The King of Rack Preamps is Back! Soldano X88IR 👑 

I refused to watch any other video on this until you released yours. AMAZING!

Throwing the PCM70 and the Tyler in there is god tier!

The fact that the digital tech is shared between Synergy, Friedman, Soldano etc. is a real game changer too for the long term. That high/low pass feature was added recently and is now available in all those products across brands, they're not all on islands reinventing the same thing.

As soon as I saw the teaser image on the Soldano Instagram a couple weeks back, my first thought was “Can’t wait for the Michael Nielsen video on that!” Lol fantastic as always 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

I LOVE your content. As a 51 year old guitar player, I think you are some bliss to watch. Thank you.

This is a great thing to have- it’s straightforward, direct and beautiful. What a time to be alive. Thanks for posting this.

YAY the 80ies are back! 😍

"A time when racks went away"...yes, a dark chapter. :) Love to see this preamp come back! And as always, fantastic and tasteful playing in the intro music. My favorite part of all your videos.

Awesome as always! Sounds fantastic!

I need this preamp in my life!!! Sounds incredible

Oh man……that tone you got with the Lexicon thrown on almost brought a tear to my eye!! SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD!!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘

This one is gold! Sounds amazing!

Years ago having the X 88 R you brought up some great points about the limitations, particularly of the middle channel, but I also found the initial clean channel in need of some help as well. This thing sounds like they’ve addressed all those issues from the past, and this X88IR is really nice. I remember one year for Christmas Reinhold Bogner modified my X88r middle channel and put in one of his channels which I liked better than the middle channel that was in the original Soldano.

Just wow. I hear a lot of perfect timing from Vai in there and also two fools a minute from Roth‘s skyscraper. Great!

This intro song felt so 80s man, loved it.

Awesome video man! This thing is right up your alley!

Fantastic video....this is HOW videos should be made. Great work Michael.

My thoughts from the start were telling me that nobody could do a better rewiew of this bad boy than you Mr. Nielsen... I was right!! Now I have to sell some gear.... 😅

so glad this came out. was gonna buy an SLO but now that i have the ultimate 80s rack coming, this is the piece to get. i figure i can switch this out with a slaved old mesa mark II-B that has been modded to C+ specs by mike bendinelli (supposedly this is what landau used, according to my friend bob, who owns the rack in question and who did cartage for brauer back in the day on the huff, landau and luke sessions).

Fuck YEAH! If I buy this....will I be 23 again?!?!?!? 😀

Dang - this thing sounds amazing!

Yep. It does the thing.

If I had a recording studio this would be one of the first pieces of gear I'd buy. 😁

That channel 2 play through sounded ridiculously good.

I love the intro song

Great demo as always Michael! You covered all the features well. I have the X88ir & SLO Rackmount on order.

Make it good, make it fun, make it pretty. Check, check, check.

Well, so much for saving up for those groceries I always wanted.

Very well done, thank you. Its tone has Warren D written all over it 👍 👍

Michael, Excellent intro instrumental and excellent video showing us the features of the unit. Hard to believe rack stuff is coming back. Good thing I still have my 16 space Anvil rack with gear from the 80's! hahaha

Love your intros. Great demo 🤛🎸🤘👋🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Your videos are the best man! I always love them and the feeling I get after them is amazingly stoked!!

Great review! 🤘

Bravo! The best X88-IR video on the tube! Now I need to go buy one ugh!

Seems like at least a few of the new features (IR and digital stuff excluded) are things that Bradshaw and Suhr addressed with the CAE 3+/CAE 3+ SE (in response to the deficiencies they perceived to exist with the X88R), 35 years ago - glad soldano finally got the hint 😂

That lead tone starting at 0:30 🤤🤤🤤

Damit, now I have to figure out a way to increase my Christmas budget. Why do you do this me, please stop. 😂

Also, Jerry Cantrell mentioned possibly working with Bogner to reissue the Fish. Will anything come out of it? One can only hope

Really good demo (as always.. you always ace it). Next step in this evolution would be a Synergy SYN1 with the same IR / power amp sim module ?

Having the option to cut the low end in the preamp (fat switch) is a game changer in the Soldano circuit. I hope they incorporate that into the SLO-II head whenever that happens.

Yes! Bring back the rack!

Wow !!! Nice !!!

Damn!!!!! I haven’t had GAS like this in ages

PLEASE give a tab for the rhythm part of the intro--that chord progression was simultaneously funky and ethereal.

Sounds great Michael! Fab tones and playing! Cheers, Pete :-)

Sound killer❤

Get your checkbook ready Michael Toren. Lol

Oh SNAP! LONG LIVE THE RACK! Where's Papa-Rack, aka Torren 😜 If only this was a modernized Caswell 🤭

Awesome! Will you be reviewing the matching power amp? Right now, these show up on the Sweetwater site for $2499 (pre-order). Not cheap... but I suspect after the initial launch, they will get pricier. Do I need? No... Do I want? OMG, yes!!

I knew it that you would have one❤

I think I need a cigarette after this one Michael.

