Ampless Signal Paths Explained

I've worked on countless "ampless" pedalboards over the last couple of years, and today I'm telling you everything you need to know about integrating an amp simulator into your rig. Whether you're running a mono setup, or looking for a ultra-wide Wet/Dry/Wet ampless configuration, I'll show you how to build the ampless rig of your dreams!

Table of Contents
00:00 The Rise of Amp Simulators
00:24 Types of Setups
00:37 Mono Setup
04:44 Stereo Setup
05:15 4CM/5CM Setup
06:40 WET/DRY/WET Setup
08:11 Maintaining Your Signal Quality Over Long Distances
09:50 Thanks For Watching!

RECOMMENDED GEAR

FOLLOW US

⬇BUY VERTEX PEDALS⬇

⬇PODCAST⬇

⬇DIY BUFFER DIAGRAMS & TEMPLATES⬇

⬇RECOMMENDED MATERIALS⬇

CREDITS:
Host/Co-Production: Mason Marangella
Guitar: Tim Marco
Video: Nico Sotomayor
Video Editing: Mason Mejia
Co-Production/Design: Mason Mejia
Audio Engineering: Mason Mejia

#ampsim #pedalboard #guitarpedals

[legionnairegonk]

Far too many pro's / hardware manufacturers just assume everyone knows this stuff. Thanks for being different and explaining everything clearly 😉.

[CamBaldeon]

You’ve been doing a great service for our community, I wish you all the success.

[karlkestermann]

I use the Bass Simplifier and it has changed my whole sound. I couldn't live without it!

[bakelite-era]

Man this video answered questions I didn't even know I had. Thanks so much Mason, I'm going Ampless for my church Worship setup and you've just saved me heaps of stress and time I would have wasted otherwise!

[tommyzai]

The depth of your tutorial is fantastic; yet, HOLY MOLY the complexity of a complete virtual rig is making me consider going acoustic and singing on a picnic blanket in the park . . . alone. ;-0

[MatthaeusEbonah]

These new amp pedals have truly changed the game for me personally. The genre of music I play the sound men usually run your rig directly into the DI and out of a DI into your amp. They don't care if you're playing a $20k two rock amp. They're not micing it up. So, even though the tone out of your amp and something like magic. That DI sound is like a kazoo if you have any type of drive on. The UA Dream 65 has changed this for me. I run two lines out the outputs. One to my monitor or "power in" section of my amp. The other to the DI box. The IR's and cam Sims on any of the UA pedals are CRAZY good. Now I don't lose my tone.

[BrianVallotton]

I have never seen this explained better. Thanks so much. Keep up the great work! God bless.

[patrickcarroll]

The graphics, the editing...the clarity. You keep evolving Mason. Thank you. I still think in metaphors and concepts more than technology and blueprints, but your delivery continues to be more focused and It's getting easier to follow along. Such a useful presentation on this topic

2 video suggestions:
- Would you consider a video on a cable management of your brand new STUDIO and WORKSTATION? Beyond the pedalboard, I'm a firm believer you can apply that kind of tidiness elswhere in one's music space. And I'm fairly certain many cords behind an average computer are a rats nest, lit up by some sort of LED light to create the illusion all is well. Or maybe it just signals you like create. Either way, I bet you could make one mean video on it?
- It's been asked before, but could you discuss and dedicate a whole video to HX STOMP specific routing? I've watched Line 6's demos and they're good, but boy do they fly past the material. To me the ports on the unit seem to connect a little differently to an effects loop or setting up cap Sims, etc. And I am simply not an engineer. Considering there's millions of users out there, perhaps I wouldn't be alone.

Keep on what you're doing!

[mattmitchell]

Thanks, this answered my question about using the boss ir-2 in a simple stereo ampless rig. 👍👍👍

[AutismRocksOfficial]

Awesome video and good timing for me. I’m putting together an
Ampless praise and worship board for church right now.✌️👍

[El...Presidente]

The Boss IR-200 is so underrated. It has an effects loops which you can program to before or after amp, 2 eqs, reverb, noise gate, stereo with 2 different amp/cab combos u can split L/R, can act as simple midi controller, u can upload your IRs, tons of amps including bass…. It’s amazing, sounds amazing.

[johnpaulpatton]

Living in an apartment, a loud tube amp is just not really an option. So, I decided to go with an Iridium and I'm very happy with it. I have struggled with placement of pedals around it, though, so this video is very helpful. Thank you!

[widmer]

Mason, your content is very enriching! Love it!

[runefb]

Thanks a bunch! I placed my wet effects after the Dream as you suggested, and the sound got SO MUCH better! 👍

[benchambers]

It's good to be validated. I have a set up almost exactly like this.

My guitar signal is like this:
Guitar
Tuner
Compressor
Distortion (amp sim preamp pedal)
Overdrive
Noise gate

Mooer D.I. box.
^it has cab sim, d.i. xlr out [dry], and an unbalanced out to continue the chain.

Univibe
Chorus

Mono female to dual mono male adapter

Stereo in EQD Avalanche Run delay/reverb

Left Stereo out to Joyo JDI-01 #1 [Wet Left]

Right stereo out to Joyo JDI-01 #2
[Wet Right]

Both of those have XLR outs to FoH or Interface.

[BRAG]

As someone who just bought a dream 65 and ruby this came at the perfect time for me.
I’m running them kind of different than what you show here. But most likely I’ll switch it up. I’m running polytune> Nobels>obne visitor(modulation)> obne sunlight( tape reverb) > DL4 mk2> ruby> gfi specular tempus for reverb> walrus audio canvas in stereo. Signal chain starts in stereo after my dl4 . Run stereo xlr out through the canvas into interface or frfr. With the dream I don’t need the reverb as it has one so I just run that as the end of chain before canvas. The obne sunlight I have I kind of use separate even though it’s on the board. Mostly use it di into interface no amp modeling for pad sounds. So that explains why it’s in a weird place in my signal chain. I do recommend if you like reverb to set it after the ruby and not in front. I messed around with that for a while.

[wfqsfg]

I go back to when we brought our 30 watt amp to church and mic'd it or used the line out if it had one. Some people even tried using just a pedal with some boost like an overdrive pedal with the gain turned down to go to the board. Sometimes there were 3 amps up there all blaring. Thank God for these amp simulators.

[angrybirds]

Thanks, doc! Your rundowns are always clear crispy and concise, and also superlative!

[louishwu]

Thank you for instantly answering questions/fears I had about my UA lion and solutions given in a straightforward concise video!

[tmead]

Solid video! Well thought out and easy to follow. 👍