New to the board. I just finished this pedal board just because I wanted to use pedals and not my Helix, for a change of pace and a project. After getting up the learning curve, and figuring out how to set it up for success, I really like the Friedman IR-X.
Things I've learned;
- Make sure the fan vent on the left side has some room to move air. I fixed this since the pic.
- Don't forget about your gain boosts on that are on the side of the unit. I had to crank these up to get the best tone possible through our PA.
- To avoid PA hiss, have your sound man adjust the PA gain to deliver the volume you need in the house, don't try to control it at the IRX by cranking up the gain/volume. Set your gain and volume at about 50% and let them set it in the house. It required WAY more gain than my line 6 helix does to achieve the same volume. To give you a relative change, we went from -3dB gain on the sound board with the Helix to +12dB with the Friedman to get the equal volume and fullness in the house.
- If you are using a ES5, 8 or comparable, remember the IR-X is like an AMP... its not a pedal, you dont put it in the pedal chain on a 1-8 slot, the IR-X goes at the end of the chain EXACTLY like your amps does, and even if you are using the effects loop. I actually put splitters on the outpput to the amp and ran short cable to the Friedman so that I can either switch on the friedman for a given patch, OR switch it off and plug the amp cables into the side of the pedal board and use an amp. I attached a sketch so you can see what it looks like.
- I saw discussion above about the 1/4" balanced out. I am using a 1/4" TRS to XLR splitter to get out with Stereo Delay/Reverb. I DO NOT LIKE that huge 6" x 1/4" protrustion sticking out of the back of the IRX. Its just begging to cause damage. I am going to get a soft right angle 1/4" male to XLR splitter even if I have to make it myself. It'll be done this week.
- The Friedman is on its own dedicated power supply in the compartment. It is not powered through the VooDoo. And a little extra detail. The power supply you see couldnt keep up with the BigSky and Timeline demands. Its got 300mah outputs and it still overamped and cutoff. So I replaced with a VooDoo Power 3 plus, problem solved.
As far as the tone. It's great. While I was alone in the house(venue) setting it up, it was not as warm as an amp would be, especially when you are a critical audiophile listening to your own isolated sound in an otherwise dead silent room. However, nothing is as warm and pleasant in an isolated room as a real amp. In a live venue with a band playing around it it sounds excellent. I asked our paid professional college grad sound technician how it sounded to him in the mix yesterday both in the house and on our live stream and he said " it said it sounded warm, crisp and chunky, I really liked it we need that kind of warn tone in the mix because we have been missing it". His words, that was a good thing.
. But I’ll take a pic video asap .