High Gain w/o Dirty Amp

[Aldones]

So, I'm running the fx8 directly into a quilter tone block 201 at it's cleanest possible state, and intend to rely upon the fx8 drive blocks entirely for my tone. I've since decided that trying to run an HM-2 alongside it just isn't going to give me the result I want, and even so I could probably replicate that sound on the fx8 more easily than I seem to be able to get the exact high gain tone I'm looking for.

That being said, I've tried primarily relying upon either the Ruckus, Esoteric ACB, or the Shredmaster for my main source of distortion. I tried several boosts, thinking the FullOD was the one that would give me the results I wanted, but fell back upon the 808 mod. To make things more difficult, I can't convince myself under any circumstances to run the quilter on any other setting that full blown british voicing. As a result, anything I do to such drives as the Ruckus comes out too boxy and clear for the type of tone I'm looking for, but the shredmaster seems difficult to keep from getting too scooped, even with a TS808 (though I may simply be losing some objectivity in perception at this point of having messed with it for hours at a time).

Though I think I've got it dialed in pretty close, I'm beginning to notice that, even with the compressor off entirely, I can't seem to find the a balance between the level of saturation I need to keep a certain quality of ambience and thickness to the guitar that I want and avoid this odd grinding noise between lightly choked palm mutes. This occurs not only with the shredmaster, but the ruckus as well, and with a boost off, continues to do so when the appropriate amount of drive is applied. Again, this is still occurring with compression off entirely.

Is this a quality of the unit itself, or is there a parameter somewhere that I'm completely oblivious to that can tighten this up just a bit without losing sustain?

I've got the GTE set lightly enough not to cause any bizarre disturbances, and a second gate to choke out erroneous noises when I'm not playing.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Budda]

Given how much EQ flexibility there is, I'm a little surprised you're scooping the shredmaster.

Is this for a band scenario, recording or playing at home? Why can't you take the Quilter off british voicing?? If you want to tighten things up, just raise the low pass filter too 100hZ or higher (most drives it's set to min and HP is maxed). Also you shouldn't need two gates, maaaybe one.

 

[Aldones]

I'm not scooping the shredmaster, it just sounds scooped (to me). Might be fine running it on british voicing, but I strongly question my objectivity with those kinds of things. I tend to max out mids whenever possible, and either lean towards highs or lows depending upon what type of metal I'm playing.

This is for a band scenario, I like to have everything dialed in as close as possible to how it ought to sound in the studio (though I'm trying to back off a little bit and just let the engineer handle it).

I can take the quilter off of british voicing, but I never like the voicing that scoops the sound if I can avoid it. It's likely both a matter of habit that I don't want to try and subjectively locate another setting on the tri-q, and that it produces more volume (as brains work, more volume SEEMS like a better sound whether or not it actually is).

I currently have the high pass at 100hz and the low pass I believe at 8k. I was actually worried I may be taking out too much of the low end required for the sound I'm going for, but I'm still hearing things shaking around when I play so I'm going to leave it at 100 for now haha.

I did actually try to set the GTE to be mostly non-functional, but I was getting a lot more sound coming through on the rhythm channel between playing than I'd like. The gate/expander block is just to dial out anything produced by the two drive blocks that trails off when I'm muting.

 

[Aldones]

Oh, also just to clarify - when I say GTE, I mean the input gate on the preset rather than a block. The second gate is just the only gate block being used.

 

[Budda]

I'm not scooping the shredmaster, it just sounds scooped (to me). Might be fine running it on british voicing, but I strongly question my objectivity with those kinds of things. I tend to max out mids whenever possible, and either lean towards highs or lows depending upon what type of metal I'm playing.

This is for a band scenario, I like to have everything dialed in as close as possible to how it ought to sound in the studio (though I'm trying to back off a little bit and just let the engineer handle it).

I can take the quilter off of british voicing, but I never like the voicing that scoops the sound if I can avoid it. It's likely both a matter of habit that I don't want to try and subjectively locate another setting on the tri-q, and that it produces more volume (as brains work, more volume SEEMS like a better sound whether or not it actually is).

