first lesson of IRs: get an IR for the cab with the mic in a 'good' position.. and stick with it. All the moving and EQing can get you crazy if you just want to play. Accept that there is a 'hidden' sound engineer who says 'the cab is mic'd up fine', and you only have your amp + your fingers to control the sound :).
Dan, I'd encourage you to stay the course. In the same way that you are a subject matter expert with all things pedal, your learnings here benefit an entire community of musicians who are struggling with these issues. Thanks for all your hard work!
"I've also built a pedal board specifically for this recording" cut to shot of Dan with 20K worth of guitar equipment struggling to find room to put down cup of tea .. " right we are getting there" 🤣🤣
I tallied up Dan's "home studio" gear in a spreadsheet. Thus far, he went just north of $10K USD in gear, which does not include the Gig Rig G2 and pedals populating his pedalboard in the second half. I only tallied the Kingsley Page and Audio Kitchen The Big Trees guitar preamp pedals from the previous video into the picture And I am not suffering with pea-green envy at all looing at those amazing Focal Shape 50 nearfield monitors sitting in his studio room. Nope, I am not GASing for them at all... (full disclosure: I am totally GAS'ing for them something terrible...) This series makes my < $1500 AKG C214 LDC and Digitech ValveFX preamp >> Focusrite 18i8 >> Reaper DAW based home studio look so bloody shabby... oh, the humanity... (wink) =D
Hi Dan! I wanted to pass on a trick I picked up from Gaz Williams of Sonic State for working with IRs. Having used IRs for several years, I still cant get past the 2 dimensional quality of the sound. To help alleviate this, once you have recorded your guitar part, simply toss a 57 (or whatever you have handy) in front of your studio monitor and rerecord the guitar part as though your monitor was a guitar cabinet. Obviously be careful to not have monitoring turned on for the track you are recording to or you will get a painful blast of feedback. Once you have rerecorded the track and checked it for phase it can be mixed in with the original guitar track to add back some of that missing 3rd dimension. Even when recorded at fairly low (neighbor friendly) levels this can make a big difference. Great video and I cant wait to hear the record! Thanks and stay safe!
Dan, the look and sound quality of your vlog has certainly come a long way! It's great to see visually how this one looks. Also loving this journey your on its fascinating seeing you gents tackle this from your different perspectives.
reverb > gain. a well kept secret! Kevin Parker has done this from day one and he’s got just about the best ears in the biz. fantastic vid Dan! love to see you out of your comfort zone and learning. it’s very inspiring
Fantastic episode Dan, but would have loved it to be longer! You're achieving fantastic things, and steep learning curves are the most rewarding. Already loving the song, those harmonised guitar lines are lush! Keep on keeping on :)
Hi Dan, Excellent VLOG 👍👍👍. I love the Track so far, particularly the Guitar Harmonies, just Brilliant! I am enjoying watching your journey with IR's and Tech in general, I wouldn't have known where to start! Take care mate ♥️👍. Melbourne, Australia.
Sounds pretty good there Dan. Another thing you can do that people miss- when you’ve done the tracking, turn off the IRS again, send the separate tracks to someone like me with a live room and lots of cabs and mics- and run them back out through real cabs at leisure!
Hey Dan! Thank you for your amazing efforts to help us all find great sounds at home! One thing I've tried is adding a compressor plugin before my IR loader to get some of that feel back that's lost between the amp, reactive load, and interface.
Daniel, you SOB!! On yesterday’s Q&A, you managed our expectations about today’s VLOG production quality. Not expecting much, I tuned in today to a flawless preso!! Absolutely great content!...We are on to you now, Mr. Steinhardt. Well played.
Great stuff Dan. I'm delving into the world of home recording myself since the lockdown and it's really inspiring to see you powering through, even when things get tough. Keep going - it sounds great. That reverb into drive sound is epic!
Finally! Reality. Love your show, great information as always and will help while working in my home studio. Revv D20 with torpedo cab built in on it's way.
I'm not sure how Dan did this, but the production quality of this episode is off the charts. Without question the best sounding TPS show ever. Visuals are exemplary. It's like he put in 13-15 hours working his fingers to the bone to make this vlog.
That sound for the breakdown is amazing, Dan. Nice touch there. Also, those harmonies! Mixing different modulation effect on the different parts is genius. Really helps them smear across the stereo field but also retain their own character. Love it, mate. Big ups from Down Under!
I love the new ownhammer IRs, l have a Strymon Iridium and use it as a IR loader with my tube amps and a suhr reactive load. The ownhammer IRs in there (and in the strymon manager) are the best I've ever heared for low to mid gain sounds. Also, the mesa IRs in the two notes software are amazing, as rebea pointed out. Great blog!!! Love the show!
Of course......still play through your gear for your performance, but send a clean DI in to the box........use the track as a safeguard if you must or as a second option to see what’s possible as an engineer for yourself. The other really nice thing is if you’re off the beat, you can edit the direct audio and stretch it or shrink it so the transients line up on the beat. Give it a shot!.......it’s hard to go back once you experience the possibilities. Rock on buddy!......love the show!!!!
Props to you man. It took me 8 months to get my first song recorded and mixed by myself (as a hobbyist). It's a huge undertaking, but worth it. Once you get the first one done, the rest becomes much more natural and it gets easier. I just finished recording guitars for my band's album, and it was much more of a breeze.
Loving these Dan. Really interesting to hear guitar tones specifically for a recording. At first when I heard the SM57 I thought ‘oh no all the bottom end has gone’. But then I imagined it in the mix with bass and drums and all of a sudden it seemed to fit!
Dan. Surprised to see you opted for the Torpedo over the OX? I had the Torpedo Reload & found it to have a poor reactive load IMO, plus the Wall of Sound software was buggy & overcomplicated. I now use the OX, but another great option would be the Suhr Reactive Load, MixIR software & Celestion IR’s. Simplicity is the goal for me... I was in a very similar situation in regard to tweaking & option paralysis!
Really took the end of the world for a TPS episode on IRs 😂 in all seriousness though, this is incredibly helpful, especially now. Thank you guys for continuing the inspiration through all this, it's appreciated by us all. Can't wait to see more unfold
Thank you for all the effort, Dan. Great job! What I find interesting in both vlogs is the different goals. Dan is working towards an EP and Mick is working towards a demo.
Hey Dan! It’s a massive learning curve recording songs by yourself and good on you to you to put it on a vlog. One thing I’ve learnt on the engineer then performance thing is to divide up the work flow. Eg work on sounds and other technical things. Have a break. Then go and do the recording after the break. It takes longer, but I find I give a better performance that way as the break gives you a chance to change your mindset.
Sounds good. I've been using a loadbox and IR's for a while now...really works well. It never sounds exactly like my amp and cab in room, but I have tons of options with different cabs...more than I could fit in my house! You could also split signal with one going D.I. so you can re-amp later, if needed. I usually use amp with drive pedals or clean into DAW and add all effects in DAW program. Makes adjusting in mix way easier. Always enjoy "That Pedal Show" videos.
I recently picked up a Two Notes CAB M and use a Bearfoot FX Dyna Red Distortion (Marshall AIAB) as the pre-amp. While amp-in-a-box pedals aren't necessarily a pre-amp, this has worked great with the gain down below 9 o'clock. I need to try my Emerald Green (Vox AIAB) too! It's been an amazing addition to the gear! While I haven't recorded with it, it's been much easier to play with backing tracks (using the aux in so far). The lessons I subscribed to offers a back track for each lesson to practice over so the quiet playing has also been a relief for my girlfriend :). Bluetooth connectivity is amazing for software edits and I really love the mic options for fine tuning of the sound. Really excited to see how your EP turns out Dan! Really love the harmonies and the reverb into fuzz tone!
“I’ve also built a pedalboard”...(insert pedal table!!) - l love it! Really looking forward to more videos and possibly a lessons learned wrap up at the end. Stay safe, Dan!!
Wicked sound having a reverb into drives, nice one Dan!! Ad a wodka bottle to the monitorstands please, euh right after you have introduced the Mini bar fuzz pedal to the misses. She will not suspect a thing, i promise!! Grtz!
I just bought a Revv D20 amp with built in Two Notes. The main use is intended to be home studio recording & practice amp/looping. Interesting to hear what Dan an Rabea have to say.
Great to see Dan using IRs! ProTip: Lay down bass last. Paul McCartney says so. Also, what are the IRs that Rabea was talking about, or did someone already catch that?
Oh, how I hate RU-vid comment advice, but here it is anyway. Taking a page from your Pedal Jams/ Pick&Mix book, I have found a helpful way to deal with IR abundance paralysis. I do with IRs what you guys do with pedals and learn them totally separately from the creative process... I have dedicated 'learn tones' time apart from writing and recording... I 'pracitce IRs'. If it is a thing by itself it is fun exploration... if it is part of trying to capture inspiration like putting a mic in front of a speaker, it is torture... for me at least. Hope that helps or at least encourages. Appreciate you both sharing this process.
