One may say that black is the color favored by rockers. Although the Flint gets close to it with a very dark gray, a truly black pedal was missing from the collection of Strymon devices until today, the day the Californian company unveiled its first Amp and Cab emulation stompbox, called Iridium, which, uniquely, features a full stereo signal throughout the amp emulation, impulse responses and Room circuits.
The preamp section, however, is mono, but – unlike the rest of the circuit – it’s also analog: a class-A JFET circuit providing up to 20dB of pure analog gain.
The JFET stage acts as an analog front end conditioner, providing exceptional touch sensitivity and dynamic interaction with your guitar while improving noise performance, and the incredibly powerful SHARC DSP facilitates the great level of detailed complexity and responsiveness of each tube amp’s circuitry
This pedal’s development began while working on the tube and cascading gain emulation created for the Riverside, with which the Iridium shares also the organization of the knobs, with the exception of a Room control on the bottom right. However, a number of extra hidden controls (aka “Secondary Function”) can be accessed via USB, including your own cabinet responses uploadable via the Strymon Impulse Manager software.
While the Cabinet component of the Iridium features an infinite amount of options thanks to the IR features, the amp one focuses on three classic amps. This is what you get in the box:
3 x Amp Options:
- Fender® Deluxe Reverb (Chime)
- Vox AC30TB (Chime)
- Marshall Plexi (Punch)
9 x Impulse Response Cab Options:
Deluxe Reverb® 1×12? by OwnHammer
Blues Junior® 1×12? by cabIR
Vibrolux® 2×10? by cabIR
AC30 2×12? AlNiCo by OwnHammer
1×12? AlNiCo by Celestion
Mesa® 4×12? by Valhallir
GNR 4×12? by OwnHammer
2×12? Vintage 30 by Celestion
Marshall 8×12? AlNiCo by cabIR
These modes can be saved in 4 Presets using the Fav Footswitch.
The Room knob allows the player to open up the sound a little with some stereo early reflections, which is useful in particular when playing in the headphones or recording direct, and features three settings: Small, Medium or Large room.
The videos below show all the features and give you a very good idea of how it sounds, check them out!
Leave Your Amp At Home.
Nothing reveals the true nature of your guitar and your playing like a world-class tube amp driving a perfectly matched speaker cabinet in a great sounding room. Now there is a pedal that truly delivers that sound and feel, with simple controls for effortlessly dialing in the perfect amp tone when going direct. Discover inspiring tube amp responsiveness, unprecedented impulse response speaker cabinet realism, and controllable natural sounding room ambience.
Go Direct With Gorgeous Tone.
Iridium gives you three iconic amplifiers, with a total of nine impulse response speaker cabinets that complement the tonality of the amp. Skip the hassle of lugging around or miking amps. Place Iridium on your pedalboard and send gorgeous stereo amplifier tones, stunningly realistic cabs, and lush room ambience direct to a recording interface or PA system. With Iridium, it’s a snap to dial in a direct tone that will truly inspire and sound great whether you are monitoring through in-ears, floor wedges, reference monitors, or studio headphones.
Three Iconic Amplifiers
Our Matrix Modeling™ process captures all the subtleties and unique tonal qualities of each amplifier. We’ve taken three iconic tube amps with distinct characters and mathematically modeled every aspect of their circuitry with absolute precision to deliver the response, feel, and inspiring experience of playing through the original amps at their best. Taking the process a step further, we’ve hot-rodded each amp to provide an extended range of tonal options beyond what was available from the original designs.
Nine Stereo IR Cabinets
Iridium’s speaker cabinets offer a level of realism and responsiveness unprecedented in outboard effects. Iridium delivers full stereo 24bit 96kHz resolution for the entire 500 milliseconds of its speaker cabinet impulse responses. Until now, IRs of this resolution have only been available for use within studio recording software. Iridium’s breakthrough technology means you can use the very best impulse responses available, bringing maximum realism to your pedalboard.
