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As mentioned above, one of the main ways to alter a distortion tone is to add some EQ in front of that gain stage, which is commonly referred to as "preSee [[Dialing_in_Distortion_Tone#Pre-EQ'ing". Sometimes I refer to this as sculpting my distortion, as I'm carving out the desired frequency response curve. Using EQ effects to pre-EQ is the most transparent way to do this, preserving a lot of the amp tone while manipulating it to sound like you want. Other methods will have more impact on the signal before it hits the amp, diverging further from its natural tone.Cannot find image. Distortion effects can also be used to EQ the tone. Commonly, this is referred to as a boost or overdrive, using the pedal not to add its own distortion but change how the amp distorts. These terms are misleading |Dialing_in_Distortion_Tone - they stem from early use of overdrive pedals when amps had limited distortion available. They boosted the signal level forcing the amps to distort more than they otherwise would. Modern high-gain amps don't need such a boost, but they remain popular because of how they EQ the signal before the amp, changing how it distorts. It's more appropriate to refer to this as using a distortion pedal as a filter, but boost/overdrive commonly amount to the same thing. Using distortion effects for pre-EQ'ing is less transparent, as the distortion effect is usually adding some slight compression and/or distortion of its own, which may or may not be desirable. For power amp distortion, the power section occurs after the amp's bass/mids/treble/presence controls, so those are going to have more impact on the distortion tone than the final frequency response. Below is a guide of what to expect when prePre-EQ'ing. To take full advantage of this guide, listen to your distortion tone. Does it have too much fuzz or grit? Try reducing the frequencies that correspond to that kind of tone. You don't have to necessarily get the tone to sound totally different, just tweak out the bad and dial up the good. === Frequency Chart === Here is a guide to how the tone is likely to sound with various peak frequency ranges hitting a saturated gain stage, or some frequency range being absent/deficient. Note: this is not foolproof - it depends on the amp/gain stage. Also, the numbers aren't an exact science - consider them to be fuzzy and use as a guideline only. Also, please note that just because some frequency range is the peak doesn't mean it will dominate the tone. It is possible to have a mostly flat frequency signal with a slight peak in the muddy range, yet the signal won't be total mud - you'll get a bit of all the characteristics listed below. You can mix and match and balance certain aspects of the distortion with other ones. Usually that's exactly what you want to do. IE, a wide boost at 700 HZ will often add the djentyness and creaminess from the frequencies around it, rather than simply making the tone flat.Make all these links to audio. {|class="wikitable"|-!Freq (HZ)!!Peak!!Lacking|-|0-150 ||Muddy ||Thin|-|150-250 ||Fuzzy ||Thin|-|250-500 ||Creamy ||Cold|-|500-800||Flat* ||Tinny|-|800-1500||Djenty ||Buzzy|-|1500-3000||Crispy||Sterile|-|3000+||Gritty||Smooth|}* Flat means there is no real distortion tone - it sounds like compressed mids. Applying this logic to the fuzz/crunch/metal distortion types I mentioned above, fuzz tones obviously emphasize low-end and metal tones upper mids. Crunch tones tend to emphasize mids, but extend into both metal and fuzz territory - the result of mixing both of them together more-or-less]].
→Pre-EQ'ing
== Pre-EQ'ing ==
== Gain Staging/Layering Distortions ==