Ableton Forum

Hi All,

I just wanted to hear some stories of anyone using outboard fx such as guitar pedals with any degree of success as part of their Ableton music making process.

Particularly interested in hearing if people think this can genuinely add anything to your sound, by taking certain parts of the process 'out of the box' so to speak. I'm thinking about guitar pedals in particular, and not trying to start a more general debate about outboard gear vs plugins.

I have recently been tempted to buy an Electro Harmonix Memory Man, and this is what got me thinking about the subject.

All thoughts appreciated.

Cheers,

CageofConsent

CageofConsent wrote:Hi All,

I just wanted to hear some stories of anyone using outboard fx such as guitar pedals with any degree of success as part of their Ableton music making process.

Particularly interested in hearing if people think this can genuinely add anything to your sound, by taking certain parts of the process 'out of the box' so to speak. I'm thinking about guitar pedals in particular, and not trying to start a more general debate about outboard gear vs plugins.

I have recently been tempted to buy an Electro Harmonix Memory Man, and this is what got me thinking about the subject.

All thoughts appreciated.

Cheers,

CageofConsent

Hi Cage of Consent,

As a guitarist I've also considered this as option but have yet to try it. I do intend to do this in the not too distant future. However, I have used my BOSS GT-10 multi FX unit to record most of my guitar tracks via D.I. and sometimes via my Behringer V-Tone amp and I find that there is a difference to the sound, its definetly warmer and has more life to it. Also back in February me and my creative partner in Mass Movement were having a frustrating rehearsal and I'd left the guitar set-up and the amp was just buzzing away. I just decided to experiment with different effects just operating on that buzzing sound, the next I know we're both recording each other trying loads of different effects and experiments with the guitar and GT-10. This result in sereval long recordings which I then edited into loops and long samples and which we've used on loads off our recent tracks.

So what I'm saying is that it can make a difference to the sound and feel of what u do and obvious its not just guitars u can process with the effects, we've also experimented by plugging in a vocal mic and that was a great success too!! Electro Harmonix do great stuff and I've got a list as long as my arm of stuff I want to buy by them!!

My approach is to use my outboard (line 6 pod) to play and monitor real time. I record the dry signal and process with VST inside live. I can also record the wet signal at the same time. Using compression and other effects can give a dynamic feedback to the guitar (like its sustain) that must be approximated with realtime effects. The recording of the dry allows the tayloring of the sound later in Live editing.

Mass Movement wrote:

CageofConsent wrote:Hi All,

I just wanted to hear some stories of anyone using outboard fx such as guitar pedals with any degree of success as part of their Ableton music making process.

Particularly interested in hearing if people think this can genuinely add anything to your sound, by taking certain parts of the process 'out of the box' so to speak. I'm thinking about guitar pedals in particular, and not trying to start a more general debate about outboard gear vs plugins.

I have recently been tempted to buy an Electro Harmonix Memory Man, and this is what got me thinking about the subject.

All thoughts appreciated.

Cheers,

CageofConsent

Hi Cage of Consent,

As a guitarist I've also considered this as option but have yet to try it. I do intend to do this in the not too distant future. However, I have used my BOSS GT-10 multi FX unit to record most of my guitar tracks via D.I. and sometimes via my Behringer V-Tone amp and I find that there is a difference to the sound, its definetly warmer and has more life to it. Also back in February me and my creative partner in Mass Movement were having a frustrating rehearsal and I'd left the guitar set-up and the amp was just buzzing away. I just decided to experiment with different effects just operating on that buzzing sound, the next I know we're both recording each other trying loads of different effects and experiments with the guitar and GT-10. This result in sereval long recordings which I then edited into loops and long samples and which we've used on loads off our recent tracks.

So what I'm saying is that it can make a difference to the sound and feel of what u do and obvious its not just guitars u can process with the effects, we've also experimented by plugging in a vocal mic and that was a great success too!! Electro Harmonix do great stuff and I've got a list as long as my arm of stuff I want to buy by them!!

Hey Mass Movement,

Thanks for getting back to me. Very interesting stuff. The more I look at Electro Harmonix Stuff, the more I want it, especially the Memory Man!

CageofConsent wrote:

Mass Movement wrote:

CageofConsent wrote:Hi All,

I just wanted to hear some stories of anyone using outboard fx such as guitar pedals with any degree of success as part of their Ableton music making process.

Particularly interested in hearing if people think this can genuinely add anything to your sound, by taking certain parts of the process 'out of the box' so to speak. I'm thinking about guitar pedals in particular, and not trying to start a more general debate about outboard gear vs plugins.

I have recently been tempted to buy an Electro Harmonix Memory Man, and this is what got me thinking about the subject.

All thoughts appreciated.

Cheers,

CageofConsent

Hi Cage of Consent,

As a guitarist I've also considered this as option but have yet to try it. I do intend to do this in the not too distant future. However, I have used my BOSS GT-10 multi FX unit to record most of my guitar tracks via D.I. and sometimes via my Behringer V-Tone amp and I find that there is a difference to the sound, its definetly warmer and has more life to it. Also back in February me and my creative partner in Mass Movement were having a frustrating rehearsal and I'd left the guitar set-up and the amp was just buzzing away. I just decided to experiment with different effects just operating on that buzzing sound, the next I know we're both recording each other trying loads of different effects and experiments with the guitar and GT-10. This result in sereval long recordings which I then edited into loops and long samples and which we've used on loads off our recent tracks.

So what I'm saying is that it can make a difference to the sound and feel of what u do and obvious its not just guitars u can process with the effects, we've also experimented by plugging in a vocal mic and that was a great success too!! Electro Harmonix do great stuff and I've got a list as long as my arm of stuff I want to buy by them!!

Hey Mass Movement,

Thanks for getting back to me. Very interesting stuff. The more I look at Electro Harmonix Stuff, the more I want it, especially the Memory Man!

Yeah the Electro Harmonix stuff is v tempting!! If I wasn't so skint I'd get a Memory Man and a load of other stuff right now!

Dancerchris idea is pretty solid. Outboard means, that which has been done cannot be undone!

I use GRig now and I'm pretty happy with it overall, they do have a pedal unit but it's tied to GRig s/w which is a bit crap imo. If I wanted a pedal I would probably go the big Behringer jobbie (1011 or somethin like that). Grig has loads of emulations of famous stompboxes which I think are good enuff for them not to be an issue.

S

Hi again, Cage of Consent,

Thought this book might be interesting/useful in deceiding what pedal(s) to buy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Effects- ... AJ6GOZG1N2

I found it a great read and really broadened my knowledge.

Not sure about Behringer pedal, the V-Tone amp I have is great as good as its more high profile rivals and some of digital on board effects are good. However my experiance with their pedals is that there not so great, but its just my experiance/opinion and I'm a fan of Behringer, just not their pedals.