EthanC
Member
So my xmas gift to myself was two items actually; A Protone "Bulb" Attack Overdrive and a Microtubes B3K for the bass. I decided to do a little demo song of the results. I have further detail info about what settings I used on my Axe FX 2 in the details on both the youtube and sound cloud pages.
Protone "Bulb" Attack Overdrive:
I struggle to describe how much of a difference it makes when paired with the Axe FXs superior amp and cab tone, so you'll just have to listen for yourself.
It tightens up the low end so much that you'll change the way you play now that pretty much all of the flub is gone. In G, you can hear the guitar just ring out this totally awesome "WAOmmmmmmm" sound that I was always for, but unable to obtain because the innate addition of mud once you get that low.
Microtubes B3K
Another tool that is generally used to "tighten up the low end" and it definitely does it's job. Nolly from Periphery uses a B7K but the issue is, I'm not Nolly from Periphery and even if i had $400 to spend on one pedal, I wouldn't. So the B3K was for me. It's just missing a few more of the knobs from the B7K but if what you're getting it for is to increase definition in your low end, The B3K will make a world of difference. At least it does for me.
Although I swore I'd never drop down any lower than Tosin Tuning, I couldn't resist the urge to give G a try and shit... When you think about it, detuning your 7-string to Ab is pretty low as is, but the Protone literally reacted like it was having too easy of a job with it, so I dropped it down another half step and found out that is where this pedal lives. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds amazing on even a standard-tuned guitar, but if you want to make something otherworldly deep, you absolutely can.
Combination:
Using these two together was one of the rare times in life I've gotten exactly what I wanted. The guitar and bass now don't fight for space and thus you can back off the high pass on your main guitars and enjoy 20% "more guitar" than before. Anyone who knows what they're doing in mixing and mastering knows that "less cuts equals more information" and thus "more information equals more definition", which is why i plain don't scoop mids in anything ever. I'm not joking, what you're listening to right here is a 7-string guitar in Drop G with a high-pass filter of only 40hz.... I used to have to run it at like 130. With some automated EQ i could have probably cleaned up the clean lead a little better during the galloping riff later in the song, but the fact you can gallop at G using this gear in itself borders on divine intervention. The bass needed no high-pass at all after this since it cut itself at 30hz anyway, which is perfect. I even had enough space in the low mids to ADD bass guitar there without adding mud which is nuts.
And since less mud almost always equals less RMS, I actually got to increase the overall loudness of this track with no audible artifacts. If you listen to the track on soundcloud, I guarantee it'll be one of the loudest (yet clean) metal mixes you've ever heard. All due to dramatically cleaner low-end.
Please ignore the fact that I'm not very good at playing guitar and concentrate only on my mixing and mastering skills
Also i don't know why youtube makes things quieter so if you want the full definition, checkout the sound cloud after.
Thanks a lot for listening and I welcome any and all comments or questions about the specified gear, or whatever.
Protone "Bulb" Attack Overdrive:
I struggle to describe how much of a difference it makes when paired with the Axe FXs superior amp and cab tone, so you'll just have to listen for yourself.
It tightens up the low end so much that you'll change the way you play now that pretty much all of the flub is gone. In G, you can hear the guitar just ring out this totally awesome "WAOmmmmmmm" sound that I was always for, but unable to obtain because the innate addition of mud once you get that low.
Microtubes B3K
Another tool that is generally used to "tighten up the low end" and it definitely does it's job. Nolly from Periphery uses a B7K but the issue is, I'm not Nolly from Periphery and even if i had $400 to spend on one pedal, I wouldn't. So the B3K was for me. It's just missing a few more of the knobs from the B7K but if what you're getting it for is to increase definition in your low end, The B3K will make a world of difference. At least it does for me.
Although I swore I'd never drop down any lower than Tosin Tuning, I couldn't resist the urge to give G a try and shit... When you think about it, detuning your 7-string to Ab is pretty low as is, but the Protone literally reacted like it was having too easy of a job with it, so I dropped it down another half step and found out that is where this pedal lives. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds amazing on even a standard-tuned guitar, but if you want to make something otherworldly deep, you absolutely can.
Combination:
Using these two together was one of the rare times in life I've gotten exactly what I wanted. The guitar and bass now don't fight for space and thus you can back off the high pass on your main guitars and enjoy 20% "more guitar" than before. Anyone who knows what they're doing in mixing and mastering knows that "less cuts equals more information" and thus "more information equals more definition", which is why i plain don't scoop mids in anything ever. I'm not joking, what you're listening to right here is a 7-string guitar in Drop G with a high-pass filter of only 40hz.... I used to have to run it at like 130. With some automated EQ i could have probably cleaned up the clean lead a little better during the galloping riff later in the song, but the fact you can gallop at G using this gear in itself borders on divine intervention. The bass needed no high-pass at all after this since it cut itself at 30hz anyway, which is perfect. I even had enough space in the low mids to ADD bass guitar there without adding mud which is nuts.
And since less mud almost always equals less RMS, I actually got to increase the overall loudness of this track with no audible artifacts. If you listen to the track on soundcloud, I guarantee it'll be one of the loudest (yet clean) metal mixes you've ever heard. All due to dramatically cleaner low-end.
Please ignore the fact that I'm not very good at playing guitar and concentrate only on my mixing and mastering skills
Also i don't know why youtube makes things quieter so if you want the full definition, checkout the sound cloud after.
Thanks a lot for listening and I welcome any and all comments or questions about the specified gear, or whatever.
