Making Noise #3
So I haven’t done a blog in awhile, but I thought I’d get back on the horse and do a new one. Today we’re going to talk about processing audio through pedals. It’s something i’ve increasingly been taking advantage of, in both mixing and while i’m recording.
So first, just some basic info about me. I love and have always loved tactile instruments and effects. It just makes so much sense to me. I love being able to interact with the gear in real time, and hear the changes i’m making with my hands. I’ve yet to really find a software solution that eliminates that, and to be honest, I don’t really care if I do find one. This works for me and it’s only been getting more exploratory as the years have gone on.
I’ve been tracking through pedals for a bit now, mainly while recording synths. This was usually a delay or a reverb, and also mostly in stereo. About a 1 1/2 years ago, I got one of these little boxes pictured below.
This is a Radial EXTC 500 Series Reamp Box. It allows you to send audio out of your DAW, converts the signal to Line level to High-Z, and gives the proper levels to run it through guitar pedals. You then loop back into EXTC and it converts it back Balanced Line Level so it can go back into your DAW in the proper way. It can also be used as a Re-amp box which is super handy. So I use this for many applications. They are as follows:
Processing audio from my DAW
Using it as an extra “pre” to record Synths or various other things
Reamping Guitars, Pianos, Drums, etc…
It basically allows me to use my pedal collection make unique, custom delays, reverbs and sounds that would take me forever to do in the box.
Here I’m running my OP-1 into a few different pedals, and then sending the output into the EXTC and then into Logic. I don’t have to use the EXTC for this, I could just use a DI, but it’s already patched in. I can also process the audio out of Logic into the effects and back in just as easy as I have it set up as a hardware insert in both Logic and Protools. Works like a charm and well worth the experimentation! In the track below, you can hear some of the processing i’ve done with it. Basically everything in the song is going through pedals at some point.
Until next time…