Tone of Kings model does not sound like the real pedal

Philip34

Philip34

Experienced
KOT - compared to my black KOT, the Fractal model is quieter, weaker, and even a little fizzy/farty by comparison. Any help here on why?
 
the KoT is an incredibly versatile pedal, especially if you got all the options (higher gain side, toggles, 4-jack, extra power output option) - the KoT in the Axe is more or less one of those static settings. I haven't messed with it too much, nor have I compared it side-by-side, but I think a good start would be figuring out which configuration the Axe's KoT model replicates. With the Helix version, it's easy, because all the toggles (OD, boost, distortion) are all clearly labeled and built into the model, but Fractal's infrastructure doesn't allow that. I think if more people wanted it, they would add more settings models in the Axe, but I haven't seen a lot of discussion. Once we got one model, we all more or less shut up lol.
 
You need to refer to Yek's 'Guide to the Fractal Audio Drive Models'. There is an explanation of the options they chose to emulate. That guide as well as his Amp Guide is available on the Wiki.

"The diode-based King of Tone model is a digital model of Analog Man’s pedal. Fractal Audio has
modeled the pedal in its OD mode. The Distortion mode doesn’t have the same appeal as the OD
mode, and the pedal’s clean boost capability is already covered by other models."
 
Thanx for this info on the KOT. I guess not many of us knew this. How to know where to find the KOT clean boost among all those pedals we have. Why not just copy it and put it in the KOT so it’s available if someone wants it without going detective to find out where it is…sad to hear that we didn’t have a true KOT replica in the box…
 
Yeah this is a thing I dislike as well. While I understand wanting to avoid redundant models, for some models you really have to trawl the wiki for how to do something to replicate the full functionality because you need to do X and Y to get it rather than having a switch that does it for you right in the authentic display. This is why for drives in particular I prefer Helix because it's like the pedal - what you see is what you get with no guesswork.

I get that Fractal offers a lot more flexibility on top of that to take the model beyond its original capabilities but sometimes that makes things confusing for the end user. I hope they make the authentic view a bit more flexible at some point so it can also represent controls found on the pedal or amp that are internally done using other features that don't look quite the same as what is on the real amp or pedal.
 
When we first got the KOT model I compared it to my personal KOT, and it was dead on. Maybe it has changed a bit since? the Drive block has went through an over hall since.
 
Before I got my FM3, I built a clone of the KOT. The FM3 model was so close that I couldn’t tell the difference. I put the pedal up on Reverb the next day.

Although Fractal didn’t model the clean boost or distortion, you can use the advanced settings to create the other two modes. Attached to this post are blocks for the distortion and clean boost modes. The King of Tone uses clipping diodes in an opamp feedback loop to create distortion. Each mode corresponds to a different selection of clipping diodes. All modes are symmetrical, i.e. uses the same diode/number of diodes for the positive and negative side of the wave:
  • Overdrive: Two S1588 diodes
  • Distortion: One MA856 diode
  • Boost: No diodes
The ability to change diodes in the advanced tab is a very powerful tool, and, paired with the above information, will allow us to recreate the missing KOT modes.

For the distortion mode, we do not have the MA856 diode that Analogman uses. However, we do have the 1N914, which has essentially the same clipping properties as the MA856 (Vf ≈ .68). Selecting one 1N914 for both the positive and negative diode will give you the KOT distortion mode.

For boost mode, you want to have an arrangement that produces no diode clipping. There is not a "no diode" option, but there is a Blue LED option. Blue LEDs have a very high headroom (Vf ≈ 3.2), and require a hotter signal in order to start clipping. We can further raise the headroom by placing additional blue LEDs in series with the first one. One blue LED has a Vf of approximately 3.2 volts; increasing that to four blue LEDs will result in a Vf of approximately 12.8 volts, which is so high that it will not clip at all. This gives us our clean boost mode.
 

Attachments

  • KOT Clean Boost_20210802_093117.blk
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  • KOT Distortion_20210802_094304.blk
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#pedalbuilder
So greatful for this info on the KOT. I wish this info was available when the pedal was implemented.
It feels like I haven´t used more than "40%" of this pedals potential after reading your post. Thanks for sharing :)
 
Randall d said:
I think it would be beneficial to the community if there was a repository or a library of people's settings to emulate different pedals and pedal modes using the existing options in the Axe.
Click to expand...
There is - To accomplish this, peeps could just post presets that just contain only drive blocks in Axechange with description of "Drive..."
 
Randall d said:
I think it would be beneficial to the community if there was a repository or a library of people's settings to emulate different pedals and pedal modes using the existing options in the Axe.
Click to expand...
There used to be a mother-of-all-effects emulation thread that people would post block SysEx files to along with descriptions. Not sure that it got translated for the III or the FM3. AFII thread is here: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/the-mother-of-all-effects-matching-thread.58944/

You could, you know, be the change you want to see the world here in that regard? :)

We just need one thread to cover both the III and the FM3 now, which is nice. The block files are interchangeable for the most part. And we export just single channels from blocks too. Also a nice improvement to sharing.
 
Randall d said:
I think it would be beneficial to the community if there was a repository or a library of people's settings to emulate different pedals and pedal modes using the existing options in the Axe.
Click to expand...
iaresee said:
There used to be a mother-of-all-effects emulation thread that people would post block SysEx files to along with descriptions. Not sure that it got translated for the III or the FM3. AFII thread is here: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/the-mother-of-all-effects-matching-thread.58944/

You could, you know, be the change you want to see the world here in that regard? :)

We just need one thread to cover both the III and the FM3 now, which is nice. The block files are interchangeable for the most part. And we export just single channels from blocks too. Also a nice improvement to sharing.
Click to expand...
Let’s do it again. I created a new version of the AFII thread for the III/3.
 
Resurrecting an old thread. I saw an interview with Chris Buck where he talks about a KOT being his main overdrive and I was wondering why my FM9 patches with a KOT block didn't sound at all like him (besides the fact that I'm not as good as he is).
Switched to the single 1N914 diodes like Pedalbuilder suggested above and holy crap its Chris Buck tone.
 
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