I gave up and went digital

Keefy

Well sort of.

Just over a year ago I started depping with a tribute band playing theatres - some gigs on bass, some on rhythm guitar. The band does not use any backline, and usually monitors via IEMs. Their regular guitar and bass players all use Kempers, but for various reasons that I need not bore you with, I didn't want to go down that route. On bass I use an Origin BassRig 64 and I'm pretty happy with that. On guitar I have had decent success using a Revival Drive Compact (analog amp sim) into a Two Notes Torpedo CAB (cab sim and reverb) but the CAB eats quite a lot of 'board space and needs to be borrowed from my home studio setup. I recently replaced it on my direct-to-PA with a Sonicake IR loader plus a reverb pedal. This was pretty good until I started bringing in a drive pedal, at which point it just sounded all wrong - the word 'arse' springs to mind.

I was browsing Reverb and came across a Strymon Iridium at a decent price. I pulled the trigger, it arrived today, and I am as chuffed as Mr Chuffy from Chuffingham Street, Chuffton. I generally favour a Vox-type amp so I selected Chime and Cab A, and there it is - that detailed edge-of-breakup sound that particularly favours a Strat or Tele.

Of course where it really counts is live, and I won't get a chance to gig it for another 4 months. However I do have an all-IEMs rehearsal with another band next week, so I plan to make up a mini board with the Iridium at the end of it. Wish me luck!

Keefy

Now integrated into my direct-to-PA pedalboard. The FAV button just maxes out the volume to give me a boost.

thomasw88

Nice looking board.   Proof with these things is always how it works in a band situation..  if it doesn’t pan out have a look at the Humboldt simplifier or boss ir2 .  Personally I preferred both to the iridium.  I’m. Just waiting for a tonex one to arrive so maybe that will be the holy grail…. 

Keefy

thomasw88 said:

Nice looking board.   Proof with these things is always how it works in a band situation..  if it doesn’t pan out have a look at the Humboldt simplifier or boss ir2 .  Personally I preferred both to the iridium.  I’m. Just waiting for a tonex one to arrive so maybe that will be the holy grail…. 

I briefly had a Simplifier MkII on that board. I liked it a lot but it lacked something (harmonic complexity?) that I got from a real amp, from the RD Compact, and from the Iridium. One of the big pluses of the Iridium is the WYSIWYG control setup.

Keefy

Used the above board at rehearsal with glam covers band this week (electronic kit, bass guitar also DI'd) and it sounded great!

robinbowes

I'm quite surprised that something like the Iridium doesn't have a balanced out, and that you need the DI box.

R.

Keefy

robinbowes said:

I'm quite surprised that something like the Iridium doesn't have a balanced out, and that you need the DI box.

R.

Yes, that would have made it ideal. A lot of the amp sim pedals seem to lack an XLR output.