Worked:
- I arrange my patches left to right (A-D) clean progressing to dirty.
- A = clean sound with a bit o delay
- B = Bluesy sound that is good for plucky parts and rhythm, some distortion. breaks up a bit when I hit it hard. This is my most versatile patch and it lives on the B switch for any bank. It's the run to home to mama patch.
- C = Power Chord patch. Over-driven, compressed and no delay. I like to have this serve a percussive role in the mix.
- D = lead patch. overdrive and delay. I have a chorus element ready to go but usually have it "off" by default. If I want it I can hit the mod switch.
The less I can think about tech the better when playing.
Did Not Work
- I left the patch list at home so I had to 'remember' what I'd come up with on the spot. doh!
- A couple of patches were way too loud despite my attempts to sync. I believe what happened is that they were consistent levels on my computer but I failed to sync the XT.
- I need to ensure that a patch I need for a song is not stuck on another bank set. I had one patch on 30D that I needed on my 31 series.
- Advice = Copy the patches to multiple banks so you can have a bank for each song. Don't worry about 'losing' some great patch. Save it on your computer and some reserve bank.
4 comments:
thanks for all your prep work carl. it definitely showed.
Someone once told me that the best thing a guitarist can do is to find a sound/patch and play and adjust it until it's perfect. So I did this when I first started playing and boy did it help. I think the key to patches is not to have too many. I play on a BOSS ME-50. Sure there are tons of spots for me to save patches and stuff but why swap around to stuff that is just OK when you can play on one or two killer patches. Here's my advice.
1. Find an distortion you love. This should be one that sounds great when you crank it and good when you just need a little. I use a Blues Driver patch. Then instead of switching patches, I just tweak the drive a little.
2. Find a good reverb. This really helps create a presence in songs during the more traditional sets.
3. Learn how to work your delay. I've spent hours with my delay pedal just trying things and after years of experimentation it gives you the knowledge to know what you can use. Same goes for a chorus pedal (which I use mostly for traditional stuff).
4. Use your guitar the way it was made to be played. Many young guitarists rely so heavily on their patches that they forget that they have the best sound creator in their hands. Know your guitar and the sounds you can get from it without any effects on it. Know how your pickups sound so you can swap back and forth between them instead of creating patches (which takes time). Manipulate the guitar sound by varying your playing styles to get different sounds. I know this is tough when not everyone has the means to have multiple guitars but most guitars have a smoother pickup at the neck and a more rockin' one at the bridge, so it shouldn't be a problem.
All in all, spend time creating that one awesome patch with that one specific guitar. It's like the Edge from U2. He has one sound and it sounds great all of the time. And all he does is make small variations of that sound.
Ben
"Someone once told me that the best thing a guitarist can do is to find a sound/patch and play and adjust it until it's perfect."
I agree kinda. I gotta admit I love a creamy crunchy vibrant tube sound like no one's business. i could play the sound til the tube explodes. Everyone decent player MUST have a great tone to go to.
BUT
We play songs from a bunch of different bands every week. Switchfoot's distortion is very different from the lead on You are my World...
agree that less is more wrt the # of patches.
As far as distortion I've yet to hear anything close to what I would like at our church. We need guitar night!
There's your next topic. I would love to hear what you would like to hear at church. Or just email me. :)
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