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A little help with bass distortion


Onomatopoeia
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Hello!

 

I have been working a lot on a bass patch for a while and I'm quite happy with my clean tone and fxs, but getting a good bass distortion is a real headache. I think I'm getting a bit closer but I'm having trouble with getting some good distortion (guitar amp sim - Fireball) that blends well with the clean bass tone (GK Cougar). What I'm trying to achieve is my current clean tone (and fx) with the ability to kick in a distortion that doesn't change the "character" of the clean tone or removes the low end. I just wan't the two to sort of "blend" together like a good bass distortion pedal.The type of tone I'm aiming for is somewhere in the ballpark of the more recent Tool or Gojira bass tones.

 

So I'll try posting my patch here and maybe some of you more experienced guys can help me out a bit or give me some advice on how it might be improved?

 

 

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Instead of using a guitar amp/cab sim for the dirty signal, try using a bass amp/cab.

 

I've always found that starting subtle and building from there works when adding effects to a signal chain. However, if you're after a seriously "meaty" distorted sound, run your channel volume high instead of sticking a pedal in front, especially on valve/tube amps.

 

To get the smoothest, creamiest valve distortion sounds on real amps, turn up the power amp section. Turning up the Gain & hitting the front end pre-amp, sounds far too grainy. Try the Normal SVT with the Channel Volume upwards of 50% and "dig in".

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Instead of using a guitar amp/cab sim for the dirty signal, try using a bass amp/cab.

 

I've always found that starting subtle and building from there works when adding effects to a signal chain. However, if you're after a seriously "meaty" distorted sound, run your channel volume high instead of sticking a pedal in front, especially on valve/tube amps.

 

To get the smoothest, creamiest valve distortion sounds on real amps, turn up the power amp section. Turning up the Gain & hitting the front end pre-amp, sounds far too grainy. Try the Normal SVT with the Channel Volume upwards of 50% and "dig in".

This is very interesting, Will try it out tonight! I read somewhere that The amp channel volume Didnt effect the tone in the Pod so i only used it for volume.
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actually the amp channel volume is the only amp model control that doesn't affect at all the tone!!.. BUT different volume levels affect the human tone perception.. or to put it more accurately: human perception of the tone varies with variations of the volume..

 

all the other amp model controls affect directly the amp model tone

Ok! But it still has some effect on the amp sim distortion like Skybone mentioned above?
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Nope, I mean the "Channel Volume", my favourite patch at the moment has Gain at 40% & Channel Volume at 55%.

 

Dig in, and it gives a really nice growly tone with a hint of grit, ease back and the sound cleans up nicely.

 

Push the Channel Volume up higher, and it'll distort even easier, just like on a real live valve/tube amp.

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for years I use this device, I have tried almost all possible combinations of settings, and I know what I'm talking about ..apart from the differences in perception of the tone due to different volume levels (Fletcher-Munson curves) I personally found that the channel volume does not affect in any way the distortion of the amp model, the only possible distortion caused by the channel volume, is that eventually induced in the effects placed after the amp model and/or in the equipment connected to the POD output

 

Is this something that one should try to avoid when building a patch?

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I think we're starting to go a bit of topic Here!

I tried the channel volume thing with bass model but i also suspect that The distortion is coming from elsewhere. I guess goding dual amp with bass/high Gain amp still is the best solution for me.

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