Recording - July 2015 - 31

For grounding hum and buzz problems, both the DI output and the
Instrument outputs offer a button labeled
Earth. These are ground lift switches and
do their job properly; I always get
grounding issues when re-amping, and
these cleared everything up nicely.
Another handy feature of the Pepper in
re-amp mode is a button which flips the
polarity of the Pro Return. Using this in
conjunction with the Pro Return knob, as
well as the Instrument Thru knob (which is
the master blend control between your
instrument input signal and all other routing in the Pepper), you can flip the phase,
turn the Pro Return knob, and when the
signal drops out you know you have
nulled the two signals. Return the polarity
to normal, and you will have the proper
gain level for re-amping. Sweet! There is
also a Return Cut button which will
cut/mute the incoming return signal from
your DAW, should you need to do so.
Ohm my gosh
One other great Pepper feature is the
ability to alter the load on your guitar pickups, depending on when you are using
passive, active or even piezo pickups, all
at the touch of a button. When set to Off
the load is 10 Megohms, when On it is
actually adjustable from 100 kilohms to
2.2 Megohms with a rear-panel recessed
set screw. Little Labs recommends not
messing with that set screw unless you
have time to critically listen to the results.
Other companies have implemented
similar designs; Radial Engineering calls it
Drag Control, while guitar pedal manufacturer ZVex has a pedal entirely dedicated to stabilizing the resistive load of
your pickups, called the SHO Pedal. I love
this feature, and many guitar players tell
me that it offers a feel and reaction adjustment in addition to being a sonic tweak.
Blending
The blending part of the Pepper is its
pièce de résistance. You can hook up and
loop your effects pedals through the unit
via a set of rear-panel jacks labeled Pedal
TS In and Pedal TS Out. By doing this,
you can gain further sonic control and the
ability to blend your effected pedal signal
with your dry guitar signal. I have had a
couple of purist guitar players in the past
few weeks question why they would do
this rather than just running the pedals
into the amp, or into the Pepper's instrument input. It's all about control, versatility, and even signal purity.
As many engineers know, even though
a full-blown distorted amp may sound
great live or in the room, miked and in a
mix it can be a different story. Often it
can be too fuzzy, with a loss of definition
of individual notes. By blending the distorted signals from your pedals alongside
the pure amp tone, this parallel effects

process keeps the integrity and punch of
the playing intact, while being layered
with the effects pedals. This is especially
effective on overdriven bass guitar.
This simple setup is also useful for using
your effects pedals as line level effects in
your DAW, essentially re-amping your
effects pedals. Little Labs points out that
using the Polarity/Phase flip here can be
essential for checking you have the right
level being sent to the pedals; beyond that,
many guitar pedals have phase/ polarity
inconsistencies that we don't often notice
when plugged into an amp until it's too late.
Using the Pro TRS In and Out described
above in the section on tracking and
reamplification, you can also patch in pro audio
gear and use it as you would a guitar pedal. I
tried it with an Empirical Labs Distressor, a
Chandler Limited Germanium Compressor, and
a Universal Audio 1176LN, and it worked well
for a variety of tone shaping and compression
tricks. This is only scratching the surface, as it can
also be a cool way to blend in vintage rackmount reverbs and effects units as well.
Both Pedal and Pro inserts can be hard
bypassed at the touch of a button. You
can even attach a foot switch to the back
and use that to engage and disengage
your effects.
Expanding one's horizons
The last feature of the Pepper, and the last
output on the back, is the EXP TRS Out. This
is a balanced line-level out; and besides
feeding it to any line-level input, it lets you
link the Pepper to a Little Labs Redeye 3D,
allowing you to split the signal to a second
amp, both live and when reamping. For
larger guitar setups and even more extensive routing, it can be used with the Little
Labs PCP instrument distribution box.
Also thanks to this EXP TRS Out, when
used with the expansion input on Little
Labs' Redeye 3D or PCP, you can use
exceptionally long cabled runs to amps
with no fear of signal loss. It's possible to
create a networked setup of miked amps in
one or more tracking rooms and/or iso
booths and have them all connected to the
same guitar with miminal sacrifice in quality and maximum flexibility.
Conclusions
I am going to go out on a limb and say
this is possibly the best box Jonathan Little
has ever come up with. If you do any sort
of guitar tracking/reamplification, it is
simply invaluable. It's close to double the
cost of a good DI (including Jonathan's
own Redeye 3D), but it does over half a
dozen useful things and does them well. I
see this little black box having a big
future in my guitar sessions for years to
come.
Price: $660
More from: Little Labs, www.littlelabs.com
RECORDING July 2015

http://www.mojaveaudio.com http://www.littlelabs.com

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