cornerstonetom 8 Posted July 9, 2016 Finding myself rather disappointed in the tone of the tube screamer in the helix. It does not seem possible to get that mostly clean, yet highly sustained tone that I usually reach for with it. I have tried lots of knob tweaking, even putting two of them back to back in a chain, but I am pretty much striking out. Honestly, I prefer the way this effect gets translated on my Zoom G5, which is disappointing, as other effects in the Helix, are leagues better than the G5. Still, this is one of my go to's, so it is kind of a deal breaker. Anyone else having difficulties? Anyone figure out how to solve them? I use Carlos Santana's trick, two ODs or distortions with a delay in between. The first OD is really there just to add a little grit and tone. The delay (very slight) thickens the sound and the second delay is where the tone, sustain and EQ happen. The other question to ask is which TS808 are you using for a point of reference? These boxes have changed over the years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HonestOpinion 1,014 Posted July 9, 2016 I use Carlos Santana's trick, two ODs or distortions with a delay in between. The first OD is really there just to add a little grit and tone. The delay (very slight) thickens the sound and the second delay is where the tone, sustain and EQ happen. ... Interesting trick, what mix level and how many milliseconds are you setting the delay for? Also, are you using another delay somewhere further down in your signal chain as well? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cornerstonetom 8 Posted July 9, 2016 Interesting trick, what mix level and how many milliseconds are you setting the delay for? Also, are you using another delay somewhere further down in your signal chain as well? It's really subtle. The difference between the two ODs is very slight and the delay is only a few to 30 milliseconds or so... "season to taste." You just need to play around with the delay and the differences between the two ODs. You really just want to fatten the sound... Just draw things out a bit. It will also boost the sustain and make things tend to sound more "violinish" just like Santana! :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tboneous 223 Posted July 9, 2016 Put your screamer in the fx loop. Done deal! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
