Boss GT-X - Noise; Preset Patches

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Section15Overdrive/Distortion
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©Copyright2000-2002BarryS.Pearceetal.  76
distortionsgivedifferingamountsofdistortionforthesame
drivefigure.Well,therearetwothingsaffectingthis,firstly
as described above is the clipping characteristics that are
used—theformoftheclipitself,andsecondlyiswherethe
clippingthresholdis.Thereisnoguaranteethattheclipping
thresholdisthesameoneachofthedistortions.Indeed,in
allprobabilityitisdifferent.Thusdrive35ononedistortion
isnotequivalenttodrive35onanother.

TheGT-3/5manualprovidesreasonabledescriptionsofthe
overdrives/distortions and I have nothing to add to them.
One question that may arise if what is the difference
between overdrive, distortion and fuzz? Well, the answer
reallyisnotmuchtechnically.Mostofthedifferenceishow
theamountofdistortionisperceived.Overdrivetendstobe
light-middledistortions,distortiontendstobemiddle-heavy
and extreme distortions tend to come out as fuzz. The
namesdo(Ithink)tendtocharacterisethedistortionspretty
well.

FortoneanalysisonceagainIhavegroupedtheeffectsinto
several groups. These were measured with
dist=50,bass=0,treble=0,level=50.Increasing/decreasingthe
drivedoesn'tchangethefrequencyresponsemuch.Hereare
theimages:

[GTx-OD-Overdrive.jpg]
NaturalOD
VintageOD
TurboOD

[GTx-OD-BluesCrunch.jpg]
Blues
Crunch

[GTx-OD-DistGrunge.jpg]
Distortion1
Distortion2
Grunge
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[GTx-OD_MetalFuzz.jpg]
Metal1
Metal2
Fuzz
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I will say this—Turbo OD, Grunge and Metal 1 are my
favourites.Oh,BTWonethingtonote–themoredistortion
you use the less defined individual tones become. So
picking with Turbo OD allows much more tone and
definition of the note than when picking with Fuzz. The
sameistruewithinasingledistortion.Adriveof30will
givemuchmoretoneanddefinitionthanadriveof80.It’s
allhorsesforcoursesreallyand(onceagain)youneedto
experimenttofind the soundyouwant.If youthinkhard
aboutthewayyouwoulddescribethesound,thenyouwill
find yourself saying things like 'hard edged distortion' or
'fuzzy'or 'lightdistortion'andthesecanlead youintothe
distortionsthatyoushoulduseasastartingpoint.

There are 11 internaldistortions and 12 preamps!!!! It is
verylikelythatyouwillfindwhatyouwantinamongstthis
lot.Youmightneedtotweakfurther,EQperhapsetcbut
youshouldstillfindadistortionthatmeetsyourneedshere.
Also don't forget that there is no reason not to use a
distortionwithadistortingpreamp—againit’salldownto
experimentation.
Noise
Itisappropriateatthispointtotalkaboutnoise.AsIhave
saidabove,thedistortionisgeneratedthroughgaincontrol.
Thus in order to generate large amounts of distortion we
needlargeamountsofgain.Theproblemthatcanarisehere
is that any noise that occurs before the distortion will be
amplified. Thus more gain more noise. This is why we
concentratedsomuchonnoiseeliminationinsection9.
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Now if you are using high levels of distortion/gain you
*will* get some additional noise. However, the GT-3/5s
distortions do vary in their characteristics. Thus by
changingtoadifferentdistortionyoumaybeabletoobtain
thesamelevelofdistortionforlessdriveandpossiblyless
noise.Youreallyneedtoexperimenttofindoutwhatworks
best.

Inallcasesachangeofgaindoesmeanachangeofnoise
andachangeofsignallevelthusrequiringachangetothe
NoiseSuppressorset-up.

I have NOT found it possible to induce the YUK noise
whichIdescribefullyinsection16below.Itseemstobea
preamponlyproblem.
PresetPatches
We have alreadyseentwopatches in earlier sectionsthat
use the OD/DS as the main distortion and use a clean
preamptocolourthesound;theseare[GT-3]'MetalChop'
and'MetalDist*'.Also,wealreadyhaveapatchthatallows
us to use the external effects loop—this one is 'Ext FX
Loop'andIintroducedthatearliertoo.

Rather than just present more of the same on the patch
front,Ithinkthebestthingtodoistake'MetalDist*'and
justchangetheOD/DSthathasbeenused.Thiswillgive
youagoodideaoftheavailabledistortions.

Onceagain,toroundupwewilltakealookatsomeofthe
presetpatches: