Been binge-ing on Iridium videos as I wait for my Iridium to get here and came across yours, Zack. Awesome tour of this soon-to-be classic bit of gear, especially how different (better?) it sounds with custom IRs. I've had a NUX Academy for about a year, and just bought a Boss IR-200 last week. Both of those units punch way above their price points, though I feel they each lack a certain... something that I hope the Iridium can deliver.
Definitely. The thing is: you're sharing a house with others, you can't blast them and the neighbours, so go in direct with the Iridium and you are going to get quality input from the get go with the 9 presets. No mucking around needed. It's there, tune and record. If you have a good DAW, you can colour it later, but the initial audio is going to be decent quality without even trying too hard.
Finally! A demo that does the high-gain features justice. I've been using the Iridium as the center piece of my amp-less rig. I play in a "dad" band that does classic hard rock and classic metal. This thing is phenomenal out of the box. I have yet to (i.e. have a toddler at home) play with different IRs, but I'm excited to see what other tones I can coax once I get to it. My two cents on why people complain that this is "not high gain" - the tone profile/gain structure is that of a Marshall (i.e. "dad metal"), not a 5150 or Mesa-Boogie. The Iridium takes pedals super well - I've tried a Klone and Echoplex-type preamp in front of it and the gain could go to infinity with either of those. Put an EQ after to refine the tone profile and you can easily change the character closer to that of the aforementioned "high gain" amps.
A really nice pairing to the Iridium is Strymon's Riverside drive pedal. Put that on top of one of the amp models set cleaner and it can become a real firebreathing beast if you want.
Where do you plug this in to play a live gig? Does this go next to say your reverb/delay on your pedal board then out into a live mixer where it feeds your monitor thru an aux out? This guy is going out into his interface to make this video!!!
Outstanding demo. I really love how great this pedal sounds, and it looks like you get a great amount of features and quality for the money. Also your playing is amazing!! Thanks for the video!
Best review of this pedal, as others have said. I’ll use the Middle control differently now on both Round and Chime modes due to your clear explanation of their unique functions. Have owned Iridium and Flint for sometime. Happy with both. Rock on.
I use it mostly on fender bc i am a clean tone fanatic with soaked verbs and tape delay. My god its so good. With a low gain riverside before.... Man this is such a solid rounded tone. I love it more than I did my tube amp with greenbacks.
Wanted to add too, that it generally holds its own against UA’s single pedals Dream, Lion, AND Ruby. ($1200 worth of gear). I have the Dream too… but I’m still keeping my Iridium!
I've got one, it's a good pedal foundation for going direct. You still want a nice DI box though and I find the Marshall to be a little underwhelming and the Fender is very dry. My favourite is chime (the Vox)
This is the best review of this pedal. Ive seen em all. Has convinced me to buy it. Im looking for one more thing. I know I can plug this into the PA. Or an FRFR. But Id like to see your thought on putting this into the effect loop return of a solid state and or tube amp, like a 2x12 with Iridiums stock Settings. I always wonder how these can be put through other speakers and retain any semblance of the modeled amp/cab. I see others attempting this. But you actually have the best review of this pedal. Keep up the good work. Could this be effective through say a H&K tubemeister 40 and a 2x12?
Thanks for watching John! You are able to disable the cam sim for running into an amps Fx loop return. You retain the amp modeling but you wouldn't really want to double up on cab sounds. I believe it's explained in the manual. It would work great.
Just started working with the Iridium. I would recommend an EQ pedal for the line that you feed to the house mixer. This will correct for any strange EQ curves the house engineer may make. They tend to EQ for the kick drum & vocals, and this may not be compatible for a guitar going direct. If you have an MXR 10 band, this will allow you to remove anything that sounds crappy in the venue or in your monitor. I have several options of guitar effects & amps, and once I got my Alto 2000 watt speaker EQed properly (cut 120Hz and rolled off 100Hz) the Iridium really sounded great. I found it to be a better option than an amp. You can't control what the house engineer is going to use for a mic, mic placement, his EQ settings. At least with the Iridium you have eliminated 90% of the variables you can't control.
An eq after such a pedal I found works wonders. I’m running an mxr ten band after a Joyo AMS and with that eq it sounds good. Looking to upgrade to an Iridium.
Great demo man. Seems like I am on a Strymon kick lately. First, the BigSky (mind-bending!). Then, The Lex (Does what it's supposed to for Leslie junkies and much more). I am waiting for a Deco on order. (I have no doubt that it will take me back to the 80s when I used a DOD rack-mount R-870 Flanger/Doubler plugged into 2 Roland Bolt 60 amps in stereo.) Now that I am just doing a solo thing with backup tracks into 2 BOSE S1 Pros, the Iridium will finish off my rig nicely with some easy and credible amp tones. Great job with this demo man. You kept it on point and about the product - NOT about how great your chops are or you trying to be a standup comic (as so many do out here). Thanks again. Looking forward to watching more of your vids. I subscribed and liked. Cheers.
I believe the name of the pack is called gods cab. It was a free download online, but I can’t remember exactly where I got it from. But if you Google that you should be able to find it.
Units like that can hold up for decades...if you want upgrade get the latest quality IRs(like york audio ones for example) and you get sound upgrades for as little as 10 to 15 bucks....the sound is mostly in the speaker anyway so instead of hunting for the next simulation(that nowadays are extremely close to begin with) with quality IRs you are literally set for life with these puppies...
like you I also have a electric guitar with a Piezo. I know you can use the piezo and run the pedal in bypass. but what about loading an acoustic IR and then trying the piezo with that? Have you ever tried that?
What about the new Boss IR-2 in comparison? Amp and Cab Sim IR, all in a compact Boss pedal. It's been hard to find it for sale out there. Boss just released it and stocks quickly ran out.
Hey Zack, any chance of a video or just your opinion on how the Iridium deals with pedals in your opinion? It has plenty of gain and versatility from the IRs, but how does that play with different boost and drive pedals?
Hi! Great video. Im thinking about getting one of these to play/record with headphones. How did you record the sound? connected the output of the pedal to the focusrit? Thanks
It’s good enough for chris shiflett on that pedal show recently. I’m selling my quad cortex to re buy an iridium. I prefer real pedals and amps. The iridium to me is more like a real amp and it’s simple.
Yeah I have it Dual-Locked to my spare DI but damn does it sound good. Haven’t had to use it yet since the Fractal is so reliable but I would trust it anyway.
I appreciate being able to hear these base sounds before you get into dressing up the sounds with different IRs and effects which obviously make it sound better. Simplicity is one of the big selling points of the iridium but the “potential” that comes with different IRs is probably the true selling point
I know you were outputting to the Focusrite for the purpose of this video, but would you also do so for recording? Or does it make more sense to use the multitude of software solutions through your DAW instead?
If you just want the sound of the Iridium then going direct into an interface gives you the purest signal. If you want something the Iridium doesn't offer, then that's what your plug-in library is for. It's just using the right tool for the job honestly. If I want the 3 amp sounds this pedal offers it's hard to beat it with anything else on the market outside the Axe 3.
I bought one about three months ago and it's become indispensable. Pretty much now my go-to amp for sessions and works really well with my pedalboard. Superb!
It sounds good. I would be hard pressed to buy this since I personally only use a Marshall and maybe a fender clean, but could get by with the Marshall clean. I would even put an overdrive or a couple boosts in front and a delay after it with a reverb if possible. I'm looking at the Boss IR2 and I think it might be more for me personally, but it does sound great and stymon obviously makes great gear ❤ Best regards. Tim.. ❤
@@ZackSeifMusic I hope you get to try one. The nice thing is the price. I think you can get one for about 175 bucks. It has 11 amps and cabs and you can load your own IRs if you want. Up to three I believe. Best regards sir. Tim...
This is 100% direct into my interface. No processing at all. It's just the pedal and nothing else 😄 Similar to how you'd hear it direct into a PA or headphones
Thanks for the review Zack! Question - if I have multiple pedals, can I run those signals to the Iridium, and from Iridium, connect it to the DI box, and have the DI box run signal back to my church's main PA system? Getting bit tired of lugging my amp around lol thanks!
Yes you can! Just plug the last pedal in your chain (either the Irdium itself, or maybe a time based effect like a delay that would normally go into an FXloop) into the DI box and you'll be set to go.
Best review of the Iridium I've seen. I was under the impression that the 3 cabs were the same regardless of the amp but youre saying there's 3 different cab algorithms/IRs for each of the 3 amps?
Hi ! Would you use the iridium at home for recording in a quiet environment over an Amplitube 5 max for example ? I mainly get my sound with effects pedals hardware, and I'm wondering what would be the best result to plug my pedal chain straight in my rme fireface... I have the amplitube 5 max already but not sure if this iridium actually have better results after my big pedal chain, several distortion/ fuzz and many others like phazer/ chorus/del/rev... in fact I' m searching for the best way to record at home with stomp boxes without disturbing anyone with a big tube amp that I don't have and don't want. Maybe you can help me find a solution ! By the way, Thanks for this great video. Peace
You would want to put any distortion pedals before the Iridium since it’s replacing the amplifier and cabinet part of your rig. You can still run modulation and time based effects after it in the software if you want. But if you’re using all physical effects pedals then yes you can put them before the iridium then plug the Iridium into your interface.
@@ZackSeifMusicthanks ! I still wonder if the result wil be better than using only Amplitube... Have to give it a try maybe... I didn,t try yet but yes i'd like to integrate my external (modulation and time based) effects in an effect loop inside Amplitube... mean running the pedals from a line out of the audio interface to line in and back to amplitube. Is there a way to do it with Amplitube ? Thanks a lot.
@@AxisChemicals It would require a REAMP BOX. Look into that. It allows you to send the proper signals from the computer, to an external amp, then back in with proper levels.
@@AxisChemicals If you got the Iridium you would need a reamp box to send Fx from your computer to the iridium and then also send the iridium back. You want to think about your set up the same way as a traditional guitar rig. So you plug your guitar into your compression, gain, and some of your modulation effects, then you would plug those into the front of the amplifier, and then you would plug the rest of your Modulation and delays and reverbs in the effects loop or in the studio afterwords. In order to re-create a proper signal chain, using all digital effects on your computer, you have to find a way to send your computer signal into the iridium and then from the iridium back into your computer. It won’t work if you plug the iridium into your computer and then use distortion pedals it’s not going to sound right and it won’t sound good because then you’re adding a distortion pedal after an amplifier and cabinet which you can’t do in real life ya know? So you have to figure out what it is you’re actually want to achieve and then see if the iridium is going to solve that issue. The iridium should be thought of as an amplifier and cabinet in a box because that’s exactly what it is. If you are also looking to record FX they have to be plugged in front of the iridium. The only ones that I would not plug in front of it are Chorus, tremolo, rotary, and then time based affects such as delay and reverb. You can have those in your software afterwards.
You can simply plug it straight into a board and then compensate gain on the channel strip on the mixer :) Does it help to have a DI Box? Yeah you can find a cheap one and send an XLR to you the board for correct impedance matching but it's not 100% needed as long as you can run a 1/4" cable to the board
I've been using an Iridium for a few years now... It has really held up well and has generally felt pretty inspiring most of the time. I've used some York Audio IRs that I really like, but the stock ones are pretty good too. I did find that a mild boost in front of the Iridium really woke it up. I use an EP booster always on. I LOVE that is can be controlled via midi. I'm sure there are better sounding emulations out there, but the Iridium does what I need easily and quickly without too much fuss and between the three models provided covers the bases I need. That helps me stay focused on making music rather than just tweaking all the time. I'm still very very happy with my Iridium.
Can you place this unit just in between the guitar and the regular speaker cabinet? So does it work like both the preamp stage and the power amp stage of the guitar head amplifier?
Great demo. I’m looking at several IR’s and none have everything I want. My board is 90% strymon and I really wanted to love this but I want more amp options. Jcm’s are my sound. I’d like to see an updated version of this pedal with tube option switch, mic option switch and more amp. NUX has two cool pedals they should combine into one pedal but no AC30 option 🤷🏻♂️. So ur from Nj too?
Unless they go fully digital it might be hard to have all of those options in analog form, which was the main draw of this pedal. It would be nice to see one more suited for heavier styles of music (Clean, Mid gain, High gain) with 3 channels or atleast 2 programmable options. Lots of companies are doing that these days and it'll keep up with the market.
Started comparing this with the Boss IR-200 which has more features and seems more versatile especially with its FX loop. But the boss seems less user friendly and quick to set up and it also seems like it’s just as easy to make it sound bad as sound good. Being able to use headphones matter to me but I also don’t want to deal with the issues that come with having to run delays or reverbs in front of the iridium. I’ve learned what that’s like just messing around with some pedals in front of my Yamaha thr practice amp. Good into a clean amp but chaos running into any higher gain channel. But if I do get the iridium I can see running the delays and reverbs after and into a Scarlett 2i2 or Volt(which I also don’t own but likely want eventually lol) and using that as my headphone source gaining the best of both worlds. Does anyone do this now? I don’t have space to bust out my monitors and go into those
It's a versatile pedal and equally versatile guitar! I get tired seeing demos with Strats and Les Pauls, so I decide to make my own with gear I would use and hope it translates well for others 😁
You can, but it'll double up your amp and cab tones and not sound the same. You'd want to plug this into headphones, a powered speaker, recording monitors, or into a power amp return for ideal operation.
The church I play guitar at just made me get rid of my amp and use this iridium so thanks for the walkthrough. What's the FAV left button for? Does that keep your favorite programmed setting for you? I generally play clean but would like to hit a FAV button on left for a preset grungier sound which is getting more common in christian rock songs. Any advice is appreciated and thanks in advance. :)
I've had an AX8 for some years now, and I'm seriously thinking about getting an Iridium and a Black Truck and be done with it, I would be amplifying it with a BAM 200 to a 2x12 open back cab, would it be a step down? Maybe, but the simplicity has to be worth something...
It depends on what you're trying to do. If you only need these three specific amp tones this is the best way to get them. However if you also need FX as well, sticking with a single unit in my opinion is just going to make your life easier
I kept thinking this guy looks so familiar, and so does that jp 15 😂, now I know where I know you from lol, great video man, I’m happy to see you still digging that jp too 🤘🤘🤘 subbed
Very well done. I’m looking for something like this where I can run extremely high gain (KSR Ceres) but also toggle and run effects for more ambient work. Question- when you plug the Iridium in to computer, does it launch its own IR loader app? Or do you have to integrate with 3rd party?
I just don’t get all this videos talking about how older gear becomes “bad” only because a few years have passed. IRIDIUM made great sounds when it was released. It still makes the same sounds today. They are NOT less good because other (newer) gear has come out. This vids are unnecessary. Please go further. Thanks.
I apologize that making a video about a price of gear that's rarely discussed is unacceptable for your standards. Despite thousands of people watching this video who may not of heard about it when it launched, or are just starting out and looking for a way to get their favorite sounds. Perhaps, maybe it's not the video for you. You're welcome to not watch it or comment on it 😁
