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VIII. Tips and Pitfalls

Tips :-)

  • A. Tone Matching
  • B. Branching/Evolving Patches
  • C. Setlist Tips
  • D. Effect Switching/Tips
  • E. Recording Tips
  • F. Monitoring
  • G. DSP Allocation/Advice
  • H. Mesa/Boogie Mark II/IV tone
  • I. Clean Boost
  • J. Leveling Patches

Pitfalls :-(

  • K. Clarifying Confusing Volume Controls
    • i. The Pad Switch
    • ii. The MASTER Knob
    • iii. Ch. Vol./VOLUME Knob
    • iv. Mixer Levels
    • v. The Master DEP
  • L. Clipping Guide
    • i. Input Clipping
    • ii. Signal Clipping
    • iii. Effects Clipping
    • iv. Clipping External Devices
    • v. "Digital" Clipping (Crossover Distortion) on "Full" Amp Models
  • M. Bad Monitoring
    • i. Acoustic Tone
    • ii. Bad Monitors
    • iii. Bad Room
    • iv. Low Volume
  • N. Wrong Output Mode
  • O. Gain Staging
  • P. Outside vs. Inside a Mix
  • Q. Using Others' Patches

A. Tone Matching

If you are building a patch, the ABSOLUTE BEST thing you can do is find an artist whose tone is the closest to what you want to achieve, and finding a section in their music where the guitars are playing without any other instruments. If you can find one where it's only one guitar, not a double-track or quad-tracking, even better. Even if this clip is only 2 seconds long, it's an incredible reference point - you're likely to really hear the distortion tone, EQ'ing, and effects.

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B. Branching/Evolving Patches

The best process for making a patch is to use the Edit computer editor. Start by dialing in a tone you like. You'll hit a point where some changes you might think you like, but you aren't 100% sure. At this point it's time to start branching the patches, A/B'ing them, then keeping the better one.

Rather than editing the current patch, hold CTRL and mouse drag the patch to the next patch slot to copy it. Make your changes to the copy. Now you can A/B your edits to your initial patch - quickly and easily going back and forth. If the new version is an improvement, hold CTRL and mouse drag it on top the original. Then save the patch to the Pod.

I'll repeat this process anywhere from 4 - 20 times before I finalize my patch (no stoner reference intended). You can compare a number of cab/mic options, as well as EQ'ing tweaks, or compare effects models.

So for instance, if I think a cab/mic change might improve the tone, I'll copy the patch, change the cab/mic on the clone, then tweak the clone to have roughly the same EQ as the original. Now I can A/B accurately, rather than trying to flip settings back and forth for every comparison.

Sometimes you'll make a tweak and like both your original tone and the new version. You don't have to choose between them. You can keep them both and branch out from there. I'll often do this for a tone when I want a different set of effects on the patch, but the same general EQ'ing and distortion tone.

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C. Setlist Tips

When I build my setlist, I like to set each bank to have a similar set of 4 patches in this order – clean, crunch, rhythm distortion, lead. That way if you accidentally end up on the wrong bank, you're not way off tone-wise. You won't get a clean tone when you wanted a lead tone or vice versa. You can quickly correct yourself before anyone even notices.



If you have a patch with a common effect that you toggle on and off, set the footswitch that toggles the effect as the one above the patch's switch. For example, if you are using a patch located at "A", set the effect's toggle switch to FS1, which is right above "A" or FS5. If the patch is "B", use FS2, etc. This way, if you accidentally hit the footswitch on the lower row when you go to toggle the effect on/off, you won't switch patches. Also, if you want the effect on as soon as you enter the patch, you can press the patch switch with your heel, then quickly hit the effect toggle switch with your toe.

If you have patches with lots of effects that you will be toggling on/off, order your switches in the order that the effects appear in the chain. This is easier to remember, and if you have to guess, at least it's an educated guess.

Also, it's a good idea to make copies of your main setlist, and do a quick tweak to make the tone lighter or darker. Then when you get to a gig, if the sound is a little too bright or dark, you can just switch your setlist, instead of trying to tweak all your patches then, or rely on the sound guy dial you in.

