Strymon Iridium vs Dream '65 Amp Sim Pedals! 3 BIG Differences
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2024
- The Strymon Iridium IR and Universal Audio Dream '65 Reverb Amp pedals both do an incredible job modeling the iconic Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Amp…but there are some MAJOR differences that will affect how you use these pedals. Make sure to watch this video BEFORE you buy one or the other!
Buy The DREAM 65: www.zzounds.com/a--3980673/it...
00:00 Intro
00:33 1 Amp vs. 3 Amps
01:39 Reverb!
03:14 Headphones?
04:33 More Differences
05:45 My Thoughts
09:00 Your Thoughts?
#guitar #strymoniridium #UniversalAudio #electricguitar #fenderguitars #fenderamps #fenderamp #ac30
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Buy The DREAM 65: www.zzounds.com/a--3980673/item--UADDREAM65?siid=319298
Thanks for replying and thank you for your efforts in making such an interesting review. Great playing too! Cheers and Greets, Mike.
Great review! I own both Dream and Iridium then I added the Ruby on my pedalboard.
The Dream I think is perfect if you will only have a compressor, EQ and delay on your board doing rock pop blues. But if you do heavier stuffs like progressive metal, it turns to break up at high gains.
The Iridium on the other hand is best if you are building a big rig. I love how Iridium has a flatter tone, it is perfect when combining it with distortions+ reverb+ delay.
Totally agree with you! Thanks for watching.
Great comparison!! I personally use my UA OX which isn't quite an amp sim but sounds fantastic! I also dig the Neural DSP stuff, they sound great, run smoothly and efficiently and aren't crazy expensive!
Thanks, Parker! The OX seems super cool. Haven’t tried one yet, but I hope to. Are you using the Quad or the Neural plugins? I feel like we talked about this at some point…
@@TomButwin Man the OX is killer! If you get the chance to try one do it, they’re fantastic. The room control especially was super impressive when I first tried it, really sounds like you’re in the room with the amp. As for the Neural stuff I’m using the plugins, for me they tend to be more situational, recently I’ve been using the Soldano plugin as a practice tool actually when I don’t want to plug in my entire rig, I can just pull up the plugin and an instrument cable and be good to go! They sound fantastic though and are a great option for recording or silent playing! Definitely saved me before I had the OX, let’s you get a great sound entirely self-contained inside the plugin with the mic choices and all that.
Late to your post : ) Enjoyed your Dream review. Have you found (or had a chance to find) that playing direct into a mixer, and then to whatever monitors and speakers, makes it difficult to manage (keep) the Dream 65 sound you're looking for? I'm using the Strymon currently, but liking the features of the Dream as you went through it.
I've done a handful of solo electric gigs (singing while self-accompanying with electric guitar) with only the Dream '65 and my PRS Silver Sky. I ran it directly into both an EV tower PA with sub and my Fishman SA330X, both with great results. Here's my overall conclusion for the Irridium vs. the Dream '65: For an ampless/direct pedal board build with traditional pedals, the Strymon Irridium is the better choice. It takes pedals better and it functions much more like an "amp" because of its relative simplicity. For a standalone solution, the Dream '65 is lightyears better. I could EASILY just take the Dream, dial in an overdriven/boost sound on the preset, and I'm good to go. So, for that reason, I've decided on keeping both. I have the Strymon on my pedal board and I can head to a solo gig with just the Dream in my gig bag.
Both sound great! Iridium with midi and a flint cOuld give you room simulation and nice trem reverb. Used Iridium might be the ticket in price point as well.
True. That’d be a great combo. I can’t say one is “better.” They are just “different” and it depends on the application/player. Thanks for watching! Hope you’ll consider subscribing, if you haven’t yet.
Love your straight to the point style.
Appreciate that!
Great video man!!
Thanks, man!
I am a blackface fender guy so the dream works for me I also love the dumble sound it gives you. I think it’s a bit more realistic then the iridium but the iridium is still great but just don’t need a vox or Marshall. I own a deluxe reverb and it’s just great
I’m in the same situation. Had UA not come out with the Dream, I would have likely gone with the Iridium (and really enjoyed it). However, overall, I think the UA gives me more of what I want.
