I Loved It Loud

Peavey Herman

Peavey Herman

Member
'Cause I Love It Loud! I Wanna Hear It Loud, Right Between the Eyes!
Loud! I Wanna Hear It Loud, Don't Want No Compromise!
Gene Simmons, Esq.
​
Or do I? It was almost all I ever dialled in with AmpliTube - Loud, hi-gain, bit dry in a reverb sense, too bassy, always the same FX. Maybe a mid-gain hard-rocker... but why?

Because I was so utterly unsuccessful with anything lower gain. I started a preset out big with everything and dialled it down to try and reach subtlety, but I can't even begin to describe how flat and lifeless it all became. I tried starting a preset low and getting just big enough with everything to reach a certain sizzle point, but it never came, and I went on to try and get some excitement going - until I realized I was back in mid-to-hi-gain territory again.

I am now a couple weeks in with my AFX3 and after the first day, I chose the Citrus RV50 as my first 'beachhead' into the Fractal world. Better said: I thought that by jumping around between lots of amps while trying to find out what all these parameters, knobbers, doodads and controlleroonies do, I could not properly learn how they all affect the tone (and I'm still scratching the surface of the tip of the iceberg).

While I still enjoy cranking it up and using FX every once-in-a-while, I'm so drawn in by the greatly detailed and dynamic sound, that I didn't even realize until today that I had gone ever cleaner and cleaner and cleaner and only have some DLY or REV going, WAH'ing around. If you just look at all the possibilities top down, it can be overwhelming, but on the other hand, it's like the AFX3 is taking me back to basics to help me learn from the ground up. The 'holy trinity' of experimentation, documentation and discussion is still alive and well here. ;)

The point? Uhh... Thanks, FAS for 'making' me take unexpected turns and letting in some fresh air. :)
 
The longer I play electric guitar, the lower my drive levels have become.

I think most of the character is in the low-medium gain settings. There's certainly much more dynamic range there and tons of nuance is possible.

And, yes, definitely playing with fingers can bring the even more forward... Conversely to the drive, I play more with my fingers as time goes by.

Check out my "random jams" thread for lots of stuff in that vein:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/unix-guys-random-jams.188883/
 
My non-playing wife, who watches all these preset, amp, pedal demos with me on YT has the theory that maybe since everything is "new and improved" the drive/distortion is so much better that it takes less to sound good. I kinda get what she is trying to say. I also know that if Rabea, Leon, Marc or Kingman are doing a reverb or delay demo with a clean or mid gain sound she can listen for hours but after a few minutes of heavy distortion or other drive pedal demos she will only tolerate so long before saying "next". Don't get her started on when people start using words like "chewy", "greasy", "girthy" etc. - says it's like the Food Network has run out of ideas for "delicious".
OR, maybe we are just getting older...I agree with her on one thing she says, "does the world actually need another "Klone clone" or "Dumble clone" and does the world need another Metallica, EVH or AC-DC preset"?
 
Budda said:
Because high gain is fun.

Wait til OP starts futzing with fuzz ;)
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That's another thing about AmpliTube: The fuzzes had a really small window of viable settings that actually made them sound fuzzy rather than just be another drive.

I own a Big Muff Pi ('bout 16-20 years old. EDIT: Can't be right. 15 years?) and my reaction to AT's model was "I see what you're trying to do". FAS's model was like "ah, there you are!" Face/Hard/Bender Fuzz sound great as well, others I still have to try. :)

And I will deffo get back to hi-gain later, but hopefully with more knowledge about the whole process and doin' it right. Maybe it wasn't all AT's fault. ;)
 
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unix-guy said:
The longer I play electric guitar, the lower my drive levels have become.

I think most of the character is in the low-medium gain settings. There's certainly much more dynamic range there and tons of nuance is possible.

And, yes, definitely playing with fingers can bring the even more forward... Conversely to the drive, I play more with my fingers as time goes by.

Check out my "random jams" thread for lots of stuff in that vein:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/unix-guys-random-jams.188883/
Click to expand...
I'll check that out, but had to sleep first. :)
 
less gain, if even for high gain styles, is best suited at as little gain to get by as possible. Helps to hear when playing live and also leaves room for dynamics while digging in. It's especially valuable when going to record using dual tracked guitar parts.
 
