration, mutes while tuning, and, like all BOSS pedals, provides pristine signal buffering at all times.

2) BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion: Please see my separate review of this pedal. 

3) Behringer TM300 Tube Amp Modeler: Please see my separate review.

4) Behringer NR300 Noise Reducer: Average-ish noise reducer pedal. I don't have extensive experience with noise gate pedals, though sonically it seems to do a decent job of lowering the noise floor when the DA-2 is engaged, without introducing distracting artifacts. For the price, it can't be beat.

5) Behringer SE200 Spectrum Enhancer: Interesting and unique-sounding effect with adjustable tone center via the SPECTRUM knob. You can see by my setting that I mix in only a small amount of the effected signal (BALANCE knob is set at a very low setting). This pedal is like a sweepable notch filter. I use it to add a touch of midrange presence on occasion, similar to how I use the BOSS FB-2, but this pedal emphasizes frequencies differently. The SE200 is a "secret sauce" type of pedal, and I like it.

6) Behringer SP400 Super Phase Shifter: Nice-sounding and highly adjustable phase shifter. I think I could dial in a setting to convincingly mimic almost any guitar part. You can see from how I've adjusted the SP400 that I like a specific, somewhat slow, upward-moving shift setting, which I use sparingly.

7) Behringer CD400 Chorus Space-D: This pedal is one of the stars in the Behringer universe. It creates quite a variety of lush, beautiful stereo chorus effects, and some crazy ones, too. On my Candy Store Pedalboard, the CD400 is the point at which the signal goes from mono to stereo. As a side note, I suspect the CD400 is an emulation of a more expensive chorus pedal.

8) Behringer FL600 Flanger Machine: This is another standout. It can produce everything from gorgeous stereo flanging to off-the-chain mayhem. I use it and the chorus almost interchangeably, though I tend to favor the FL600 when I need a field of flanging flavor. With the SP400, CD400, and FL600 all enabled at the time, I can create some weirdly cool and lovely ambience.

9) Behringer TP300 Ultra Tremelo/Pan: Transparent, and therefore awesome, stereo trem. Notice stereo in and out.

10) Behringer EM600 Echo Machine: My favorite Behringer pedal. I have a soft spot for well-done tape echo emulation, especially when it can be set via tap tempo. The quality and variety of the effects this can generate, including emulating weird feedback tricks while in tape echo mode, make it the best of the Behringer bunch. As with several other Behringer pedals in this series, I suspect the features of the EM600 were copied from other more expensive pedals.

11) Behringer RV600 Reverb Machine: A solid member of the reverb pedal pantheon. It has a selection of passable-to-good reverb settings. The HALL, CHMBR, ROOM, PLATE, SPRING, and '63 SP are probably the best, from a quality perspective. The DUCKING ducked too much, for my tastes, regardless of settings. The SPACE, CAVE, TILE, and ECHO are all usable, recordable novelty settings. I set mine to SPACE to add a subtle crystalline chimey "tail" when the muse beckons (e.g., ambient, and/or adding texture to the overall sound). Again, this pedal is probably a technology ripoff, more or less. Good ol' Behringer.

12) BOSS TE-2 Tera Echo: The vaunted Tera Echo can do no wrong, it seems. It sounds great no matter the settings. I really like the Tera Echo. As you've probably read elsewhere, the TE-2 is neither a reverb nor an echo, and yet it is both... kind of. The TE-2 adds a shimmery ambience which is difficult to describe. It responds to the dynamics of the guitar signal with an interesting, often subtle, modulating filter, where the modulation seems to be occurring on the echos as they tail off. Even my attempt to describe it is lame. If the opportunity arises, try one out, and make sure to mess with it for a good while to get a feel for its capabilities. I could easily use it as my only echo/reverb while playing live, as it adds much more than merely echo-like and/or reverb-like qualities, while somehow simultaneously filling both roles very well. The BOSS TE-2 Tera Echo is definitely a "secret sauce" pedal par excellence.

