Boosting for Solo's

[Tremonti]

Curly Bill: You know what I'd do to boost solo? I'd take that deal 'n' crawfish, then drill that ol' Devil in the ass. What about you Juanito, what would you do to boost solo?

 

[benson]

Thank you Johan!

 

[musicman2401]

I use the X/Y amp setup for solos, X being louder and tweaked for the solo sound. Can also add X/Y effects to that too. Off in the rhythm sound, on in the lead sound. And you can hear me clearly over the band when I solo

Can you give an example of that please

 

[Zemurray]

I find the GEQ works well. I set it to about 3db, slightly bump the mids, and roll off the high just a tad. Even if you don't want to EQ the boost, just using the GEQ instead of a null filter and set flat always gives you the option to tweek it later

 

[Severed]

Can you folks elaborate on null filter use? What does it do and how do you set it?

It's actually just called a "filter Block," not a "Null Filter", but many call it a "Null Filter" because they are just using it as a volume controller and not using any of the filters.

I am of the opinion that using a filter block for simply boosting volume is a complete waste because every block already has a volume control that can have a controller attached to it, that can do exactly the same thing.

Additionally, a more efficient way IMO, if you want to hit the front of the amp harder and are not using any blocks (like a drive block, etc) in front of the amp block, attach a controller to the Input Trim of the Amp Block [[Enabling Boost (12dB) is equivalent to setting Input Trim at 4] or attach a controller to the boost control. You can even attach the same controller to both (or more) parameters if you want more boost than the boost will give you. It's just a matter of utilizing the available options and spending 5 minutes to think it through.

If you want a post amp signal boost (to increase overall volume), attach a controller to the amp blocks mixer section output volume controller.

Cliff put in a lot of time and effort to give us all these options. It's so disappointing to see people would rather use the volume control off a filter block instead of utilizing the options already available that were designed to do this. Also, For guys like myself that are using a preset per song that involves 5-8 scenes and maxed out presets hitting 85-90% CPU, adding another block, no matter how small the footprint, is not an option.

Disclaimer : My opinions are my own, and I do what seems logical and what works the best for me. Also, try to remember this is not a real amp and there really are no rules. Play with it, try different things.

 

[chris]

people call it a "Null Filter" because in the Filter block, the type you select is "Null."

 

[ak49climber]

I set up a preset with 2 amp blocks and use amp 1 for cleans and amp 2 for rhythm/lead with the x/y states set appropriately for rhythm and lead. Then i set up my scenes so that scene one is my main rhythm sound with amp 2 set to its x state, scenes 2 and 3 are amp 1 clean sounds with different effects engaged and scene 4 and 5 are my lead sounds with amp 2 set to its y state. Usually I use the same amp model for rhythm and lead with the eq and volume set appropriately for each. Keeps it very simple, like presets within a preset, and all the delay spillover works and its instantaneous!

 

[Johan Allard]

Cliff put in a lot of time and effort to give us all these options. It's so disappointing to see people would rather use the volume control off a filter block instead of utilizing the options already available that were designed to do this. Also, For guys like myself that are using a preset per song that involves 5-8 scenes and maxed out presets hitting 85-90% CPU, adding another block, no matter how small the footprint, is not an option.

One of the wonderful things about the AFx2 is that there are so many different options to do similar things based on what you want to achieve. For instance, if you want to have a gain boost that is both possible to enable/disable in different scenes and selectable in a scene with an IA, you can’t use scene controllers (no IA) or an IA attached to the boost in the amp (not selectable via scene). The easiest solution (with least CPU impact) is to use a Filter Block in Null mode before the amp and assign an IA to that Filter Block. That will get you selectable boost with an IA that is possible to enable and disable in different scenes. Now, not everyone will need this obviously, but if this is want you want, using a Filter block in Null mode is likely the easiest solution.

 

[Tremonti]

I've been using Null Filter at end of chain to boost. Should it be before my amp instead?

 

[chris]

Before the amp would increase the input gain, not the volume so much.

 

[keh]

There are two pedals in my foot controller (Art X-15); I use one for Solo-Boost, usually either with a controller in a volume block at the end of the FX chain. The second one is for the most presets a "blend-in" of overdrive without changing the volume. I do that with a controller for DRIVE (up) and Amp-Block volume (down). Of course this is not possible when I need the second pedal for a WAH or any other special FX.