u/GreedoInASpeedo

Hello Synthesizers community!

TL;DR - need a tutor

I have a Roland XP60 that I inherited some years ago. Back in the day it helped a ton with my at home make shift recording studio but I'm not a tech savvy guy really and mostly just used it for rhodes/juno sounds.

Recently pulled it out and cleaned it up thinking I'd try to sell as it has retained value surprisingly well but instead I found myself falling in love with it all over again.

In researching the kit to sell I discovered so many other people using it for so many cool projects and I realized I was severely underutilizing this machine.

So the last few days I've had it set up, downloaded the manual and tried looking for tutorials. Well, on the latter, the only videos I seemed to find were either not in English or the English had strong dialects I struggled with and the Former my ADHD brain cannot focus on the bible sized manual.

Anyway, I was hoping someone here had resources or w is willing to be a resource to help me get on the right track to at least learn a handful of things I'd like to do with it.

Thanks for reading and any help anyone can provide!

Hello everyone!

Edit: Alright, I really appreciate how helpful the community was. I think I'm covered and I received a good education! Gonna leave the post up in case someone else finds it helpful.

Mods: if this is redundant on the sub I apologize and feel free to delete

TL;DR what is the bare minimum needs for an ampless gigging rig?

I'm in a newish band and we are deciding to put ourselves out there and have some gigs booked and planning to travel a bit this summer.

We just had a band meeting that turned out to be an intervention on mine and the bass player's use of amps.

We want to save space, energy and potential loss of valuable gear was their argument.

Valid.

For 20 years I have ran a Wet/Dry Two amp setup. I tend to prefer older SS amps. In the space I use a Peavey Stereo Chorus and a JC-40. On tour I was planning on just bringing the JC40, which I considered a good compromise, but still they insist.

Anyway, if still here thanks, I'm the only person who depends on music for a sizeable chunk of my poverty level income in the band. My other guitar player, who is the newest addition, uses a Quad Cortex that goes directly into the PA and makes me feel like a dinosaur, and of course says things like "bro, just get a quad".

My argument against moving ampless is that, not to sound like a snob, but a core part of our sound is the amps, and that we'll sound completely different. We are big into the noise wall crescendo MONO or MBV sort of thing. I think we'll lose this. Other guitar player says I'm thinking outdated and it won't be that noticeable, and only noticeable to us and not the crowds. This I get what he's saying, as someone that has dove down the tone chase rabbit hole you learn that what you obsess over sonically alone the crowd could care less about.

So I concede, I will go ampless. I have a JHS Pulp n Peel v4 I use primarily for bedroom recording and it has a XLR out with a lift, and that maybe that would do. So I went to the studio and spent a few hours trying to work with it and some preamp pedals, and I just couldn't get anything worth anything. So I google. And start seeing how I need an IR and cab sim. Unfamiliar with IRs. I know cab sims as I have the Biasfx vst for my DAW. Not really sure how I could use those. I hate having computers and all that stuff being a part of my guitar playing. Again I feel like a dinosaur.

Anyway, I'm a little frustrated about the whole thing. If I have to get gear that means I'll have to lose gear. I already have a post on r/letstradepedals to try and get a good delay solution, and don't really want to have to get something expensive just for this purpose. I see lots of recommendations for joyo American and ACtone but those are just overdrives aren't they?

Are IRs absolutely necessary?

Any help or solution you can throw my way I'd love to hear it!

Thanks!