Free 24-hour tracked UK delivery on orders over £150!
Free 24-hour tracked UK delivery on orders over £150!
by Jim Button February 18, 2020 3 min read
So you've set up your favourite pedals, you've tuned your guitar and now you're ready to lay down some music for future generations.
But where to begin? Well, there are two methods of recording with guitar pedals:
"Printing" a track refers to the act of committing your recording to tape (or more likely, a track within your DAW). This includes any time or modulation effects such as delay or tremolo.
If you're confident about how your guitar tone sounds and how the track will sit in the overall mix, then there's nothing wrong with doing it this way. People have been achieving great results like this for decades!
Re-amping is a more time-consuming, technical but ultimately more flexible way of recording with guitar pedals, allowing you to tweak amp and pedal settings after the initial track has been recorded.
Say you want to alter the delay time, or turn the gain down a notch - you can do that!
Firstly you'll need a re-amp box. Radial are one of the most popular brands out there, but Palmer also make one that I recommend - the Daccapo is a passive re-amplification box which comes in at a more affordable price than the Radial stuff.
The idea is that you record a clean guitar track (either with an amp set very clean or with a DI straight into your mixer/audio interface). This signal can then be used to retrospectively feed through your rig. The beauty of this is that it gives you the ability to tweak settings on the fly, or even try out completely different pedalboards or amps using the same signal!
Your audio interface pumps out low-impedance, balanced line-level signals that are pretty hot (+4dBu), but your pedals and/or amp will be expecting a high-impedance, unbalanced, instrument-level signal from a guitar pickup, which is a lot weaker (‑18dBu).
A re-amp box acts as the medium between these differing signal types, allowing you to turn that hot signal back into a pedal-and-amp-friendly signal. It also isolates the grounds with a transformer, which helps to remove any ground‑loop hum issues that may arise. Some provide additional gain knobs to allow you to dial in levels.
You can get away without one, but chances are your pedals and amp will not be anywhere near their best and you may pick up a lot of hum.
To record using re-amping, your signal path will look something like this:
Guitar -> Audio interface channel input 1 DI -> Audio interface line out -> Re-amp box -> Pedalboard -> Amp -> Mic -> Audio interface channel input 2 -> DAW
Other more complex variations are possible too.
One technique I am fond of is printing one track with your dirt pedals in front of your amp, while re-amping the signal on a separate track through your time and modulation chain and back into your DAW in real time.
This allows you to commit to a core tone you like, but tweak the delay, reverb, chorus etc at a later date so it sits better in the mix. You could even use this re-amped track for monitoring purposes.
This signal path will look something like this:
TRACK 1:
Guitar-> Dirt pedals -> Amp -> Mic ->Audio interface channel input 1 -> DAW
TRACK 2:
Audio interface line out -> Re-amp box -> Time / Modulation effects -> Audio interface channel input 2 -> DAW
Re-amping not only makes recording with guitar pedals a lot more flexible, adjusting settings on the fly, but it allows you to introduce amp and effect plugins within your DAW too, combining the best of in-the-box software and real hardware. A cool way to get started is to experiment with adjusting delay settings in real time for a trippy intro or breakdown.
Try experimenting to see what you sounds you can achieve!
by Jim Button June 24, 2022 4 min read
by Guest Author February 14, 2022 9 min read
by Jim Button November 17, 2021 4 min read
Be the first to know about the latest guitar pedals from small builders across the globe, including UK & worldwide exclusives!
An awesome pedal from an awesome pedal maker. It was shipped fast and packaged well. Thanks again.
I spent an obsessive amount of time checking out univibe pedals. I'm so glad that I purchased this one from Boost. It is simply fantastic! If you don't believe me, then check out some video demos. Thanks Jim! + JG
This is a fantastic drive pedal. There’s plenty of Plexi style pedals out there and I’ve owned a few, this one stood out for the switchable A/B-B/A switch. The boost side is nice and simple, much like an LPB-1. Not overly clean but a perfect partner to the drive side. The Plexi side is again nothing revolutionary but very good all the same and sounds great, on a par with far more expensive pedals.
The build quality is also top end, very neat and tidy. Squeezed into the single enclosure and with a lifetime warrantee I couldn’t ask for more. I don’t think this’ll be leaving my pedal board any time soon!
I’m only just starting to scratch the surface of the KMA MACHINES Cirrus, but absolutely loving it so far. Very responsive to pick attack which means can really control the “ambience” with playing style. Really looking forward to exploring further.
Great vibe pedal, the best I’ve tried so far
Best prices on the net, in stock and fast delivery. Would buy again. Great sounding pedal and exactly as I had hoped. This one should be on my board for a while!
Really like this pedal. Good fun and easy to use and well made. It has a really hypnotic tone and feel to it. It is very reminiscent of old tape echo units.
Really personable service with exemplary communication and swift shipping.
Had a few vibes, absolutely loving this one, check the YT demos, lovely satisfying vibe with all the swirly goodness you could hope for. Beautifully made and reasonably priced. Highly recommended - and Jim at Boost is a top guy
I came across the Formula B Fuzz Rangers via online demos on Youtube, and they all sounded so good that I had to get one. Looking online I found the Boost Guitar Pedals website via the Formula B website as a listed UK stockist. Jim was excellent and the pedal arrived when he said it would and it was perfectly packaged. I would have no hesitation in buying any other product from Boost.
As for the Fuzz Rangers, it is a great pedal. I had to work at it a touch to get the sounds I liked from it, but it seems to react really well to different guitars and different amps with adjustments to volume and tone on the guitar and different amp settings. I found it works best into a slightly cranked amp, and volume roll-off on the guitar offers a great variety of sounds from clean to classic fuzz. Thoroughly enjoying the pedal. Well done Jim, great website and a great selection of interesting brands and pedals..... Which one next????
Having used a number of univibe clones over the years this one truly nails the sound for me, it comes with some clever additions in a pedal board friendly size and is excellent value for money. If you want the true sound of the original this pedal delivers.Special thanks to boost Guitar Pedals for putting this deal together so quickly..
I'm still working my way through all the sounds, but so far I'm loving them all.
Each time I think I've got a fav sound I flip the diode switch and there's another one. Great value for a four-in-one fuzz pedal!!
Not writing a long review but this is the best vibe I’ve owned. Do yourself a favour and get one on your board
Both modes really useable. The first can get a wooly or starved/wolly sound or more nasally raw sound depending on how you dial it in.
Mode two can be more mid focused and with both switches down it's just a real nice deep, warm wall of fuzz. Great stuff.
Awesome pedal. Does everything from short slaps, to long endless delays, or echo-verb. The infinite delay feature on the button hold is interesting, though if you need a certain sound out of it like that, you have to be okay with the sound that those settings create when the infinite hold feature is off. I’m sure it will be great for recording some interesting textures, but I don’t think I’d use it live, as the infinite hold sounds glitchy and cuts off very quickly at some of the shorter, more subtle delay settings that I use. The art on the pedal is nice, and the build quality is solid. Comes with a carry bag, for some reason, but I can’t complain. A great unit by any standard, but especially good quality and features for the ticket price.