Using Guitar Pedals For Mixing

Today I have a quick tip that can make mixing a lot of fun.
Use guitar pedals for mixing

Plugins are great but its just not the same as running sounds through real analog circuits. You can send sounds out of your audio interface, tweak the pedal settings and even 'play' the pedal to do realtime automation. It can be a lot of fun to work this way.

For the demonstration I've recorded an electric guitar directly into my DAW with Amplitube for amp and cabinet simulation. I'm going to then run the signal through an Electro-Harmonix Memory Boy analog delay pedal.

Here is the sound of the direct guitar.
Direct Guitar
Here is the guitar with the Amplitube plugin added (stereo, amp+speaker+mic)
Guitar + Amplitube

Now I'm going to run the sound through the pedal. To do this in your home studio you need an audio interface with a couple spare analog outputs, if your interface has 4 analog outputs, that's perfect.
Connect a guitar cable from output 3 of the interface to the input of the pedal. Connect the ouput of the pedal to one of the instrument inputs of your interface (usually in 1 or 2). In this case, I'm going from output 5 through the Memory Boy and into input 1 of my Profire 2626.

In the DAW you need to tell the signal where to go. Most DAWs will have a plugin for hardware inserts. In this next example I have the hardware insert before the amp, just like if I had the pedal before the amp. When you do this remember to keep the mix control of the pedal to about 50% or less, you still want to have the clean guitar get through.
Hear how it sounds with the delay before the amp
Guitar + analog delay insert

There's another way to use pedals and that's as a separate FX track. Add a new mono track to your project. You can either use the the hardware insert plugin again and have the other tracks send to this track, or set the track to monitor the analog input and have the other tracks send to the analog output.

Here I have the guitar track sending to my delay track, which has the hardware insert plugin set the same as before. The direct guitar signal goes into amp plugin, then to the master output. The signal from this track is also going to the delay track. It then goes into the insert plugin, out the interface, into the delay, (set to 100% wet, no clean sound) and then into the interface and to the same track. I hope this makes sense. The benefit of doing it this way is you can blend in as much of this signal as you want. You can also use plugins before and after to shape the sound independently of the original tracks. Also, you can send multiple tracks in at the same time.

Here is the guitar through the delay as a send. (delay after the amp in the chain)
Guitar + Delay Send

And finally, here is what the delay track sounds like soloed.
Delay Return Soloed

I hope this has been helpful.

Distortion Explained Part 2

Distortion Explained Part 2
Part 2 of this article covers the differences between various types of guitar distortions - Overdrives, Fuzz, hi-gain and more. Part 1 is here.

Distortion Pedals

Overdrive/Crunch

Some distortion effects provide an “overdrive” effect. Either by using a vacuum tube, or by using simulated tube modeling techniques, the top of the wave form is compressed, giving a smoother distorted signal than regular distortion effects. When an overdrive effect is used at a high setting, the sound’s waveform can become clipped, which imparts a gritty or “dirty” tone, which sounds like a tube amplifier “driven” to its limit. Used in conjunction with an amplifier, especially a tube amplifier, driven to the point of mild tonal breakup short of what would be generally considered distortion or overdrive, or along with another, stronger overdrive or distortion pedal, these can produce extremely thick distortion. Today there is a huge variety of overdrive pedals including the Boss OD-3 Overdrive.

Overdrive Distortion

Overdrive distortion is a well-known distortion. While the general purpose is to emulate classic “warm-tube” sounds, distortion pedals can be distinguished from overdrive pedals in that the intent is to provide players with instant access to the sound of a high-gain Marshall amplifier such as the JCM800 pushed past the point of tonal breakup and into the range of tonal distortion known to electric guitarists as “saturated gain.” Some guitarists will use these pedals along with an already distorted amp or along with a milder overdrive effect to produce radically high-gain sounds. Although most distortion devices use solid-state circuitry, some “tube distortion” pedals are designed with preamplifier vacuum tubes. In some cases, tube distortion pedals use power tubes or a preamp tube used as a power tube driving a built-in “dummy load.”
The Boss DS-1 Distortion is a solid state overdrive distortion pedal.

Fuzz

Fuzz was originally intended to recreate the classic 1960’s tone of an overdriven tube amp combined with torn speaker cones. Oldschool guitar players would use a screwdriver to poke several holes through the the guitar amp speaker to achieve a similar sound. Since the original designs, more extreme fuzz pedals have been designed and produced, incorporating octave-up effects, oscillation, gating, and greater amounts of distortion. The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff is a classic fuzz pedal.

Hi-Gain

Hi-Gain is the sound most used in Heavy metal. High gain in normal electric guitar playing simply references a thick sound produced by heavily overdriven amplifier tubes, a distortion pedal, or some combination of both–the essential component is the typically loud, thick, harmonically rich, and sustaining quality of the tone. However, the Hi-Gain sound of modern pedals is somewhat distinct from, although descended from, this sound. The distortion often produces sounds not possible any other way. Many extreme distortions are either hi-gain or the descendants of such.
An example of a hi-gain pedal is the Line 6 Uber Metal

Power-tube pedal

Power tube distortion is a unique kind of saturation when tube amps output stages are overdriven, unfortunately this kind of really powerful distortion only happens at high volumes. A Power-Tube pedal contains a power tube and optional dummy load, or a preamp tube used as a power tube. This allows the device to produce power-tube distortion independently of volume.
An example of a tube based distortion pedal is the Ibanez Tube King
 

Another way to distort

Digital Wave Shaping

The word clipping in recording is usually a bad thing. And generally it is, unless we’re trying to distort something on purpose. In the digital world we can use powerful wave shaping tools to drastically distort and manipulate a sound. Rather than subject you to the technical explanation of how it works, just listen to Nine Inch Nails, they use this a lot. It’s perfect for really harsh, aggressive, unnatural and broken sounds. The Ohmforce Ohmicide plugin is an example of this style.

Why Is This Important?

Alright, so why did I just explain those different types of distortion sounds? Because knowing those sounds can help you be a better musician, engineer and producer. It will help you make decisions on what gear to purchase and what is appropriate for a song.

What Else?

Besides guitar what else is distortion good for? Well, pretty much anything, as long as it’s appropriate for the song.

• Slight distortion can make something sound more exciting, too much can sometimes make it really tiny sounding.
• When recording electric guitars, you can get a way bigger sound by using less gain and recording the same part multiple times, double or quad-tracking.
• Distortion can sound really cool on drums, but you may have to heavily gate the drums, the sustain can get out of control.

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Bones™ - Built for players that LOVE great tone! Bone's represent the evolution of the solid state pedal with low-noise 'Tonebone' circuits, pop free electronic switching and tough 14-guage steel construction.


There are 5 pedals in the Bones line: London Distortion; Hollywood Distortion; Vienna Chorus; Texas Overdrive; Twin City ABY switcher.

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Hollywood Dual Distortion

• Variable drive gain distortion
• Modeled after 'American' tube amps
• Dual mode for clean, rhythm & lead

London Dual Distortion

• Multi-stage high gain distortion
• Modeled after 'British Plexi' half stack
• Dual mode for clean, rhythm & lead

Texas Dual Overdrive

• Variable overdrive and tone
• Vintage to extreme overdrive range
• Dual mode for clean, rhythm & lead

Vienna Chorus

• Old school analog bucket brigade chip
• Dual channel for quick choral changes
• Individual Rate and Depth for each chorus channel

Twin City ABY Switcher

• Buffered ABY with Drag™ load correction
• Isolated output eliminates hum and buzz
• 180º polarity sets both amps in phase

Check out the Radial Bones pedals and more at Revolution Audio