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Exploring the Synergy Modular Amplifier System: A New Era for Guitarists · The Steve Stine Podcast

• 0:35
  Steve: Hey, steve here, thank you so much for joining me.
• 0:37
  Steve: Today we're going to be talking about the Synergy Modular Amplifier.
• 0:42
  Steve: This is what I've been using for the last couple of years and I am absolutely blown away by it.
• 0:47
  Steve: And I, again, I'm not trying to sell you this, I just want you to understand how cool it is.
• 0:51
  Steve: So, for someone like me who has lived in the tube amp, solid state amp realm my entire life, playing in bands, different kinds of things like that, and then you know the, the digital realm came along, so now we have axe effects and kemper and things like that.
• 1:11
  Steve: Um, there's all a host of different things.
• 1:13
  Steve: While I love the digital stuff for recording in my studio very quickly and easily, um, you know, maybe playing with a particular band where I don't really need a full amplifier, there's a lot of different situations here where you may or may not.
• 1:32
  Steve: Do you know, a tube versus digital or a regular amplifier versus digital, and there's actually, um, another podcast that talks all about that, and I don't want to focus on that.
• 1:41
  Steve: What I'm saying is, if you do live in the tube amp realm, okay, that's what you like for whatever.
• 1:49
  Steve: Maybe it's for live performance, maybe it's for recording, whatever it is, whatever your purposes are, the Synergy modular amp system.
• 1:56
  Steve: What it is is basically you buy a power amp of Synergies and then you buy modular, swappable preamps.
• 2:08
  Steve: So what's super cool is, let's say, I wanted to own, you know, a Fender-style amplifier, but I don't have the room for it or I can't afford it, or a whole host of you know, I like the sound of it, but it's just not something practical that I would go out and spend a large amount of money doing.
• 2:24
  Steve: You know, to get a Fender Twin or you know, a Blackface or something like that, whatever it might be.
• 2:29
  Steve: And then I like a Mesa Boogie and I like a Friedman and I, like you know, a JCM800 and a Dr Z amp.
• 2:39
  Steve: I mean all these different amps.
• 2:40
  Steve: First of all, I can't afford to buy all these amps.
• 2:42
  Steve: Second of all, I don't have room for them all.
• 2:44
  Steve: And third, what am I going to do?
• 2:46
  Steve: I mean, if I decided to play out live, I'm not going to bring five of these things with me.
• 2:50
  Steve: I would bring one of them with me, right?
• 3:02
  Steve: Well, what's cool about this Synergy amp system is you buy the box which we'll call the power amp, and then the preamps are just literal preamps made by the companies that make these themselves, be it Bogner or Friedman or Dr Z or PV or whatever.
• 3:14
  Steve: These are the actual schematics of the preamp, are used to create the preamps and they're literally swappable.
• 3:25
  Steve: There's these two little screws and you unscrew it and you pop it out and you put a different preamp into that power amp, which is amazing to me.
• 3:32
  Steve: So I was first turned on to this.
• 3:34
  Steve: To be honest, the history of this technology goes back to Randallall and it may even go back further, but that's what I know it has.
• 3:42
  Steve: Uh, back in, this would have been gosh, in the 90s or maybe the 2000s, early 2000s, something like that.
• 3:48
  Steve: Again, I don't know all the history of this.
• 3:49
  Steve: I just remember our local, uh guitar store was selling this.
• 3:54
  Steve: You could you could put in up to four modules into one head.
• 3:59
  Steve: I remember trying it out, but I think I didn't really understand the technology and maybe everything wasn't quite as dialed in as it is now.
• 4:07
  Steve: Of course, back then you know the companies weren't all on board like they are now.
• 4:11
  Steve: So you know they were more like emulations of said preamps.
• 4:16
  Steve: But again, I think I probably just wasn't as on board the train, if you will, of the technology when I tried it out.
• 4:24
  Steve: So you know, I stayed with my usual single amps, that sort of thing.
• 4:28
  Steve: Well then, a few years ago, I saw Steve Vai play live and he was using this Synergy amp system.
• 4:36
  Steve: He has his own preamp and I was like, oh my god, this is just the coolest thing ever.
• 4:41
  Steve: So I started investigating this, and one of the first modules that I wound up with was the Steve Vai.
• 4:47
  Steve: Now, to be completely honest with you, the Steve Vai module was not.
• 4:51
  Steve: It wasn't as compatible with me as I thought it would be, but it did get me going down this rabbit hole of Synergy products, finding out that this whole thing, the Synergy amp system, is made by a company called Boutique Amp Distribution, which is basically a bunch of amp manufacturers like Dave Friedman own this company or are part of this company, and so they're all working together.
• 5:17
  Steve: And so you've got this preamp or, excuse me, this power amp and the power.
• 5:21
  Steve: There's different kinds of power amps.
