Which drive block has the best reaction to picking strength?

bluesk165

Inspired
Hi, Musicians

At, first, It's very sorry for my English.

I'm looking for best drive block which has best reaction to picking strength

and its parameters setting.

I just hope drive quantity to follow my picking strength such as the stronger picking strength,
the more drive quantity.

I use 4CM with HOTONE Mojo Diamond.

Thanks a lot.
 
I don't think any drive pedal—real or modeled—can match a good amp or amp model for response to pick dynamics.
 
While I agree with Rex to a certain extent, it can be done with some of the drives in the FX8 with good success. To Rex's point, a lot will depend upon the amp. The gain level and response of the amp will have a major impact on the effectiveness of the pedal.
I tried most of the drives with an Orange OR15 at low gain using a Strat with Kinman Blues. Here's the models that worked the best for me:
The FAS Boost, drive @ 4.0
SDD Preamp, drive @ 5.5
T808 Mod, drive @ 5.0
Tube Drv 3-Knob, drive @ 4.0


The BB Pre, T808 OD and Zen Master were decent but there wasn't as much of a clean vs driven sound as the others. The rest of the drives had too much compression to allow for any dynamics. One thing I did discover is by slightly rolling off the guitar's volume, no less than 9 on the control, made a big difference.
 
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The Fuzz Face and Tone Bender models are quite dynamic as well if you roll your guitar volume back a bit.
 
Agree with @mr_fender, the key to opening up a drive is to back off a little on the guitar volume.

Also, try comp -> drive, and drive -> comp. I actually like the latter because I can hit the drive with my pick dynamics then squash everything and bring it forward for a little more mojo when I'm picking soft.
 
FAS boost is by far the best Drive block on the FX8 for me...

Not sure if it can be done but wouldn't it be great if you could assign 2 parameters to a single EXP pedal simultaneously! What you could do then is decrease the drive and increase the volume (not linearly obviously) to have all the gain levels you would ever need at your feet..
 
wouldn't it be great if you could assign 2 parameters to a single EXP pedal simultaneously! What you could do then is decrease the drive and increase the volume (not linearly obviously) to have all the gain levels you would ever need at your feet..
You can.
 
Many of the drive blocks are really responsive. I like the Esoteric ACB a lot. I like to use multiple drive blocks at really low gain settings (often between 0 and 1 on drive knob.)

Also the low cut control can bring out the articulation by feeding less lows to the drive circuit.
 
All the tube screamer variants will clean up some when you roll the volume back. Reason being they don't clip the top of the waveform after a gain stage like a Distortion + does. Tube screamers "short out" the feedback path when the signal is large in magnitude thus retaining the top of the waveform. I like the ACB and Zen. TS808 & 808 Mod are nice too.

A little "trick" I like to do to emphasize picking dynamics is to put a compressor after the drive. This way when you roll the volume down on the guitar the signal cleans up, but the compressor keeps the volume from dropping too much.
 
try setting the mix at 20% and boost it in 10% or 5% increments until it sounds more like an enhancement to your sound and less like an effect is how I always run everything. Less is sometimes more and it retains the tube amp sound without muddy-ing it up. Drives always sound best in my amps in the 20-40% mix or 50-60% for heavy, run less distortion effects for leads and use your amps boost or lead channel for a lead boost in volume. I run reverbs at 4-8% and delays at 5-15% ect.....start low and bring it up until you can really notice any effect then back it off a bit. You can also try running an EQ in your effects loop.
 
All the tube screamer variants will clean up some when you roll the volume back. Reason being they don't clip the top of the waveform after a gain stage like a Distortion + does. Tube screamers "short out" the feedback path when the signal is large in magnitude thus retaining the top of the waveform. I like the ACB and Zen. TS808 & 808 Mod are nice too.

A little "trick" I like to do to emphasize picking dynamics is to put a compressor after the drive. This way when you roll the volume down on the guitar the signal cleans up, but the compressor keeps the volume from dropping too much.

This, coooool !
 
All the tube screamer variants will clean up some when you roll the volume back. Reason being they don't clip the top of the waveform after a gain stage like a Distortion + does. Tube screamers "short out" the feedback path when the signal is large in magnitude thus retaining the top of the waveform. I like the ACB and Zen. TS808 & 808 Mod are nice too.

A little "trick" I like to do to emphasize picking dynamics is to put a compressor after the drive. This way when you roll the volume down on the guitar the signal cleans up, but the compressor keeps the volume from dropping too much.

This way, I am trying with parallel drives.
Thanks.
 
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