Boss GT-X - Section17; Slow Gear; Section 17 Slow Gear; What Is the Slow Gear

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Section17SlowGear
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©Copyright2000-2002BarryS.Pearceetal.  85
WhatistheSlowGear?
TheSlowGearlivesundertheSFXgroupontheGT-3and
withtheFeedbackerontheGT-5.Manyguitaristsprobably
don'tknowthiseffectas'SlowGear'butasan'AttackDelay'
instead.Initssimplestformitsanautomaticfootvolume.
TheSlowGearwillfadeineachnote/chordthatyouplay.
RiseTime
Thetimeittakestochangethevolumelevelfrom0tofull
isdeterminedbytheRise Timeparameter....I feela table
coming on!! Roland HAVEN'T supplied me with ANY
information,sothetimingsareobtainedfromobservations
using Sound Forge as a .wav recorder/editor, and
SpectraLab(to usethe1kHzsignalgenerator)toobtaina
puresignalwithnodecay.Thetimingsbelowwerederived
usingaGT-3buttheGT-5isexpectedtobeidentical.
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RiseTime
Parameter
RiseTimein
Milliseconds
Approx.Time
inSeconds
0 100 
10 110 
20 125 
30 150 
40 180 
50 230 0.25
60 285 
70 380 
75 450 0.50
80 560 0.50
85 730 0.75
90 1050 1.00
91 1170 
92 1310 1.25
93 1470 1.50
94 1670 1.75
95 1950 2.00
96 2350 2.50
97 2920 3.00
98 3910 4.00
99 5860 6.00
100 11700 12.00
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Asyoucanseefromthetabletheincreaseinrisetimeisnot
linear! Indeed once the rise time gets to 95 it starts to
lengthen extremely rapidly. Below 75 a rounding effect
occursandabovethisthedelaybecomesmorepronounced.
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Usingshorttimeswillgiveasoundsimilartowoodwindor
bowedinstruments,longerrisetimesgiveorgantypeswells.
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It is possible that with the longer rise times your string
decaysquickerthantheriseandthereforeyouneverreach
full volume, fading in to a quiet note or worse—almost
nothing. Using a compressor in front can help this by
producingincreasedsustain.
Sensitivity
Thesensitivitycontrolisprobablythehardesttojuggleand
yet is very easy to understand. Withthe sensitivitysetat
100 everything willtrigger the slowgear. This maybe a
problemasitmaybetriggeredbynoiseetc.thisisknownas
falsetriggering.At0itisactuallyinsensitiveandyouhave
to play extremely hard in order to get the slow gear to
trigger.Infact,onmysystemsettingthisto0isprettymuch
aguaranteedwayofavoidingtriggering!Ijustcannotgetit
togo!Ineedthesensitivityatanabsoluteminimumof5,
but10-20isabetterminimumforme.
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Inallcasesyouwillneedtofiddlewiththisuntilyoufind
the best response for what you are playing. If you are
havingproblemsyoumayfindthatinsertinganextremely
brief pause between notes may help you get a more
consistent trigger response. The triggering can be very
sensitive to picking technique, so you may need to
experiment and alter your technique to get this effect to
worktoyoursatisfaction.
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Byreducingsensitivitydownfrom100,wecanachievetwo
things. Firstly we can obtain a more natural run, and
secondlywecan'play'theslowgear.Onethingtobeaware
ofherethoughisthatsometimesnon-slowgearnotesmay
soundlouderthanthosetriggertheeffect.
EffectsChainOrdering
Theslowgearcanbeplacedanywhereintheeffectschain
ofcourse,feelfreetoexperiment,buttherearetwoplaces
whicharemostlikely:
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Atthestartofthechain:
Thisisleastdesirableifusedbeforecompression
ordistortion.Whathappenshereisthesoundfades
in but then compressor/distortions get hold of it
and before you know it the rise time has
disappearedalmostcompletely.
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AttheendofthechainafterDD/CEbutbeforeRV:
MyfavouriteplacefortheSGishere.Justbefore
theRV. Yougettherisetimeyouexpected,and
distortionsarefadedinbetter.
UsingtheSlowGear
OK,atthispointIwouldliketopresentanewpatchcalled
‘MetalSG'.Thisisquiteasimpleonetouse.Takeourlevel
matchedMETALDISTcalled 'MetalDist*'and thenadd
theSlowGear,sensitivity50,andrisetime60.Makesure
theslowgearisattheendoftheeffectschainjustbefore
theRV.OK.Whenyouplayusesinglenotesandalotof
wristvibrato.Thismakesitreallysingandthevibratohelps
makeitsoundmoreviolinlike.Ofcourseyoucouldusethe
VBeffecttomakelifeeasier.Byhavingthesensitivityat50