I have them both, because the Strymon Fender sim doesn't do it for me! I love the other two amps though! The Dream 65 sounds more like a real amp and the reverb is awesome, as is the tremolo, although it would be nice to have that footswitchable for gigs!
How well do these unit work if you want wet effects after the amp? Since these units dont have fx loop, are you forced to plug all your effects thru the input? Also, these units have 1/4 inch outs, do you need a direct box to give balanced signal to FOH?
Hey David! So, this is an unfortunate weak point to the amp sim pedals, for sure. As far as the UA Dream goes, the 2-input/2-output structure allows you to use the “4 cable method” to bypass a real amp’s (with a loop) preamp section with the Dream. BUT, you can’t do that with only the pedal, unfortunately. All FX have to be before and into the “front” of the Dream. Since there are 4 jacks on the back, I honestly think they could creat an FX loop with a firmware update (maybe lol).
For the output, yes. I would recommend a passive DI to get the most out of the pedal. I have a Walrus Audio Stereo Canvas DI/LI I’m going to be using.
Stick around and subscribe for a 3 part series I’m doing on my pedal board build with the Dream ‘65 that will address a lot of this! Thanks again.
@TomButwin Is it possible to use wet FX after the Dream 65? For example, OD and Distortion > Compressor > Dream 65 (cab sim off) > Modulation > Delay > Reverb > Cab Sim.
Hi Tom Butwin, Thank you for your vidéo, is it possible to obtain a good jazz tone with this dream ? (like iridium fender preset), it seems crunch very quicky ? no ? :)
There's plenty of clean headroom on the pedal. I had it set to be breaking up just a bit. I will say, the Strymon Iridium has a slightly warmer Fender tone because it models the Normal channel of the amp. Something to consider. I you're playing a guitar with humbuckers, I think the Dream would be great too.
Love that "wet" sound of the reverb on the Dream..Wetter than the Florida Everglades after hurricane season.
Sure is. The reverb is so good.
would love to hear you play more on the UAFX dream 65. More john mayer tunes please, and cover of lenny, bold as love is possible.
I'll see if I can work those riffs into a future video! Great calls on all of them and they'd be good examples for that pedal. Really appreciate you watching.
Great review!
Thank you!
I knew you were gonna play Slow Dancing at some point in there! Interesting video, cool stuff!
Lol! It’s become the ultimate Fender-ish amp and Fender-ish guitar test song.
@@TomButwin It really has, I think the guitar center employees were getting sick of me yesterday playing it on 10+ guitars
Just start playing “Stairway to Heaven” and they’ll be wishing for “Slow Dancing”
@@TomButwin exactly!
One takes pedals better ? Iridium or Dream? My decision would be based on that exclusively!!
I’ve run overdrives and multi FX into
both. Honestly, they both take them great. They are a little different tonally, but I can’t say one is better. If I was forced, maybe the Strymon.
Got Dream 65 last week. Sounds awesome. I could do a complete gig with this pedal alone.
Congrats! I’ve done a couple gigs with nothing but the Dream 65 and it works great!
I was wondering why they don't put a direct balanced output on these things. Most people I saw using them live they paired them with a line isolator/di. You are spending around 400 dollars for these units and you need to spend another 200 just to get another unit for balanced out.. I don't get it... Are you using a line isolator or going straight to the mixer or Interface? Mostly interested for a live use
It's definitely an annoying flaw that exists in both of these pedals. At home, I just go straight from them to my Apollo X4 Hi-Z 1/4" inputs. Live, I have a Walrus Audio Canvas LI/DI that I run through. You're absolutely right that it's a significant extra expense. I suspect this is due to Strymon/UA having a size limitation in the pedal casing. I wish they had XLR outs right on them (Fishman's Aura DI does, so it's possible, I suppose). Necessary evil, I guess.
I just got the UAFX Woodrow (55 Deluxe) and absolutely love it. Will get the Dream 65 (for clean tones) as I have the Deluxe amp. Not interested in the Marshall and Vox pedals.
Same here. The Woodrow/Dream are my top choices.
There's another reviewer that also states the Dream was modelled on the Tremelo channel and the Iridium on the other channel of the Fender Reverb amp.
Can confirm, that is the case.