Adjustable Room Ambience
Iridium’s hybrid room reverb combines a 256 millisecond stereo impulse response with Strymon’s reverb tank algorithm for extended decay. This combination places your amp and cab in a natural sounding room (small, medium, or large), creating a space for your amp to open up and breathe.
Amps
ROUND: Based on a Fender® Deluxe Reverb
The Deluxe is one of the most recorded amps in history for good reason. This amp is clean, bright, and mid-scooped, with plenty of headroom. At higher Drive settings it delivers an overdriven sound unique to its architecture. We chose the Deluxe’s Normal channel for its round tone that plays well with pedals. While preserving access to all the tones originally available with this channel, our model gives you something extra: a midrange control. With the midrange at noon, you get the original fixed-resistor value and standard tonal characteristics of the Deluxe. Turn down the midrange for a more scooped sound, or turn it up for tweed-era tones.
CHIME: Based on the Brilliant channel of a Vox® AC30TB
The amp that defined the guitar sound of the British Invasion. Our model of the AC30TB Brilliant channel is jangly, bright, and chimey, providing air for subtle passages with a light touch, and bite when you want to dig in. For this amp, the Middle knob acts a Tone Cut knob, providing high-end roll-off just before the power tubes, per the original AC30 design. In addition to the full available gain of the original amp, toward the top end of the Drive knob’s range of travel, we’ve added a frequency-shaped front end boost to tighten the low end while driving the amp further into saturation.
PUNCH: Based on* a Marshall® Plexi (Super Lead model number 1959)
This powerful amp is meatier, with higher gain than the other two amps, and has a powerful midrange response. This amp features a buttery, smooth overdrive. At higher Drive settings it will deliver all the high gain distortion and growl this amp is known for, and then some. Setting the Drive control at around 2 o’clock gets you the maximum gain the original Plexi design allowed. Beyond that, our model has some additional gain on tap, giving you access to custom hot-rodded Plexi high gain tones.
Nine Stunningly Realistic Cabs.
Iridium comes pre-loaded with a carefully curated collection of premium cabinet IRs from OwnHammer, Celestion, cabIR and Valhallir. You can also load your own IRs using Strymon Impulse Manager software.
Deluxe Reverb® 1×12? by OwnHammer
Impulse of a vintage Fender® Deluxe Reverb 1×12? open back combo with a 1978 Fender CTS ceramic 12? speaker.Blues Junior® 1×12? by cabIR
Impulse of a 1×12? Blues Junior cabinet with a Jensen® C12N speaker.Vibrolux® 2×10? by cabIR
Impulse of a 1965 Fender Vibrolux 2×10? with Jensen C10NS speakers.AC30 2×12? AlNiCo by OwnHammer
Impulse of a Vox® AC30/6 open back 2×12? combo with 2001 Celestion® T0530 Blue AlNiCo speakers.1×12? AlNiCo by Celestion
Impulse of a Celestion Blue AlNiCo speaker in a closed back 1×12? cab.Mesa® 4×12? by Valhallir
Impulse of a 4×12? Mesa Boogie halfback with two Celestion Black Shadow® MC-90 and two ElectroVoice® Black Shadow EVM12-L speakers.GNR 4×12? by OwnHammer
Impulse of a 1971 Marshall® 1960B “basketweave” 4×12? cabinet with 1971 Celestion T1221 G12M-25 speakers.2×12? Vintage 30 by Celestion
Impulse of a Celestion Vintage 30 in an open back 2×12? cab.Marshall 8×12? AlNiCo by cabIR
Impulse of a 1965 Marshall 8×12? re-issue full stack cabinet, with Celestion T652 AlNiCo speakers.On Stage
Want to play live with the exact same tones that you use at home or in the studio? Or have access to multiple amp and cab setups without having to lug them on stage? Leave your amps at home, and connect Iridium directly to the house PA system.
Going direct eliminates the need to mic an amp, giving sound engineers the option to send your amp and cab tone directly to a wedge or in-ear monitors. Instant adjustments to your tone are right there on your pedalboard, only a footswitch away. With Iridium, there are no menus to wade through—just familiar, responsive amp-style controls for instant, easy adjustment.