The same thing goes if you're building your patches at a different volume level than you'll actually be practicing or gigging at. Make a setlist copy, but change all the "full" amps to "pre" (make sure you change all the amp, cab, and mic settings to how you had them before – changing amps will automatically load that amp's default settings). Then if your amp/power amp is getting cranked and changing the way your patches sound, you can switch setlists. I can't guarantee it'll necessarily sound better with the "pre" variants, but it COULD be a lifesaver. Of course, I recommend that you build your patches at the volume level you'll be using for practice and gigs; but if this is impossible, make an alternative setlist just in case.

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D. Effect Switching/Tips

You can assign one footswitch to control multiple effects. This is very helpful to switch from a rhythm to a lead setting, or if you always want to turn on/off 2 effects or more at a time.

You can control the amp volume parameter via the on-board pedal by setting it to be controlled by such. This keeps you from using an additional effects block on a volume pedal effect. Just be sure to set the max value to whatever the current level is, instead of 100%. At 100%, you might distort post-amp effects (see "effect clipping").

You can also use the expression pedal to control drive, or compression threshold. This allows you to move from sweet to searing leads, without doing the pedal-board dance, or adjusting your guitar's volume knob; so you can seamlessly build up gain throughout a solo.

When building a patch, I try to keep the effects order in the Edit software the same as the order they occur in the chain just to keep things simple. If I later want to move things around, I'll take a screen shot or write down my settings and re-do the patch.

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E. Recording Tips

The best way to get a heavy metal rhythm sound is to double track the guitars. It's quite noticeable if the two tracks are not in perfect rhythm. Tighten those chops up and always use a drum/click track or metronome to keep time.

I go back and forth on how to pan the two tracks - sometimes I like full left/right separation but sometimes I blend them a little. When they're run through the same speaker, you get some phasing. It's not a perfect phasing like a comb filter, but you can hear it anyhow. If you're listening through headphones, full left/right panning can sound harsh when only one side is playing; but it sound much more natural through speakers. Right now I'm leaning towards full left/right.

Also, make sure your monitoring volume doesn't exceed the volume of the tracks you've already laid down or your click-track/metronome. You might end up laying down a whole track only to realize later you inserted an extra beat in the beginning or something like that and never noticed. Similarly, don't overpower your current playing volume with already recorded tracks. Then you're basically playing air guitar and fooling yourself into thinking you're playing perfectly with the existing track(s) when you might not be.

Quad-tracking doesn't seem to offer much benefit to me, unless you're trying to mix in some other tones. If you use the same tones at the same volume, I find it ends up sounding like the tracks are "fighting" each other, just like if you pan two tracks to dead center. You have to basically turn down one left and one right track to subtly reinforce the other tracks. Plus, it's more work to get all 4 tracks in perfect time. If you listen to Meshuggah's Chaosphere or Metallica's And Justice For All, you notice a kind of phasing sound to the guitars in the few places you hear one guitar on the left or right side. I don't know if this is the way they recorded or if it's double-tracked with the same pan, but I'm not a fan of the sound.

The more tracks you lay down the thicker it will sound. But that also means that it can become too thick and sound like mush. If you end up with such a mix, try doing starting off with less distortion on your tones.

I try to start with my instruments pre-mixed more-or-less. I want each instrument to have a unique frequency range emphasized, so that they all stand out and do not clash with each other. For guitars, that's generally around 250-1,500 HZ.

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F. Monitoring

With the Pod, you have a number of different ways to actually hear your patch. Besides going "live" to a real amp, you can use headphones, studio monitors, stage wedges, PA equipment, etc. And each of these categories has a large variety of gear, all of which has a different sound to it. Just because your tones sound good on some set of monitoring equipment doesn't mean they sound good on another.

That doesn't mean you should make different patches for each set of monitors you may use. The best method is to make sure your patches sound good on as many kinds of monitors as possible. Then, if you are using the Pod to record, your guitar tone will sound good to most people on their own equipment, which you have no control over. Also, it's nice to be able to bring your Pod to a friend's, to jam through his equipment. Or to a gig, where you don't know what the PA will sound exactly like. Almost everyone should have some headphones lying around, hopefully a few different pairs.

