Ever put a pedal ahead of your interface?

Seamus OReally

Seamus OReally

Well-Known Member
Country flag
I’m very unhappy with the sound I’m getting recording direct into my Focusrite. I get a nice clean tone using the blackface models in Logic Pro, but I can’t find a decent drive in the pedalboard… they all sound varying degrees of nasty, and when I try to mitigate that, I just end up with the same nasty only turned down.

So has anybody tried driving a good-sounding amp model with an actual good-sounding pedal ahead of the interface? If so, what pedal worked best? I’m thinking Zendrive, or a better Dumble pedal… what worked for you? Did anything?
 
I’ve used pedals to interface before, but I had little more than an eq, and an impulse response loader on the tracks…with maybe a reverb and/or delay bus. I have not done anything with modern amp modeling suites since long before I added a Kemper.
That said, I liked my homebrew Red Llama for drive on lots of that type of stuff.
 
I've been playing and building Dumble style amps for 17 years now and serviced real Dumble amps a few were outstanding
my wife that's in heaven now gave me a real Dumble amp I didn't care for it harsh sounding sent it back to the former owner friend of my fathers
I like clean sustain I use a Klon and The Engine
If I didn't have the amps I would give the UA Enigmatic a try

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...ey Congilio&utm_campaign=Online Tracking Link

micropitch 001.JPG
 
Thatbastarddon said:
I’ve used pedals to interface before, but I had little more than an eq, and an impulse response loader on the tracks…
Click to expand...
I’ve tried IRs on my tracks, but all seem to add some kind of low-mid mud. These are free ones… do you have to pay to get really good IR’s?

67plexi said:
I like clean sustain I use a Klon and The Engine
If I didn't have the amps I would give the UA Enigmatic a try
Click to expand...
Clean sustain is where I’m at, too. Larry Carlton, Robben Ford. I’ll look into the Enigmatic.
 
Seamus OReally said:
I’ve tried IRs on my tracks, but all seem to add some kind of low-mid mud. These are free ones… do you have to pay to get really good IR’s?
Click to expand...
I have a collection that dates back to 2008-ish. That was before people started selling them….so…I don’t really know. Mine are mostly cab, room, and mic IRs. I almost always would use eq when using them.
I went through long periods of not using an actual computer for recording…AKAI DPS24, and iOS devices were in heavy use for me over the years. I would still mix in a computer DAW sometimes, if I felt the need, and that’s when I’d occasionally dig up the IR folder.
 
Seamus OReally said:
I’m very unhappy with the sound I’m getting recording direct into my Focusrite. I get a nice clean tone using the blackface models in Logic Pro, but I can’t find a decent drive in the pedalboard… they all sound varying degrees of nasty, and when I try to mitigate that, I just end up with the same nasty only turned down.

So has anybody tried driving a good-sounding amp model with an actual good-sounding pedal ahead of the interface? If so, what pedal worked best? I’m thinking Zendrive, or a better Dumble pedal… what worked for you? Did anything?
Click to expand...
I haven’t ever recorded to PC, but it's good to read that you're playing again and recording. (y)
 
Seamus OReally said:
So has anybody tried driving a good-sounding amp model with an actual good-sounding pedal ahead of the interface? If so, what pedal worked best? I’m thinking Zendrive, or a better Dumble pedal… what worked for you? Did anything?
Click to expand...
Yes. I've used a RAT pedal, an EP-3 Pre pedal to good effect this way.

Also a Univox Unidrive, Boss GE-10, Wah pedal.

Seamus OReally said:
I’m very unhappy with the sound I’m getting recording direct into my Focusrite. I get a nice clean tone using the blackface models in Logic Pro, but I can’t find a decent drive in the pedalboard… they all sound varying degrees of nasty, and when I try to mitigate that, I just end up with the same nasty only turned down.
Click to expand...
When I started recording DI guitars, I experienced the same thing.. and it took me a while to get it sorted..

The main issue that is gonna cause this problem is overloading the Focusrite input signal.


My rule of thumb to solve this was:

1) If I'm using a PAF style pickup, I set the input GAIN trim-pot at 10 o'clock.

2) If I'm using a JB style pickup, I set the input GAIN trim-pot at 8 o'clock.

"PAF" being defined as a pickup in the 8KΩ range
"JB" being defined as a pickup in the 15KΩ range
 

At the risk of perhaps offending anyone here at TTR, I've been here long enough (reading through old threads) to see that discussions about guitar tones are topics of discussion relegated to the past and quite rare now.
Don't take my comment the wrong way. It's simply my observation that discussions concerning "tones" are infrequent here at TTR.

And that's why I appreciate it that Seamus is chasing the tone he's chasing. :cool:
 
@Seamus OReally, i'm just about always running at least a couple of pedals in front of my audio interface.
Usually it's either a tuner/overdrive/delay combo or my trusty HX Stomp, and i use the stereo out of the RC-3
as the final element in the chain before hitting the interface.
No amps, no mics most of the time nowadays.
If you're looking for a really good pedal to do the job, i'd recommend looking into the Wampler Euphoria pedal.

i think It sounds pretty awesome myself.
https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dfrostyjr2%252Fa-sense-of-euphoria-6_19_25-06%3Btrack_id%3D2115985203

That's a D'Angelico Premier Mini DC XT (SD Jazz /JB pickups) > Euphoria > RC-3 > Scarlett 2i2.

The Notadumble actually sounds quite nice too imo:
https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dfrostyjr2%252Fstella-by-starlight-2025%3Btrack_id%3D2117741805


... and i've also used the MXR Sugar Drive and the classic Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal to good effect (no pun intended) in the past.

@67plexi , thanks for sharing that Robben Ford peace on my mind video.
It was a great way to start my day.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top