• 5:23
  Steve: You can get like rack mountable, and then you've got like they've just come out with the new 20 watt power head, okay, and this thing has impulse responses built into it, but it also has software that you can connect to it and you can put in your own impulse responses so you can run a tube preamp with the schematics of you know said preamp, whatever it is, like a 6505 or something like that, or a B Deluxe by Friedman, or again a Z-Rec or whatever it might be, whatever, whatever it is you like that they offer, of course.
• 5:58
  Steve: So you could run that preamp into the head and now you've got 20 watts of tube power along with the, the tube preamp, and then you can run direct out of that head into a PA, all that kind of stuff.
• 6:12
  Steve: You don't have to mic it right and you can actually change the impulse responses on it as well to whatever it is that you like best.
• 6:20
  Steve: For maybe the situation right, I'm playing in a metal band, so I'm using the Mesa Boogie preamp, the module, or maybe I'm using one of the Bogner modules, or maybe I'm using the 6505, you know, I mean again, there's all kinds of different ones that I could, I could be using, but I'm in this metal band and so instead of using the Fender module I'm which wouldn't make any sense I'm using the appropriate module.
• 6:48
  Steve: So I just swap it out, go to the gig, play this metal show.
• 6:50
  Steve: I'm good to go.
• 6:52
  Steve: The Synergy 20 water also has a built-in clean channel.
• 6:56
  Steve: So even though you're only putting one module in there, it does have a clean channel built into it.
• 7:00
  Steve: So there's a three-channel pedal board that comes with it, okay, or a foot switch.
• 7:04
  Steve: So you've got clean and you've got the two that would control the module.
• 7:09
  Steve: Now this is where it gets.
• 7:10
  Steve: Really cool too is every module usually has two channels.
• 7:15
  Steve: So you can set up one channel to be a little bit crunchier or whatever, and then one channel to be your lead channel.
• 7:21
  Steve: And all of the newer modules all come with independent you know, eq and all that stuff where the earlier modules, when they first started coming out with these, they shared EQs and all that sort of thing.
• 7:34
  Steve: So really all you do is maybe change the amount of distortion on a do is maybe change the amount of distortion on a channel or maybe just the volume of that channel.
• 7:41
  Steve: Well, it isn't like that anymore.
• 7:42
  Steve: Now they're two very complete independent channels.
• 7:45
  Steve: So you could set one to be clean, which isn't really necessary because it's built into the 20 watt head, but you could do that or you could set it up to be crunch and then your other one to be more heavy, or you could set up your first channel to be heavy and your other one to be a little bit louder, with lead or whatever it is.
• 8:06
  Steve: However it is, you want to do it, but they're independent channels.
• 8:10
  Steve: So you wind up in this little 20 watt which, if you're listening to this, you can't see it anyway, but behind me is this 20 water.
• 8:16
  Steve: I can have three channels.
• 8:18
  Steve: So I'll run something that's fairly versatile.
• 8:20
  Steve: Versatile like right now.
• 8:22
  Steve: I've got the be deluxe in there, which has the, the be and the bb built into it, so there's free dave friedman actually created like two different amplifiers that are available within this one module, so it's super cool and it covers a huge range of tones for me to use.
• 8:43
  Steve: So I've got my clean channel, which comes with the it's built into the head itself and then I've got kind of a rock channel and then a bit more of a lead channel, and that's what I run most of the time.
• 8:52
  Steve: So it's just very expansive, the things that you could do with this.
• 8:56
  Steve: And I don't have't have to again own all of these big independent amps.
• 9:01
  Steve: I could just own the preamp and swap it out for the particular band that I'm gonna be playing with and what preamp kind of best, what module kind of best fits that situation?
• 9:12
  Steve: Now again, if you're listening to this you can't see it, but right underneath that I have got the 50 watt head.
• 9:18
  Steve: Okay, so on the top I've got the new 20-watt-er and on the bottom I've got the 50-watt-head.
• 9:23
  Steve: Now the 50-watt-head actually takes two modules, which is super cool.
• 9:28
  Steve: So the 50-watt-head does not have a clean channel built into it, but it does take two modules.
• 9:35
  Steve: So, for instance, I'll run the Fender module for more of my Jimi Hendrix-y kinds of stuff, so that module will run clean and it'll run kind of the bluesy crunchy stuff that I want to do.
• 9:47
  Steve: And then I've got the second available space for the second module and again I'll put in the Friedman or the Soldano or the Uberschall, the Bogner Uberschall or whatever it is that I want.
• 10:00
  Steve: I can put that in there.
• 10:01
  Steve: And that 50 watt head now has four channels two channels for the first module, two channels for the second module, because again there's two channels built into each one of these modules, so I can get a variety of sounds.
• 10:14
  Steve: Now if I'm playing in my metal band and I don't need 50 watts, I could use the 20 water and only one module and I'm good to go.
• 10:21
  Steve: If I'm playing a little bit bigger show where I need more versatility in my tone, I can bring the 50 watt and run the two different modules, two vastly different modules.
