Picking Andy Othling's Ambient Brain | It's Time to See your Pedalboard as a DAW

Finally got the chance to sit down with Andy Othling at NAMM20, so I could dig into his ambient DNA a little bit. We talked about his reverb philosophy, his recent love affair with filter pedals, parallel signal chains, how he visualises his board very much like a DAW, and how he approaches chord voicings and note choices.
It would mean the world to us if you followed our social channels:
Instagram: / thepedalzone
Facebook Group: / thepedalzone
Facebook Page: / thepedalzone
Twitter: / thepedalzone
Guitar used:
Andy's Telecaster
Pedals used:
Death By Audio Evil Filter - thepedalzone.com/evil-filter/
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star - thepedalzone.com/dark-star/
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Signal Blender - thepedalzone.com/signal-blender/
Chase Bliss Audio Mood
Chase Bliss Audio Blooper
Chase Bliss Audio Generation Loss
CXM 1978 Reverb by Chase Bliss Audio and Meris
Electro-Harmonix POG2

[@AndyOthling]

this was great!

[@AndyOthling]

for those asking, here's my current pedalboard chain and whatnot:

[@mikecerame9008]

I'm glad you found such a nice, calm boy to teach us these skills.

[@AntoineMichaudGuitar]

Thank you so much Stefan! It's been so long since we got any ''tutorial'' or just explaining things from Andy. He is my musical hero too! He has evolved so much since many years, but it was harder to pick his brain because we got less information than when he was making Ambient Guitar Tutorials. A breath of fresh air! Thanks so much for doing this!

[@MadsenMister]

We love your work, Stefan. Do. Not. Stop.

[@CaptainRadiator]

I have never clicked on a video so fast in my life. Absolute heroes

[@keaganweaver8723]

Q: Is this my two favorite guitarists in the same video?

[@thepedalzone]

Stoked that I finally got to pick my ambient hero's brain a bit, and I gotta say Andy threw some real eye-openers at me. The way he has begun integrating filters, and parallel signal chaining in order to make his pedalboard almost as flexible as a DAW was just a revelation to me. Time to mess around with my own pedal order again, I guess :D Hope you enjoyed the talk, and that you learned something from it, just like I did.

[@xdoctorblindx]

Joel was the physical manifestation of reverb in this video: lurking in the background, giving a vibe, then floating away.

[@MrWishihadagibson]

Andy told me once at one of his shows about using a pre-reverb set to 100% to remove the attack instead of a volume pedal. Such a great tip!

[@jacobdadisman8791]

TWO OF MY FAV AMBIENT BOIS. This was super cool, thank you guys for doing this!! Love from Tucson

[@alfuckem5620]

Awesome video! Fed super informative and helpful for me and inspiring. You two are wonderful.

[@aaroncurtis4476]

It’s like every question I wanted answered by Andy after watching his stuff. Thanks for this!

[@filthechoes5522]

This is honestly the best content that I've seen coming out of NAMM 2020. Thanks for doing this! Super inspiring!

[@nafner]

The fastest 24 minutes of my life! Andy is such and inspiring guy!

[@SnitchScapes]

What a display of ambient nerding out with my two heroes of ambient playing! Totally loved this interview!😁🤘🔥

[@ThePedalboardOrchestra]

One of the most interesting videos I have seen here recently. Thank you very much Andy and Stefan! 🙏

[@nigelrayner6282]

Brilliant video Stefan, what a pleasure to see two of my most inspirational KZbinrs together discussing how they achieve their amazing soundscapes. I learned a lot from this. It confirmed some things I am doing but helped me with guidance in others. As someone transitioning from doing complex, multi-track solo recordings to a live ambient approach using effects and looping, I can really buy into Andy's (and your) philosophy. Many thanks for doing this.

[@albertgutnick6979]

So inspiring. Learnt so much from this