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Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion by Source Audio

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I discovered the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion by Source Audio on I Heart Guitar a few days ago and I loved the concept so much that I thought I should post about it.

Source Audio is a little company formed by former Analog Devices VP of of Engineering Jesse Remignanti and Kurzweil Senior Engineer Bob Chidlaw. After spending 5 years scrutinising every distortion pedal on the planet, they have come up with the “Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion” pedal which aims at digitally recreating the tones of well known pedals such as the Electro Harmonix Big Muff, the Fulltone Distortion Pro, the Proco RAT, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the Fuzz Face, etc. There are 12 models in total.

I know what you are thinking: “this has been done before”. Yes there has been a few attempts but the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion could very well set a new standard due to its tonal qualities and unique features.

First of all, it sports a 7 band equalizer whose settings can be stored with each of your 6 presets. I think this is a pretty neat idea and frankly, I don’t know why most distortion pedals stop at 3 or 4 bands. Secondly, using an external expression pedal, it is possible to morph between 2 distortion models and get a huge number of variations. I am not just talking about mixing the tones of two pedals here, what happens is more a “fusion” in the digital domain between two models, creating entirely new “hybrids”. So what should a RAT morphing into a Big Muff be called? A Big Ruff? Third, the Soundblox Classic Distortion has a MIDI input allowing it to integrate with complex rigs and be remotely controlled. And last but not least, it looks like a hot rodded space ship from outer space which is always a bonus.

Here is Earl Slick (of David Bowie’s band) trying out the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion and getting some sweet tones out of it:

The Classic Distortion is not the only pedal in the Soundblox Pro range at Source Audio, you will also find another model aimed at creating more “modern” tones called the Soundblox Pro Multiwave Distortion (which also exists for bass). And let’s not forget the “Hot Hand” series of products such as the Phaser/Flanger where you can control the amount of wobbling by shaking your hand (using a special ring, take a look at the video). And the good news is that the hot hand ring can also be used to control the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion.

I think it is pretty cool to see some innovation in modeling !

Effect News

Visual Sound distortion pedal shoot out

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Visual Sound, known for making double pedals such as the Route 66 compressor/overdrive and the Jekyll and Hyde overdrive/distortion, has organized and filmed several pedal shoot outs. In this particular one, about ten different distortion pedals are played in front of an audience in a blind test manner. The audience votes for its favourite based on the tone only as the names of the pedals are only revealed at the end:

The “Son of Hyde” from Visual Sound seems to win with the Z Vex box of rock a close second. Of course the results should be taken with a grain of salt as we don’t know which amp is used, only one guitar is used, etc. The tone comes as much from the fingers as it does from the gear and there is not one definitive answer as each player will have its preferences. It is interesting nonetheless and there are more shoot out videos on their youtube channel.

Settings

Micro-BR Multi-Effect: Jeff Beck Tone Settings

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It is no secret that I am quite fond of my BOSS Micro-BR. I think it is an awesome tool for quickly recording ideas without having to fire up any (bloated) recording software. The only thing I was not fond of until now is the integrated Multi-Effect unit based on  COSM (Composite Object Sound Modeling). This technology has been used in every BOSS Multi-Effect unit for the past decade including the newly released ME-25 or the top of the range GT-10.

Like everybody else, I jumped on the modeling bandwagon when the first Line 6 POD came out. I got a bit tired of it, probably from overusing it, and a few years later I went back to a real tube amp and some scratchy old analog pedals. Anyway, I was watching a recent Jeff Beck video interview the other day and it inspired me to try to program a similar tone using the Micro-BR Multi-Effect. After quite some tweaking I plugged my Stratocaster directly into the Micro-BR and ended up with this tone:

Audio MP3

Awesome, isn’t it? This is a reminder that presets in Multi-Effects do not suit every player and should only be a guideline upon which you should build your own tones adapted to your playing, your guitar, your amp, etc. It also goes to show that the tool itself does not matter, it is how you use it that is important: I think you can get great tones form both modeling and old school analog gear.

To get this tone, the Micro-BR Guitar Multi-Effect settings are as follows (I suppose they would be easily translatable to any COSM based machine):

  • AMP: PREAMP ON, Type MS(1), Volume 100, Bass 56, Middle 25, Treble 43, Presence 74, Master 80
  • SP: ON, Type “ms stk”, Mic Set 6cm, Mic Level 100, Dir Level 0,
  • NS: ON, Threshold 40, Release 30
  • FX: Type Compressor, Sustain 7, Attack 100, Level 80
  • DELAY: ON, Type SINGLE, Dly Time 573ms, Feedback 16, E.Level 27

I also used quite some HALL reverb, the level was set at 42 on the Track. To access the Reverb settings, press twice on “Effects”. The settings were: Time 2.0s, Tone 0dB and Level at 50.

For reference, here is the Jeff Beck video which inspired me:

Tone tips, Video Demos

Using a slapback echo to fatten your tone

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I recently watched a video featuring Eddie Kramer, the sound engineer of acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and occasionally the Beatles. In this video, he explains how he has worked with Waves to create a series of “plug’n play” software plugins, each dedicated to the processing of either guitar, drums, bass or vocals. The guitar plugin features compression, slapback echo, flange and reverb. And he goes on saying that the slapback echo brings a bit of an “analog” feel but that it is not an effect that is very popular anymore.

So this got me thinking. The slapback echo, also known as slap echo, was very common in the 50s and 60s. It was created by recording with a tape recorder and playing back the same tape a fraction of a second later using another “head”, generating a single repeat type of short echo. Its use is very obvious on early rock’n roll and rockabilly records, particularly on vocals. It can also be heard on the guitar on a number of Hendrix tunes like “Voodoo Chile Slight Return” where a slapback echo augmented by an old plate reverb creates a really cool dripping kind of tone. It is easy to reproduce with today’s analog or digital delay pedals as well as software plugins.

I experimented with my recording software (Cubase 5) and put together this video that shows the same tone without and then with a slapback echo. I think it is pretty cool, I might use it more in the future!  See after the video for some slapback settings for the Cubase delay plugin and the good old BOSS DD-3 delay pedal.

For the basic tone I used my 1978 Telecaster with a Fender Champ tube amp and then kicked in a Pro Co RAT 2 distortion pedal (settings on the RAT 2: DISTORTION at 2 o’clock, FILTER at 3 o’clock and VOLUME at 2 o’clock).

In Cubase I used the following delay settings:

Slapback Settings

With a BOSS DD-3 digital delay pedal, the following settings will give you a nice fattening slapback echo: Mode 200ms, E.LEVEL at 12 o’clock, F.BACK at 9 o’clock and D.TIME at 4 o’clock. You might want to vary the E.LEVEL or D.TIME to taste.

It would be easy to reproduce this effect with any other model of delay, just set the “delay time” between 70 and 200ms and the “feedback” quite low to have just one repeat.

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