30
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between increasing volume and increasing gain?
'Gain' just means 'amount of amplification'. It can be applied at various stages in the signal chain between musical source and final playback.
The topic we're talking about is called 'Gain staging'....
- 92.9k
27
votes
Accepted
Do hard rock singers use distortion effects on their vocals?
There are many aspects to hard rock singing, and each singer (hell, each song) has a different approach. I know that even death metal vocalists can do their scary vocals without doctoring them in the ...
- 12.6k
16
votes
What is the difference between increasing volume and increasing gain?
In amplification jargon, all volume changes are described by the term "gain", where gain is the ratio of the input and output signals. In a lot of modern amplifier design, there are effectively 2 ...
15
votes
Do hard rock singers use distortion effects on their vocals?
It depends, is the answer. And it also depends on what you call "distortion" - do you mean it in the sense that a guitarist would, or just that the sound is changed?
Microphones are the first ...
- 4,772
14
votes
Accepted
Theoretical difference between amp distortion and distortion from a pedal
As Todd Wilcox commented, there isn't a completely clear-cut classification, however the three categories of saturation-type effects are tube overdrive, fuzz, and transistor overdrive / distortion.
...
- 35.6k
12
votes
Accepted
How to play this kind of "growly" sound in the guitar?
Interesting effect indeed!
Obvious thing first: don't use a pick when playing Knopfler parts! His tone is very much dominated by the particular way he plucks the strings with his fingers, often ...
- 35.6k
10
votes
What is the difference between increasing volume and increasing gain?
Electrical engineer here.
Gain is the ratio of the output signal magnitude to the input signal magnitude of an amplifier. In idealized circuits, as you turn the gain up, you increase this ratio and ...
- 341
8
votes
Was tube screamer designed to run into already distorted tone
Since the most iconic Tube Screamer sounds I can think of (e.g., Stevie Ray Vaughan and Trey Anastasio) have been created using very clean amp sounds, and distortion/overdrive pedals were invented to ...
- 56.8k
8
votes
How to get a type of "screech" on guitar
This is feedback - caused when the sound energy from the amplifier causes the strings to vibrate, which is picked up by the pickups, and so on, in a cycle. It usually only occurs noticeably when the ...
- 46k
7
votes
Accepted
Choosing a guitar stompbox for producing moderate distortion (general advice)
You'll have no idea whether you're really hearing a pedal correctly or not until you fix or replace that bad cable. The same goes for amp settings. Cranking the master volume throws off the EQ balance ...
- 56.8k
7
votes
Do hard rock singers use distortion effects on their vocals?
The "gritty" sound in rock singer's voices is their natural voice, albeit a technique that gives the sense of screaming or growling. Something else that should be considered is that there are many ...
- 101
7
votes
Accepted
How to make "plastic" sounding distorted guitar sound
I'm dropping this answer in early, assuming I might be right rather than being certain at this point.
I posted an example of a totally different style track, but I think using similar techniques - so ...
- 27.8k
7
votes
What is the difference between increasing volume and increasing gain?
It's as I said in the comment:
Gain is referring to the input, volume to the output.
Volume is how loud the OUTPUT of the channel or amp is. It controls loudness, not tone.
Gain is how loud the ...
- 25.9k
6
votes
Do hard rock singers use distortion effects on their vocals?
The Beatles' distinctive vocal sound was shaped largely by double-tracking, in which the singer would record himself twice, attempting to repeat the performance exactly as before.
Later recordings ...
- 591
5
votes
Accepted
Distortion Pedal with Expression Pedal
Ernie Ball makes both an overdrive and a delay effect with a built-in effects pedal. Here is a review and if you are in Britain here is a shop that sells it. PS Unaffiliated.
- 14.9k
5
votes
Overdrive pedal in an acoustic amp
You can definitely use your distortion pedal to make a different sound. Whether or not that is better is going to be entirely down to what sounds you like yourself.
As ever with these sort of things,...
- 36.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Alternative intervals power chords in just intonation
Would 'power chords' with different intervals (like thirds) in just intonation create the same effect without sounding as messy?
Yes. Crank up the gain and try playing e.g. G#4 on the 9th fret of the ...
- 16.7k
5
votes
How to avoid certain notes ringing out when played with distortion
Muting guitar strings is a bit tricky, especially if you use lots of distortion, and is a significant part of playing technique you need to learn.
Whenever you play a note (or even a note is played by ...
- 16.7k
5
votes
How to avoid certain notes ringing out when played with distortion
In addition to sympathetic resonance from other strings, on guitars with vibrato tailpiece the vibrato springs can resonate too. You can tell this from strings resonating by muting all strings for a ...
- 3,261
5
votes
Is there a way to find the pitch for noisy electronic output?
Some sounds do have pitch, some don't. In general, pitched sounds will have strong discrete sine components, following harmonic series, while unpitched ones will have continuous spectrum and ...
- 16.7k
4
votes
Balancing sound of Acoustic and Electric Guitars
I think there are different way to deal with this.
Maybe don't. I think it's totally okay to have the acoustic guitar
fade back when the electric one kick in with distortion or for a
solo.
Another ...
- 41
4
votes
Accepted
How do I achieve this smooth but powerful gain type guitar distortion?
As blusician says, there's nothing extraordinary about that sound. In fact, if you heard that guitar by itself you'd probably find it pretty dull and thin. The reason it sounds powerful in the mix is ...
- 35.6k
4
votes
How to play this kind of "growly" sound in the guitar?
From trying to work it out myself I found that playing Eb on the G string and Ab on the B string while bending up about a quarter step on both gives me the right notes. The tone is a combination of ...
- 1,863
4
votes
Do hard rock singers use distortion effects on their vocals?
It's generally singing technique. Some schools even call it exactly that, "Distortion".
Techy singing-geek description here: https://cvtresearch.com/effects/distortion/
Personally, for FX I add a ...
- 161
3
votes
Is this cello distorted?
To answer the question directly, yes: I do think there is some form of distortion used. My guess would be that they recorded the cellos with contact pickups as well as microphones, and the final mix ...
- 1,243
3
votes
Choosing a guitar stompbox for producing moderate distortion (general advice)
So it seems like you want mid-gain sounds, and you want some tweakbility that the Mustang doesn't have on its front panel. That sounds fair enough to me!
As to whether you should shop for a ...
- 46k
3
votes
Distortion Pedal with Expression Pedal
The thing to remember here is that distortion is often compressing the volume too. This means that while a volume pedal after your distortion will definitely change the volume through your amp, one ...
- 2,315
3
votes
Guitar amp fender 15B
The Fender 15B is a bass amp. Bass amps are usually focused on clean signal replication and most do little to color the sound of the instrument whereas guitar amps impart more tonal signature to the ...
- 645
3
votes
How to use delay with distortion/overdrive and/or a crunchy amp?
99% of the time you will want:
Guitar -> Distortion -> Delay -> Amplifier
(This could be a distortion pedal and delay pedal into a clean amp)
Or
Guitar -> Preamp -> Delay -> ...
- 161
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible