Walrus Audio ACS1 First Impressions

There is a pile of videos I've been wanting to make, but getting them recorded wasn't happening. To solve my production problem I bought a new guitar pedal - the Walrus Audio ACS1. Buying a guitar pedal isn't the way I usually go about solving video problems, but this pedal offered a solution.

Making guitar videos isn’t easy. To do them well requires me to record my guitar, mic, and whatever else makes sense at the same time. I also want to be able to do this in a quiet way when inspiration hits. Not every moment is right for cranking my guitar amp.

Enter the Walrus Audio ACS1.

The ACS1 is a guitar amp and cabinet simulator. It replicates the sound of the guitar amplifier and speaker while living in the housing of a little guitar pedal. It's not the first pedal to do it, but it's one of the best. 

What makes the ACS1 special is I can plug my guitar into the pedal, run the pedal direct into my computer recording interface and get a very good guitar sound. No messing with mic placement or room dynamics. Just guitar to pedal to audio interface. Very easy.

The ACS1 models three different types of classic guitar amps - the Fender Deluxe Reverb, Marshall Bluesbreaker, and Vox AC30. I plan on using it mostly for the Fender amp clean sound and treating it more as a clean pedal platform. So far I haven't messed with the Marshall and Vox style sounds much yet.

What I'm enjoying so far is that it "just works”. The pedal sounds good without a lot of tweaking. Out of the box it's a very usable sound. I've made a video and posted it in this newsletter where you can hear it for yourself.

My first impression is that it will make doing guitar videos easier. For me, anything that reduces creative friction is a big win. So, on that basis alone, I consider it a win.

One feature I've already used a lot is the headphone output. I can plug in my guitar, a set of headphones and practice and it sounds good! I could see this being a very nice pedal for traveling guitar players who want to practice quietly in a hotel room or something.

Another feature that helps the overall experience of this pedal is the room knob. It adds a bit of room reverb to make it feel more like sitting in a room with a guitar amp. While not perfect, it's a lot better than what I've played in the past that tried to do the same thing. 

What I think this pedal gets right is removing option paralysis while sounding really good. Dial in a nice guitar sound and just play. You would be surprised how many amp sims get that wrong. I’ve spent many hours wasting time trying to make digital amp modelers sound the way I want. This is far better.

As a guitar player I want something that sounds good and is fun to play. So far the ACS1 does that. 

I've yet to explore many of the other useful features. The pedal has up to 128 MIDI presets, but I don't use MIDI for anything yet. It does stereo, so that's going to be a thing at some point. Walrus Audio keeps releasing firmware updates, so I'm going to have to geek out about those at some point too.

In the long run I expect this pedal to be the foundation to quite a few future guitar videos and recorded music. The ACS1 is a useful creative tool and one that I hope to be leaning on heavily going forward.

So far, it's great.

-Brian

P.S. Watch the video above to hear how it sounds for yourself.