Multi-Band Distortion Idea

[RossG]

After playing at church today, I was chatting with our sound guy and he mentioned that for years he has thought it would be cool to have an effect that split the frequency spectrum into a few bands (just like a multi-band compressor) and applied distortion only to the mid bands, leaving the bottom end and top end undistorted. I figure if any device could pull that kind of thing off, the Axe would be it. I figure a couple filters splitting up the sound and routing it through two different amps (one clean, one distorted) could do it, but I wanted to see if anyone else had other ideas on how to pull it off. I'm going to try to see if I can mock up his idea. Maybe if it works well, the logic for the MBC could be used for performing the frequency splits and routing the selected bands through distortion without affecting the others as a new effect.

 

[vAmp]

donpetersen did one for the Ultra like this. It was a clean sound in this example though.
I think he always wanted something like Soundblox® Multiwave Distortion in the Axe, and who wouldn't?

 

[groovenut]

This is exactly what the Klon, SLOIKA MKII, etc stomp boxes do and there have been several plugins doing this for a number of years. The easiest way to do it in the axefx is to put a drive block in the chain with the LPF and HPF dialed to the range of midrange you want to effect, then use an eq or peq in parallel with the drive block with a HPF/LPF inversely matching the HPF/LPF of the drive block. Routing the clean filtered signal around the drive block and back into the amp.

Something like this

 

[groovenut]

or this

I have to add that I have not tried either of these presets to know how they sound. I just threw them together to illustrate the idea.

 

[RossG]

Thanks, guys, those are both helpful pieces of information. I'll check out the patches, but they already look beautifully efficient.

 

[Smilzo]

I remember... asking Cliff about adding overdrive to each band in multiband compressor... also asking multiband distortion... if you search in the wish list there are many requests...

 

[Rook]

I have used similar principles on bass within Pro Tools to very satisfying effect.

 

[javajunkie]

You can also use 2 crossovers make a three-way crossover.

 

[Radix Lecti]

You could also use a drive followed by multiband comp in parallel and turn down the bands gain you do not want the drive affected by. Have an empty block before these to tap the full signal to a second multiband comp and turn down the band/bands the drive is affected by in the other line. blend to taste.
Sorry not on my comp or I would have shown a screen capture.

 

[stm113]

Always wondered how that Multiwave pedal sounded. Went to the site and watched a video and here's the 2 things I took away.

1-in my opinion its a cool "effect" but for me useless in day to day application. I could find uses for it here and there though.

2- I really wanna figure out how to get that synth sound at the end of Ace's lead in Shock Me. I mean c'mon you can't tell me that's not an awesome effect.

 

[mnemonic]

Good idea. It would be cool to have a distortion pedal or amp with separate gain controls, like the Randall Satan, which has an overall Gain control, low end Gain, and high end gain. Pretty interesting setup!

 

[Ice Giant Sr.]

I would love to figure out how to get that Fold-over Dist from the Multiwave Distortion(simeon will probably figure it out since he rules!)

.....or......make an Izotope Trash 2 work with (easier) it live.

Adding a Receptor is just too much. And it would ruin my marriage and job!