a very simple tweaking 'trick'

D

DonPetersen

Fractal Fanatic
there are two factors that often ruin guitar sounds:
1) too much gain
2) too much bass

sometimes when I play presets I made earlier I find them to be too undefined, or washed-out to work in context with other instruments.
When I turn down drive (amp and drive blocks), drive block level or bass I do notice an improvement, but also 'loss', since the signal loses volume and because taking something away just doesn't feel right.
If filled the Ultra with my patches and programmed hundreds of sounds for synths, but I still feel that I'm losing something when working this way (reducing values).

The solution is as simple as can be:
turn the offending parameter down all the way, listen to the sound and then SLOWLY increase until you get there.
As much as nessessary, as little as possible.

When I have the gain set to 5 for exsample and turn down to 4 (+ compensating for volume loss) it feels like 'less'.
Turning down to 1 and then slowly increasing the gain while playing I often achieve the result I need with 3.5 instead + it feels better :)
(all numbers are just exsamples)

It's just your brain playing tricks on you.

well, at least my brain is...



edit
btw this also works great for all kinds of mix values (reverb, delay, phaser...)
 
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So true - and an interesting approach to resolving the issue(s). Thanks for posting this! :)
 
So true, Don.

And still I keep forgetting it all the time.
Just recently I realized this again, when I recorded the 1987x clip. Had to turn down Gain as well as Bass, less, less, less.
Made me go through my main presets again to dial back those settings where possible.

Going back to zero is kind of "resetting my ears". Very useful tip.
 
Nicely worded. I've found this is very useful when I feel my patches are "almost there" and can't figure out what's missing or overdone. Works well with pretty much all parameters.
 
Cool tip, this is an invaluable tip I use in mixing. Never applied it to axefx patches though. Cool.
 
Thanks Don.

Yea, years ago Marc Seal (guitarist) had a free online guitar lesson show and he was explaining how to set up your optimum sound by putting the bass, mid, treble all the way down and starting from bass, raise it up little by little until you are satisfied. Then go on to Mid, then to Treb. That way your sound is stacked just the way you like it.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining it 100% correctly but that was the gist of it. I guess this goes with other effects parameters, just like Don said.

Thanks, again :)
 
This is a great tip not only for Axe-Fx users, but of tube amp users as well. I recently used this method on one of my patches. It was a bit muddy and undefined, just as you describe and the 2 parameters I changed were also exactly as you describe, the gain and the bass. A little is all it takes sometimes.
 
My trick is this: I have 1 patch that I absolutely trust and am convinced sits perfectly in a live setting. It is my reference tone for all my other patches. When creating something new, I always A/B the new patch against this reference tone and make my EQ and gain adjustments based on that. I never trust my ears at the moment of tweaking. Ear fatigue, room changes and a host of other factors have led to situations where I tweak until it sounds good.... then ill play the patch tomorrow and it sounds like crap to me!
 
alcaldwell said:
My trick is this: I have 1 patch that I absolutely trust and am convinced sits perfectly in a live setting. It is my reference tone for all my other patches. When creating something new, I always A/B the new patch against this reference tone and make my EQ and gain adjustments based on that. I never trust my ears at the moment of tweaking. Ear fatigue, room changes and a host of other factors have led to situations where I tweak until it sounds good.... then ill play the patch tomorrow and it sounds like crap to me!
Click to expand...

+1
 
alcaldwell said:
My trick is this: I have 1 patch that I absolutely trust and am convinced sits perfectly in a live setting. It is my reference tone for all my other patches. When creating something new, I always A/B the new patch against this reference tone and make my EQ and gain adjustments based on that. I never trust my ears at the moment of tweaking. Ear fatigue, room changes and a host of other factors have led to situations where I tweak until it sounds good.... then ill play the patch tomorrow and it sounds like crap to me!
Click to expand...

I use one of Mark Day's guitar sounds from the Redwirez IR auditioning tool like that. :)
(looks like the tool is no longer on the Redwirez site...)
 
per DonP
presets I made earlier I find them to be too undefined, or washed-out to work in context with other instruments.
Click to expand...

I find that most guitarist tones are this way....so I feel they need to be somewhat RADICAL sounding. Even is ever so slightly.
This way they are unique to each other (each tone)...and thats why I find the top 200 Classic Rock tones to be so appealing.

I've collected, tweaked & crafted many so far.
 
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alcaldwell said:
My trick is this: I have 1 patch that I absolutely trust and am convinced sits perfectly in a live setting. It is my reference tone for all my other patches. When creating something new, I always A/B the new patch against this reference tone and make my EQ and gain adjustments based on that. I never trust my ears at the moment of tweaking. Ear fatigue, room changes and a host of other factors have led to situations where I tweak until it sounds good.... then ill play the patch tomorrow and it sounds like crap to me!
Click to expand...

Man, I thought I was the only one!
 
A good rule of thumb that I have found to work well, bring the gain up until you think it's just barely enough, then back it down slightly.
 
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