Joyo American Sound for DI/recording?

[RoscoeElegante]

Hey, all. So a gent interested in pitching in recording & mixing our band's stuff is asking about going DI with amp-in-a-box. Just to add to our options, flexibility, etc. All I've got on-hand that, I've heard, can do this is the Joyo American Sound.

That would work for ampless DI by going into our Focusrite Scarlet interface with a TRS Male to XLR3 Male cable, via the AS's out jack, yes?

Thanks.

 

[naveed211]

I think that setup will work. It won’t sound particularly great.

IME those pedals sound best into an amp to beef them up a bit.

 

[mexicanyella]

Yes. I’ve gone DI into a Scarlet and Garage Band, and into BandLab via an iRig 2 interface, using the American Sound’s crumpet-bending sibling, the Joyo British Sound.

Most of that was actually recording a P-bass, but I’ve used it a little for guitar too. I prefer lower gain settings to stay out of the pedal’s noise zone, but I liked the sounds I got after playing around with the voice knob and gain level relationship.

Amateur tip: start with the three EQ knobs flat (noon), and get the sound happening as best you can via the voice knob and gain knob. That series of pedals’ voice knob sweeps from a lower mids cut to left of center, to an upper mids boost to right of center, and that control is before the gain knob in signal flow. So cutting or boosting a big swath of mids varies how hard you are hitting the dirt, and how soon it will get dirty. I got the best results by running the gain lower and doing an upper mids boost with the voice knob, but your results might be different.

Once I had that in the ballpark, I adjusted the three EQ knobs (which come after the gain knob in the circuit) to taste.

I envisioned that signal flow as a simple one knob EQ dirt pedal feeding a three-band EQ in a mixer channel. That helped me make sense of how the controls interact.

Additional amateur tip: the ______ Sound pedals have some amount of non-switchable filtering on the output to sort of emulate speaker frequency response. Sometimes I found this to work okay by itself, particularly with bass. But a few times I got some pretty cool results by also applying a cab sim in BandLab. If you have that ability, in your recording setup, try it, you might find a cool combination.

 

[RoscoeElegante]

Yes. I’ve gone DI into a Scarlet and Garage Band, and into BandLab via an iRig 2 interface, using the American Sound’s crumpet-bending sibling, the Joyo British Sound.

Most of that was actually recording a P-bass, but I’ve used it a little for guitar too. I prefer lower gain settings to stay out of the pedal’s noise zone, but I liked the sounds I got after playing around with the voice knob and gain level relationship.

Amateur tip: start with the three EQ knobs flat (noon), and get the sound happening as best you can via the voice knob and gain knob. That series of pedals’ voice knob sweeps from a lower mids cut to left of center, to an upper mids boost to right of center, and that control is before the gain knob in signal flow. So cutting or boosting a big swath of mids varies how hard you are hitting the dirt, and how soon it will get dirty. I got the best results by running the gain lower and doing an upper mids boost with the voice knob, but your results might be different.

Once I had that in the ballpark, I adjusted the three EQ knobs (which come after the gain knob in the circuit) to taste.

I envisioned that signal flow as a simple one knob EQ dirt pedal feeding a three-band EQ in a mixer channel. That helped me make sense of how the controls interact.

Additional amateur tip: the ______ Sound pedals have some amount of non-switchable filtering on the output to sort of emulate speaker frequency response. Sometimes I found this to work okay by itself, particularly with bass. But a few times I got some pretty cool results by also applying a cab sim in BandLab. If you have that ability, in your recording setup, try it, you might find a cool combination.

Thanks, @mexicanyella! Very helpful.

 

[theGecko71]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the big problem of using an analog pedal like the JOYO as a DI for recording be that it doesn't have a built-in Impulse Response speaker simulation? So, you'd be best off (if you're want it to sound like a real amp) using an IR loader and a speaker IR.

When I don't want to mic a real amp, I've been DI-ing the UAFX Ruby 63 which is a digital simulation with a real speaker sim--and it sounds really, really good. Now that I have a pre-amp pedal for the Vox sound, I've been thinking it would be nice to have one for the Fender sound, but the Joyo won't cut it for DI without an IR loader (although I do have one, I don't really want to use it, or know quite how to use it properly), so I was thinking either a used UAFX Dream 65 (bc they so expensive!) or the TC Electronic Combo Deluxe 65.

 

[mexicanyella]

Thanks, @mexicanyella! Very helpful.

If you experiment with this, please post back and let us know how it goes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the big problem of using an analog pedal like the JOYO as a DI for recording me that it doesn't have a built-in Impulse

Not a problem for everyone; best to try it and see how it works for the individual. I’ve gotten results I liked at times without using any additional speaker emulation. Those tended to be with cleaner tones though.

 

[tonepoet333]

I've had good results recording direct with a Johnson J-Station. I use their modeling of the Ampeg SVT bass amp to direct record bass tracks. I've recorded guitar direct with it also.

Guitar > J-Station > Audio Interface > Pro Tools

I like Joyo pedals. I use their Deluxe Crunch, Tremolo, Analog Delay and Analog Chorus pedals.

tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com

 

[schmee]

Hey, all. So a gent interested in pitching in recording & mixing our band's stuff is asking about going DI with amp-in-a-box. Just to add to our options, flexibility, etc. All I've got on-hand that, I've heard, can do this is the Joyo American Sound.

That would work for ampless DI by going into our Focusrite Scarlet interface with a TRS Male to XLR3 Male cable, via the AS's out jack, yes?

Thanks.

I do it with my acoustic guitar live. Seems to work great. It's a piezo pickup though. Not sure if a strong magnetic pickup would be too much "push" making dirt or not. But I imagine using the guitar volume carefully or the Level & Drive on the Joyo would be fine. I use a TRS to XLR cable from Joyo to PA Mixer for it.

