Hey all!
Here's a picture first, and then some info about what I've been doing today.
Boss Katana Rig: Guitar>Pitch Fork+>Big Muff Pi> Boss Katana 100>SM57>Scarlett 6i6>REAPER
I decided to switch things around a bit in the studio. It's not that I'm not happy with the POD Go sounds. Quite the contrary, I've never liked them more. The more time I spend with it, the more I get to know it, and the better the whole experience becomes.
Some of the pedals on the POD Go rig were just there, like the Pitch Fork +, a polyphonic dual pitch shifter. It's a lot of fun, but I just never used it together with my POD chains.
The EHX Big Muff fuzz, on the other hand, worked great with presets I made, and even though wasn't a huge fuzz fan, I definitely started to like it a lot in the last week or two when I was researching Gilmour style fuzz sounds.
The Mod Rex (sitting on top of the Boss Katana in the picture) is another insanely fun piece of gear, but it's potentially hazardous, at least for me, because you can spend literally the whole day playing with the phasing, flanging, chorusing, tremolating (?), and all that good stuff.
POD Go's modulation effects are much more simple to use, that's why I opted for them inside all my presets from now on. Ubiquitous Vibe and 70s Chorus (Boss CE-1, btw) are my two absolute favorites. Electric Mistress and Phase90 also crept in on two presets, great stuff as well, but I found them just a bit harder to dial in, the Deluxe EM Flanger especially (Courtesan Flange inside the POD)!
POD Go Rig: Guitar>Carl Martin Compressor/Limiter>Zendrive Clone>POD's Guitar In>Stereo FX Loop with EHX Oceans 12>Scarlett 6i6>REAPER
The dual momentary footswitch (left of the compressor) does two things only: turn off/on the Input Gate and turn off/on the Stereo FX Loop.
Currently, I'm one power adapter short, so I can't connect the Mod Rex together with the Boss Katana Rig, but I ran it in the FX Loop in the back of the Boss Katana. Easy send and return, worked great. Still haven't felt adventurous enough to put the Mod Rex directly after the Big Muff...that would be mad, ay?
The Boss Katana is such a fun piece of gear to use. Honestly, I had so much fun today, spent probably more than 6 hours in total playing through it. From a user-experience standpoint, it's so much easier to use than the POD, but that's probably due to the fact you can't choose from 60+ amps and 20+ cabinets, which is in this case - a great thing.
Spend most of the day playing through the Clean channel of the Katana, using the built-in emulations of the Boss Blues Driver, another legendary drive pedal, to drive it a bit.
The Tape Echo delay option sounded the best out of three, and I kinda like Plate and Spring Reverb equally. The Crunch channel is also very pleasing, and in some weird way, it reminded me of Grammatico block from the POD Go, which I'm a massive fan of.
The whole point of the Boss Katana rig with a few EHX pedals up in front is, to be dead honest here, to record weird stuff I normally wouldn't record when I'm doing demos for YouTube, or when I'm playing in general. Plus, I miss recording instruments with microphones.
The POD's convenience can't be beaten, but I miss some of the ''complications'': the whole process of setting up for recording, adjusting microphone position, listening back to the takes, and checking what could be better.
Also, destroying the Clean channel of the Katana with the Fuzz is just fun. Drop it down an octave with the pitch shifter, and all hell breaks loose...
Anyway, I'm looking forward to recording some crazy stuff, a bunch of weird noises, and crushed fuzzed sounds with this rig. The added bonus is I don't have to wear headphones while I'm tweaking stuff, which is a relief.
If you'd like to know more about this, or just ask about recording in general, don't hesitate to ask, I'm more than happy to answer all questions that merge guitar playing and recording together.
Thanks again for supporting me here,
Ivan