Something "scratchy" is afoot...

DC11GTR

DC11GTR

Inspired
Below is the link and I'm attaching the preset as well.

I don't know what else to call it so I'm going with scratchy, but it's a noise that seems most prominent while letting palm mutes ring out. I guess that's what they call "Djenting" but I was doing that in the early 2k's, so I don't have to call it that, lol This is just some random riff'ing, but I can hear it throughout. It's my 4 rhythm sound. A Marshall, a Boogie, a Pitbull and a 5153 Stealth. Each one has a different set of cabs.

I don't hear in my other presets, even when I'm coil-tapped and Strat'y (or rather I do hear a noise that I expect in that situation) and I've checked a few other metal-style presets and I do hear it there. Is it a high-gain thing?

My guess is that it's some kind of electrical interference. That would make sense considering what is sitting in front of me (iMac, external monitor, FM3, 2 MIDI switchers and a pair of Kali monitors, a box of Cheez-it and water bottles) so is there a way to get rid of that without a complete reworking of my work space? I wouldn't mind moving the FM3 and myself further away, but that's about all I'm able to do.

Or is it more simple than that?

 

Attachments

  • Heavy Rhythms.syx
    24.1 KB · Views: 5
high gain will bring out more noise if it's in the signal chain, it's inevitable, some guitars are quieter than others and not all humbuckers are always that quiet with high gain applications

I'd look at perhaps more aggressive side chain style gating after the amp/cab to see if that might help clamp down on the noise faster, some of it might also be the volume of your speakers/monitor interference with the guitar which is hard to avoid
 
Thanks for the recs.

I only added the gate to the preset today hoping it would help but I didn’t dial it in. How do you side-chain in Fractal-Land? Is that where you add it above the main line of blocks?
 
Awesome! Thanks!

I was never really a gate guy, no matter how gainy my amp would be back in the day. Same with reverb, but Fractal-Land makes it so I can’t live without it. This seems like it’ll work great!
 
Looks like the gate didn’t work. Or rather, didn’t solve my problem. It worked how it’s supposed to work, just not with ringing palm mutes. I don’t really even do that anymore but it’s where noise is most noticeable. It’s really bad on the 5153 Stealth, even with the gain quite low, so I might swap that for a different amp. I sometimes have to focus to hear it in the other amps, but it’s loud on the 5153.

I’m going to try a few power distribution things, and maybe move the FM3 away to see if it cleans up. It’s weird because it isn’t on any of my other presets. Granted, this is my first preset that is used solely for heavy rhythms so it might be some setting that is pushing that noise that I’m missing.
 
Well... This is odd but the biggest provider of the scratchy sound is the engagement of the "Bright" switch in the "Ideal" section of the amps. You can see the biggest change in the clip below at the 0:53 mark. That's the 5153 with no Bright, then the next bit is with it engaged and all hell breaks loose, haha. The scratch isn't all that noticeable until the "Bright". I can certainly live without that, but what is it about the "Bright" that makes it so susceptible to noise?

 
DC11GTR said:
Well... This is odd but the biggest provider of the scratchy sound is the engagement of the "Bright" switch in the "Ideal" section of the amps. You can see the biggest change in the clip below at the 0:53 mark. That's the 5153 with no Bright, then the next bit is with it engaged and all hell breaks loose, haha. The scratch isn't all that noticeable until the "Bright". I can certainly live without that, but what is it about the "Bright" that makes it so susceptible to noise?

Click to expand...


it's quite techy, but worth a read:

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Amp_block#BRIGHT_SWITCH

i tried your preset as i had some time, some ideas / notes, all related to the cab block

-some phasey sounds, (the 1960TV cabs are purposely misaligned? , different low cuts and hi-cuts on each cab ,
-the cab preamp tube preamp/drive/saturation settings might be affecting things as well , although not sure

i have a feeling it's mainly the phasey/cab block settings that were in there

i also reset the OUT1 to 0db , if you're wondering why the preset on your end might sound lower in volume, (i max out the OUT1 knob on the front of the unit usually)

added a PEQ at the end to do Low/Hi-cut , and changed the cab, attached below so you can check it out, maybe that's useful
 

Attachments

  • Heavy Rhythms-tweaked.syx
    24.1 KB · Views: 2
Thank you so much for the time you put in on this. My original preset is a bit janky as I was trying anything I could to see what would change. When I finally admitted defeat and decided to post it, that is what it was at lol

That said, after reading your link, the biggest culprit was the "Bright" switch, being that I had no idea that did THAT... I also swapped outlets to a different isolated one and that alone did a nice bit of clean up as well. Those 2 things combined solved my issue in that I don't hear it all, or I can barely hear it and can live with it. I probably need to hunt down a better isolated power strip since my Belkin surge protector apparently sucks...

I'm glad that I can go back to not thinking I might have to use a gate. After hearing the horribly muted breakdown in Raining Blood from Slayer's Decade Of Aggression, I developed a hell of a muting technique. The gates are great in this but I always felt weird using one. Even when I played death metal in the 90s.

Also, I'm actually going to use your version instead of mine, if that's okay with you. I just switched off the "Bright" on everything and it sounds awesome!
 
ok great, glad you found a solution to your issues, power/interference can be an absolute nightmare sometimes

feel free to use the preset however you please, it's your setup after all, i just made some small tweaks =)
 
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