 

[theGecko71]

If you experiment with this, please post back and let us know how it goes.


Not a problem for everyone; best to try it and see how it works for the individual. I’ve gotten results I liked at times without using any additional speaker emulation. Those tended to be with cleaner tones though.

Yeah, I agree: whatever gets you the tone you like. Someone told me that Jimmy Page recorded the Black Dog riff with his guitar direct in to the mixing board, no amp. Does anyone know if that's true?

I mean, if Page can record without an amp, then lowly people like the rest of us can, too.

 

[mexicanyella]

I do it with my acoustic guitar live. Seems to work great. It's a piezo pickup though. Not sure if a strong magnetic pickup would be too much "push" making dirt or not. But I imagine using the guitar volume carefully or the Level & Drive on the Joyo would be fine. I use a TRS to XLR cable from Joyo to PA Mixer for it.

I have actually tried using the Joyo British Sound with my Epiphone acoustic’s piezo system to knock off a little of the extreme piezo highs and rough up the edges of the sound slightly, and while I have not recorded like that yet, the results seemed promising. I plan to try combining a track of that sound with a microphone track at some point, either as a blend or as two discrete passes. Cool to hear that you’ve been able to make it work live.

 

[mexicanyella]

Hey, all. So a gent interested in pitching in recording & mixing our band's stuff is asking about going DI with amp-in-a-box. Just to add to our options, flexibility, etc. All I've got on-hand that, I've heard, can do this is the Joyo American Sound.

That would work for ampless DI by going into our Focusrite Scarlet interface with a TRS Male to XLR3 Male cable, via the AS's out jack, yes?

Thanks.

Doesn’t the Scarlet use some kind of combo input jacks that can also accept 1/4” inputs? A bandmate has one but I’ve not looked at it in a few months…

I’ve actually gotten fun results a few times going DI through a really crappy plastic RockTek compressor pedal, with all three knobs cranked. It’s a really weak compressor and I was just goofing around with it when I discovered that unplanned use for it. Discovering any use for it was kind of a relief, really.

Cranking all three knobs on that thing dirties the sound up slightly and gets the signal just above unity gain. One of my guitars and one of my basses each sound okay through it, in a lo-fi kind of way, with no additional tone shaping.

Not that I expect anyone else to have. plastic RockTek compressor from 1989, but my point is, try everything! Even if it’s not necessarily intended for DI recording.

 

[RoscoeElegante]

Doesn’t the Scarlet use some kind of combo input jacks that can also accept 1/4” inputs? A bandmate has one but I’ve not looked at it in a few months…

Yes, it does, actually. I was away from home and too lazy to call one up on the web to review its features. We'll rely on the Scarlet but also check out the AS in this regard.

Thanks, all, for your advice.

 

[Dik Ellis]

Shane, from the YouTube show "In The Blues" recorded an album using the Joyo American. I have not heard the result. I have one as well and it's great.

 

[suthol]

Can't help with the Joyo but I use the USB out on a THR10 which also has more than enough cab emulations for my purposes.

With it set in Reaper as the playback device and headphones I can be as raucous as I wish recording whenever I want

 

[sadfield]

I've used a Blackstar HTDual as a preamp in this way.

To get better results, I found this plugin called TPA-1 useful, it emulates the power section of an amp, including sag.

IGNITE AMPS - Engineering for the moshpit

Italian tube and solid state amplifiers, stomp-boxes and audio plug-ins

www.igniteamps.com

It then needs following with an IR speaker emulation. NadIR from the same site is a good IR loader, but I prefered Reverberate LE from Liquisonics as it allows extra EQing.

 

[johnny k]

I wouldn't go DI for recording. It is not much more of a hassle to plug a mic and put in front of an amp, and it will probably sound better. Di sounds very thin, and you will hear every little mistakes. Mic'ing an amp makes mistakes less noticable. But what do i know .

 

[Telecaster88]

I've used the American Sound for direct recording into a Scarlett. It worked fine! Actually, I ended up springing for a used Tech 21 Blonde, so I could turn off the cab sim if necessary. For direct though the cab sim makes a big positive difference, so it's always on for me anyway. Main difference between the Joyo and the Tech 21 is the cab sim is just always on with the Joyo.

I use direct for recording at home because I play quiet and the signal to noise ratio is so high with my amps at low volume... Plus I have a jealous dog that barks at me when I pay attention to anything else!

If it matters, I'm playing a clean Tele into it, sometimes a Strat. Low volume, low gain.

 

[rze99]

Yes I used American Sound on this track with a compressor, Tele double tracked and a Rickenbacker 12 string. I was just trying the parts out and ended up keeping the roughs rather than mic the amps.

 

[codamedia]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the big problem of using an analog pedal like the JOYO as a DI for recording be that it doesn't have a built-in Impulse Response speaker simulation? So, you'd be best off (if you're want it to sound like a real amp) using an IR loader and a speaker IR.

The Joyo does have a baked in speaker simulation... problem is, it can't be defeated and it's a one trick pony, it can't be changed. IMO, it is not up to today's standards in cab sims (IR's).

This Joyo Line was a copy of a San Amp lines (the names escapes me)... but the sans amp could defeat the speaker sim with the push of a button.

 

[Telecaster88]

This Joyo Line was a copy of a San Amp lines (the names escapes me)... but the sans amp could defeat the speaker sim with the push of a button.

Tech 21 Character pedals... Blonde for Fenders, Liverpool for Voxes, etc. Discontinued but pretty easily found used. I have a few and they're nice pedals.