Guitarzan69 said:
less gain, if even for high gain styles, is best suited at as little gain to get by as possible. Helps to hear when playing live and also leaves room for dynamics while digging in. It's especially valuable when going to record using dual tracked guitar parts.
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Some styles are just unapologetically high gain, breakup/dynamics not required. I dont really listen to much of it but its out there!
 
Budda said:
Some styles are just unapologetically high gain, breakup/dynamics not required. I dont really listen to much of it but its out there!
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Yeah, there are certain Rammstein tones resembling glass shattering, where I believe that "as little as possible, as much as needed" equals "max gain + treble". Alas, I'm not well-versed enough in their body of work to quickly point out an example, though.
 
What is this post? A repost of an article? I dont get it.

Regardless, I never went through that phase thankfully. Ive always heard dimebag/zakk tones are unlistenable. Ive always been a gain at noon to 2 type guy. Have to still hear the notes in the chords 🤷‍♂️
 
Feflicker said:
What is this post? A repost of an article? I dont get it.

Regardless, I never went through that phase thankfully. Ive always heard dimebag/zakk tones are unlistenable. Ive always been a gain at noon to 2 type guy. Have to still hear the notes in the chords 🤷‍♂️
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Huh?

It's a user posting their experience...

Also, what does "gain at noon to 2" mean? Is that on a Marshall, a Fender, the Skull Crusher? :)

Edit:

Maybe you're referring to the lyric quote at the top of the post from the KISS song I Love it Loud?
 
I like to hear the strings. And since I’m an old focker the tones that made me love electric guitar are the tones I chase, and back then you could hear the strings. Like War Pigs my favorite Sabbath song, it’s distorted yes but compared to modern metal it sounds pretty tame.
 
Related, I can't tell you how many times I've walked this walk, including playing on my lunch break today:

Many of my presets use two amp blocks, with 2 sets of 4 scenes with increasing gain, and by the the I get to the highest gain scenes I'm unhappy, or at least confused.

I find it really hard to have things stay punchy and impactful with a useful amount of high end (not undefined or obnoxious) as gain goes up.

Not talking serious gain here either, that's not my bag, just trying to rock the thing. And it feels and sounds really cool as gain goes up, until it doesn't.
 
I LOVE high gain sounds, but I don't think that what qualifies as high gain to me is anywhere near the current definition of that term. Like @skolacki mentioned, War Pigs (one of my favorites, too) isn't distorted to the level that some modern metal is, but Sabbath is still pretty high gain to me. Like many have said, I like to hear the strings. I like to be able to tell that I'm not just playing root-fifth. Chugging is fun, but even Metallica doesn't come close to the amounts of gain used in some metal.

Also like many, I played with more gain when I was first starting than I do now. In my case, I used to not be able to stand Strats (too thin), PAFs (too bright), and even most stock JCM800s (not enough gain). 🤣 I had a lot to learn back then... good thing I didn't have a lot of money or I would've gutted a '59 Les Paul to put Super Distortions and a Kahler in it! :eek: I still love something like a Bare Knuckle A-Bomb through a Diezel Herbert, but I also love a '50s Strat through an Ampeg Gemini.

Music is a journey and, for me, once I was able to get out "on the track," I wanted to go 200 MPH, but I figured out that I couldn't express the things I wanted to express if I only had one color in my palette. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with that one color, or that I shouldn't use it when I need it, but there are many more colors out there, and I'm still learning and discovering new colors, sounds, nuances. If there would've been tools like the AxeFX when I first started, maybe I'd have figured more of it out sooner, but I'm so grateful to have all those colors available to me in one place now and I don't ever want to stop learning!

I forget where I heard this, but for me, it was definitely true... the hardest note to learn is a rest. Not quite sure how that's related, but it popped in my head, so I thought I'd include it FWIW.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Many of my presets use two amp blocks, with 2 sets of 4 scenes with increasing gain, and by the the I get to the highest gain scenes I'm unhappy, or at least confused.

Not talking serious gain here either, that's not my bag, just trying to rock the thing. And it feels and sounds really cool as gain goes up, until it doesn't.
Click to expand...

I’m single amp because I’m on the FM3 but I use the 4 channels in the same way you do. I’m almost always on scenes 2 and 3 and rarely use the highest channel because it’s on that edge of where it’s getting too hot and not sounding so great.
 
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