• 10:30
  Steve: Whatever it is that I want to do Now with that 50 watt head, it also has a DI out that you can run, but it doesn't have different impulse responses.
• 10:40
  Steve: It doesn't have that option, Okay, it just has the tone that comes out of it.
• 10:44
  Steve: So you know, like a lot of guitar players they're most of the time I'm probably miking my amplifier.
• 10:50
  Steve: That's what I like to do, you know, even if I have this DI out option, but if I'm playing a gig where you know maybe it's it's not as big a gig and I don't need to mic and we're not really loud and all that kind of stuff, I'll run the DI out of the back and it's perfectly fine and that'll go to the sound guy and he can do whatever and I'm good to go on stage Very quick, no microphone needed.
• 11:12
  Steve: So both of those heads have that.
• 11:17
  Steve: Now, as I said, there's rack mountable options as well.
• 11:19
  Steve: That then would need some element of power.
• 11:22
  Steve: You'd have to run some sort of power amp with them, or you can run them as a desktop setting right, where maybe what you do is you don't need power, you just want to run out of that into your audio interface and that's how you're going to run your sounds.
• 11:37
  Steve: Now, when you start doing that, you're getting a little bit closer to the realm of digital products, because that's really what you're doing.
• 11:44
  Steve: That you're getting a little bit closer to the realm of digital products, because that's really what you're doing, right.
• 11:47
  Steve: You're just running this like they call it SYN.
• 11:50
  Steve: Synergy is spelled S-Y-N-E-R-G-Y, so they call it a SYN1 or a SYN2.
• 11:56
  Steve: Now, these things are just rack mountable components that don't have power.
• 12:01
  Steve: They have preamp, obviously, because that's the module, but you could run that out directly into your audio interface and you could run it very similar to a Kemper or something like that.
• 12:10
  Steve: Okay, now, I don't do a lot of that, because what I do is I just run the head, whether it's the 50 watt or the 20 watt and what I do, not to confuse you, but I'll run that into what's called a captor X by two notes.
• 12:25
  Steve: And when I run it into the captor X, now I'm in my studio.
• 12:28
  Steve: Right, I'm not on stage, I'm in my studio but I'm still running my stage setup, running my stage pedals, running my stage volume, everything is exactly the same.
• 12:50
  Steve: I just power it down with the captor x so it's not loud for me, and then I can run out of that captor x right into my audio interface.
• 12:57
  Steve: So what I love about my setup is even when I'm sitting here in my studio talking to you, like I am right now, I'm literally running my live, but I just have it powered down so it's not so frigging loud right Now.
• 13:10
  Steve: Again, it doesn't have to be loud, you know, you don't have to turn them up, you can keep them down.
• 13:15
  Steve: But what I'm saying is what I love about the Synergy is it keeps me in the tube realm.
• 13:20
  Steve: It gives me that compression of tubes in the tube realm.
• 13:25
  Steve: It gives me that compression of tubes.
• 13:27
  Steve: It gives me the versatility of all of these different amplifiers by offering me different preamp modules that I can purchase.
• 13:30
  Steve: You see, so I don't have to purchase the amp itself and then haul different amps, like literally, I could take a Friedman and a Fender or a Peavey and a Mesa Boogie or whatever it is I want, and instead of bringing two amps, I just bring those modules, put them in my 50 watt head and boom, I take that head to the show and I've got both those sounds with me available no matter where I go.
• 13:56
  Steve: Okay, it's just, it's so versatile.
• 13:57
  Steve: So again, it's worth checking out.
• 13:59
  Steve: If you're an amplifier person and you really love the versatility of amps, this is just really great because you know it keeps me out of the digital realm.
• 14:07
  Steve: I love the digital realm for recording in my studio, but I struggle with the digital realm on stage and again, everybody's different.
• 14:17
  Steve: I'm not saying it's bad, I'm not.
• 14:18
  Steve: I own a Kemper.
• 14:19
  Steve: I've got one sitting right to the side of me here, okay, but I don't ever take it to a show anymore.
• 14:25
  Steve: I just don't.
• 14:27
  Steve: The synergy goes with me everywhere I go.
• 14:29
  Steve: Now, if I have a fly, I've got to fly somewhere and play.
• 14:33
  Steve: That's a completely amplifier kind of person.
• 14:35
  Steve: I like that sound and this way I've just got the availability and the versatility of being able to swap out those.
• 14:49
  Steve: So please, please, please.
• 14:51
  Steve: If this sounds interesting to you, you'd be, you'd be surprised at just how much stuff they have available and the fun of you know, simply swapping out a preamp to kind of re-inspire you and motivate you.
• 15:04
  Steve: You've been using the same sound over and over and over and you pull out that swap in a different preamp and you go oh my God, this is great, it's so worth checking out.
• 15:13
  Steve: So, synergy, you're gonna wanna look them up, okay.