High Gain - Gain Staging Tips

O

orb451

Inspired
Hey all, I wanted to get your thoughts for tips on successful gain staging with regards to
creating medium and high gain distortion sounds/patches. That is, what
settings do you run for things like the drive blocks when going in front of amps (low, medium or high gain amps)?

Are your drive levels at noon? Is mix always 100%? Is drive set to noon or lower? Do you
run with the boost on on the amp block? Is amp drive noon?

I'm not trying to get any *one* album or artist sound, just trying to get an idea of what works and
what doesn't. Overall though I'm looking for a saturated sound. Any amp/drive combos that really
work? Any to steer clear of?

Thanks for any info and hopefully this helps others as well!

orb.............
 
depends on which amp you choose. for example. on my real 5150, i run the gain at around 3 or 4. so on the axe i put it at around the same and then throw a drive block in front of it with the drive nearly all the way down and the level crank up all the way. after that, maybe throw a GEQ in there after to shape the sound if you feel you need to. also, for the really high gain stuff i put the gate up a little higher so that i'm not feeding back constantly(unless i want to). you can coax high/mid gain out of some of the other amps but when you got things like the 5150 or uberschall amps, you don't need to bother "trying" you just get to have a nice sound.

a nice smooth high gain sound is coming out of the usa lead 2, which i think is the yellow triaxis model. blend that with something noisier like the uber or 5150 and you've got yourself a really nice high gain patch with craziness and note definition.
 
I'm a big USA Lead 2 fan and use that for most of my high gain playing. Just straight in, cab block with 4x12 Brit and 4x12 Cali (r121 on both I think), and then a PEQ after the cab to do the Mark series GEQ thing. With the great pre-gain EQ of the Mark series, as with the real thing, I don't really find any need to have an OD or EQ in front of the amp to tighten things up or shape the tone at all. Just remember to turn that master volume up reasonably high. :cool:

Otherwise, I find the 5150, Das Metall, and the first two Rectos do quite nicely. For the Rectos I have to have a Filter block out front though, to lowshelf away some of the lows and tighten things up.

I don't tend to use Drives in front of high gain amps much, more Filters. I use Drive blocks more in front of clean amps to get a warm OD sound, or say hitting the front end of an AC30 with a treble booster.
 
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