I struggled hard with IR’s for all the same reasons Dan mentions. It’s like anything else, takes time and experimentation. You eventually begin to understand what you like and why you like it and it begins to get easier. I don’t live in a place I can turn amps up, so I *had* to figure this out if I was going to regain joy in my guitar sound.
9:52 "the weak link is me" Know exactly how you feel. I know the feeling of stting at home on my own with kit and not knowing how to do something. Spend so much time learning that I forget about playing,which is the real reason I'm doing it.
Your comment "The weak link in the chain is me"... I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way! The challenge of trying to be the "engineer" as well as the musician is tough...
Dan great info on IR's and seeing your experience using them. But, why hasn't anyone mentioned how COOL is the new progress bar with the sections marked out on it! The is the first video where I have seen that. Excellent job guys. You have always done a great job including great details in the notes section with time stamps but now this new addition is awesome.
Just starting with all this myself, maybe a silly question, IR's can be made of any space. Perhaps you could record the IR response of the TPS Studio to produce a room reverb that Dan could use at his small studio?
Dan, we really need a home studio tour so we know what monitors and equipment you are using other that that MASSIVE pedal chain LOL!! Thank's for being an awesome human being and helping us through these times of trouble!
I have many IR loaders including some of the mentioned here, but my first choice is the IR's in the free version of IK Amplitube for clean tones. The Cab section is completely free, very flexible, and sounds really good.
Great episode! But IRs aside, let's please have some love for the Moonphaser! I don't think they're made anymore but I've had mine since 2010. It is so crisp and totally usable at all settings, love it to bits!
Hey Dan, really liking the way the tune is coming together. Although intrinsically linked, I found myself listening to the tune rather than the fx. Very keen to hear the finished track. 👍🏻
I have been recording with IR's for several years now. Agreed with Rabea I use the Two Notes Torpedo. I'd recommend Ownhammer and Celestion IR's but Doctor Bonkers makes some great ones too and the Glenn Fricker pack is good too.
Hi Dan, sounds really good to me through the inter web at least.. I had a small setup with amp sims and all sorts on my old laptop but always struggled with mid gain/pushed clean tones, but yours sound really authentic. I’m already saving for a whole new pc/interface and recording rig, but it is inspiring to hear you getting good results. (Also, LOVE the big reverb tone you got there as well!) stay well. 👍
Hi Dan, looking forward to the 4th part of the series! Did you use the duo or quad Apollo and did you just use the preamps on their own or apply a preamp plug-in too? Cheers!
i really love that series, it's really interesting! I'm basically at the same point, even tho i recorded and produced for ten years, it was almost ten years ago and back then we used real microphones, bad preamps and bad interface, loads of cracked software and absolutely not enough sleep to produce "pro" sounding stuff! When i got back to guitars in late 2018, not only i thought it was a mistake because now almost all my savings are gone but also when i heard about IRs i was AMAZED !!! i'm really late to the party with this but people don't even realise how much this is a game changer, for the price of a few IRs, a load box and or a torpedo cab etc, you can have so much more quality than you would have for the same price with mics and preamps. So now i'm going back to learning, the tutorials on youtube are WAY better than in the early 2007 when i wanted to get a good mix down. Anyway i can't wait to hear you EPs that's gonna be a great motivation a great recording! thank you so much for your work guys, it's really a good motivation!
The little Orange cab (8"?) sounded sweet. Seeing Dan surrounded by his board, switcher, power supply, addition pedals strewn around, cabling, amps, load box and vintage tele, orange cab... made me smile
Redwirez mixIR3 and lot of Celestion IRs will get get you many hours of joy and great sounds. If you stick to Celestion IRs, they will all be in phase and work beautifully ;-) You can mix up to 4 cabs at a time.
That Pedal Show - Dan, I was pleasantly surprised to see you put reverb ahead of fuzz and overdrive. It's a magnificent sound, is it not? You have dipped your toe in shoegaze waters.
I strongly Identify with something Dan is struggling with. I am both a musician and an audio engineer, and I find that they are completely separate brain spaces. Even though I have the equipment, knowledge, and skill to engineer my own recordings, I always prefer to hand that duty over to someone else so I can focus on the performance and nothing else. However that's not always a luxury that I or many other folks have. What works for me is to set aside separate blocks of time. I'll take a week and just get a session template for the project together, and dial in various sounds that fit what I am looking for, save those as presets that I can recall later. I don't worry about writing or performance at all during this time, just getting things dialed in. Then I take a few days off and come back to write and record my parts. It's much easier when you have a palate of sounds ready to go and easily tweaked on the fly, allowing you to focus on the music and be creative.
I love your monitor stands..! I was just thinking about getting monitor stands, finally after 10 years, the other day and maybe you have discovered the truth Dan.
