Leaderboard

As already mentioned, there is no polyphonic pitch shifting, but volume is also very likely part of your problem. At low volumes, you are also hearing the guitar acoustically... and before you say "couldn't be", I promise you, it happens...every time you play at low enough volumes.The acoustic sound of the instrument is easily ignored when it's the same pitch as the sound coming from your speakers, but when those pitches are no longer the same (and especially at close intervals) you will hear dissonance. This is a well known phenomenon to anyone familiar with either the Digitech drop pedal or Variax users. You gotta turn up loud enough so that you're not hearing the guitar itself anymore...it's not an option.

OP wrote: "..I wanted to build a preset including a compressor for soloing.." I know it was just an example and maybe because of the tonal characteristics, but it got me thinking about the theme 'boosting for solos' and feeling happy as there are so many ways to do it! My many years with multi-effects (my first was Zoom 9002 in 1990 and in my digital excitement I sold many legendary stomp boxes from the 70s, sigh.. It still works, though!) have thought me that there is no one recipe. And therefore it is also very difficult to give definitive answers. And that is actually the beauty of it! Some times it so so great to have everything pre-programmed and have it happening with single step, some times it is so much fun to get back to the basics with just using guitar's volume and tone pots and mic selections. Occasionally I get the 'let's go back to real tube amps and analog pedals' fever, but after some fooling around with my collection I return to the digital world. But enough babbling, here are some of my findings that I remind myself from time to time. In no particular order: Try try & try! then try some more! The Great Jason Sadites demonstrates this in his videos when he goes like '..how would it sound if I just max this thing here? Or if I set it real slow? How about the next thing, if I max that..!' Well, he already knows what he is doing, but encourages you to try! Before you notice have have learned quite a bit of what you like, what does what and how to get to your destination either the fast way or via the scenery route. It may sound silly, but while random moves sometimes provide real diamonds, systematic approaches increase your gems faster. Mostly this is 'just work', but what a fun work it is! Try things, break the rules, learn from others, read stories, watch videos.. Remember that you do not have the same limitations you have had with non-digital, non-programmable gear. Learn how the human ear behaves - sensitivity to frequency ares & volume (Fletcher-Munson) etc. Fine tune tones and do volume matching and set your boosts at playing volume. Understand, that what sounds fine in headphones in low volume & alone may not make you heard in gig level volumes and when the whole band is playing. That being said, you ears are yours and so is your taste, gear and playing touch. Preset from another will not sound the same for them and you. It may sound better or worse, but most likely not the same. Not even if they made with Variax and Helix and played through Powercab. You put in your Helix and play your Variax and through your Powercab - maybe close but no cicar, sometimes not even a cheap plastic imitation. An easy way to be reminded of this is to play the gear of the other guitarist in the same band and make him play your gear & presets and neither of you will sounds the other. If you do, well, that's worrying.. Avoid complexity - keep it clean and simple in the beginning and grow along the way - if and as needed. Keep asking 'why', particularly if you find yourself using several eq blocks making severe equalization, particularly manipulating the same frequency ranges in many places, cutting somewhere in the chain and boosting them back elsewhere. Learn to understand and control your gain structures - I know it is a matter of taste and depends your style of playing an music style. Personally, I often find that people easily use 'too much' gain and stack gain again and a-gain (pun intended). At the same time, do realize that sometimes that's the way to achieve what you are after. For the most of your patches try to be consistent in how you build them. Helps a lot in maintaining , changing and using them as copy-templates for both generic and song specific use. Otherwise it is very easy to get lost and forget which button / expression pedal did in which preset. Speaking of consistency, learn the concept of unity gain. I tend to do my patch templates with each block being at unity gain to avoid clipping and to be consistent. Then, after that, deliberately set your boost using a selected means. Guitar's volume control, compressor at beginning, drive pedal level, amp channel volume, eq in the chain, volume pedal in the chain, output block at the end of the chain - depends on the application. If you are only looking for a 'clean' boost, then you could use +3-6db boost at the end part of the chain. If you not only want to boost but change the characteristics of the tone then it might be better to do it in the chain before the amp. Control assigns and snapshots are very very powerful - it is so easy to set you lead tone - with the boost! Do not use the global EQ as your tone shaping tool, look for other tools instead and things per patch/preset. Especially so if you tailor some of your presets to acoustic / bass / kb or use parallel paths for other inputs, be it microphones or whatever. Be versatile and use several tones intentionally. If the music you play permits and why would it not? You are in charge of the experience. Personally, I get uncomfortable numb for bands playing the whole gig with just one sound and no dynamics in volume. Weave sound-mat together, do not just race to make noise and fill the spectrum. Tweak, but remember to play. Let your mileage differ. .Otherwise we would only be and have copies and that would be boring.