Tone Pursuit: Analog vs. Digital

I did a series of two videos to present the pros and cons of the Line 6 Helix versus an analog pedalboard. I love all gear, and believe that there can be a time and place for their use. I hope these bless you!

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Integrating the Line 6 M5 with the Mothership

The challenge was set before me. I knew that I wanted to replace my old combo Boss DD-7/PS-6 pedal for something a lot more versatile: the Line 6 M5, which is the swiss army knife of pedals, and has the potential for some amazing MIDI integration for preset switching with my Disaster Area DMC-8D, which can control up to four devices (currently at three because of the Strymon pedals).

However, as it is with all challenges, several circumstances were not ideal:

1. My pedalboard layout was fixed for the combo pedal, which was housed in an enclosure much smaller than the M5.
2. I will probably have to re-route some of the power and cabling to accommodate the top jacks of the M5. On my combo pedal, the in/out jacks were traditionally left/right.
3. I needed an extra MIDI cable to hook it all up, and it wasn't a long cable.

Aside from orientation and layout issues, I soon discovered that the biggest problem with the M5 is that the MIDI out is not a MIDI thru--it has to be the last device in a MIDI chain as it will only accept MIDI in commands!

At first, I tried to make do with the pedal in this weird orientation and the MIDI cable being quite haphazardly placed. It looked unprofessional, and it wasn't long before my disdain for disorder kicked in. I needed the cabling to look neat!

On the issue of orientation, if I flipped the M5 about, I had to extricate a power cable from the existing cable tie run. I found a set of black zip ties from my old Pedaltrain builds, cut the old cable ties off so I could re-run the power cable to the opposite side, and re-set the cable run with new zip ties. They're black in color, so at least the differences between Goodwood's cable tie runs and mine don't look too different.

With an improvised pedal riser, I managed to elevate the M5 so that the cable runs would be hidden by its imposing size.

I then had to reset the MIDI cable jack orientation. I have some experience in this as I got a MIDI cable from Disaster Area, who use BTPA cables. A flathead screwdriver and a good twist later, I managed to get both MIDI in and out cables from my Big Sky looking right.

Remember, the MIDI out on the M5 is not a MIDI thru!

Yes, this looks much better.

Check out my original rig-rundown post on my Goodwood Audio setup here.

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Pedaltrain Nano Adventures for Christmas 2017 ("Last One", said No One Ever)

"Last Pedaltrain purchase, I promise."

"Yes, I'll change to the PT Junior, and ditch the PT Nano. I need the larger real estate."

I'm guilty of making empty promises. My wife knows me better. She knew that I wouldn't last half a month without my itchy fingers needing to tweak or change something up. Now that I've recently purchased a Canon 5D Mark II, I need to Purge some gear to fuel the camera Urge. Purge and Urge.

This iteration of the PT Nano sees a squeezing of 8 pedals, with the following signal path:

1. Hotone Soul Press
2. Hotone Komp
3. Xotic SL Drive
4. ZVEX Double Rock
5. GFI Clockwork V2
6. Hotone Tuner
7. GFI Specular V2
8. Mooer Micro DI

I built this with the following in mind:

1. I wanted a variety of drives in case the Double Rock was too limiting in any way. The SL is a bright and punchy pedal, which can shine through certain amps.
2. I wanted a dedicated DI box on my board with cabinet simulation for direct-to-board cases. For too long have I showed up at a venue only to find a sub-par DI box and no amps. With the Mooer, it's not the top of the line, but it gets the job done and I haven't had anyone come up to me after a show commenting that my "amp tone" was bad.
3. I wanted to double this as my acoustic rig. I'll obviously be avoiding the SL drive, but the Double Rock has clean boosts in it (identical SHO circuits on both sides), which may be useful to add volume to my passive acoustic pickup. With the acoustic, I'll mostly be using the Specular for those pad-like drones.
4. I wanted a lightweight solution to pack into a Mono Tick. No matter how hard I try to use a larger rig, I always come back to my Tick. It's the ideal size and weight for frequent travelling and gigging.

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New Gear Day: JPS Pedalboard (No Crazy Pedals)

I was inspired by my recent MSM Stringdom Workshop participants who were seeking simplicity of tone for worship to strip down my rig to something much more manageable.

8 pedals. No crazy delay or reverb, just my PS-6, DD-7 and Time Machine for basic delay tones. I can stack the DD-7 into the Time Machine for dual delay sounds, or set them up for two different subdivisions and toggle them when required. 

My BB Preamp and Timmy have made a comeback on this board, and I'm using the Timmy for crunch. I will augment with either the BB Preamp or SL Drive for lead tones, which I've dialed differently. Strangely enough, the SL Drive has more hair than the BB Preamp!

Finally, I have the Joyo AC Tone at the end of my chain as the amp sim, and it is comparable to the Tech 21 Liverpool! Serious!

Enough talk, let's hear how the overdrives sound and let's hear how the harmonizer sounds. 

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Ministry Musings: Adapting Your Tone for a School Hall Environment

I was asked to serve at this year's youth camp, which led to the building of this Pedaltrain Junior board to ensure maximum compatibility with any sound system I was going to plug into. I gladly took it up considering my dosage of vitamin M (for music) has been quite low for the year. I know, what with my worship leading commitments, I should have a healthy dosage of vitamin M since I serve twice a month at Contemporary Service.

It's different. As a musician, I get to focus on my guitar parts, the tone from the effects, and the expression of emotion as I play. My task as a worship leader forces me to push all that musical awareness to the back. I have to worry about how the songs gel with the rest of the service, liturgically and musically. I have to make sure I'm directing the band to play in a certain way, that my vocals aren't distracting (as I'm not much of a singer), and that the scripture I read and prayers I lead point the congregation in a particular direction.

