Increasing Sustain, diminishing Decay. Help?

H

Horhay

New Member
So I'm a noob. On a hi gain Bogner Ecstasy tone I've created I love the sound but I feel that it's tone is decaying too quickly. I have a good guitar with a lot of sustain but the front end of the tone on this patch is lost within only about 4 seconds.

http://soundcloud.com/horhay_j/euro-red-too-much-decay

Messing with the Gain or Master Volume reshapes the tone in a way I don't like.

So I've tried using the ADSR placed on the Gain, Master Volume, and Level parameters and on none of them can I get it to do what I want. Part of the problem is that I can't find a good description of how to use those controllers. I want the power of the tone to sustain maybe twice as long before it starts to decay and fall off. Anyone able to help?

Really sorry if this has been answered somewhere else and I'm being redundant; but I couldn't find what I needed in a thorough search of the forum and wiki.
 
You could try a compressor block before the amp.

The recording sounds a bit funny but I know very little about high gain stuff.
There are 2 euro red patches in Yeks presets, maybe check those?

Jens
 
I"m a high gain player as well, and I'd love to know how to increase sustain without having to use a sustainer pickup. Interested as well!
 
Well I'll probably be corrected if I am wrong. :)
I thought the normal way would be a compressor or a drive like a t808 or mid boost or similar. You might want to
take some gain of the amp if you are using a drive?

Jens
 
sustain issues (if there is such a thing on guitar - technically a guitar decays after the attack, there is no sustain stage :ugeek) should be addressed at the source:
guitar, strings, pickups.

make sure you have fairly new, clean strings,
heavy gauge (11's and upward) helps a lot
and make sure your pickups aren't too close to the strings, or the magnetic pull shortens the decay. Compensate any loss of output with the Input knob ('tickle the red')
 
Thanks for the interest and replies, hope to get some more. With regards to my guitar: I'm using an Ibanez Prestige with their new TightEnd bridge that is a solid tail through body string design. I've added Hip Shot locking tuners and DiMarzio Breed pickups. I use 11 gauge Elixir strings and they're new on this guitar. When I plug it into my little Line6 Spider 1x12 (which only sounds ok) I get the sustain I'm looking for.

Perhaps my description of my problem wasn't sufficient. In the recording if I count to 4 starting at the initial attack I hear a noticeable loss of gain on the sound. Yes the volume is going to drop as the strings vibrate less, but I'm looking to avoid that change of tone. On my Line6 I get to about the count of 8 before I hear the tone of the gain noticeably change along any parameter other than volume.

I thought I could use the ADSR to increase the volume and drive of the sustain after the attack (and I still think that should be possible) but I just can't figure out how to make it work correctly.

I will give the compressor and/or drive before the amp a shot. Thanks again to everybody for their input. Any more suggestions would be very much appreciated. If I ever get it figured out I'll make sure to post how I did it.
 
turn up sag in the amp blocks adv tab and see what it does for you.

edit:
and about the controller trick you're trying, use envelope instead of ADSR on the drive parameter, reverse the curve (Start 100, Mid 50 End 0), use scale to uh... scale the response and offset to get it working in the area of gain you need.
 
Last edited:
I teach at a school where they use Line6 spiders and they do compress rather heavily, it is actually one of the things I don't like about them. The compression will probably work though.
The sag option is, as far as I understand it, turning up the compression of the power amp, a more subtle and "natural" way to get a similar result.

Jens
 
Also,

If you are monitoring on headphones, vs. an amp and cabinet in the same room, the sustain will be affected.

Richard
 
DonPetersen said:
use envelope instead of ADSR on the drive parameter, reverse the curve (Start 100, Mid 50 End 0), use scale to uh... scale the response and offset to get it working in the area of gain you need.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a shot.

If you are monitoring on headphones, vs. an amp and cabinet in the same room, the sustain will be affected.
Click to expand...

Yea I realize on that direct recording up there the sustain will be affected. Even on my live rig: which is a Carvin power amp hooked up to some big old (but still good sounding) PA cabs the issue I'm having remains.
 
I'd take a close look at the noise gate to make sure it's not cutting into your sustain. Also, room volume, and the location of your guitar with respect to your speakers, will have a large effect.
 
The Red Euro is my fav sim in the unit and I use it a lot. In my current setup, I use a Compressor in front of the amp and use the guitar volume to regulate drive. I hardly ever take the guitar volume past about 60% as I prefer the attack better. I also put a Boss Distortion in the chain ahead of the Axe-Fx setup with 0 Distortion and moderate Volume just to add a bit of kick. So far I have not been able to find a Drive in the Axe-Fx that gives me this overall effect but I'm sure its there.

I can't say I can count to 8 before I notice significant decay, never tried, but I have no current issues with sustain. Live, I get a lot of help from the amp and getting it to start feeding back (in a nice controlled way) is not very difficult.
 
It really sounds to me like my euro red patches sound if the volume is too low. I can get fantastic sustain if I get the air in the room moving. I dont mean super loud, but some volume helps. Other than that a compresser may help, but a drive block will generally change the tone a bit. Other than that i may try changing the gain or master volume and re-adjusting on the advanced pages and see if you can get that same tone. I generally try to get my guitar to "Feel" right before I really get into shaping the tone on a patch. If it responds how I want it to then all i have to do is fiddle with the knobs until the tone I want jumps out at me. Great tip for that is to have a friend play something for you while you tweak so you can hear it change in real time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom