Gain Enhancer Appreciation Thread

I concur! It is IMHO the most important knob after the gain and volume knobs. I'm guessing doing that will use more CPU functioning as a dedicated control than with it as a compressor option but hey the 3 has lots of headroom right? :p
it sure is very important and I really think Cliff is onto something here and wouldn't be surprised if he'd even refine it further. it would probably only use more CPU if used in conjunction with any of the other Comps but nothing the III couldn't handle...
 
I am loving the Gain Enhancer setting too. I set it to 1 on high gain Triaxis and JP2C presets and it is marvellous. Such a small amount adds so much to the tone, but importantly the feel.

It is different to just turning up the drive more - it really is doing some great acoustic reinforcement modelling and messing with the distortion in a pleasing way while enhancing gain, as I imagine would happen when playing on a loud stage with a wall of sound :)

All the discussion on acoustic reinforcement has been enlightening. Makes so much sense why when trying to cop live tones using settings from rig photos the gain always seems to be lower then what I expected. Common sense but eye opening insights as always Cliff.

This setting is wonderful.
 
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definitely up for discussion, but I'm not even sure if this shouldn't be moved to the Cab block, or added to the Cab block as well. for some reason I associate that effect with a speaker...
 
I suspect that it's more of a matter of feeding back the amp a percentage of it's own slightly delayed signal and clamping it down somehow to avoid it perpetually going, in which case it would make sense to have it as part of the amp block. I'm going to try to see if I can simulate something like that on the ii haha
 
I figured out that the Gain Enhancer was adding gain (duh) and so I needed to reduce the gain to compensate. I experimented with higher values but ended up going back to 0.50. For my Plexi jumpered tones, I didn't want to have to re-configure the balance of the gain on the two channels, so I turned the Input Trim down to about 0.90, which seemed to balance out my 0.50 gain enhancer.

I got to play it live and it was awesome! It really felt and sounded like I had an amp in the room that was running a pretty nice volume (but not enough to feed back). Made the whole experience so much more fun and I was feeling that inspiration you get from having a great live tone.
 
Currently, I've got it dialed in at 0.50 where it breathes a little life into the tone but doesn't make chords mushy. I'm curious to hear how it will sound live.
Is this something that is meant to be used for live performance? I was under the impression that the intention of this was to be used at lower volumes to simulate what it would sound like at a louder level.
 
Is this something that is meant to be used for live performance? I was under the impression that the intention of this was to be used at lower volumes to simulate what it would sound like at a louder level.

No rules, only your ears (quiet or loud)! 😁
 
I'm liking it generally about 2 or a bit less, but I also find that I'm having to back off on the input gain to the amp quite a bit when I use it. I tend to use mid-gain amps, or amps on the verge of breakup. Dialing in the Gain Enhancer really seems to add gain more than I'd expect pure acoustic feedback to do.
 
Is this something that is meant to be used for live performance? I was under the impression that the intention of this was to be used at lower volumes to simulate what it would sound like at a louder level.

I’d say it depends on how loud your live performances are and whether you have a stage monitor. Where I play, we use in-ears so the only volume is from the mains and it doesn’t get super loud. I get a little bit of this effect naturally from the volume in the house, but not as much as I want so the Gain Enhancer worked great for me live. It made it sound and feel like I was pushing out more volume in the house than I actually was.

If I had an FRFR speaker on stage and pushed it loud enough to keep up with an uncaged drummer, I probably wouldn’t use the gain enhancer live. I also imagine professionals playing big venues like Def Leppard don’t need this feature live.
 
I play in-ears live and use an FRFR monitor lying at the right side. That way I don't monitor as loud as anymore as when I had a guitar cab blowin from behind. I remember I could not turn around then looking at the drummer without holding the strings down to avoid it feedbacking at once. Now I can take my hands off the string usually, at least when not at solo volume, so even with the FRFR monitor on stage I will keep at tad of feedback enhancement in my presets.
 
Except they are most likely also playing in-ears with a near-silent stage.
With concert volumes pumping through the mains, the stage is definitely not that quiet, especially if it's indoors. However, it is an interesting question how much volume they would get feeding back into their guitars from the mains.
 
Love this parameter 👍it makes wonders on marshally type amps. Between 1 and 2 for me ane that’s enough (see cliff tech notes)
Please cliff continue this kind of tonal improvements. 😁😁
May be a more visible/accessible control in the way of a depth & presence control ?
 
definitely up for discussion, but I'm not even sure if this shouldn't be moved to the Cab block, or added to the Cab block as well. for some reason I associate that effect with a speaker...
But then the folks using real guitar cabs wouldn’t be able to benefit from it!
 
I’d say it depends on how loud your live performances are and whether you have a stage monitor. Where I play, we use in-ears so the only volume is from the mains and it doesn’t get super loud. I get a little bit of this effect naturally from the volume in the house, but not as much as I want so the Gain Enhancer worked great for me live. It made it sound and feel like I was pushing out more volume in the house than I actually was.

If I had an FRFR speaker on stage and pushed it loud enough to keep up with an uncaged drummer, I probably wouldn’t use the gain enhancer live. I also imagine professionals playing big venues like Def Leppard don’t need this feature live.

This as feature I want to dial in differently on-the-fly depending on the playing situation - low volume at home, mid volume at practice, and too freaking loud on stage. Think I'll try to adding it to the performance screen.
 
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