Is there a future for analog pedals?

JTEX

JTEX

Well-known member
Now that there are so many great sounding modelers in various form factors, from pedal sized to full size floor or rack multi-fx, do you think the days of the analog pedal are numbered? What can an analog pedal do that a modeler or DSP can't do just as well or better? (except perhaps introducing people to electronics). I can't think of anything else...
 
I actually went analog then to a modeler and now am back to analog. I liked the modelers sound fine but I found all the menu diving to be bad for my creativity. All the knobs being easy to tweak and route on the real things I think will make them always desirable.

Also I think the DIY aspect of it is great. Learning pedals and building one yourself exactly how you want it I think is much more meaningful.
 
idk.
has fuzz ever really been that well digitally modelled?
(e.g. fuzz face, tone benders, big muff etc.)

even if modelling was to replace an entire rig for whatever purpose, there could still be a place/role for analog pedals to be modelled and captured on something like Tonex/Kemper if one wanted to.
 
JTEX said:
Now that there are so many great sounding modelers in various form factors, from pedal sized to full size floor or rack multi-fx, do you think the days of the analog pedal are numbered? What can an analog pedal do that a modeler or DSP can't do just as well or better? (except perhaps introducing people to electronics). I can't think of anything else...
Click to expand...
Coincidentally a few weeks ago I got a Line 6 POD Go to dip my toes in the Helix ecosystem (I'm not there yet but can foresee swapping my pedalboard and amp for a Helix Floor for live use at some point, the tones are more than close enough for science).

Line 6 seems to have smart people doing cool stuff. I was reading about how they develop their original amp models - like, first someone builds an *actual* physical amp to get something they like the sound of

*Then* they component-level model it

*Then*, no longer bound by the physical limitations of real components, they can go in and hand-tweak stuff in the digital realm to lower noise or change response or etc etc etc. to make it better than what they could have done with the "real" thing

We're in a cool point in history where the shift is happening, but experience in the analog realm is still a prerequisite for doing good work in the digital realm - and a good analog designer can see ways to augment their work with DSP.
 
They have had digital time based effects down for a long time, yet there are still analog pedals that have been mass produced and sold over the past decades. As long as there is marketing, “mojo” and prestige snobbery. There will always be a place for them. Guitarists love opulence even if they are broke🤣
 
JTEX said:
Now that there are so many great sounding modelers in various form factors, from pedal sized to full size floor or rack multi-fx, do you think the days of the analog pedal are numbered? What can an analog pedal do that a modeler or DSP can't do just as well or better? (except perhaps introducing people to electronics). I can't think of anything else...
Click to expand...
I think there will be analog stompboxes as long as the industry will manufacture the components. I guess most of these parts are useful in other fields than audio electronics ?

Not every music players are fond of digital. Classic circuits close to the originals will always be a point of reference. I would think that as soon as someone starts learning about stompboxes and enjoys them, he or she would want to try at least a few classics. So as long as people play music, there is a market for music tools like stompboxes.

Wether digital effects can or can't do the exact same thing than analog ones, in every audio effects families, is a debate that will still go on for decades, in my opinion.

Electronic keyboards didn't entirely replaced real pianos. People still play the violin, even if playing a synthetizer is cheaper and easier.
I mean, digital effects have their strong points, but they also have downsides. You can build an analog reverb with a decent sound for cheap. I'm not so sure a really good digital reverb with a realistic sound is very cost effective in comparison ?

I am under the impression that most interesting digital effects aren't cheap ? Many players would rather have a few small stompboxes that cost around 50 or 100 euros, than 1 or 2 high-quality digital multi-fx with thousands of effects that cost around 500 or 1000 euros. The space factor, too much features to figure out, expensive, fragile, etc.

I also believe that digital effects are great with some music styles and some instruments, like synth and keyboards, but not as much interesting with other instruments, like guitars and bass.
 
Last edited:
My analog pessimism comes in part from having worked for a long time with engineer/producer extraordinaire George Massenburg. He invented the parametric EQ, and the various analog studio gear he developed over the years is legendary. Nowadays he mostly writes plug-in versions of his old gear. True, he sat on the plug-in version of his GML compressor for maybe 10 years before he liked it well enough to release it, but the point is, it did eventually get there. It did get on par with the big analog box, if not even better. I'm sure a fuzz face is trivial to reproduce in comparison.
 
Spending time in the pro audio world, plugins are getting really good. For a couple hundred dollars you get the equivalent of 10s of thousands of dollars of gear.

That said, with guitars I don’t think analog will ever die. I’ve gone back and forth, a digital rig is nice for giging and I use amp sims for tinkering at the home studio but to me nothing beats the sound and feel of a tube amp.
 
I think much of the tube amp experience is due to the big honkin' open back cabinet, how it resonates and interacts with the room, shooting audio from both sides. Once recorded, it might sound no better than a model of the same amp, but while you're playing it, the experience is on a visceral level that I am not sure can be emulated.
 
JTEX said:
from having worked for a long time with engineer/producer extraordinaire George Massenburg.
Click to expand...
Badass. I worked as a recording engineer for a long time, both analog and digital, and had an admiration for him.

Basically, if it doesn’t have an analog-inspired interface, it’s not that interesting to me.

Plugins are great. But there still tradeoffs. I have plugins that are 20 years old. I have hardware that is older than that. Guess which one doesn’t require specific software to continue working.

On an analog pedal, you can modify it, trace it, repair it. It’s like open source. There are some exceptions, but almost all the modeling software out there is not open source. I can’t modify the code if I want to change an aspect that is mot exposed through its interface.

I like using digital for capturing song ideas and demos. But if I am recording something to be released, or going to a jam session, I’m mic’ing a tube amp and standing in the room with it.

I will admit that reproducibility is an issue. But that’s like visual art. It’s going to be hard to accurately duplicate something you draw by hand.

But I really enjoy starting from nothing and having physical access to every single control available.
 
When I have my amp up, I hear all the extra harmonics it’s producing while it’s close to the edge of feedback. I have no idea how that can be produced digitally. Any feedback emulation is a joke in comparison.
 
You can still get the same feedback from a modeler or plug-in, if you play it loud enough through full range speakers. But I see your point. We have a Hammond organ with a Leslie at work, and playing it is a physical experience that can't be replicated with a plug-in and Midi keyboard, even if they sound the same on record.
 
Yeah, you can get the same tones, but I wouldn’t say the feedback is from the modeler or plugin because you still have to have the acoustic energy in a space doing the work.

But I could imagine a future where the amp’s acoustic energy and the relation to the position of the guitar pickups in the room is modeled.

Then on top of that, we already have mass-produced motion sensing technology in all the modern video game consoles. So something like that could be incorporated, to change to position of the virtual guitar in the room.
 
The other thing about analog and why I will continue to use it...If it breaks I can fix it. It's why I drive old cars and listen to records on old stuff too. I'm not a purist by any means, it's just functional for me.

And I'll never have to worry about a company suddenly deciding not to continue updates or going under and all support is lost. Digital stuff is getting really really good there's no doubt about it, but I am leary of all of it. I guess I like owning a thing as opposed to a digital representation of it (speaking more of plug ins of course).
 
^very valid points. Countless times, plugin x or y stopped working after an OS or DAW update. Then you update everything, and settings are lost. But this is plug-in-specific. Physical digital boxes are somewhat better in this respect. Except... Remember Firewire? We have stacks of old Firewire hardware at work that's useless now: RME, MOTU, Metric Halo, Lynx, Mytek, Apogee, dCs, Mackie, Avid, M-Audio ... You name it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top