Good Distortion Sound...Doable!

Hi Everyone
I know that it has been a complaint of many GR2 users on its lack of ability to create decent or great distortion sounds. I have had the same problem. I could get brilliant clean sounds. But never managed to get good distortion sound. And the NI presets were pretty crap too. And although it was pretty much concluded that good distortion sound is not possible, I tell you. It is. (of course, it cannot generate as much oomph as my 5150 II, but it gets quite close)

Try NOT using the amp heads. I run any distortion pedal directly into speaker cabs. And my high-gain sounds are not so much different to the ones I got out of 5150 II using BOSS GT-3. This is without any serious EQing. All my EQs remain more or less on 12 o'clock position.

For some sounds, I still use amp heads. But for my main distortions, amp heads are left out all together. Try this. If it doesn't work, my apologies.

 

very cool idea. I have made some patches like this, but not with the aim of replacing my "amped" sounds. I will go back to the drawing board later today. Please post a bank of your dirt into speaker sounds1

 

yeah. I will get around posting it once i figure out how to do it. Hahaha.

 

i have gotten great hi-gain sounds from using amp heads.. i like to use a compressor when getting distortion with an amp head

 

You can get great distortion sounds using the amp heads; just don't rely on the amp to do it all. Gain staging is the key.

For example, try using the Gratifier on Raw with the gain about 6 or 7, and using the DS-1 emu in front strictly as a gain boost. When doing that, go into the Gratifier's expert mode and turn down the bias to about 3.2 or so...

ew

 

Good sounding distortion is in the ear of the beholder.

I get great tones from GR2, IMO.

Super high gain amp tones are not my cup of tea anywho.
They sound all fizzy and lifeless to my ears, but that's just me.

 

Good Distortion

&otHere's one of my presets for the guitar side of my Warr touch guitar. Ignore the whammy pedal. I get a decent, sustaining distortion out of this preset. Not perfect, but it's OK. If you want to hear what it sounds like, watch this YouTube video:

[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=FBhjR4A7yi0"]YouTube - New Project (Edifice)[/ame]

 

can you post a pic with all the components opened to 'expert' mode so we can see the internal trim settings?

 

Here you go:

 

Distortion.

This is the kind of distortion I want. It is amazing - Trey Gunn always has had great distortions. I think he's using a Mini Moog unit to give it resonance. Whatever it is, it is one of the best distortions I've ever heard. The distortion I'm talking about is in the middle of the clip:

[ame="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14312673"]MySpaceTV-Videos: MASLENICA von INNA[/ame]

 

Yikes!
To each his own I guess.

The best thing to do is just sit down and start dialing in Guitar rig based on a preset that is close to what you like.
What you hear coming out of the speakers is not the same sound as what is recorded sometimes so you have to record yourself.

 

these are some of my favorite distortions. My secret is the frequency crossover.

 

Thanks A Lot for that Banks !

 

how can i go the Expert mode?
what is the DS-1 emu?

 

On most components, there's a button in the upper right hand corner that will open the expert panel. The DS-1 emulation is the orange distortion effect, imaginatively labelled as 'Distortion'.

 

thanks