How to cut out the mud on palm mutes

[Stormbringer]

Along with everything else that has been suggested, on occasion you may find that using a MultiBand Compressor block can help if you tweak the low band correctly which is something I picked up from an old thread on here. That way you can retain some girth in normal playing but prevent excessive 'whump' when palm-muting.

Don't cut with EQ. When you're not palm muting, you might lose some low end if you do.
Use a multiband comp, only activate the low mid band and set the threshold so it only kicks in when palm muting.

How would you guys set up your multiband comps? Could you give us an example with a screenshot? I would really appreciate that!

 

[Stormbringer]

You may have some success with using the Andy Sneap C4 trick, wherein you use a multiband compressor to compress only the woofy low-mids, where palm mutes tend to cause a big build up.

How would you implement that on the axe fx?

 

[simeon]

just put a filter in front of the amp block. set to high pass. attach envelope to the frequency parameter and set the maximum frequency to about 200hz. adjust the curve (mid and end values) so that the ball hits the top of the graph when you hit the bottom strings hard

 

[Stormbringer]

Thanks Simeon, really appreciate it!

 

[GotMetalBoy]

Hey guys, could you please take a screenshot of how you set up your high pass filter's cutoff tied to the envelope?

Thanks in advance!

Here's a preset I created with my Axe-Fx II Mark I with firmware Q8.02. It should work without having to convert it with FracTool and it should work on all the Axe-Fx II models and the newest firmware.

Before trying this preset make sure you have your input set, so your hardest picking tickles the red input lights or else the Envelope won't work to it's full capacity.

Open the preset in Axe-Edit and select he Filter block. Start picking soft on just your lowest string and you'll see the Frequency knob increasing as you pick harder. If you press your space bar, that will bypass the Filter block. Notice how when you pick soft and toggle the Filter on and off you don't hear much of a difference but as you pick harder you'll hear the note more clearly with the filter on and it will sound muddy when off. Try playing some palm muted arpeggiated chords with different picking dynamics and you'll hear the individual notes a lot better with the filter on even when picking hard. At first it might not feel as good with the bowel shaking low end missing but close your eyes and just listen to the individual notes and you'll hear the difference. Now you'll just need to find a bassist that doesn't suck to bring back the low end

I also included a GateExp block side chained to Input 1, if you want to see how that's setup.

To adjust the Envelope controller, In Axe-Edit, click the Controller button in the lower left of the grid and then click the Envelope button. You might need to adjust the threshold depending on your pickups and picking style. If you want to adjust the Filter's Frequency modifier, click on the Filter block and then right click on the Frequency knob.

The only other thing that I do to add more clarity to note definition is to go to the Amp block, Power Sply page and set the Power Type slider knob to DC. That will get rid of ghost notes that can muddy things up but it won't sound authentic to the real amp but IMHO it sounds much better.

 

[Bakerman]

Before trying this preset make sure you have your input set, so your hardest picking tickles the red input lights or else the Envelope won't work to it's full capacity.

FYI the input level value doesn't really affect envelope response (throughout most of its range) because the detector is after digital unity-gain compensation. So in any case, a user may want to adjust envelope parameters for ideal response.

 

[scottp]

My approach is actually pretty different, maybe because i am mainly using my
AXE FX II for recording!

When i am recording guitars, especially with high gain tones i want a tone that's balanced or "even"!

You can try to achieve this with EQ settings, be it pre or post amp, or you can use a drive pedal to
boost certain frequencies and cut others, however i have discovered that the main reason my tones were way too "pronounced" in certain areas of the frequency spectrum is actually this...

If you take a closer look the marked area has a significant boost as DEFAULT.
if you want clear guitars wth no boominess then this is definitively where you do NOT want to boost anything.

Once again, i am speaking about RECORDING, though i can not imagine why such a boost would be beneficial in any other situation as you mostly want this are to be "clean"!

I do understand that this might be a somewhat realistic representation
of speaker resonance but again, for a clear tone you probably do not want any resonance in this area!

I'd suggest something like this...it's an easy dial so maybe you will like it, for me this absolutely works!

So I too am looking to achieve a nice low end and without mud. I am aware of all the basic methods and adjustments mentioned so far.

But today I tried this, leveling out the speaker resonance page in the amp block, and right away the sound cleaned up nicely!!!
What a great tip! I plan to jam along with some tracks in my studio at about 90db to see how it translates.
Then take it from there.

 

[B:ASSMASTER]

But today I tried this, leveling out the speaker resonance page in the amp block, and right away the sound cleaned up nicely!!!

I've found that lowering the resonance frequency in the amp block, coupled with a low cut in the cab block between 60 and 140Hz...helps with flub. Most guitar speakers are around 75Hz, anyway.

 

[B:ASSMASTER]

I guess I should be more clear. I still keep the peak. I just move it down to 75Hz or whatever resonance is of the speaker I'm using. Celestion publishes these on their site.

 

[Soultrash]

So I too am looking to achieve a nice low end and without mud. I am aware of all the basic methods and adjustments mentioned so far.

But today I tried this, leveling out the speaker resonance page in the amp block, and right away the sound cleaned up nicely!!!
What a great tip! I plan to jam along with some tracks in my studio at about 90db to see how it translates.
Then take it from there.

glad it works for you too!
just makie sure to not overdo it as it can sound a bit "flat" but that's pretty helping when you are recording,
it evens out the signal quite a lot.

I've found that lowering the resonance frequency in the amp block, coupled with a low cut in the cab block between 60 and 140Hz...helps with flub. Most guitar speakers are around 75Hz, anyway.

this may work in your particular listening environment but generally you are just shifting the problem.
most untreated rooms will have massive resonances in the low end area, so, in general adding even more low
end resonance seems like a very bad idea to me, especially when these overlap.

by shifting the frequency you can avoid "overlaping"
and that's why it sounds better some times, to make it sound worse try shifting it more to the 100-120 hz area

 

[B:ASSMASTER]

this may work in your particular listening environment but generally you are just shifting the problem.
most untreated rooms will have massive resonances in the low end area, so, in general adding even more low
end resonance seems like a very bad idea to me, especially when these overlap.

I have a treated room. I just shift the resonant frequency down to 75Hz, usually. No problems over here. No problems when I mixdown and listen to my tracks on studio monitors, home audio, car stereo, ect.

Like I said, I use a high-pass filter somewhere between 60 to 140Hz. I do my EQ in my DAW. I do look for peaks from 100 to 180Hz while mixing. I will tame them by reducing them. I use FabFilter Pro-Q 2. I also run a multi-band compressor after EQ. I have it affecting the 70 to 250Hz frequencies. I don't squash the low-end too much, but I let the bass guitar do its job. This is how I typically approach distorted or high gain guitars.