Solo Boost Tutorial

2112

2112

Axe-Master
I've been meaning to do this since I got the III, so here's part one of a series of videos on how to dial in solo boosts. The first part covers different ways to pre-boost your amp using EQ, compression or drive blocks. Future installments will cover overall volume boosts and post-eq strategies as well as incorporating time based effects into your solos.

As always, if you have a particular technique you swear by please let me know :)

 
Great stuff as allways, at one point when you use the compressor blocks side chain EQ, you push the mids there and you say that this makes the mids hit the amp harder....isn't it the other way around, if you cut with the side chain it means those frequencies wont effect the qain reduction. and if you add level to certain frequencies those will cause more gain reduction. And since its not a multi band compressor the side chain just changes the overall gain reduction...Maybe you mean it that way but i felt like it can cause some confusion.
 
Semih Yanyali said:
Great stuff as allways, at one point when you use the compressor blocks side chain EQ, you push the mids there and you say that this makes the mids hit the amp harder....isn't it the other way around, if you cut with the side chain it means those frequencies wont effect the qain reduction. and if you add level to certain frequencies those will cause more gain reduction. And since its not a multi band compressor the side chain just changes the overall gain reduction...Maybe you mean it that way but i felt like it can cause some confusion.
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I believe it's because the high and low are not being compressed as much and thus also not getting the 12dB level boost the mids are getting...
 
Keep the videos coming. Got the III in Tuesday and have been watching your videos non-stop. Great stuff!
 
unix-guy said:
I believe it's because the high and low are not being compressed as much and thus also not getting the 12dB level boost the mids are getting...
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thats not a multiband compressor, changing the sidechain settings only changes what the compressor reacts to, and when it reacts it compresses broadband the whole signal. and if you add 12dB gain, it again adds it to whole signal.

and if you mean adding 12dB to mids in sidechain, it doesnt add mids to signal you hear. It actualy makes the compressor react more to mids and compress more "everything".

my apologies if i am understading what you wrote wrong and bombing you with stuff you know...
 
Semih Yanyali said:
thats not a multiband compressor, changing the sidechain settings only changes what the compressor reacts to, and when it reacts it compresses broadband the whole signal. and if you add 12dB gain, it again adds it to whole signal.

and if you mean adding 12dB to mids in sidechain, it doesnt add mids to signal you hear. It actualy makes the compressor react more to mids and compress more "everything".

my apologies if i am understading what you wrote wrong and bombing you with stuff you know...
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No worries, sounds like you're more versed than I am... ;)
 
Good info in here. I have just been adding an enhance block before the delay/reverb, etc. I have no idea if this is a correct technique, but it does give me a little boost to jump above the other guitar. Also I had no idea that there was a compressor that was modeled after a Distressor, I have been curious about those for awhile, and I guess I can sort of see what they do in the Axe 3.
 
Pombero said:
Good info in here. I have just been adding an enhance block before the delay/reverb, etc. I have no idea if this is a correct technique, but it does give me a little boost to jump above the other guitar. Also I had no idea that there was a compressor that was modeled after a Distressor, I have been curious about those for awhile, and I guess I can sort of see what they do in the Axe 3.
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Really there's no concrete right or wrong way to use any of this, If it sounds good and it works for you do it. After all distortion

The distressor is an absolute beast of a compressor and I'd highly recommend trying the Axe EL-Foil opto mode on snares and bass guitar if you're using the Axe in your studio as a piece of outboard gear.
 
Great vid, Leon. I've done something really similar for several years now: Filter block 1 is a global block. I tend to set my lead tone by itself, so I dial in whatever midrange bite I want as part of a different scene, often a different amp or the same one pushed differently. Then I level all the scenes across all presets, with that Filter Block 1 set to 0dB boost. I also have the low and high cuts (kind of similar to what you have at the end...100Hz and 7kHz.

Once those are level, I can then go in any preset and change the level to +3dB or so. That's my starting point for a if I'm the sole guitar player. But I find that the amount of boost depends a lot on the type of music, mix density (how many guitars there are, for example), and other things. So mid-show, I might find that I need as much as 5dB boost to get the solos to cut through a really dense mix.

Sound guys seem to really like this approach. It's controlled, and they can help me figure out the right boost during sound check if you pick the right song for that check. They don't have to know when a solo is hitting and jump on the fader. It's as close to set and forget as I've found.
 
Man! I learned a lot from this one. You're using modulation effects in some ways that I never thought of. Very cool for making your solos stick out in some settings where they need a little "rude!"
 
greiswig said:
Man! I learned a lot from this one. You're using modulation effects in some ways that I never thought of. Very cool for making your solos stick out in some settings where they need a little "rude!"
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It's easy to forget how raw and rude so many classic tones were. I use the phaser trick live all the time when I wake an alternative solo tone.
 
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