Dimed amp vs. Clean amp & Drives

[Lance Holland]

That's more or less my experience with that approach too. There are some clever things you can do with compressors, especially the output compression tab in the amp block, to help mitigate that. But in the end, starting with a cranked amp and backing it off is a subtractive process rather than starting clean and adding drives.

Another thing is that people have very different definitions of what "clean" is. To some people, edge of break up/slightly dirty is what they consider clean. For me, I want a more pristine clean. Backing off a gained up Marshall never gets me that.

I'll experiment with the output compressor. But, I'm not a tweaker. Most of that reason is that I can't tweak at rehearsals. Our band leader has zero patience for gear noodling. If I need to dig into those advanced settings, I know I'm probably heading in the wrong direction. So, I'll set up a test version of my main patch and use it at rehearsal. If it works, that becomes the new gigging patch. Changes are a slow process as I need to wait for the next rehearsal to test.

My "clean" always has some hair on it. Picking a little lighter might yield a more clean sound but there's always some grain to it. In the mix, it sounds relatively clean but in isolation, you hear some breakup.

What would be my ultimate goal is to get my FM9 to act like my Friedman Dirty Shirley Mini. I've tried the Fractal model, and (sorry Cliff), it doesn't behave or sound like the actual amp. With the DSM and a Strat, I can roll back the guitar's volume and the loudness doesn't change, it just gets cleaner and stays fat and warm.

 

[Lance Holland]

The output compressor kinda does it the cleanup trick. Getting it off the stock zero setting helps the cleanup - but I'm concerned it might kill too much dynamics.
Does anyone else use this parameter? What settings are you using?

 

[Lance Holland]

I've spent some time with the output comp. It seems to be helping. But....stand by until next Wednesday's rehearsal to see if it works with the band.

 

[SteveD61]

The plexi seems to compress well enough like a real amp but I'll need to try this live.

There's an output compression section in the advanced parameter page if you want more compression. Leon Todd has a vid on using this parameter

 

[marsonic]

Another thing is that people have very different definitions of what "clean" is. To some people, edge of break up/slightly dirty is what they consider clean. For me, I want a more pristine clean. Backing off a gained up Marshall never gets me that.

Yeah, that's important. Guitars need some compression, and if you're not getting it from the amp (e.g., edge of breakup), you kinda have to do it elsewhere.

I think that vintage-y Marshalls give some of the most amazing clean tones, even pristine clean. But, yes, it's hard to get that sound and a Marshall driven sound without pedals or different amp channels/settings (in the fractal - I've never actually liked a channel switching Marshall IRL).