"Good" distorted guitar sounds

[jacksmash]

I'm trying to find a "good" distorted guitar sound. I'm trying to create some music that is more progressive, so I need a heavy/crunchy guitar sound.

The preset distorted guitar sounds on my synth aren't too great - I'm going to still try and edit them to come up with something good though.

Is there somewhere online I could look for guitar patches? I know I could just google, but if someone has already had some luck, perhaps this thread could benefit (not only myself), but also people in my position in the future.

Here is a link where the beginning guitar sound is something I would be looking for:

http://frameshift.progrockrecords.com/music/_files/Spiders.mp3

I realize this sound is probably impossible to achieve on a synth, however, I'm going to try to get something like it!

Perhaps I should just invest in a guitar!

Thanks for any replies!

[Spacehog]

I have never heard anything even halfway approximating a mediocre guitar sound on a synth. The closest I've heard are some classical guitar sounds... but then again, I'm a guitarist, so I'm probably more picky than some! If you're wanting to work with synths, to be honest you'll probably get a cooler heavy crunchy sound by taking something like an M12 sound and plugging it through a distortion unit. A little EQing (cut the top end a lot, give it a whole load of low-mids) and you can get a sound that will fill the role nicely, without sounding like a bad imitation of a guitar :)

Martin

[jacksmash]

Ummm... sorry for the dumb question in advance, but what is an "M12" sound?

[X-dark]

What is your synth ?
You may look to http://www.albertorizzoschettino.com/%7Eprogsounds/board/

[Enigma™]

honestly the BEST way for something like that isn't to create it but rather to find something close, sample it and stereo layer/pan it. it's a very VERY chunky guitar, so you're going to need to have a sample OR find something that sounds decent through distortion. Try just some basic saw waves, layered and panned with a few layers detuned to 7ct's *Perfect 5'th * for that power chord chunk sound. Make the release fairly quick but not too fast, and have some chours and reverb after the distortion. Also don't forget to have a picking or attack sound as well for that initial attack sound of the chunk. Depending on the synth you're using, I can probably help you out, and also check out progsounds as mentioned above *or in my signature as well*

[jacksmash]

Hey - thanks a lot for the responses. I'm using the Fantom-S88, so I'll definitely try some of the things you suggested.

By the way, I am a registered user at the progsounds board, but I haven't been able to find much in the way of help for the Fantom board.

I feel like I'm one of a few that uses this board! I'd love to have a Kurzweil - but I need to master something simpler before I can move on to that.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Karmafied]

Hey Jacksmash with the Fantom S88 you have a powerfull processor with the COSM amp simulation,you can copy for example the sound called SEARING COSM into a performance then make the adjust for a perfect 5th and add the 3 MFX,the First for the original MFX (amp simulaton) that you find in this patch, the second for an EQ and the third bus for any other effect that you like in your guitar sound,then set the Chorus/Delay/Rev busses for a little dry sound and you can obtain a really great RIFF sound.

The fantom come with a powerfull arsenal of dist. guitars but this sounds are oriented for "solos" ,but you can check the Fantom X and XV convertions for the fantom S and you can find a new patch for Guitar Riffs , i dont remember the exact name or i wich collection are located,but isn´t dificult to find in this collections and it´s a really good sound.

[jacksmash]

That sounds really cool - but I'm having a hard time implenting what your saying.

I'll outline exactly what I'm doing:

I go into Performance Mode (the layering setup screen).
Then I selected the Searing Cosm patch.
I press effects, and select the Gtr Amp Sim for the MFX 1 part.

The only problem is that although there are 3 different effects (MFX 1,2 and 3), I can only implement one at a time - the line from the patch box only points to one MFX box.

Also, when you say add a 5th, do you mean play a 5th? Or actually add a 5th to patch so that each note played actually plays a perfect 5th automatically? If so, I have no idea how to do that.

I don't expect you to lay out all the answers for me, however, if you could point me in the right direction, or refer me to a specific chapter in the manual, that would be most helpful.

Thanks so much!

[Karmafied]

Hi Jacksmash, the question about tne MFX it´s in the FX section check the ROUTE CONFIGURATION and set the buses in the order that you like,the most common for this soundtypes are:


MFX1-----MFX2----MFX3

When you set the route you can use the 3 buses in chain,plus the Chorus/Delay/Rev.

--About the 5th ,i´m talking about you need to set a perfect 5th betwen the waveforms and when you play a single note you can obtain automatically a power chord.

