Make Amps More Dynamic, Bloom, Touch Sensitive and Punchy? Yes Please :-)

Mark Al

Inspired
Tonight, I was playing with the "Dynamic" page of the amp settings. These are such effective/powerful tools to drastically change/improve the amp's feel and dynamic response.

Fender non-master volume (clean) amps are often quite dynamic and touch sensitive. I get a similar feel with the following setting, which sounds/feels a lot more lively than default settings:
  • Input Dynamic = 3 (makes the amp more dynamic and touch sensitive)
  • Dynamic Presence = 5 (enhance high frequencies when picking hard)
  • Dynamic Depth = 5~7 (enhance low frequency when playing hard, hence more punch)
Intuitively, I feel like these settings help to recover/compensate the dynamic response of the amp in the room experience that is partially lost due to the introduction of microphone and other stuff in the signal chain...

Love these knobs. It's such a bummer that FM3 doesn't have these "Dynamic" settings... I wish there is a bit more control on the "response curve", which allows us to fine tune the feel even further. Well, maybe there is other knobs in power amp settings that I can use in combination with these fine tune the response curve... What's your experience with these settings?


Straight out of the manual:

Input Dynamics – Sets the strength of an input dynamics processor. When set below zero, the amp type compresses, resulting in a smoother, less dynamic sound. When set greater than zero, the amp expands, resulting in a punchier, crunchier and more dynamic sound. Note that extreme values can have undesirable side-effects such as pumping or clipping.

Dynamic Presence – This models output transformer leakage inductance, resulting in a brightening of the tone when the virtual power amp is pushed. When playing softly or at lower gains, the influence of this control is lessened. Note that this only affects the power amp modeling and is dependent on the degree of power amp overdrive. This control can also be set negative to cause the tone to darken when playing harder. This can help dial in the sweet spot of an amp model. As the Master is increased, an amp becomes more liquid, more compressed and easier to play. However, the highs may get overly compressed, causing the amp to sound too dark. Dynamic Presence allows you to get the desired power amp drive and feel without high frequency loss.


Dynamic Depth – Analogous to Dynamic Presence, above. This increases low frequencies when the virtual amp is being pushed. While real amps don’t display this behavior, it is a cool tone-shaping tool.

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I’m going to experiment more with these. I usually leave them at default.

I will check them out again with my Mesa Boogie Mark I simulation in the AxeIII.
 
hmmm interesting... to be tested
In that tab I only use the "out compp type" to "gain enhancer" @ 1 or 2 for crunch tone and it make the amp more ... crunchy/gritty in the way it gives a more amp-like feeling with pick attack, if it makes sense...
 
I only use Dynamic Presence in my main preset (Plexi 50 Hi), dialed in between 1 and 2. It´s just that little something that makes my solos cut through in the mix. I found settings above 2 to be too much at gig volume, becomes kinda harsh.
 
I typically only use the output compressor on gain enhancer in the dynamics page and typically max of 1.5.
The values you gave seem a bit high usually you only need a touch of these controls, not sure if something else is going on here... If you like the sound by all means though.

Other parameters I like to change the feel are Sag, Spkr Comp, Cab Preamps.
 
I typically only use the output compressor on gain enhancer in the dynamics page and typically max of 1.5.
The values you gave seem a bit high usually you only need a touch of these controls, not sure if something else is going on here... If you like the sound by all means though.

Other parameters I like to change the feel are Sag, Spkr Comp, Cab Preamps.

They are different controls, so I wouldn't immediately assume the ranges are the same.

Another thing to consider is I know Mark Al likes exploring the dynamic area around the edge of breakup. And since these controls are more obvious under more Power Tube Overdrive he may have had to turn them higher than you would for a cranked Marshall to get the same effect.
 
They are different controls, so I wouldn't immediately assume the ranges are the same.

Another thing to consider is I know Mark Al likes exploring the dynamic area around the edge of breakup. And since these controls are more obvious under more Power Tube Overdrive he may have had to turn them higher than you would for a cranked Marshall to get the same effect.
Wasn't assuming the ranges are the same, I've used those controls and still believe they seem high IMO. If they sound good then forget what I say... I use everything from Clean jazz/funk to cranked marshall rock solo and never had I needed that much. Again this is me so disregard if it works for you.
 
Wasn't assuming the ranges are the same, I've used those controls and still believe they seem high IMO. If they sound good then forget what I say... I use everything from Clean jazz/funk to cranked marshall rock solo and never had I needed that much. Again this is me so disregard if it works for you.
Completely understand, and one can turn some of it negative to achieve smoother sound, e.g. the opposite of dynamic for different applications. I used the settings above with my in-ears last night, I suspect they might be different when I play it loud with my PC212 today :)
 
Tonight, I was playing with the "Dynamic" page of the amp settings. These are such effective/powerful tools to drastically change/improve the amp's feel and dynamic response.

Fender non-master volume (clean) amps are often quite dynamic and touch sensitive. I get a similar feel with the following setting, which sounds/feels a lot more lively than default settings:
  • Input Dynamic = 3 (makes the amp more dynamic and touch sensitive)
  • Dynamic Presence = 5 (enhance high frequencies when picking hard)
  • Dynamic Depth = 5~7 (enhance low frequency when playing hard, hence more punch)
Intuitively, I feel like these settings help to recover/compensate the dynamic response of the amp in the room experience that is partially lost due to the introduction of microphone and other stuff in the signal chain...

Love these knobs. It's such a bummer that FM3 doesn't have these "Dynamic" settings... I wish there is a bit more control on the "response curve", which allows us to fine tune the feel even further. Well, maybe there is other knobs in power amp settings that I can use in combination with these fine tune the response curve... What's your experience with these settings?


Straight out of the manual:

Input Dynamics – Sets the strength of an input dynamics processor. When set below zero, the amp type compresses, resulting in a smoother, less dynamic sound. When set greater than zero, the amp expands, resulting in a punchier, crunchier and more dynamic sound. Note that extreme values can have undesirable side-effects such as pumping or clipping.

Dynamic Presence – This models output transformer leakage inductance, resulting in a brightening of the tone when the virtual power amp is pushed. When playing softly or at lower gains, the influence of this control is lessened. Note that this only affects the power amp modeling and is dependent on the degree of power amp overdrive. This control can also be set negative to cause the tone to darken when playing harder. This can help dial in the sweet spot of an amp model. As the Master is increased, an amp becomes more liquid, more compressed and easier to play. However, the highs may get overly compressed, causing the amp to sound too dark. Dynamic Presence allows you to get the desired power amp drive and feel without high frequency loss.


Dynamic Depth – Analogous to Dynamic Presence, above. This increases low frequencies when the virtual amp is being pushed. While real amps don’t display this behavior, it is a cool tone-shaping tool.

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These parameters are exactly what I used to tweak in the axe2/ax8 to improve the feel, but since switching to the axe fx 3 i haven't felt the need to use them anymore.
Dynamic depth is still really cool though, it can make single notes/solos really fat.
 
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