That aside, this post is primarily about adapting to various sound environments. Specifically, let's address the issue of serving in a school hall.

I served with Jeremy and his worship team for their first morning session, and I was immediately greeted with a technical problem: the sound system made everything sound muffled, especially when amplified through a school hall. A school hall, with tall ceilings, sonorous floors and glass doors, will have some crazy long reverberation that will colour your guitar tone. The goal is to make everything crips, clear, and clean, allowing the hall environment to accentuate your tone, rather than muffle it.

I did a few things on the board to try and be as clear and articulate as possible:

1. Cut out all short reverb effects, including long background delays. I usually have a mild reverb coupled with a long delay with a low mix to cushion my tone in the background. In our usual worship space, which is a cinema hall, instruments tend to sound too dry (think of a studio environment).
2. Tweak the EQ on pedals to cut out the low end and boost the mids. I did this on my "pre-drive" pedal, a CMATmods Signa Drive, and the tone controls on the Hotone Komp compressor, which has a sparkle switch and a tone knob.
3. Use digital delays instead of analog-style delays. I have a DD-7 which has a crispy clean digital mode, a much more desirable sound over the rest of my analog delays on the board (a Strymon Brigadier, and an Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master). The natural reverb of the hall will colour the repeats of my digital delay anyway.

In the end, I was only using at most 5 of the 15 pedals on my board, but that is precisely the point--I designed the board to have maximum compatibility with any sound situation I was placed in. If I only had 5 pedals, I'd have to make do with the tone that I have, and won't have any leeway to tweak.

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Recommended Gear for Beginner Electric Guitarists (TC Electronic/December 2016)

This page is written primarily for my guitar students who want to get themselves some gear but have no idea where to start, but if you're here browsing, do feel free to check out the links below!

Some things to let you know before you peruse these links:

1. I tried to make it as simple as possible for you by compiling all the links together from one shop. I love Amazon and it's the simplest way to shop online.
2. The total cost of this rig will be under $500, which may sound like a lot of money, but I assure you the tone is 100% more satisfying than getting a multi-effects unit that you may spend hundreds of hours on to get one workable tone out of.
3. You don't necessarily have to buy everything at once. If cash is an issue, build your rig piece-wise. That's the great thing about analog--your rig is as small or as big as your needs are.

Pedaltrain Nano


OneSpot Power Supply


Hosa Patch Cables


TC Electronic Spark Mini Booster


TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive


TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion


TC Electronic Flashback Mini Delay


TC Electronic Hall of Fame Mini Reverb


TC Electronic Ditto Looper



Some videos to show you what you can do with these:

I hope this helps!

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A Major Update!

So I'm supposed to be studying but the lighting conditions are far less than ideal, so I'll take a little break to blog before moving up to my room where I have much better lights (but also much more distractions). Here's the update of my life for the past few months, so I'll be concise and share the relevant stuff.

Study, study, study!

The biggest update is that I've stopped work at AMKMC and am now a full time theological student at Trinity Theological College. I'll let some of these photos do the talking for me:

Orientation Day was packed.

My class is huge!

At the TTC chapel, where I go for chapel services, a staple part of student life.

The Hebrew Aleph-bet (alphabet), which we had to memorize on the first day.

Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew.

Church history class.

This year's CSCA lectures with Dr. Simon Chan on "Subversive Liturgy".

Random picture of Jumbo sleeping under my car while taking a break from studying.

Our visit to St. Mary of the Angels for our Field Education.

Reading my Mission and Evangelism textbook with a book stand to alleviate some of the "eyeball aches" I've been getting recently.

A view of the chapel from the back (where I'm usually now since undertaking AV responsibilities).

I've completed my first year Old Testament and Theology courses, so "by right" I should have more time to study than my fellow first year sufferers. But the truth is, I feel like I don't. I'm discovering that in order to retain information, I can't read at my usual pace. I miss out a ton of details! With Thursday mostly free and Friday all to myself, I pray that I will be able to catch up with my friends who are so well-adept at reading and writing. You can keep me in prayer for:

• Church History - I'm really quite bad at geography and remembering places!
• Hebrew 1 - 'Nuff said.
• Mission and Evangelism - A mountain of readings, and a lot of group projects. Thankfully, my group mates are amazing!
• New Testament 1 - The hardest for me so far. Our textbook isn't the friendliest and I've had to read up or watch other lectures to make sense of what the author of our textbook is trying to say.

Gigs and gear adventures

By the grace of God, I'm still able to get some vitamin M (music) in my system. My ministry "swan song" was serving on a worship team at this year's YMEFLC (Young Methodist-Evangelical Free Leaders' Conference), which I had the immense privilege of playing through a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Tonal bliss!

My amp sim became a mute switch. What a beauty of an amp!

In September, I'll be performing with some pals of mine I've come to admire and respect at Blujazz. Ivni and Wai Yee are blind musicians and are part of an annual concert at Blujazz (Ivni is a drum student at Bossworkz Music School, and yes, he is a blind drummer!) and I've had the privilege of meeting them to play on their bands for the past two years. It's a humbling experience to play alongside them because they show me that music transcends boundaries, even physical ailments.

I didn't have time to take a picture of them, but here's a shot of me rehearsing with an iRig Pro interface and using my phone as the effects processor.

Also, I think I've discovered that there is no way to achieve high gain tones through analog pedals unless you have a decent high-gain amp--which I will never own. Hence, my recent acquisition of iRig gear to play heavier stuff: and I'm mightily impressed! How I wish this technology was available to me when I was starting out! iRig equipment makes the multi-fx style of gear much more accessible for the beginner guitarist.

Soli deo gloria. Now, back to studying!

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