I like to test my patches through 2 different pairs of headphones (commonplace consumer headphones and "pro-level" studio headphones), and through my studio monitors (which aren't that great but still sound good). If my patch sounds good across the board, it gets my approval. Sometimes it'll sound good on one piece of hardware, but have way too much or too little bass or some other frequency range on a different one. I have to adjust so it sounds balanced on EVERYTHING. For my "live" patches, I want them to sound good through my amp first. Once I think they're good, I set the cab to Treadplate 4x12 and the mic to the SM 57 off axis mic, and I test it through my headphones and monitors. I find this cab/mic simulation combo sounds most like a real amp, so it serves as a solid second reference.

Top of Tips and Pitfalls

G. DSP Allocation/Advice

Here are a couple tips to avoiding "DSP limit reached" message. Dual amps are very expensive. If you want to use numerous effects, you probably can't get away with using them. If you need to use them, keep in mind the "pre" versions use a little less DSP than the "full" ones, possibly allowing you to squeeze in that least effect, but your tone will be altered.

Pitch shifters, especially the Smart Harmony and Pitch Glide, use a lot of DSP. If you know you want to use one in a patch, build the patch with that restriction in mind – don't build up an entire patch then try to put it in at the end, only to find the DSP error then have to backtrack to figure out how to get it in.

Spring reverbs are also quite expensive; I prefer to use chamber or hall reverbs instead unless I know DSP allocation isn't a problem. Reverbs are generally a little more expensive than other effects. You can use less DSP by using a delay with a very short setting (20-60ms). If you need even less DSP consumption, you can try to get away with using "E.R." instead. I believe "E.R." will be calculated as taking up DSP even when you set it at 0%, so it has zero cost to turn it up. Note that "E.R." only works in "Studio/Direct" output mode and a cab (not "no cab") is selected.

For a detailed analysis of DSP allocation, see this thread and also Appendix D. Fester2000 did an excellent analysis of the amps and effects on the unit. Also note, there is a second guide posted by Fester later in the thread that provides analysis of each individual effect. The first guide (attached to the first post) is a general guide.

Try to use as few EQ effects as possible. If you can use one Studio EQ instead of two Parametric EQ's, that'll save you DSP. Or use one Graphic EQ or 4-Band Shift EQ instead of 2 Studio EQ's. If you can use the amp's EQ controls instead of EQ effects, that's better too.

Instead of using a volume pedal effect, use the tip about assigning the amp/channel volume to an expression pedal.

Each group of effects has certain items that use more DSP than others. For instance, the Ping Pong Delay takes up less DSP than the Digital Delay and the Noise Gate uses less DSP than the Hard Gate. If you have to have ___ effect but can't fit the one you most wanted, you might still be able to fit something else that is similar. For instance, the Dimension can provide a decent modulation effect, but it is lower DSP than the Analog Flanger or Analog Chorus.

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H. Mesa Boogie Mark II/IV tone

I find I can get a good Mesa Boogie Mark II/IV tone from the Uber amp. The key tweaks is to pre-EQ. I like a Line 6 Drive with Bass 25%, Mids 65%, Treble 75%. I set Drive to 0% and Output to 100% - the common filter/boost pedal settings. I find even this still might break up a little, so I put a Volume effect in front and reduce the level to about 50%. This makes sure the Line 6 Drive is only acting as a filter.

I also like to turn the Hum Amp DEP up to 55% - just this small tweak makes the distortion thicker and darker and more aggressive. I turn Bias X up to ~70% - this gives notes more "bloom" but doesn't lead to unnatural compression or wonk to the tone.

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I. Clean Boost

There are several ways to perform a clean (solo) boost to your tone. The easiest is to use the Studio EQ effect - it has a Gain parameter that has nothing to do with EQ - it just sets the output level. This lets you boost or cut the signal level anywhere in your chain. For a clean boost, you should place this behind your amp/distortion. Then you just toggle it on/off for your boost

If you already have a Mid-Focus EQ in your chain, the Gain parameter acts as an overall output level control, not to adjust the amount of EQ applied. This EQ is harder to make neutral than the Studio EQ, and usually won't be toggled on/off, but you can use it to boost the signal.

You can do the same thing using the FX Loop. You place a patch cable from the send and receive connections, set send to 0 db and boost the receive level to your desired amount. Make sure mix is at 100%.

I believe the FX Loop uses less DSP than the Studio EQ, but it also requires a patch cable and that you aren't already using the loop. Also, the loop can introduce additional noise into the tone.

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Date: 2016-01-03; view: 628


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