How does the tc electronics 65 deluxe amp worx compare? Is it in the ballpark?
I haven’t tried it yet! I’ll work on getting one.
Nice review. As you said at one point, it's fantastic being able to use these sorts of pedals to go direct into a DAW so that you don't have an amp blasting you, especially in a smallish room at home. And on the whole, the various tones seem pretty good. One word of warning, and this seems to affect only some people, but my Iridium seems to generate a bit of noise, both going direct into my DAW, but also the one and only time I tried using the headphone jack. Too much noise, I found it unusable. If you have a backing or foundation track in your DAW, then obviously using the headphone jack in your interface is a solution around that.
Thanks for watching and commenting! When I first plugged in the Iridium, I had some noise issues as well. I swapped out an old cable I was using and then plugged the power supply directly into my Furman PST8 power strip and it went away. I'm not sure which it was, but it solved it. Thanks again and make sure to subscribe! I'm doing a giveaway later in August and details will be announced soon.
In my experience with the UA, it breaks up super early, especially with humbuckers. I was quite dissatisfied with this gain range for actual clean tones and will likely end up selling the Dream for this reason.
Using York IRs, I was able to get the difference between the UA Dream and a Deluxe in the Helix to a negligible, I-couldn't-tell-blindfolded margin.
In supplementing a board with a single-pedal modeler in the future, I'd probably go with an Iridium again (also owned).
As a "single coil guy," I'm now realizing I didn't do any testing with humbuckers! I did notice that when my friend's Tele (with active pickups) was running through it, it was difficult to clean up. Great call on that. I'll say this, though, my actual Deluxe Reverb reacted very similarly to his guitar...so, who knows.
It's still a toss up for me between these two pedals. There are really strong points with each of them. Thanks for watching and commenting! I'm doing a giveaway in August. Make sure to stick around/subscribe for those details coming soon.
I have a Deluxe 65 and it's incredible that the UAD almost completely matched the response of the original amplifier in terms of breakup! This is how a blackface Deluxe reacts! You can clean up the sound with the guitar's volume knob! I've used Iridium, Walrus ACS, and most recently HX stomp (with York Audio IRs), but with the Dream 65 I feel that my playing feel and response are similar to a tube amplifier. With the Walrus ACS, I found that it stays clean for quite a long time, but with that pedal, for some reason, I didn't feel the feeling of playing with a tube! UAD has done a great job of shaping the details of this pedal as well!
I agree! The feel is pretty spot on. I really noticed this with regard to the spring reverb too.
@@TomButwin Danish Pete and the Captain do the best analysis when they use the term "layers," where they claim that the UA Dream has more layers, so in a sense it's more responsive. A video that goes hard at that concept of which of the two allows the player to be more expressive would go along way.
Did you use a stock IR on the Iridium?
Yes! Only what comes with it from the factory and the “Cab A” 12” Deluxe Reverb setting (first position on the toggle switch).
I've been on the market for an amp-in-a-box recently. In these comparisons, to me, the Iridium sounds horrible. I wonder if it's just the videos and my home studio or if it is actually the pedal. I'm talking about the clean sound strictly (I don't care for amp overdrive much). I'm shifting towards dream 65 or DSM Simplifier
The Dream and Iridium are definitely different, but I absolutely wouldn't describe the Iridium as horrible. Biggest difference is the Dream models the brighter more sparkly Vibrato channel of a DR and the Iridium models the darker Normal channel. In my experience, the Dream is a much better stand alone unit (I've taken it and nothing else to a few gigs and enjoyed it). The Iridium takes pedals way better (I have one on my board wired up for a DI option with my pedals. The Iridium also models two other amps and has a couple different speaker/cab options (you can load more). Lastly, Dream models the spring reverb and Iridium only has a "room" style. Both are really good, just different. Hope that helps! Check out my affiliate links if you happen to buy one. Would appreciate the support!
Dream comes closest to my original 65 Deluxe, like all digital emulations it sounds harsher and not as warm as the real thing ( also) the bass response is different . However it’s the closest thing to the originals and works great for low volume and direct applications.
