What is Modern High Gain?

trimph1


As the title implies...

I'm looking for examples of this as I'm considering mucking around with this at some point. I know about the Mesa dual Recto...any others out there?

Distorted guitars that are usually not compressed at the source and usually aren't favoring mids. They get compressed after they are recorded. Those examples I posted in Matt's thread (minus the blues licks I played) will give you a good idea.
 
Back in the 80's when extreme gain (as opposed to drive in the 60's and 70's) was in a sound, it was very processed at the source. Compression, effects, all sorts of gizmos were used to process the tones. These days, there is less mid range in guitar tones making them have a bit more of an edge to them without the compression at the source which tightened things up in a different way. When we used compression in the 80's, it was to sculpt a tone and add to the coloration. When they use it today post print, it's to squash the heck out of it.
 
Today's tones also sport more gain due to how pre-amps in amplifiers have evolved. When you bought an amp in the 80's or earlier, if it had loads of gain is was loose gain that would "whoomf". A very open type of sound that was just loose and well, kinda flabby and weird sounding. So we had to tighten them up with compression and use a few effects to further boost the amp's pre-amp section in a good way. Some amps from the 80's and earlier had such bad pre-amp gain we had to use the clean channel of the amp and run our distortions and compressors there instead. This of course lead to a raspy sound most times.
 
But today, with amps like Mesa Dual Rectum Fryer, Bogner, Cornford, Peavey, Engl etc, the gain sections have been modded to where it's a much tighter gain that allows you to use more without getting that loose, whoomfing sound we used to get. You don't even need a stomp box to further condition or color the tone unless you are looking for something specific. Sustain has also been increased to where we don't have to crank an amp today as loud as we would have to crank an old plexi or Fender to get sustain. Or for example, that Angus Young sound from AC/DC. That's a cranked amp utilizing the power tubes more than the pre-amp section. Some old school guys prefer that tone....but the problem is, you have to go so loud to get it, it's really not worth sacrificing your hearing or the hearing of your audience.
 
The fix for that was to buy a smaller amp and crank it all the way up. Though this is a good fix, sometimes it wouldn't be loud enough. So they created tools like "power soak" or "power brake" to allow you to run your amp at a lower volume yet get the same sound it would get if you made it so loud a bird would explode if it flew near your cab. LOL!
 
The downside with those tools was/is...sometimes they would blow up your amp. Some people had great results, others had constant repairs. But today, all that stuff is behind us and you have the option of using less gain and more volume to get the output tube saturation sound, or less volume and more pre-amp gain to get more of today's high gain, modern rock or metal sounds without going so loud.
 
Hope that explains it trimph. :)
 
-Danny

trimph, here's another example of what *I* like to call modern high gain. I do these little test/lab work files from time to time...and well, this one has a story, but I'll spare you as it's not important...lol...but anyway, when we AREN'T layering and set ourselves up for a basic two guitar attack for rhythm, you would work things differently because you don't have the other guitar layers to worry about. This allows you to concentrate on the main guitars and make them really thrust out in the mix. This here is just two guitars recorded independently...no bells or whistles with HAAS or anything. Just compression and the impulse squash. This is my guitar tube pre-amp right into my console via XLR. This thing gets a sick amount of gain if I need it and some pretty cool clean sounds to boot. But I like this example as a good modern gain type tone. It's a little too compressed via limiter, but that was one of the purposes of this little test for me. I was trying to see how far I could push a limiter I was testing at the time. :)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/DanziTest2_16Master.mp3

-Danny

With that, I think I've polluted these forums enough for one day...lol...off to bed for a few hours. :)

short list of high watt high gain

blackstar series one
diamond nitrox
diezel vh4
engl powerball
framus cobra
fryette pitbull
hughes and kettner coreblade
krank 1980
boogie dual
orange rockerverb
soldano avenger
bogner uberschall
mesa stiletto
bogner xtc



short list of LOW watt HIGH gain
orange tiny terror
krank rev jr
reeves custom 10hg
marshall hand wired series
egnator rebel
mesa express
mesa transatlantic series
mesa MINI Rectifier
ceriatone trainwreck clone