Hello!
My name is Tibor and I want to show you in this video why I believe
to have the perfect pedalboard.
Yeah, very presumptuous, I know ...
Of course, everyone has its own subjective standard.
For example, to me it is unimportant if the board is particularly compact as long as it can
be transported in a case.
Likewise, my dream pedalboard does not have to be as clean and tidy or as cheap
as possible.
I personally think the following criteria is important:
It should be easy to use to recall the different sounds
as quickly as possible. All pedals should be robust.
In particular, the sound quality of the effects matters the most to me
which goes along with the last point, namely having as many sound options as possible
starting with classic reverb through to totally crazy soundscapes,
anything what comes to your mind should be possible,
But you'll hear for yourself what I mean by that.
If you are only interested in certain effects, take a look at the video description
There I've listed all the time stamps for every individual effects pedal.
First, I want to explain my general setup
Then I'll give you an overview regarding the pedalboard
and then I examine the individual effects and showcase their sound briefly, too.
To get these pedals to their full potential you should
apart from a halfway decent guitar of course have a good amplifier, too.
The amp certainly has the biggest influence on your basic sound, followed by your
guitar and finally the cabinet used.
No effects pedal in the world can offer you a superior sound if the sound of your guitar
is shitty without any effects.
Currently, I mainly use a Schecter Backjack SLS C-7 -
a 7-string, that meets my needs by having passive
pickups that can be split.
One is a Seymour Duncan Full Shred and the other a Jazz humbucker, so
this means I can affect the sound of the guitar itself quite much.
For amplification I use the VX Kraken by Victory Amps - regarding its size it is sure
a wolf in sheep's clothing and a sly dog.
Lastly, the proper cab for this amp is called V212VV - also by Victory Amps.
All the sound samples I will record with two SM57 mics.
Let's have a quick listen!
(Without any effects pedal)
Yo, that's the "clean" channel. Technically speaking, there really is no true clean channel,
there is only gain 1 and gain 2. Gain 1 is already, well, I think at 10:30 ...
Yup, 10 o'clock. It's pretty crunchy already.
But as I said: With this guitar I can also switch to the jazz pickup, then we have ...
this sound. If I turn down the volume a bit,
it gets even softer and if I split the pickup, then ...
Ok, so much for the basic sound.
Now let's look into the board.
In the middle there is the MXR Iso-Brick.
This small inconspicuous box acts as the power supply of my pedalboard.
This power supply delivers up to 2700 mA for the connected devices; it has 10
isolated outputs, including 6 outputs with 9 volts, 2 with 18 volts and 2 with a steplessly variable
control with 6 to 15 volts.
For example, with this control you could
simulate that a connected fuzz pedal has a low battery, therefore you could
pimp the sound a bit if you want to.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the iso brick has a sturdy metal case and
doesn't need active cooling, even under full load.
It's just a f * ing power supply. So we don't need to scientifically overdo it.
Ok, next - you could easier overdo it with this thing:
The Boss ES-8 Effects Switching System.
The ES-8 is the central control unit of my board
You can connect up to 8,
after a firmware update even 9 different pedals to this unit
and simultaneously switch one or more of them on or off.
So you don't need to do a tapdance onstage if you want to switch more than 2 pedals
at the same time
Characteristically for Boss, on the ES-8 itself you sure could tap because this thing is
robust like a tank.
Yeah, this monster takes up a lot of space on the board, but trust me, it's worth it!
There are 8 patches per bank that you can program via USB on your computer or -
a little more cumbersome - with the buttons on the unit itself.
The ES-8 offers enough space for up to 100 banks of 8 patches each; you had to
play a veeeery veeeeery big set with umpteen different effects combinations
to push your limits here.
Strictly speaking, you are not really switching your connected units on or off, but
you activate them as needed, because each pedal is located in a separate fx loop.
Therefore, the connected pedals must always remain switched on.
Ingeniously, within the ES-8 you
can change the order of the individual fx loops per patch without needing to
replug your devices every time.