It's really good...especially that spring reverb emulation. You're absolutely right on the warmth. It definitely gets close "enough" for DI gigs and it's a lot easier to carrie around than an amp lol
@@TomButwin Most people have an assortment of reverb pedals. This can't be the determining factor in making your decision. Fatmatblue1 at least commits to a real analysis of the central idea... which of the two is closest in sonic quality. Please do a more thorough examination of the two devices' sonic quality.
that Dream 65 man.. Sounds so nice!
I agree!
What’s wrong with the other digital modelers? You speak in terms as if this is an analog pedal… I assumed this was all digital. That said, I just purchased the Friedman IRX and looking to get this pedal for clean tones, but I still love my Fractal.
When you say plexi, what do you mean? Plexi only refers to what material was used on the front panel. It could be JTM45, 1959, 1987, early 2203 (JMP), all of which used plexi front panels :)
They don’t specifically say, to my knowledge. It’s just called “Punch” and is Plex-inspired…which one, I don’t know. Someone else here might though!
@@TomButwin Got it, cheers mate
Probably some licensing limitations there, I’d imagine.
I have the Iridium and like it a lot. I also have vintage Fender PRs, amongst others. I will say that York Audio IRs really make it better than stock, by far, and shrink any perceivable gaps between the two. I like the Dream, but do not own it.
I w heard amazing things about those IRs (and amazing tones from them). Definitely need to dig in to them.
The most important aspect of this comparison is the sonic quality, and you touched on it for a couple of second and didn't analyze fully it. So great, you think the Dream 65 is more chimey. That's not a comparison. All the other comparison we can get from looking at the specs.
I want both 😂
I could EASILY justify having both lol
Milkman... straight up. The best "amp" "sim" pedal, but really... its own thing. That said‚ the UA pedal makes a convincing case for replicating the soul of a Deluxe, with the caveat that every software amp simulator sucks on the higher strings. They lose all of the mojo that they can bring in the lower register-which is, to be 100% fair, most often killer-but the higher strings don't sound natural at all, and the whole "simulation" breaks down when those tones feel so artificial and unreal...
It’s definitely got a weird thing on the higher strings, I agree. I wonder why that is? As far as the Milkman, I’ve never played one, but isn’t that almost a tube head that’s mounted to your pedal board? If I remember correctly, you can legit power a speaker/cab from it.
I've noticed the same thing with the Amplitude amps - they seem to really nail the tone, but when you play the high notes, to my ears, there are plosives when picking the string, it sounds kind of artificial, and ear fatigue sets in quickly.
The dream is cool but I gave it back to the store cuz it didn’t work for live at all and a lot of pedals didn’t went well on it, the pedal by itself it’s great I think for studio it’s fine but for live it didn’t work for me at all, it only sound almost like twin reverb but the attack it’s fake as hell, then i connected my boss gt1 directly and sounded way better, I think I’ll wait 10 more years until they truly make it good. The price is not worth for what it does $399 mmmmm
Try the Strymon Iridium! Might be more your thing.
You should make a video with the Iridium and the Drams 65 but with pedals and not just connecting the guitar to the Iridium and the Dreams 65, that way it's not believable there's already a lot of false advertising, thanks
Pedals might further mask the individual characteristics of each pedal. So, I stuck with just the guitar direct.
Ok I understand you very well, you already made a video without pedals sounds good, now it would be interesting to make another video but with pedals, it happens that direct guitar to amp simulator sound incredible, but it also happens that with pedals they don't work the same, it would be a good experiment if you try it, thank you very much
@@walker2010ist I agree! I will tell you, the Strymon is much better for use with pedals.
@@TomButwin It would be interesting if you made an Iridium Dream 65 video but with pedals, it would be much more transparent the advertising, thanks and Good Day
dream ‘65 sounds 10 times more realistic than iridium 😳
I keep going back and forth, myself. The Iridium is definitely different. I don’t remember if I mentioned it in this video or another that’s yet to be released, but the Iridium sounds like the Normal channel to me, while the Dream sounds like the Vibrato channel. I was plugged into the vibrato channel on the actual amp too. The Normal channel has a much different character (and no reverb). Who knows, though! Thanks for watching.
I like the Iridium sound just as much.
I prefer the iridium fender and I have the deluxe reverb amp, the real one. Yep that’s the clean channel.