Help the swede with stupid questions!

[Sascha Franck]

Primarily headphones (HD600) and if the room in the basement gets a paint job (can’t stand what my wife did there last year… it’s like… nasty… a strange pastel pink/red color) I may unpack my Presonus Eris 5” monitors.
Point is… I have bits and pieces, a few pedals. But as for now, nothing “amp” like to play. Think I’ll go for a amp pedal of some sorts.

See, I'm asking because sometimes the seemingly easier setup becomes more of a chore to deal with than what you originally wanted.
What amp pedal? Does it have effects as well? Or are you gonna add them? That's one more pedal (or multiple pedals) to deal with. And it still needs to be amplified. So it has to have a phone out at least. Etc.

Now, I'm not saying you should re-buy a stomp, but some sort of all-in-one solution doesn't seem to be a bad idea for what you seem to want.
Maybe something along the lines of a Boss Me 90 would be a better choice? It's pretty much analog style WYSIWYG all throughout, so you'd never really had to use presets (even if you still can).

Personally, what I really like for home useage is a bunch of analog dirt pedals (nothing really expensive) running into my Amplifirebox. It's 100% as an analog setup, option paralysis simply isn't a thing. For the occasional weird sound I can slap an MS-50G in front and that was it. But (!): This setup isn't mobile at all and really only works at my computer/homestudio workspace. I need the stuff there for amplification and I also get my monitoring FX (typically delay and/or reverb) from a parallel path into the DAW (so I'm monitoring the dry amp signal directly, just the spatial FX are generated inside Logic). That's also why I was asking.
Anyway, that's a setup working incredibly well for me, I only got a little distracted recently, as I bought a new Macbook and a very low latency interface, so I was all into the amp sim rabbit hole almost instantly. Which I also love, but it's a distraction from playing, so I will only use it on the road. At my main space, I will stick with that pseudo-analog setup and only replace the Amplifirebox with some HX amps here and there.

 

[the swede]

See, I'm asking because sometimes the seemingly easier setup becomes more of a chore to deal with than what you originally wanted.
What amp pedal? Does it have effects as well? Or are you gonna add them? That's one more pedal (or multiple pedals) to deal with. And it still needs to be amplified. So it has to have a phone out at least. Etc.

So far my plan would be to start using my pedals again. I have a few that I saved in a drawer when I went all in on HX Stomp 2018. So the simple plan is to get something like the Iridium, TC ampworx or ACS1. Preferably as little options in it as possible, and just use mono pedals straight into it. Like old times, the easy way. I miss the simplicity doing that. And I think I need that for my creativity, pedal board would be kept in a size that allows me to try one or two pedals. I’m probably aiming for 5-6 pedals + amp pedal.

So as for now I have 4 or 5 pedals down in the basement, patch cables, dvp mini, a Palmer board and PSU. So all I need really is that amp pedal and good to play. Recording can be solved. The audio interface market seems to be quite “fat” with decent stuff. Regretting I sold the Motu M4 I had a few years ago.
But and Audient ID4 would probably fit my needs and go hand in hand with my Apple laptop in a nice way so. I will only move between two rooms and there’s won’t be any playing out with people.

Thanks a lot for your interest I must add. It certainly makes me think

 

[the swede]

I’ll also add that my initial post about the reamp/di thing is not set in stone.
While I appreciated those features with the stomp, I honestly never used the reamp function other than testing it.

It’s not like I’m planning an album.. if I record it will be for fun.

A friend gave me an idea to another option, that he applies quite often. He uses a looper to record at certain points on his (bass) board. Saves the captures and brings them to his bands studio. That was a clever idea I thought.

 

[Sascha Franck]

So far my plan would be to start using my pedals again. I have a few that I saved in a drawer when I went all in on HX Stomp 2018. So the simple plan is to get something like the Iridium, TC ampworx or ACS1. Preferably as little options in it as possible, and just use mono pedals straight into it. Like old times, the easy way. I miss the simplicity doing that. And I think I need that for my creativity, pedal board would be kept in a size that allows me to try one or two pedals. I’m probably aiming for 5-6 pedals + amp pedal.

Fine. So you would then run all spatial FX and such (delay, verb, chorus) into the amp pedal, too?

Btw, I think that's a nice idea. I was just wondering how you wanted to deal with the monitoring and spatial FX. Personally, while I never need most of it in my live setup, at home I absolutely enjoy being able to have stereo FX, especially when using headphones. But I think the Iridium adds a nice stereo image with its room reverb, doesn't it? If so, that might be sufficient for some additional "it's not all dead center" goodness.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I’ll also add that my initial post about the reamp/di thing is not set in stone.