I currently have the high pass at 100hz and the low pass I believe at 8k. I was actually worried I may be taking out too much of the low end required for the sound I'm going for, but I'm still hearing things shaking around when I play so I'm going to leave it at 100 for now haha.

I did actually try to set the GTE to be mostly non-functional, but I was getting a lot more sound coming through on the rhythm channel between playing than I'd like. The gate/expander block is just to dial out anything produced by the two drive blocks that trails off when I'm muting.

Do you have any friends whose ears you trust to help you dial things in?

Stuff:
1) don't max out mids. There's nearly no point when this is helping your sound whatsoever.
2) Don't try to replicate studio tones. There's way more to it than just one guitar sound (usually everything is double tracked at a minimum), so focus on dialling in your rig to serve the sound of the band. Not your idea of tone, but the band.

It sounds to me like you're getting way too into your own headspace on this. Relax, guitar is supposed to be fun!

Try dialling in a tone you think might work, then write down the settings. Use it *at band practice* and get feedback from the band. You want to sound like a unit, not a bunch of guys who happen to be playing the same song. Spend some time on each possible gain tone you have to see how it gels.

When I switched from an OCD providing dirt to my JCM800 providing dirt, it took some adjustment. Then I switched guitars, and I wasn't that happy with how it sounded. Bandmate noted that I now had a much brighter tone and that's probably why I wasn't as happy. Dialled the treble back a notch, barely boosted the bass and now everything's back to normal.

 

[Aldones]

Do you have any friends whose ears you trust to help you dial things in?

Stuff:
1) don't max out mids. There's nearly no point when this is helping your sound whatsoever.
2) Don't try to replicate studio tones. There's way more to it than just one guitar sound (usually everything is double tracked at a minimum), so focus on dialling in your rig to serve the sound of the band. Not your idea of tone, but the band.

It sounds to me like you're getting way too into your own headspace on this. Relax, guitar is supposed to be fun!

Try dialling in a tone you think might work, then write down the settings. Use it *at band practice* and get feedback from the band. You want to sound like a unit, not a bunch of guys who happen to be playing the same song. Spend some time on each possible gain tone you have to see how it gels.

When I switched from an OCD providing dirt to my JCM800 providing dirt, it took some adjustment. Then I switched guitars, and I wasn't that happy with how it sounded. Bandmate noted that I now had a much brighter tone and that's probably why I wasn't as happy. Dialled the treble back a notch, barely boosted the bass and now everything's back to normal.

Makes sense. I suppose I got ahead of myself trying to dial it in as close as possible to the tone I had on my other rig (without it being present to A/B them). On the other hand, the guy I intend to have mix us HATES double tracking guitars because of phase issues.

I did prepare a couple to start with, but I think I'm going to mess around with the secondary option some more, switching it back to the Ruckus just to see if I can get a good, dark tone out of it anyhow.

I do think something I want to really work on as far as the overall sound goes would be dialing out some treble produced by the shredmaster. In this particular band and for the overall sound, it definitely needs more in the lows and mids than the highs. I also realized over the past couple days that there is probably a page for that drive in particular that I haven't messed with yet. There ought to be one with the same parameters as the original shredmaster footswitch, right? I had just been trying to adjust the tone control.

Despite all of that, I'm concerned that the noise I'm hearing between palm mutes isn't the tone. Of course, I won't know until I have a chance to sit down with it and adjust some things, but it's something I've never heard occur before regardless of frequency response, gain levels, or volume levels.

At any rate, this is oddly enough my idea of fun. I'm actually having a ton of fun learning about this unit, the blocks and how they operate, and trying to pin down that sound - especially with the overwhelming amount of options I have. I may be hitting some obstacles in the process, but I could just go to town with this thing for days at a time if I kept it at home with me and love every second of it, but I've gotta wait to make any modifications to my sound until I'm at practice.

Thanks again for the assistance!

 

[Budda]

Best of luck!

 

[Aldones]

Thanks!