Secrets of Building Killer Tone In Software

Revision as of 14:39, 2 September 2014

SECRETS OF BUILDING KILLER TONE IN SOFTWARE! (Overloud TH2)

An article by Todd Simpson

PART 1 of 4

You ever wonder why it sounds amazing when some folks make patches in guitar plugins? And sometimes it sounds less than amazing when other folks do it? There are some tips that will help get you towards TONE NIRVANA without taking endless hours away from your practice time!!!

I"m going to break down on patch and you can use these techniques in ANY PROGRAM that contains basic effects. If the program you are using does not contain effects, time to grab one that does The usual suspects are guitar rig free amplitude free, sgear demo, TH2 demo, (I'm not going to mention lepou as it's without effects) so let's dig in!

Step 1. BEFORE YOU HIT YOUR AMP/HEAD!!!

-Take a look at the screen grab above. Here is what's happening in it.

THE SIGNAL CHAIN

PARAMETRIC EQ (Variable Equalizer, Knobs instead of Sliders)

• The reason to put this FIRST in your chain is to shape the tone BEFORE it hits any other processing. Look at the numbers in red in the unit. I"m boosting a bit at 742hz which gives things punch and cutting/removing a bit at 155hz which is where all the HORRIBLE MUD lives.

VARIMU COMPRESSOR (A very pricey compressor that you can read more about at this link http://www.manley.com/mslc.php)
-Look at the numbers in red. Very low "compression ratio" with a bit of "sustain". Essentially I'm using the compressor as a sort of booster so that I don't have to burn out my picking hand and it helps drive the gain.

GATE EXPANDER ( Just a fancy Noise Gate really.)
-Both of them are there just to clean up the signal.

TUBE NINE ( A Tube Screamer Overdrive clone.)
-Just like a Tube Screamer, it's there to act as a preamp and give more signal to the Amp/Head so that the drive section has more to work with and as a result, sounds MEANER!

CHR-2 (Clone of a BOSS Stereo Chorus unit.)
-Just a pinch of stereo chorus helps the tone sound big and wide and thick.

And that's it!!! Next time, THE AMP STAGE!!!

PART 2 of 4

THE PRIMARY GAIN STAGE

Let's look at the AMP/HEAD gain stage. There are many ways to skin this particular cat, but here is a good place to start

I'm using one of my fave amp heads in TH2. The "LYNCHBOX" from RANDALL. It's very versatile as it's a modular head. You can select any one of a number of different preamps for it from a drop down. As you can see, I'm using the "ULTRA XL" preamp which is based on the legendary ULTRA XL Module that is no longer made and much sought after. Which is why I love accurate software sims

Let's look at the settings.

PRE-AMP SETTINGS (mostly eq decisions here, trust your ears!)

-These are the settings for the Ultra XL Module Only
GAIN: Gain is roofed smile.gif Of course.
BASS: Bass about half but play with it and tweak to taste.
MID: Mids about the same, tweak to taste.
TREBLE: Treble a bit on the plus side to add bite to pick strikes and BRIGHT switch is on.
LEVEL: is roofed which is just the preamp level. The master level controls the actual power amp that is in charge of volume.

AMP SETTINGS -These are the settings for the Amp Section Only
PRESENCE: Roofed to maximize the eq decisions.
DENSITY: Zero. It can oversaturate the bass response pretty quickly so be careful.
MASTER: About half but push it till it works

The AMP STAGE is "FUN" stage IMHO, as you basically pick an amp you like and start turning knobs til your ears tell you that you've gotten it right. There are no digital readouts, no compression ratios, just knobs and switches the way God intended :9

Next Up!!!! Something a bit more technical. THE CAB/MIC STAGE!!!!