Oh right, wanted to say something about reamping: Forget about it! At least for now. Seriously.
I am occasionally doing more or less professional recordings (no, I'm not a big gun or anything, but people still expect professional guitar takes), and while I was into all the reamping stuff at first, hence recording a DI track similtaneously, after a while I just stopped doing so because I simply never needed it.
The main thought behind this being that I want to capture my performance. And that very performance is pretty much tied to the sound I'm using when tracking, so completely replacing it with something else usually doesn't work well, even if (at least on paper) the sound used for reamping is much "better".
In addition, it's so easy to fall for "oh, I'll finish it later" (because you don't need to preserve the actual sound as there's always a DI track) - and actually never finish anything. With most of the sound being generated analog (or at least analog style), I'm forced to at least finish the track I'm currently recording (unless I wanted to start all the way from scratch again), which I absolutely like because it's forcing me to focus. That's also part of the reason why I'm only using amp plugins rarely.
I do however never record delays or reverbs (the best ones I have are coming from the DAW anyway) and I will admit that I sometimes capture just the amp sound (while monitoring through an IR) and add the cab information in the DAW. But that's really happening rarely these days.
To make my takes suit a context, the typical post processing available seems to be just fine, no need to re-amp the entire shebang.

 

[the swede]

Fine. So you would then run all spatial FX and such (delay, verb, chorus) into the amp pedal, too?

Btw, I think that's a nice idea. I was just wondering how you wanted to deal with the monitoring and spatial FX. Personally, while I never need most of it in my live setup, at home I absolutely enjoy being able to have stereo FX, especially when using headphones. But I think the Iridium adds a nice stereo image with its room reverb, doesn't it? If so, that might be sufficient for some additional "it's not all dead center" goodness.

Yeah, I’m going in all mono from now on. Straight into the “amp”. Any stereo for fun or for feel would be from the amp pedal.
The downside with those new TC pedals is they seem to not have a built in “room” or amp reverb (except the deluxe which have a spring emulation).
The iridium room algo is undeniably very good. I’ve tried it.

If I record and become more into creating shit, I will most certainly create the stereo field within the daw. Either with post effects or just dead simple creating the stereo field with mono recordings, wich in my book is how it’s done and how I like recordings to sound. My taste is like it should be heard and noticed in the recording that someone recorded pedals and amp and then mixed the guitars to left and right to create a stereo field. Stereo in this case is the interaction between two guitarists and what they’re doing with the instruments and pedals.

 

[the swede]

Oh right, wanted to say something about reamping: Forget about it! At least for now. Seriously.

Haha. I will… it’s to much at this point anyway. I need to go slow.

Right now, I need to 100% find out wich amp pedal I need :) and look in that drawer with pedals.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Right now, I need to 100% find out wich amp pedal I need :)

Fwiw, while I absolutely despise the company's behaviour, if you can get a 2nd hand Atomic Amplifirebox, they're defenitely worth a consideration IMO. There's some amps in there which are just great (even by todays standards) and the Bman is a most excellent pedal platform IMO (serves as my main dirt "channel" for around 2-3 years by now in my live rig). Unfortunately, there's not much of them on the used market (*don't* buy a new one!), but I remember seeing one for €120 a while ago (still at least sort of regret I didn't buy it), and at that price, you really couldn't do anything wrong.
Downside: No headphone out on the old version, no aux in on any version.

 

[the swede]

Fwiw, while I absolutely despise the company's behaviour, if you can get a 2nd hand Atomic Amplifirebox, they're defenitely worth a consideration IMO. There's some amps in there which are just great (even by todays standards) and the Bman is a most excellent pedal platform IMO (serves as my main dirt "channel" for around 2-3 years by now in my live rig). Unfortunately, there's not much of them on the used market (*don't* buy a new one!), but I remember seeing one for €120 a while ago (still at least sort of regret I didn't buy it), and at that price, you really couldn't do anything wrong.
Downside: No headphone out on the old version, no aux in on any version.

Never seen them second hand here, and not new either. Can’t remember when I last saw them sold new online in Europe.

So far leaning towards Iridium, walrus or TC. A used Iridium isn’t hard to find here.

Anyway… I’d like to thank you again for the inputs on all this. I’ve come to conclusions that helps. About the di/reamp stuff that I created this thread. That was the last hurdle of thoughts, and that has been closed, further simplifying my thoughts and I can focus on what’s important.

To actually get the guitar out of the case and start strumming strings is 100% the focus.

 

[JiveTurkey]

As an alternative to the AA suggestion; how about a Nux Amp Academy?

 

[the swede]

As an alternative to the AA suggestion; how about a Nux Amp Academy?

hmm, hardware wise it does seem to do exactly what the stomp can do.... for a better price also. That's a very good suggestion my friend.
However... will it take me to rabbit holes? there certainly a possibility... IR loading could become a trap for me.
Amp selection seems to be way less than HX at least. Id prefer even less though, to feel comfortable.

i will have to take a look at it.

 

[Sascha Franck]

As an alternative to the AA suggestion; how about a Nux Amp Academy?

No.
I have one. Some decent tones but overall not the same ballpark as the HX sounds. Also not as good as an Iridium, an Amplifirebox and maybe some others.
All strictly IMO of course, but for example, IMO the JCM800 is a) compressing quite a bit too much and b) has a tendency to get harsh.
Also, I think it's not as much "set and forget" as the Amplifirebox, simply because the controls are programmable, which means you're losing WYSIWYG - IMO one of the big upsides of pedalsized single amp pedals.
Sure, the AFB has a dual-program mode as well, hence no WYSIWYG anymore, either - but I wouldn't recommend using that mode unless you'd really have to (as an emergency kit or so).