Breakthrough! Better sound - less harshness / treble / digital-ness

Hiya,

Apologies if this is old news.

I've have been LOVING the sounds through my DAW (Logic) for recording out via USB. The 11R came through big style after years of faffing around with Palmer DI, Redbox, mic'ing arrangements and so on. But I've been struggling to replicate the 11R USB sounds through a power amp for live stuff. Just getting too much harsh treble/digital-ness through my Matrix amp and Engl cab. After dialling metal tones for 2-3 months I was ready to quit and get the Axe-Fx.

Had a breakthrough tonight - turned the 'master' dial right down to 1.5. (Was at 7.0 ish). The improvement in tone quality AND attack dynamics was incredible. Of course, this may just be for my set up but I've read numerous complaints about this sort of sound quality problem. Thought I'd share, I'd be interested to know if anyone else hears such a big improvement from just turning down the master knob on their distorted patches.

Cheers

Howdy newcomer!

Which "master" volume? The volume knob on the box? The master volume knob on the amp page? Which one did you tweak? Thanks for the tip!

the amp master volume effects distortion and tone. some amps do that in a good way, some don't.

plexi/marshall type amps benefit from master volume cranked. EL34 equipped amps get squishy/compressed and more mids when the volume is cranked.

others....not so much. rectifier is one such amp that is better when the master volume is below 3-4. 6L6 tubes don't distort in a good way in my opinion.

Yeah, it's the amp sim master - last knob on the right, usually under the BRIGHT switch. Not the main volume knob.

I use the Mesa SOD sim 95% of the time so that's interesting to hear about the plexi amps. I'll have a play around with that.

Hey J Mac. How did you get on with your master volume tweaks? I'm experiencing similar issues and I'm just starting to play around with your idea. Did it work?

Thanks man.