Now a great news for all the Fantom S owners it´s that a user called Lawrence make a great convertion of the Fantom "X" files and now we can use in the "S" workstation.
This new file contain grean new leads,and some great powerfull guitar sounds and other great synth sounds.
And with the roland oficial XV-5080 release for the fantom S we have a powerfull arsednal of sounds.

xv5080 files (1024 new sounds) plus "X" sounds (384) 8)

I remember that in the XV files i find a really nice and powerfull guitar sound that contain all the programin for the power chords plus some especial guitar fx like some dives sounds,feedback and other guitar peculiarities all in one sound and i think the sound only need some tweak in the amp simulation for make a destroyes guitar jejejejej.
Check the XV files and the X convertion and im sure that you become crazy with all this great sounds

[jacksmash]

Sounds great! I'll check out the FantomX files and see if I can get them working, then I'll report back.

Thanks for all the help!

[Drusillus]

Hey Jacksmash, I saw your post on Fantomized, didn't realize it was you :) (I'm rbarkhouse over there)

I think the capabilites are there in the effect section (after all the COSM effects in the FS come right from the Roland/Boss guitar processors), but with the limitations in the internal waveforms, and the way you have to play them on a keyboard, they just never sound the same.

What I'm planning to do when I get my Fantom S is to plug a real electric guitar into the input on the FS and run it through the COSM effects and then resample that. I'm not a guitar player, so what I do is tune the guitar so that it's just one big power chord (E B E E B E) and chug away :) It's just a cheap $100 guitar I got from a department store.

Like I said I haven't got to try my theory yet because I haven't got my FS yet (this month baby!) but I think it would work well!

Check out this video for a demonstration of what I'm talking about (it's a demo of the Fantom-X but the S has the exact same capabilites):

http://easylink.playstream.com/roland/Fantom-X_Sampling_Tips_Vol_2_lg.wvx

[Lyngs]

Check out this video for a demonstration of what I'm talking about (it's a demo of the Fantom-X but the S has the exact same capabilites):

http://easylink.playstream.com/roland/Fantom-X_Sampling_Tips_Vol_2_lg.wvx

Har... :lol: The guitarist looks soo funny!

Seems like a cool board, btw.

[Drusillus]

Yeah he is totally \m/

[PsawniK]

Try putting a compressor with low attack, low release, high ratio, high output, and low threshold before the distortion. This will give the sound an attack and some extra bite.

[jacksmash]

Just to report back - I've been able to figure out how to use the MFX in series now. Now I just need to figure out the perfect 5th thing - not sure how to do that, but I'll do some reading.
Thanks for all the help from everyone!

[Drusillus]

Well you could use the Pitch Shifter effect to add a perfect fifth (+7 semitones) to your root note, but it would probably be better to actually play it.

[Tusker]

If you are looking for some aggression, theres a couple of ways to go after it. One is to simply emulate the guitar part that you hear in your head (nothing wrong with emulation). Another way is to build the aggression around specific keyboard technique and make it a keyboard part. I personally am found of method #2, because it results in tricks that keyboard can own.

For method 2, try the following with a distorted patch.

1) Downward glissando at the end of a phrase to get grunts. Upward glissando into a note to get a snarl.

2) Playing about 4 octaves above middle C (above guitar range) with mellow (sinewave?) tones allow you to build pads without breaking up the MFX. Great for that atmospheric middle section.

3) if you use a portamento sweep of more than 2 octaves on a sample, you can sometimes hear the groan as the engine interpolates the pitch. You would put the sample through distortion to heighten the effect of the groan.

4) Theres nothing that says every tone (waveform) needs to be distorted, sometimes you can put your feedback/glisten/sinewave tone in dry, as well as any chunka (attack) sample. Piano waveforms are great for short attacks.

5) Try a very resonant highpass filter on low riffs. And do filter sweeps by hand or with a pedal. As the fundamental is stripped away by the filter, you end up with a very TB303 like tone. Very synth-like. Very aggressive.

Hope this helps,

Jerry

[Drusillus]

Hey Jacksmash, just thought of another trick if you're going to be playing a real guitar in the the F-S. I've heard John Petrucci and others sometimes use a very short (7 ms panned to the left) stereo delay in order to thicken up the sound. So maybe try:

MFX1 (Compressor) --> MFX2 (Amp Sim) --> MFX3 (3 Tap Pan Delay)

I'm not in front of my manual right now, I'm not sure which delays offer panning, but if it is only the 3 and 4 tap delays you'd want to turn the extra taps down to zero so you just got one tap.