To have this unit in 2024. Now if only it didn't cost 3000 and I had any money. But please Michael don't talk about your mom's rack that enthusiastically. The complexity of this unit made me remember how I've thought for a good while that I'd like to see an amp mix the clean signal to the distorted signal for a good while. Like some pedals. Because that really does give a different kind of dynamic oomph and richness to the sound. Without sounding weird like you'd think clean + distorted would. I think it was worth experimenting in amps too. Although I don't know if it meant running the signal through two different complete preamp sections and summing them up at the end since it's tough to imagine circuit running the same tubes at two different levels. But maybe it's possible with amplifying in the first stage and splitting the signal, running one signal through the other saturation stages and tapping the other to the end of the stages. What's so cool about this is that it's still the same box of sound as it was back then. Yet it has all these features that I don't care about but are crucial to modern studios/guitarists. Like the IR and "intelligent circuit" that remembers the settings on each channel, and the desktop software control. And the features aren't in the way if I want to use it old school (and I admit everything being a proper tactile switch/button is great despite seeming like irrelevant to the surface). This feels just like what Soldano is known for: "simple", great sounding yet innovative for its time, but first and foremost practical in the way the "extra" features are executed. Like using this doesn't seem like playing with a toy gadget that pretends to be an amp. It's like an amp that has some modern UI features hidden in plain sight, still feeling like an amp and not a digital processor.

This thing is just beautiful. Sounds similar to the Astro.

You can't say it's better... It's new!!!! 😂🤣🤣

Rack is back!! ❤

Lots of tasty Soldano goodness! I would love them to do a pedalboard preamp pedal, like the Friedman XIR!

It sounds great and it also sounds like a 4K worth machine. Ohhh but it has IR's and it is user friendly 😂

This thing is going to empty more than a few accounts. Including MINE! What a beast, and gettable. WOW...

Been waiting all year for this to come out, but I gotta wait until Christmas time to get it, still have the money set aside for mine though! I've played various amp sims and profiles of the original over the years and always preferred whatever is going on in this amp over the SLO. Plus....THREE SWITCHABLE CHANNELS. That's what I'm talking about! Hopefully someone out there does a kickass headshell for these, Zilla???

The channel one alternate sounds like Michael landau in burning water😊

Watching your video and that of leon gave me the worst case of GAS I had since 10 years!

Ahhh, I just love a good rack!!! 😊

I guess I’m going to need a bigger rack case

I am wondering, given the relationship between Synergy, Bogner, Friedman, B.A.D.,etc. If we will see a Bogner IR product. I would like a Soldano and Bogner product in the form factor (and price range 😂) of the Friedman IR boxes.

Mike, how do I get one?

it's a shame HRI shut down, this video would have been gold over there

Great demo and great tones. My fear is what happens when (if?) something on the digital side stops working. My amps can still be repaired 30+ years later. It's easier to swallow a temporary lifespan for gear when it is priced like the IRX, etc... but there's some hesitation at this price point. This is an amazing unit....

Amazing !!! But still big in terms of size. Would have been great to make a single rack unit and it's possible these days.

Epic

Holy shit it's finally arrived🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

Is that Steven Slate Drums?? I recognize that anywhere!

8:09 sounds sweet

I like the Tyler Guitar Tones especially wirh the 80ies vibe sounds! But how do you set the miniswitches ? This is something that confuses me on my Jimburst…. Not to mention the midboost. Great Videos!

Man that thing sounds expensive!

Oh my

Sounds fantastic, great playing and review as always, man! How much does it weigh?

Way awesome intro jam!! Would’ve worked great for the opening credits of any number of circa 1990-95 shows

Too tasty. What did you use for drums in the intro track because DAMN they sound good. Not to mention the heavenly Soldano tones.

This is a great product and great video as usual Michael. Waay overpriced for the market it's in, however. Most consumers don't build racks anymore. An IR-S pedal would sell better, have basically the same feature set and be more readily available to average guitarists. I can see this fitting into some professional studio racks, but no one outside a producer or content-creator is gonna spend $2.5K for this over a used SLO30. Even newer BAD SLO's can be had for $3K or less on the used market these days. The additional technology is amazing, but they should really reassess how they price and market some of these products. I own an SLO100 and it's amazing, but if I were to buy just the preamp section with some additional features I wouldn't pay more than $2K.

Quad Cortex captures on the horizon?

Sounds tasty.

Can you hear a difference in sound between the original and the new one?

Could I integrate this with a syn1 to utilize the power amp/speaker simulation? This plus my be/bb module would be sweet

“A rack the size of my…mom” Probably not the best choice of words lol So my understanding is that the xlr outputs have the power amp emulation and ir. Can you (using the software) bypass the ir and get just the power amp emulation? This is how I’ve been using my IRX and would like the same feature in this preamp. This thing sounds killer so I doubt there’s anything that will dissuade me from buying one but I’d just like to avoid surprises

Can the power amp emulation be used to liven up a solid state power amp?

i can understand why they put an IR loader into it. woulda preferred it not have it. i think at this point their target audience already have IR loaders

Any word on when us civilians can purchase one? Doesn’t look like it’s on their website yet

How are the channel 2 and 3 compared to the slo? Similar? Identical?

Very cool, too bad you have to take out a loan to buy one.

🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤠🤤

Could not get all these tones with a Quad Cortex?

Very Satch’ish…! But your style is the strength of that one🤘

A generation of ‘modeller/profiling’ guitarists get to enjoy rack gear woohoo! Expense still though…

Somebody's been listening to Joe satriani.

I had an X88-r, sold it, overrated. So much of soldano tone is in the power section. It lacked the girthy tones. On the flip side, many clones, especially the Brit Tone, SLO100 clone sounds identical to the real thing. That being said, this video rocks! Expect the old ones to sink in price.