Clean, organic distortion

Hello all,

I've been including a metal undertone to my music for the past decade and have been fairly satisfied with the "biting" thrash metal tone. But recently I've been moving farther and farther away from heavier material and have been struggling to achieve what a call a "clean, organic distortion." Here's my definition of that term...

A distortion that doesn't have an incredible amount of bite/treble that rips the top of your head off or gives you a sinus headache, especially when palm muting. It's that super crunchy annoyance that almost sounds like it's floating above my head. Two examples of what I consider to be clean and organic include "Brother" by Dark New Day and "Skeksis" by Strapping Young Lad. And heck, even though they aren't as heavy Def Leppard's tone on Hysteria was kind of nice too.

I have a very basic working knowledge of how to multi-track two different setups (distortion pedal, amplifier, and control room), but also understand that musicians tend to quad-track their sounds to achieve a unique tone. At least this is what I've uncovered about Devin Townsend's studio work...

I've had a moderate amount of luck with the following components in Guitar Rig 5:

• Skreamer distortion
• Van 51 amplifier
• Control room (4x12 Gratifier, Hot Solo+ A/B, UK 70s White)

Truth be told I'd probably be better off abandoning this sound and pursing what I hear in my head, rather than banging my head off the desk trying to get this tone and failing. But I've written a couple songs that are very heavy and very close to me, and I'd like to record them with that clean and chunky organic distortion before moving on.

So... how does one go about acquiring this mystical distortion? I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

* Don't use too much gain
* Mids are extremely important, amp knob around 6-8
* Bass is not as important, amp knob around 2-3
* Roll off the volume and tone knobs on your guitar a bit

 

Thank you for the advice. I generally keep the pre-gain on the amplifier around 5 or 6 and let the distortion pedal do the rest of the work. Mids haven't received much focus in the pre-amp area, so I'll take that into consideration. Bass is around 4 and my tone knob is around 7. I'll have a natural tendency to position the microphone on the cone or cap edge of the speaker.

Would you happen to have any recommendations for combinations of amplifiers and microphones? I've also noticed that there is some strange bite/treble with particular microphones (e.g. dynamic and condenser), especially when placed directly on the cap of the speaker (even on the cap edge too!).

 

Don't make the pedal do the extra work. Skreamer should be used to enhance the transients (Drive at 0, Tone according to taste, Output to 5-7), not to actually drive the amp (at least it sounds much better that way). I would also recommend trying out other ampsims and pedal simulations (for example, TSE TS-808 Tube Screamer emulation kicks NI's ass as far as emulation quality is concerned).

Amp gain... 3 to 5, no need to raise it more, depending on amp and channel mode. If it sounds "weak", then you gotta check if your input is at a proper level... and also the most important thing is in the fingers and how you actually play the guitar - proper chugs need some force applied to them, and pick angle can also change how things sound.


As for mic/cabs... I go to third party solutions for that since I don't find Guitar Rig satisfying in this area at all. Check out Recabinet.

 

Okay, I will try out your suggested emulators and advice.

Based on some research that I've done over the past couple days it seems like high/low pass filters are the answers to make the distortion sound cleaner or "softer", but retain the chunkiness and intensity. And it would probably be best if I jumped from quad-tracking to oct-tracking (not sure what the technical term is) to really expand and smooth out the sound.

 

I would advise trying to get two good sounds and just go with that - one hard left, one hard right. Mr. Anssi Kippo (Astia Studios, Finland) has a saying - if you can't get a good guitar sound with two tracks, you're doing it wrong. Not to discount the ridiculous multitracking methods that bipolar freaks like Devin Townsend use, this just makes things a lot harder to mix (BTW I absolutely love Devin's work... but I wouldn't dare to do things like him, it takes a special kind of person to do things the way he does).

But yes, lowpassing will roll off the sometimes harsh treble and round out the sound a bit. Highpassing can remove low freq rumble.

 

I really love his most recent work in terms of the distorted guitars - both Sky Blue and Z2 have that soft distortion I'm looking for. The mid-section of "A New Reign" is the epitome of what I'm trying to achieve.

Frankly I haven't made a great amount of progress. For a while I was content, but now I'm racking my brain again. It seems like to matter what effects-chain I develop I wind up getting a harsh 80s distortion... can't stand that stuff anymore. I'm going to post a couple screenshots for people who visit this thread to check out. Maybe it will shed some light on where I'm going wrong...