Heavy cleans

[chkayleebear]

Any starting points for compressor types and settings before clean amps?

I usually use a little breakup even in the clean parts. But I’d love som tips for more squeaky cleans

studio fb 1
instrument level
ratio 2.718
attack 0.368ms
release 135ms
auto att/rel on
auto makeup off
lookahead 0

 

[Smittefar]

Since you are on the hi-watt I assume Gilmour is not too far off. I believe he used to use a Dynacomp in front. So Dynamicomp release at 200ms attack at 4 ms compression to taste

 

[Sashman]

That’s why I like Tim’s Axe III ODS Preset so much!

 

[yek]

Use a Dumble-style clean amp, with Master turned up and a bit of Output Compression in the Amp block, and an into-your-face sounding IR.

 

[My name is mud]

It’s always funny that most of the time our definition of clean tones is not the same.
Many time they called “clean tones” a “crunch” to me .
For me a clean tone should have zero drive , pure clean .
So when I see the guy in the video with the knob down having an anemic tone and some overdrive in the tone . Well 😅
The compressor does an effect that I personally don’t really like . Brings you in the 80’s in a minute . I like to have pure clean tone and that’s not so easy in the axe. I m surprised that cult amps I know for real like the bassman or twin , ac30, don’t have such a good clean in the axe . I remember when I plugged myself in an ac30 or whatever fender, the clean was perfectly clean, present … I will retry this today .

 

[shredmechanic]

Have you tried rolling the volume knob on your guitar back a bit and turning up the volume of the amp to compensate? It's a trick I picked up from a Pete Thorn video that works great with real tube amps and the Axe-Fx models. Personally, I find it to be a much more satisfying tone than a guitar dimed into a clean amp.

 

[FractalAudio]

All my experience with my preset at gig volume. They just sounded quieter and weaker even though they were the same dB on the preset leveler tool. I was also looking for advice because I was looking for stiffer, bouncier cleans. But I really appreciate all the info about FM. It really helped me when I first started making my patches that working in a live environment.

Turn the preset up. The leveling tool will often result in clean tones not sounding as loud as distorted tones due to the greater dynamic range.

 

[Mooncaster]

Have you tried rolling the volume knob on your guitar back a bit and turning up the volume of the amp to compensate? It's a trick I picked up from a Pete Thorn video that works great with real tube amps and the Axe-Fx models. Personally, I find it to be a much more satisfying tone than a guitar dimed into a clean amp.

No I haven't, but I'll give it a try.

 

[Mooncaster]

Turn the preset up. The leveling tool will often result in clean tones not sounding as loud as distorted tones due to the greater dynamic range.

Thanks, will do.

 

[kmachman]

That’s why I like Tim’s Axe III ODS Preset so much!

Ive looked for a preset from Tim, but i cannot find anything. Do you have a link for it?

 

[Sashman]

Ive looked for a preset from Tim, but i cannot find anything. Do you have a link for it?

https://www.timpierce.com/fractal-download

 

[biggness]

Give this one a gander. Uses a good trick I discovered messing around.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Turn the preset up. The leveling tool will often result in clean tones not sounding as loud as distorted tones due to the greater dynamic range.

This. ^^^^^ The average level is what you perceive, but the meter lets you see the peaks, which means anything with clean headroom is going to sound a bit quieter than a distorted tone with the same peak levels. Distortion compresses dynamic range quite a bit, compared to clean. A little compression for the cleans may help, or edge the sound closer to EOB so the natural compression of the amp kicks in to tame the peaks and up your cleans' average level....

 

[RackAddict]

has anyone run parallel clean to heavy distortion tone? The freightbox recording guy on youtube says he mixes in a parallel and heavily filtered clean from the DI with a tiny bit of character off a bit of a grit plugin. And has anyone run a parallel clean in the axe fx too?

 

[FusionFanatic]

I got a big clean sound using the CA3+clean thru a EV ir ... no real ‘breakup’ but it’s sure full sounding. I like it more than the Dumble sim.

 

[jellodog]

I'm really into cleans and mine are fairly thick.

The JFET compressor block is fantastic for thick cleans. I don't know what Cliff did there, but it's an incredible algorithm with the auto attack/release.

Also, really fat warm cleans contain a little more gain than you would think (as has already been posted in the Tim Pierce video).

The Studio Rats did a similar video on this topic of adding some drive to cleans:




UDATE: Uh... just realised that this is an old thread. haha.

 

[tysonlt]

has anyone run parallel clean to heavy distortion tone? The freightbox recording guy on youtube says he mixes in a parallel and heavily filtered clean from the DI with a tiny bit of character off a bit of a grit plugin. And has anyone run a parallel clean in the axe fx too?

Ken Andrews from Failure has a YouTube channel where he does that on an AxeFX

 

[AlexGuitar]

you didn't play it or hear it apparently

I haven't downloaded the preset, but my guess is that 20db at 40 trails off to be just a couple db at 100 or 120, and that is why you hear it. However, played through a subwoofer, full PA, etc, everything sub-100 just causes mud. Make smaller, more tailored, eq changes and you'll have better luck long term.