Of course, the ES-8 can also send and receive MIDI messages,
which I use frequently to control my Strymon pedals
that we will check out later. For example, I can use this function to
send several MIDI commands to different MIDI channels by activating a single patch,
to recall some effects, so send out a specific tempo to all devices or
even to change individual parameters that otherwise I would have to adjust
via the control knobs.
In addition, you can operate your effects pedals or your amplifier by
using the various expression and control outputs of the ES-8.
By connecting a stereo cable to one of the control outputs you can even send out 2 commands
to the same device.
A peculiarity of my amp is that it has 2 independent gain and
master channels.
That's why I can, for example
program within the ES-8 that a certain patch will activate gain 1 and master 2,
another patch will activate Gain 2 and Master 1 and so on.
And with that, of course, I save myself an extra pedal.
Well, from Victory ... I have not even unpacked it yet
That came along with the amp back then. With this I could switch Gain 1/2 and Master 1/2 as well,
and this is exactly what I can program with the ES-8 and so I do not have to
control something here.
There are many more features but they are beyond the scope of this video.
I certainly never want to go without a looper again.
Ok, so much for the control unit. This has yet nothing to do with the sound and the pedals.
That is next up on the agenda.
Let's go through the whole thing along the effects loop, from the guitar to the amp,
Let's just go through that from the front to the back.
So, the signal goes out of the guitar first and then into the Chromatic tuner.
This is not a device you can use to tune your chrome-plated car parts ...
but a simple tuner.
Then the signal from the tuner goes into the input of the ES-8 and
from there it is distributed to the individual effect devices.
Their order is irrelevant as I mentioned,
because you're still be able to change it via the ES-8.
If I want so switch on several or even all effects pedals I usually use
the following order.
In the first effects loop there is my wah pedal.
The Cry Baby CB 535 Q.
One of the most versatile wah pedals with great sound.
On the right side there is a larger control knob which determines the frequency center of the
Wah effect, as well as a small boost knob which you can adjust the signal volume with
for example, to boost a solo.
On the left side there are 2 small control knobs - with one you adjust the volume
of the boost button we just saw
and with the other knob you define the bandwidth filter.
Next there is the Boss Noise Suppressor,
a device for noise reduction.
This pedal has its own effects loop which a small compressor is located in,
namely the MXR Dyna Comp.
It makes sure that quite sounds are amplified and loud signals are muted.
Depending on the setting, the sound will be more or less compressed - that's why
it is caled compressor - and the guitar signal sounds denser, volume differences get
decreased and notes ring out slightly longer.
Due to this circumstance unfortunately unwanted noise gets heard easier,
so it makes sense to use that pedal in combinaion with the NS-2.
Let's take a listen to a bold example ...
Yeah? Now you aren't hearing much. But if I turn off the noise suppressor ...
that is a completely different game, right?
The next pedal is Boss's equalizer GE-7.
Being distinctive for equalizers, it allows you to regulate the volume of certain frequencies,
so for example, you can lower the bass and raise the treble ....
Now we'll do it the other way around.
Especially in combination with other effects you can create a very special sound with an equalizer
or mute unwanted frequencies.
Additionally, you also can use the GE-7 to boost the signal, thanks to the level control on the right side,
for example during a solo.
But you can also use this boost by kind of adding an
additional channel to your amplifier.
In my case, next to my crunchy 1st channel and the heavily distorted 2nd channel I get
a sound somewhere in between.
To achieve that I activate the pedal in combination with my 1st channel and get this sound.
You get the impression that I'm playing with a distortion channel,
THTHTHTHTHTH CHANNEL
Although it's actually my clean channel, which I also can play something like this with.
The next pedal is the Sub n Up from tc electronic.
It is an Octaver, that - as the name suggests -
adds octaves to your signal.
So you can make your guitar sound like a 12-string or like a bass guitar.
With the Sub n Up you can change the volume of 4 signals and blend them
into another: the dry output signal of your guitar, one octave above, one octave below,
and even a signal that is 2 octaves below the note you are playing.
Uber-rad, I think.
Of course it gets even cooler when you play distorted.
As you may have noticed at the end,
the Sub n Up works reliably even when playing chords.
That is working so well because we are currently using the so-called Poly mode.
