parhelia_0000's Amp Rig

Let's face it, we all love the high-gain tones. And at the same time, we all despise the all-too-familiar extraneous hiss.

Personally, for a long period of time I was constantly getting disappointed by how pedal-based noise gates weren't cutting it enough. The Boss NS-2 sucks up tone, the TC Sentry leaves you with a distasteful digital signal, a single G-String eats up sustain and the two Decimator II's in a link system eat up pedalboard space, not to mention a potential for cable short-circuiting hazard caused by a TRS aux cable that's needed to get the link system working.

That was, until I finally ran into this. The ISP Decimator ProRack G. It's a two-channel noise gate that allows you to pick between instrument level and line level. Not only is it very versatile in terms of setup, the Filter Tracking also allows you to hone in on the refined clamping of the noise reduction. How does it sound? Very transparent - even with a 1st Generation ProRack G I have, the rack unit does a fantastic job at clamping the unwanted high-gain noise while keeping my signal as clean as it could be. What can I say? It gets the job done without any nonsense.

The only thing I would wish for it to have would be a MIDI input that would allow me to bypass the noise gate when playing clean tones, but even with it on, the clean tones are crystal clear.

Final verdict? Well, if you're a metal player using a high-gain tube amp and a boost/overdrive, and you don't like the extraneous hiss that's coming from your amp, stop wasting your time with other noise gates and get this rack unit. It's the be all, end all of noise gates that YOUR tube amp needs.

If you want a modern-sounding tone that doesn't compromise the authentic tube feel, then Synergy has a big winner with the SYN-2 rackmount preamp. Modular system that's a successor to the Randall and Egnater modular systems, these units are built to last. There's a reason why players like Steve Vai and Syu tour with these units, and I'm certainly impressed with it as well.

Even the cab sim on the preamp is pretty damn good. I'm quite surprised to say that the cab sim actually defeated Trey Xavier's Lancaster Audio cab IR's.

If you want the ultimate modern tone with no compromises, take a serious look at the Synergy SYN-2. I did, and I haven't looked back since.

Before using this preamp module, I used to have the Jaded Faith JFM800 module. While it did the job, it was very difficult to work with as the low-end was extremely muddy and the midrange was not defined well enough. Extreme EQ settings were required to make the JFM800 really work for the time.

Enter the Synergy Friedman HBE module. Based on the Hairy Brown Eye channel of the famous Friedman BE-100 amplifier, this preamp really delivers the goods. The low-end sounds tight and articulate from the get-go, the midrange is well-defined and with the added bonus of separate gain and volume levels for two channels, you can actually distinguish your own rhythm and lead channels for the sounds you're going for.

This preamp has solved a lot of issues for me. Before I had this, I had to crank up the Mud Control on my Electric Eye Audio Mud Killer overdrive just to get a passable metal tone. With the Friedman HBE module, I don't have to do that anymore. It's so amazing in fact, that the HBE module has also allowed me to get rid of the 6-band EQ from my pedalboard as well.

If you want the Galneryus tone in a preamp module, check out the Synergy Friedman HBE. I did, and so far, I haven't even considered going back to the JFM800 ever since.

Before I had the BE/BB module, I used to rely on the Morgan AC for my clean tone and mid-gain tones. However, the red channel of the Morgan AC began to overstress my rack noise gate as soon as I began using compressors with overdrive pedals up front for Tosin Abasi-style slap guitar tones.

Enter the Friedman BE/BB module. A combination of the mid-gain Brown Eye channel with the clean tone from the Buxom Beauty amp, it combines the best of a modernized take on a Fender-style clean tone with mid-gain tones that sound tight yet natural. Combine the BE channel with a compressor up front for tight Tosin Abasi-style slap guitar tones. it won't do high-gain, however, but for amazing mid-gain tones you really can't complain, and if you're like me and using a Synergy SYN-2, you're gonna be using another module for high-gain tones anyway.

The clean tone truly sounds beautiful, probably the best clean tone I've ever heard out of a preamp module.

If you want to achieve Fender-style clean tones and Friedman-style mid-gain tones in a single module, take a serious look at the Friedman BE/BB module from Synergy Amps.

Before I got this reverb, I was initially trying to make a faulty Eventide Eclipse work, mainly because the damn Eclipse came to me defective with the right input showing signs of signal coming through even when I didn't have anything plugged in there. Turns out the Eventide Eclipse was faulty, so I've went through so much trouble trying to get the refund back on a unit that was no longer functional.

Enter the Strymon BigSky, a rack-in-a-box pedal form of several kinds of reverb sounds you could do with this. For clean tones, in terms of achieving Ichika's signature ambient reverb tone, the Cloud mode was the most pleasing to listen to. The digital reverb had a very natural feel to the diffusion, and I was certainly pleased by how the results came with it. For the lead tones, I liked the good old traditional Hall setting.

I've barely even scratched 2% of what this unit can do, and I'm already impressed by it. This thing slaughters the Eventide Eclipse in many ways, mainly due to its incredible reliability and amazing rack-quality tones.

If you're looking for the ultimate reverb pedal but don't want to go through the hassle of hefty repair/maintenance costs of a rack unit, take a serious look at the Strymon BigSky reverb pedal. For CAD$646, this thing slaughters many vintage rack reverb units. I only wish I could've gotten it sooner instead of being forced to deal with the hassle of trying to get my money back on the Eclipse.

