How can I get rid of "fizzy" sound in tone?

L

l902

Member
Playing through gt800fx and Vader 212, v5.03 fw.

Just sat down to keep tweaking on my hi gain tone I've been working on, and I'm noticing it has a really high end fizzy type sound when I'm playing. The weird part is that there wasn't this issue yesterday when I was playing. Not sure if I simply just didn't notice yesterday or what but it is different for sure. What could be causing this?

Preset looks like:

DRV(T808)>AMP(Energy Ball)>CPR(Pedal)>PEQ>GTE

Anyone who is experienced in hi gain tones feel free to chime in here and help a brother out.

For reference, this is the type of tone I'm aiming for (skip tp 1:40):

Bulb and Jake Demoing the Atomic MB-50 Poweramp with the Fractal AxeFx Ultra! - YouTube
 
You can do a high cut at 7,000 in the cab section to smooth out the top, or there was a thread yesterday about going into the Speaker section of AMP and altering it to smooth out the top end.
 
Not sure if this affects fizz, but I'd put the gate first, then the compressor then everything else. But that's just me.
 
Try one or more of the following: Turn down High Cut , turn off Grid Modeling, turn down Triode Plate Freqency, turn down Speaker Drive, turn up Triode Hardness, move Tone Location, change Tonestack type.


chrisallen8888 said:
Not sure if this affects fizz, but I'd put the gate first, then the compressor then everything else. But that's just me.
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Compressor after the amp should reduce fizz
 
Fizz? What's that?

Who cares about eliminating fizz? :) Many people actually love it, or are at least willing to put up with it. I personally have hated it with a passion since the age of 13! :)
 
Radley said:
Who cares about eliminating fizz? :) Many people actually love it, or are at least willing to put up with it. I personally have hated it with a passion since the age of 13! :)
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Ha! Me too :|

Mind you, there are manifestations of fuzz that I like, which I would describe with non-technical words such as "grind", "edge" and "breakup". But to me, overt fuzz/fizz is just a distraction to organic guitar tone. YMMV.
 
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I hate too much fizz myself. Maxtwang covered pretty much all the usual suspects. There was also someone who forgot the cab sims off, so if you find the sounds are overly fizzy.... :lol
 
IMHO, there is no such thing as 'well contoured' fizz - Fizz IS, and always will be the ultimate enemy of good guitar tone.
 
Radley said:
IMHO, there is no such thing as 'well contoured' fizz - Fizz IS, and always will be the ultimate enemy of good guitar tone.
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More specifically, the physics of gain create a complex timbre full of clashing high harmonics. It doesn't seem anyone has sought to truly eliminate or reconcile this phenomenon, as everybody is too busy trying to replicate it.
 
Radley said:
IMHO, there is no such thing as 'well contoured' fizz - Fizz IS, and always will be the ultimate enemy of good guitar tone.
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For many people, you are right, but Dimebag went out of his way to get fizz. He described his ideal tone in this way. It certainly worked for him.
So no, its not the ultimate enemy so universally. I'd say out of intonation guitars are the ultimate enemy of guitar tone.
Can't build a house on that foundation unless you are deaf.
 
This Works WONDERS for the "FIZZIES"

Try PRE-distortion EQ. Put an EQ before the amp block and cut the highs going into the amp. You can use an EQ or a low pass filter. Cut all the way down to 2kHz if necessary to taste. It will eliminate most of the fizz - try it! You can cascade a couple of filter blocks if necessary if you really want to alter the character of the distortion.

You can also gently roll off the lows as well to get less "break up" in chords. Pre-distortion "bandwidth limiting" as it's basically called is a very common technique that I'm surprised nobody has mentioned (if somebody has please excuse that comment). The tone stack can't do much if it's post preamp distortion, but you can't beat a couple of filter blocks set to lowpass with a cutoff as low as you need to go (without cutting the fundamental frequency of the notes) PRIOR to the amp or any drive block to tame those fizzies!!!
 
I find the opposite approach works better: Cut lows going into the amp, filter highs coming out. Gives me a better overdrive and tone balance.

Cutting lows going into the amp (easy to test - just roll down your guitar tone control) leads to a "furry" overdrive character IMHO, certainly a different, valid and useful tone in it's own right. Think early Clapton "woman tone" and early Santana tones.

But my tonal aim is to maximise, even exaggerate, natural guitar tone. That way, I can get the best out of different guitars and from each pickup selection.
 
More Elaborate Method #2

The only problem with the bandwidth limiting approach is that if you want to turn the pickup volume down and play clean your tone will be dull. There's a solution for that too, but it takes a little more work.

The Multiband Compressor block can be used pre-distortion (same location as the EQs mentioned previously) to tame the fizz without sacrificing a bright clean tone from the same patch.

The trick is to set the top (high frequency) band of the Multiband to cut the highs as the volume of the guitar is raised or you play harder and the amp block is pushed into distortion. It's a balancing act but it can be achieved and once set correctly it's impossible to hear the Multiband working other than a more focused distortion without that "fizz" while being able to play gently with a bright, clear, even crystaline clean tone.

When playing lightly with a clean tone the Multiband does nothing. When you play hard or raise the volume knob of the pickup to get distortion the Multiband cuts the highs going into the amp block, but you can't hear it doing so because the distortion harmonics cover up the fact the highs at the input are being reduced. If you can hear any transition you need to adjust the multiband until it's effect is sonically invisible.

Try it. If I can I'll post a patch later to demonstrate. Let me know what amp you'd like me to demonstrate it on.

Don't get me wrong here - Sometimes "fizz" (for lack of a better term) is desirable and I'm not knocking it. But it's nice to have some control over the character of your distortion and this is one way to achieve that.

BTW, the low band of the Multiband can do the same with the lows. Cutting the lows will also change the character of the distortion. EXPERIMENT!

Thanks.
 
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GM Arts said:
I find the opposite approach works better: Cut lows going into the amp, filter highs coming out. Gives me a better overdrive and tone balance.

Cutting lows going into the amp (easy to test - just roll down your guitar tone control) leads to a "furry" overdrive character IMHO, certainly a different, valid and useful tone in it's own right. Think early Clapton "woman tone" and early Santana tones.

But my tonal aim is to maximise, even exaggerate, natural guitar tone. That way, I can get the best out of different guitars and from each pickup selection.
Click to expand...

Yep - everybody has their own idea of what they want to achieve, and the best way to get that "tone in your head" is to experiment. Let's face it - your definition of what's "furry" and what's "fizzy" may differ from someone else's!!! Not to mention our tastes. I often roll off the bass pre-distortion and boost it post distortion to keep the distortion from "breaking up" when low notes are played.
 
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