There is also a Classic mode, which behaves like an analog octaver.
This mode has its difficulties with always keeping track of chords correctly.
In the middle position, the Sub n Up offers the so-called Toneprint mode as well,
which can only be edited via a free app or,
even more detailed, on your computer.
The big advantage is that you can choose between a large selection of modulation effects,
in addition to the core function, the octaver.
You want a quick sample?
Let's go on with a pretty brutal device: the Kaputt Monkey Fuzz by Leaf Audio.
This lethal pedal can't be purchased to this day, it only can be put together during a workshop
by Leaf Audio, which I warmly recommend to everyone,
to get an insight into the interior of effects units.
The Kaputt Monkey Fuzz delievers not only a totally sick name but also a crazy sound.
Very important: do not use it in combination with an overly distorted signal.
If this is not deadly enough for you and you would rather create a doomsday
you should combine the Kaputt Monkey Fuzz with an octaver.
Now that our guitar signal has come back to the ES-8 via the last smaller effects unit,
from there it is sent to the input of the amplifier.
Like almost every amp the Kraken also has its own fx loop,
which will be used to connect the remaining pedals.
Especially when it comes to time-controlled effects like modulation, reverb and delay you want to add those effects as possible
clean as possible onto the guitar signal which previously got its individual sound from the amplifier
and got distorted if required.
If you would go the other way around and for example
place your reverb in front of the distortion even your hall will be distorted.
Finally, located within this fx loop of the amplifier
there are the 3 bigger Strymon effects pedals on my board.
Even though these devices are extremely versatile, on closer inspection they are very specialized
in a certain effects type
and soundwise they're really fantastic.
All 3 Strymons offer countless banks with great presets and
options as well as essentially 12 machines each, adjustable with the knob
on the left side and defining the basic character of the chosen effect.
During the following sound examples I will briefly show you each of these 12 machines.
You should always keep in mind, that each machine can be be modified manifoldly
and that each of the Strymon devices offers several presets
of each machine.
The only downside here is that it is not possible to combine several machines
within one device.
Due to the almost infinite combination possibilities of the 3 Strymons
I've never seen a big problem and I'm glad to be able to cover
such a broad sound spectrum with only three devices.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Strymons are controllable via MIDI.
That's why I can recall certain presets on the ES-8, set a specific tempo or
even change individual parameters of the effects.
First, the guitar signal goes into the Strymon Mobius,
a modulation pedal with many different, partly common, partly very crazy effects.
Out of the 3 Strymons on my board it is probably the most versatile one, but take a listen yourself.
After the Mobius then the Timeline follows, a delay pedal.
Again, we'll take a listen to the 12 machines.
Before the signal is sent back to the amplifier
and is amplified for the cabinet, last but not least it goes through the BigSky, a reverb pedal,
generating first and foremost beautiful reverb.
Let me briefly summarize the whole thing
and collate it with my criteria from the beginning of this video.
The board can be easily operated via the central control unit, so with only
one single step I am able to switch the amp channels and at the same time
control multiple effects pedals or even change their order.
All shown devices also have a sturdy metal housing.
The most important thing still is the sound.
Of course you need a good amplifier and a halfway decent guitar.
So as long as you are satisfied with your basic sound, this setup will surely satisfy you.
If you don't overdo it with the compressor, you'll never
get any unwanted noise
and you can just enjoy the crystal clear sound of your guitar.
And as for the diversity of effects,
we only scratched the surface in this video.
We do not even have heard the Strymons with much distortion or combined with each other
and yet the sounds were already extremely versatile.
From classical chorus to fuzz to the atmospheric delay you can pretty much
create everything that comes to your mind - or create sounds that you have
never heard before.
If you want to check out more sound examples take a listen to the songs on my
channel where I am using my effects pedals in various combinations.
Additionally, I have listed every effects unit from this video for you
in the video description.
If you're planning to get one of these pedals and if you want to support me
you can get them with the links in the video description via Thomann.
And of course I'm just as happy if you leave a comment, a like or a subscription.
That's all for now. Thank you for watching and until next time. Ahoy!
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