I haven't even looked back to any other rack reverb units since I got this pedal.

Before I got the TimeLine, I was struggling so much to get a perfect delay pedal that would suit all my needs. The delay pedals I've tried out in the past were either limited in functionality, not articulate enough, or were extremely unreliable to the point where they would break down easily. (Remember that time back in 2019 when a used Eventide Eclipse arrived to me with a defective right input?)

Enter the Strymon TimeLine, the king of delay pedals. The algorithms may look simple on the outside, but don't be fooled. There's a lot of things going on behind the scenes, especially with the pattern algorithms. There's a lot of types of delay sounds you can dial in, and one of the most unique features that set the TimeLine apart from other pedals is that it can do diffused delays that make it sound more like a glorified reverb, which is something that not even rack units are able to accomplish easily. You'd have to use up at least 50% of Fractal's CPU power just to get even close to the complex delay algorithms that the TimeLine is able to produce with ease.

This is a definite keeper. I've dealt with the Boss 500 series pedals in the past, and Strymon beats it out of the park by light years. When combined with the Strymon BigSky, the delay/reverb combinations far surpass what vintage racks and/or Fractal are able to produce. If you're looking to achieve the ultimate delay effects, don't waste your time with other units, get a TimeLine. I did, and ever since then, I never looked back at any of the vintage rack units.

While I normally tend to give vintage rack gear folks a bad rep for their elitism, there is one thing that they did have the right idea about - routing digital delay and reverb effects in parallel. This is where the line mixers come in.

Enter the Samson SM10. It's an 8-channel line mixer with two stereo aux sends to route your digital effects in parallel. This allows you to preserve the analog dry of your guitar tone while layering the stereo effects on top. I've been using this line mixer with the Strymon TimeLine and BigSky, and IMHO this is THE best way to achieve your stereo ambient sounds without risking ADA conversions.

This line mixer is also great for wet/dry/wet situations as well. Mute the dry signal coming in, but crank the MON and EFX knobs to send the dry signal to the stereo effects. Instant W/D/W right there.

If you want to make wet/dry/wet or stereo rigs work for your guitar tone, this is an absolute must-have.

So I'm in the process of building a rack rig, and we all know front-end effects require a switching system one way or another. However, the RJM products tend to be quite pricey, and the Voodoo Lab GCX requires proprietary MIDI cables with pins 1 and 3 removed as well as specific SPDIF programming in order to work with other MIDI controllers.

Enter the Voodoo Lab HEX. This is what I consider to be a poor man's RJM Mini Effect Gizmo. It features 6 series loops, with loop 1 isolated via the Input/Send/Return/Output design. The dimensions of the HEX is designed to be a half-rack unit, but it works just as well when placed on a rack shelf or underneath a pedalboard.

It does the job pretty good. So far this switcher hasn't failed on me, and it is pretty rock solid. I would trust this unit for live gigs for sure.

Having said that, it's not a perfect switcher. Switching loops in/out could be a bit quieter as it tends to produce a loud "tick" when loops are being toggled, and personally if loops 2-6 are wired in series, then I don't see much of a point in having loop 1 isolated into the I/S/R/O fashion. A bit dated design if I may say, but these are minor things that aren't that big of a deal-breaker for me.

The overall weight of the HEX is on the lighter side. Whether you see it as a pro or con is up to you to decide.

Overall, I think this is the perfect value switching system for stompboxes when you're tight on budget. It only costs $400 CAD and will give you 6 loops to switch in and out, and you can rackmount two HEX's with a mounting bracket if you want to.

Solid 4 stars for me. Very good effort, Voodoo Labs.

I've done tons of studio recordings starting from 2018 up until now, and if there's one critical studio gear that I cannot live without, it would be a DI box. This allows you to split your guitar signal into your regular amp tone and a DI tone where you're recording your raw guitar sound into a line-level signal, giving you tons of opportunities to reamp your guitar sound however your heart desires.

The Radial JDI is a fantastic piece of gear that I'd recommend to any and all studio engineers. It's a passive DI box, meaning you don't need to use a power supply to use the DI box, and it features a solid Jensen transformer inside the DI box. Pretty amazing stuff. The sound quality of the DI box is great too, as I get the full clarity of my guitar pickups being recorded into my DAW.

When I need to record DI guitar tracks, I reach for the Radial JDI.

For a long time I've been using the Electric Eye Audio Mud Killer overdrive for my high-gain metal tones, and while it sounded great with the Friedman HBE, I struggled to get it to sound bright for my guitar tone, and it was starting to show its age.

Enter the Fortin 33. A signature pedal made for Frederik Thordendal of Meshuggah, this pedal SCREAMS modern metal - it eliminates all the complexities of a clean boost pedal and condenses everything down to one boost knob with its own proprietary EQ curve. The result? Tight, chuggy metal tones that give life to my Synergy Friedman HBE.

Now, do bear in mind, you may want to consider raising the low's a bit on your amp if you're playing 6 or 7-string's, as the Fortin 33 pedal will shelve out a lot of low-end from your amp.

Having said that, the midrange aggression and brightness boost is nothing like anything I've ever heard in the past. This pedal has officially replaced the Mud Killer in my rack rig, and I'd be more than happy to use it in the foreseeable future to come.

Well done, Mike Fortin. We got a new winner. #BillPrimoApproved