Strymon Iridium

[GreenKnee]

During this year my guitar playing has mostly been confined to my spare-room studio. It didn't take long for me to miss my Twin Reverb, and so I hunted out one of these modern gadgets that make it sound like you're playing through a cranked tube amp, but through my headphones at realistic volume levels.



I must say, at first I wasn't that impressed by the Iridium. It sounded kind of flat and sterile. The only thing that really impressed me was the room knob, which does give it a real sense of space.

But after a few months of tweaking and trying out different IRs, I'm really quite impressed with it. I use the Deluxe Reverb amp 100% of the time, and I found a 1x12 Fat IR setting hidden in the software, which I now use pretty much exclusively unless I need a touch more bite and clarity.

Here's a little sample just to hear what's going on: http://www.dropbox.com/s/0mgnssiqamgbn ... k.mp3?dl=0

This is the normal 1x12, not the fat, but it gets the point across. OD comes from a Plumes just set to a tiny bit of gain, but set as a boost.

Anyone else have an IR thingy and have any tips to getting the most out of it?]

[Thom]

Been looking at similar things myself recently. The Nux version is tempting for the price.

[GreenKnee]

Been looking at similar things myself recently. The Nux version is tempting for the price.

It does look a lot more cost effective, especially if you already have a good preamp then the mini would be ideal.

[gusman2x]

Cool. I’ve been thinking for a while I’d like a modeller. For just chilling/jamming, but also for recording straight into the interface.

But I also want a Princeton lol.

[GreenKnee]

Cool. I’ve been thinking for a while I’d like a modeller. For just chilling/jamming, but also for recording straight into the interface.

But I also want a Princeton lol.

I've mainly been using it as a silent practice amp, which it does really well, I'm playing a lot more just because it's so quick and easy, and it sounds good.

Straight into the interface works well too, I've used it that way for getting a few ideas recorded and sent out to the band. I'd love to try it in a proper studio situation when I can get back in with the band, just to put it through it's paces and see how it stands up alongside a mic'd amp seeing as that is what it's marketed towards.

[Mike]

I've had to figure something out for this for testing pedals since having kids, and settled on this:

http://www.joyoaudio.co.uk/JOYO-JF-14- ... YuEALw_wcB



Which you can sit at the back end of your chain of pedals and then feed into either an audio interface to headphones, or like I do, Amy's old tiny Squier SS amp (volume, tone controls and an overdrive switch I think) which has a headphone jack.

trust me this thing takes pedals BEAUTIFULLY and can be dialled in to give you a gorgeous Fender clean sound. No roomy sounds but that's not really my thing, so it's obviously not really as fancy as these pedals, but a really cost effective alternative

it's a Tech 21 Blonde clone, BTW

[Mike]

haha hilariously when googling the strymon it seems loads of videos comparing it to the American Sound etc exist

[sunshiner]

I've been eyeing that Joyo/Harley Benton pedal for a long time. That and the AC30 one. Don't know which one will work better for me

[BearBoy]

I’ve got both (and the Marshall and Mesa ones) and, personally, much prefer the Fender one to the Vox one. That’s obviously not to say you might not prefer the Vox though.

Having said that, I don’t think I’ve used the Vox one in a year or two so might be worth giving it another go.

[Mike]

Both good, but the AC30 one (I had that for a while too) can be a little shrill - but the EQ on them all is very powerful and that can be dialed out

They are very good pedals, the original Tech21 ones were clever design, pretty simple but very effective and these are obviously the same

[BearBoy]

a little shrill

Yeah, that’s kind of how I remember it. No real beef to it. I’ll dig it out this week and have a play.

[Mike]

I found the Tech21 example settings were a good start point in exploring sounds, but in general pulling the treble back seemed to help if you were getting too ice picky.

I've not been doing a lot of pedal internet reading for a while so I figured I was the only one who knew how great the American Sound was, turns out the fucking gearpage are all over it haha

So I'm not cool, even the blues wankers know it.

[BearBoy]

Haha

I downloaded the Tech 21 manuals with the suggested settings when I bought the pedals and found them a good starting point.

[sunshiner]

Just watched demos of both and they coincide with your experience. AS is beefier, AC is much more high/midrange focused and do sound shrill in comparison

[Thom]

Been thinking about picking up an American Sound actually. I had a British Sound years ago, but got rid of it as it was really fucking noisy, don’t know whether I just had a duff one.

[Doog]

Sick, I was really considering an Iridium for ages; an all-in-one, very convincing "amp in a room" is definitely an amazing tool for home use, esp when it sounds that good. (Ended up going with a HX Stomp to remove any need for an additional pedalboard)

It's certainly a huge step up from those classic Tech21/Joyos going straight to desk/headphones (I did a lot of tedious research) especially for anything crunch. I used the AC30-alike for ages and it never reeeeeally felt like real speaker simulation, just a slight EQ curve... and as also noisy as fuck.

[Mike]

I would never recommend going straight from the American Sound to headphones, you need a neutral headphone amp/interface in between.

I'm sure it sounds good, but £300 good? like 10x the price good?

Personally I'm not convinced. Worth noting the Joyo knock offs don't include the speaker sim as far as I recall and I think the noise may be specific to the AC30 one, I have no hum or hiss with the AS.

[Doog]

I mean, there's no headphone out on the Joyos, my experience was using it with a flat solidstate amp (on headphones) or direct to audio interface. The noise issues only really affected the driven settings, and I'm not sure how gainy the Fender one gets?

On the speaker sim front, Joyo themselves say:

JOYO Amp Simulators can be used as a DI (Direct Interface) and are perfect for recording at home or in the studio. Perfect to practice with headphones, plug your board straight into a PA system and forget the guitar amp, bring the classic amp tones with you and control them from the board

The Tech21 originals have speaker simulation (switchable on V2), and I'm sure the Joyos are just clones of those, as it's 100% not just a "overdrive pedal to board" kinda harsh sound; it just doesn't quite hold up to modern IR stuff. And given that it's like, 12-year old technology, why would it?

Don't get me wrong; I think the Joyos/Tech21s are great, but they're not equivalent to the Iridium.

[Mike]

Oh I know they're not the same thing at all, I was just saying for some people's purposes it may well do the trick.

I don't use the drive within the pedal at all, I have it as my "clean amp" and use pedals in front for overdrive/distortion sounds.

[Doog]

They're definitely ace for their usage; the 'Voice' control on the Joyo AC Tone is magic, some kind of pre-gain midrange sculpt thing that really does a lot to improve the 'believability' of it being a mic'd amp in a way that the main EQ doesn't.