Conclusion

My little candy store pedalboard is the shiznits! Old school meets schoolofrock, all the way.

The Outcasts

* I tried the following pedals, then later donated. See the first paragraph of the "Sound" section above where this subject was introduced.

Behringer RM600 Rotary Machine: Loved it, but noisy when "off", thus unusable for me.

Behringer FM600 Filter Machine: loved this, but ran out of space on pedalboard, so bye-bye

Behringer US600 Ultra Shifter/Harmonist: another solid entry, but I had no practical use for it

Behringer CS400 Compressor/Sustainer: Okay compressor/sustainer, but didn't need it

Behringer PB100 Preamp/Booster: Clipped in "off" if GAIN set past "11:30 o'clock"

Behringer XD300 Distortion-X: Mediocre distortion pedal; nothing special.

Behringer DR600 Digital Reverb: Decent multi-reverb, but RV600 more feature-rich

Behringer FX600 Digital Multi-FX: A passable-to-good jack of all trades (and master of none)

Behringer TU300 Chromatic Tuner: Decent tuner, poor man's BOSS TU-3

The GoGo Chromaric Tuner: Very nice, sensitive tuner; fractional lights too coarsely spaced which prevents fine-tuning accuracy; great though for beginners

FOME Joyo JF-10 Dynamic Compressor with True Bypass: Very nice; realized I don't want nor need a compressor pedal

Review: BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion

Intro 

The BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion pedal was introduced at the 2013 Winter NAMM show in January 2013. At nearly two years old, it is not new by technology standards. However, it is still fresh and intriguing, and every bit as "cool" as BOSS'es 2014 introduction of their MDP (Multi-Dimensional Processing). In fact, MDP seems to be just a renaming of the "Adaptive" part of the Adaptive Distortion technology. In both cases (Adaptive and MDP), the internal processing adapts to both the frequency and dynamics of the guitar signal, processing different registers optimally to produce clarity, creating a sound with simultaneously greater dimensionality and focus. It is hard to describe, though very pleasing to hear. (BOSS has done a good job selling the sizzle about their Adaptive and MDP technology. I recommend checking out Sweetwater's page, as it has two videos: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DA2)

Build

First--and this can never be said enough--BOSS pedals are built incredibly well. They are solid little tanks, able to withstand the doomiest Heavy Metal apocalypses. Though they're not literally indestructible, they come darn close. They're made of thick, high quality sheet steel. They are shaped so thoughtfully that BOSS/Roland has not changed their basic design since the first BOSS pedals appeared way back in ancient times (1980s). They are essentially the same size, shape and dimensions as the BOSS pedals I first owned in the mid- and late-80s (the red Distortion and the yellow Overdrive pedals--I used them, along with a couple other pedals and a rack DD in front of a JC-120).

Sound

I have not owned an actual amp or amp combo in years. I record direct, and always go direct when playing live. So, I always use an amp+cab simulator of some kind. In this case, my DA-2 sits in front of a Behringer TM300 Tube Amp Modeler (which I affectionately call "the poor man's Sans Amp", and which I will review separately). The guitar used is a Jackson Soloist SLATFXQMG3-8.

I tend to overue this word: Delicious. To my ears, the DA-2 sounds delicious. Though I wouldn't characterize the sound enhancement as ineffable, it really does defy easy description. What I hear when I play through it is an added clarity. The harmonic components of the tone are more subtly distinguishable, yet both richer and somehow edgier. It facilitates clarity even on dissonant chords at high distortion settings. I like what this pedal is doing to my sound.

I started by setting all knobs to the "12 o'clock" position then experimented from there. The only significant adjustment I made since adding the DA-2 to my pedalboard is to increase the "A-Dist" setting to about "14:30 o'clock", which gives my sound just the right amount of Metal bite and sustain, plus a nice decrease in grit when the volume (knob) is attenuated to reduce the guitar signal going into the pedal.

Conclusion

The BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion is now a permanent member of my pedal parliament. With a booster pedal in front of it for soloing, the DA-2 is just about perfect.