cant get any distortion to sound good

[alaskan eel]

I have had nothing but issues trying to get even a semi-decent tone with my eleven rack and I am really starting to regret buying it. I have seen others with good metal tones but when I download those presets and try them on my eleven rack with my guitar it sounds just terrible. This is really frustrating. I have tried using already preset setups and they don't sound good and I have spent countless hours trying to make my own with extremely little success. I have been using an ESP LTD H-1000 with EMG 81/85s(active) in the guitar. I know its not the guitar because it works on my real amp perfectly. Even not using pro tools and just plugging strait in it doesn't sound good. I could really use some help because im at my wits ends with this thing.

[SpinningDisk]

Are you listening on monitors, headphones etc..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[alaskan eel]

im using headphones. I bought some fairly nice studio headphones to go with ym eleven rack

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by alaskan eel

I have had nothing but issues trying to get even a semi-decent tone with my eleven rack and I am really starting to regret buying it. I have seen others with good metal tones but when I download those presets and try them on my eleven rack with my guitar it sounds just terrible. This is really frustrating. I have tried using already preset setups and they don't sound good and I have spent countless hours trying to make my own with extremely little success. I have been using an ESP LTD H-1000 with EMG 81/85s(active) in the guitar. I know its not the guitar because it works on my real amp perfectly. Even not using pro tools and just plugging strait in it doesn't sound good. I could really use some help because im at my wits ends with this thing.

What presets are you starting with? Do you have the ER expansion pack?

Describe what you think is wrong with the sounds you are hearing.

Folks driving he Eleven Rack with active EMGs migh want to speak up, but you may want to attenuate the input on the ER and see if that helps.

What exact amp/cab are you comparing to? Live in a room sound or recorded? There are some traps to comparing a live guitar amp/cab in a room to what you hear on headphones.

What exact headphones do you have?

The headphone output on the Eleven Rack is not my favorite, it won't drive some of my favorite hard to drive headphones like the Sennheiser HD600. For those type headphones an outboard headphones amp makes a huge improvement.

[alaskan eel]

I am using Sennheiser HD280 pro headphones. I do have the expansion pack. When I bought my eleven rack it already had the expansion on it. I am not comparing to any specific amp/cab set up I just want something that sounds even decent. When I just strum while palm muting it sounds very fuzzy. not crisp at all. sounds like im playing through the absolute cheapest amp you could ever find. im trying to go for a metal sound.

[alaskan eel]

and it honestly doesn't matter which preset im using or if I try to make my own. the lows, mids, and highs all sound extremely fake and digital. they sound very very bad.

[Darryl Ramm]

What amp/cab are you used to playing with? Do you have that where you can compare to the headphone sound?

I don't know what "fake" means acoustically.

A not uncommon problems with users and the Eleven rack seem to be folks running amp gain settings much higher than they would/have done with a real amp and not hearing what they are used to. The other is just volume. If you are used to/looking for the punch of a live large amp you won't get that through headphones, and not at what many of us would usually listen to at quieter headphone volumes. It takes some pretty decent full range stage monitors to get close to an "amp in the room" feel.

And again I don't use the Eleven Rack with active pickups but if I do put a boost/distortion/fuzz pedal in front of it I do expect to have to significantly tweak around the settings to sound good (often running at lower level than I would run into a real valve amp) because you are not really driving a valve preamp. (and unfortunately the Eleven Rack has no analog front-end gain control). Do you have a volume pedal you can stick between the guitar and ER and play with different settings just to see if that helps.

If you can borrow or buy a nice headphone amp you might want to try that with the Eleven Rack. Even if your headphones are not too hard to drive. Try different volumes.

Another mistake folks make is turning off cabinet sim/resonance/breakup. You want all that stuff on. An amp without a cab sim sounds just awful. And dialing up speaker breakup can really help some things sound better. You have to be prepared to play around a bit.

The parametric EQ in the ER is also helpful in dialing in tone. But I cannot suggest things based on the current description,

To get help the most useful here I think you are going to need to pick a rig that is close to what you are used to playing with and try to describe the differences as best you can. If you can A/B the ER and a real amp or recording of that amp then that may help. If you can record that amp and compare recordings even better. You can also post recordings on Soundcloud or similar and describe what you think us wrong with the recording.

[Darryl Ramm]

What amp/cab are you used to playing with? Do you have that amp/cab where you can compare to the ER/headphone sound?

It is hard to work out what "fake" means acoustically.

A not uncommon problems with users and the Eleven rack seem to be folks running amp gain settings much higher than they would/have done with a real amp and not hearing what they are used to. The other is just volume. If you are used to/looking for the punch of a live large amp you won't get that through headphones, and not at what many of us would usually listen to at quieter headphone volumes. It takes some pretty decent full range stage monitors to get close to an "amp in the room" feel.

And again I don't use the Eleven Rack with active pickups but if I do put a boost/distortion/fuzz pedal in front of it I do expect to have to significantly tweak around the settings to sound good (often running at lower level than I would run into a real valve amp) because you are not really driving a valve preamp. (and unfortunately the Eleven Rack has no analog front-end gain control). Do you have a volume pedal you can stick between the guitar and ER and play with different settings just to see if that helps.

If you can borrow or buy a nice headphone amp you might want to try that with the Eleven Rack. Even if your headphones are not too hard to drive. Try different volumes.

Another mistake folks make is (intentionally or unintentionally) turning off cabinet sim/resonance/breakup. You want all that stuff on. An amp without a cab sim sounds just awful. And dialing up speaker breakup can really help some things sound better. You have to be prepared to play around a bit.

The parametric EQ in the ER is also helpful in dialing in tone. But I cannot suggest things based on the current description,

To get help the most useful here I think you are going to need to pick a rig that is close to what you are used to playing with and try to describe the differences as best you can. If you can A/B the ER and a real amp or recording of that amp then that may help. If you can record that amp and compare recordings even better. You can also post recordings on Soundcloud or similar and describe what you think us wrong with the recording. If nothing else that analytical approach might help you a lot Disling in that you want.

[Benoni]

In really distorted guitar, there will always be some fizz, that's the nature of distortion, some have said they have made rigs without any fizz, but I can always hear it, you will even here it in major metal band releases. You will get fizz with real mic'd amps too. Most of the time that tube crispiness adds to the mix.

That said, its should not be so overbearing as to distract you.

Is there anyway you can upload some clips on soundcloud of some of the rigs you think are too fizzy?

What presets have you tried specifically?

Are you bypassing the cab by accident?

[bredo]

Originally Posted by Benoni

Are you bypassing the cab by accident?

This would be my first guess.

There are no problems getting good tones out of this box, so he has to do something "not quite right".