Impulse responses have been used since the early days of the Line 6 Pod, of course, but Strymon have taken a high-resolution approach here, using 500 millisecond, 24-bit, 96kHz IRs - and rather than reinvent the wheel by creating their own speaker IRs, Strymon have populated this pedal with quality ones from OwnHammer, Celestion, cabIR and Valhallir. Along with amp compression and harmonic distortion, even the effect of power-supply sag on each of the separate valve stages has been reproduced, and it all helps to nail the feel as well as the sound of a real amplifier.Ī free impulse manager app allows you to load either third-party or your own 24-bit, 96kHz impulse responses, via the rear-panel USB connection.Ī high-quality cabinet model is really important to getting a modelled amplifier to sound and feel authentic. Strymon call their approach to amp emulation 'Matrix Modelling' and say that it comprises detailed emulation of the amps in question (as you'd expect) but with an extended parameter set that allows their models to have more tonal/drive range than the real thing. Their MultiSwitch Plus makes it possible to access four user presets, while up to 300 presets can be accessed via MIDI - which is at least 290 more than I can imagine ever needing! Under The Hood You can also connect one of Strymon's own optional switcher units. MIDI, which requires an adaptor cable, may also be used to select presets or to control any knob or switch. There's also a MIDI/Exp jack socket on the rear for external control - an expression pedal can be used to control level, selected by default, or multiple parameters at the same time if you choose to set it up that way. The right footswitch performs the familiar on/bypass selection, while pressing and holding the left FAV footswitch lets you store a favourite setting, which can then be accessed regardless of the current settings. The single quarter-inch input jack can accept either mono (TS) or stereo (TRS) inputs. A front-panel mini-jack headphone output caters for practice sessions or direct monitoring when recording. A small switch selects the input as Mono, Stereo or Sum. On the rear panel, two quarter-inch jacks deliver the main stereo output, while a third can accommodate a mono input on a TS jack or a stereo input via TRS jack - the latter should appeal to anyone working in the studio and synth/keyboard players. (Without some room ambience you always get that 'padded cell' dryness.) Holding down the On switch accesses a secondary-function mode (which will be familiar to users of other Strymon pedals), in which the Room knob switches between different room sizes. This is variable in level and combines synthetic reverb (based on Strymon's reverb-tank algorithm) with a 250ms room impulse response to recreate the sense of the amp being played in a real space. While there are no fancy effects here (the Iridium will, of course, work nicely enough with your other pedals) there is a Room emulation to add a little ambience. A three-position toggle switch selects the amp type and a similar switch selects the cabinet model. There's no Presence control, but the EQ stack is tailored to suit each amplifier model. The controls are pretty much what you'd expect of a real guitar amp, with Drive, Volume and a three-band EQ section. These cover lots of useful ground, but you can also load your own IRs, should you feel the need. So there's a total of nine different amp/cabinet combinations. Some manufacturers dazzle you with a choice of dozens of amp, cab and mic models, but Strymon have gone for a much tighter focus - as shipped, the Iridium offers a choice of just three amplifier types, designated Round, Chime and Punch, and each comes with a choice of three stereo impulse responses of cabinet/speaker/mic combinations. The whole package comes in the form of a compact and user-friendly, two-footswitch pedal, which runs off an included 9V 500mA PSU. The digital side of the equation runs on a SHARC ADSP‑21375 DSP chip and an ARM co-processor, while the analogue stage offers up to 20dB of gain and contributes to the natural-sounding way that this pedal overdrives when the input levels are pushed. The Iridium combines digital modelling of guitar amps with impulse-responses of cabinet/speaker/mic combinations and a JFET analogue input stage. Strymon's analogue-modelling effects pedals have acquired an enviable reputation - can their first amp simulator live up to it?Ĭalifornia-based Strymon have quickly established a strong reputation for creating top-class effects pedals that emulate analogue gear, so when I heard they were about to release their first amp-modelling pedal I was really keen to try it out.
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