Seriously! I play every night, with a ton of pedals on my board, and having the variety of different types of clipping makes the show more fun to perform
Michael, you consistently come up with tremendously useful, practical topics. You remind me of one of my favorite characters from the Matrix movies: The Keymaker. Always opening doors for people. It's something I aspired to as a teacher during my career, and you're consistently achieving it. Thanks!
I love using both types of clipping, experimenting with the signal chain is also a lotta fun, I love putting soft clippers after hard clippers and using them both at the same time, it sorta dulls the signal but the crunchy character of the hard clipper remains i luv it
My favorite approach is the one Chris Buck uses: Compressor>OD>Fuzz. All pretty low gain. That's how you get that thick, creamy, yet still sharp enough sound.
When diodes are used in the "feedback loop" of an operational amplifier chip (the configuration described as "soft"), in the process of clipping, they will limit the maximum output of that chip to whatever the clipping threshold of the diodes is. In the case of a pair of silicon diodes, like with a Tube Screamer or SD-1, that will be around +/-600 millivolts. The chip itself can amplify cleanly, until the amplified signal reaches around +/-3500 millivolts, such that the diodes are doing all the clipping and the chip is never "stressed". Some drive pedals, like the Timmy, will use a quartet of diodes, instead of simply 2, raising that threshold from +/-600 to around +/-1200mv, still well below the chip's maximum clean level. When diodes are placed *after* the output of the chip - what is commonly referred to as "hard clipping" - not only do those diodes clip, but the op-amp may well be set to gains that DO "stress" it. Indeed, gain settings higher than around 35-50x will amplify the signal well past what would be the "headroom" of the chip. Given that a great many drive-type pedals have gains well in excess of 100-200x, those diodes on the output are clipping a signal that has *already* greatly exceeded what the chip can amplify cleanly. In effect, "hard" clipping is really and truly *double* clipping - once by the chip, and a second time by the diodes. Since distortion is the addition of harmonic content that wasn't there in the first place, "hard" clipping will be adding harmonics of harmonic content created by the headroom limitations of the chip. And since the most harmonics a string produces will be during the pick attack, we hear a highly exaggerated "bite" from so-called hard clippers, due to redistorting that initial harmonic distortion from the chip. That's what leads us to perceive it as "harder". In theory, if an op-amp could be used with a high-enough power supply that might raise its headroom from +/-3500mv to, say +/-10000mv, there could be no audible difference between hard and soft clipping at many gain settings, since only the diodes would be doing anything. And the diodes don't particularly care if they are conducting to ground or conducting between pins on an op-amp.
Being a child of grunge: hard clippers the Rat is so versatile! DS-1 obviously is fantastic as well. But I’d have to pick the Rat. Soft clipping- SD-1 by far. Probably the most versatile pedal of all six! Seems it can replicate the sound of a Bluesbreaker, and the tube screamer can really sound like a wet blanket over a speaker with certain humbuckers- obviously it can sound great but I think it’s range of great tones is far smaller than the SD-1. With the right guitar and amp the SD-1 can do cliche edge of breakup all the way to 70s glam metal
The mxr sounds really strong and I love the way you changed your attack on picking. so you can hear the difference it really rains through on the boss pedal
I went with a Wampler Pantheon dual drive pedal. Both channels have hard/soft/both clipping options as well as 3 gain level options. These settings are before the 4 knob controls for each channel. Drive pedals are tools. Pick one and get to work 💪
Interesting fact: ....the Boss Blues Driver is both a hard-clip and a soft-clip. It uses both in each gain stage. Maybe that's why it's so good & versatile.
I like having 3-4 gain stages on my pedalboard, and get distention tones by not increasing the volume, but kicking in a new pedal for a gain stage. I got the ODR-1 for lowest gain, hot wax for the two medium gain settings and then an MXR Classic 108 mini fuzz for over the top lines!
Personally I think that the Superoverdrive and the Blues Breaker have the most pleasant tones. They have a nice amount of gain and a lot of clarity at the same time. Even combined with different settings they could sound very good too.
Great comparison of hard and soft distortion. Now I understand the sonic difference. The funny thing is for me as I get older I use it less and dislike hearing it. I’m finding I want purer sounds from my guitar. Weird, huh.
I’m the same way. When I was young I loved distortion and fuzz; I have a pedal collection to prove it. I also thought overdrives were weak and boring Now I almost always have just an overdrive on to boost my signal just a bit and run an amp mostly clean to get a lot of different vintage clean and overdriven tones. My fuzz and distortion pedals are collecting dust but I can’t seem to part with them
My favorite is a voodoo labs sparkle drive into a boss BD-2 Blues Driver. Separately or stacked, you can't beat the tone, saturation, and overdrive...pure heaven.
I love my ts9dx. It’s the first pedal I ever got when I was a kid and I still use it on gigs! I’ve been experimenting with cranking the drive up all the way, almost pushing it into that hard clipping territory. Never really done that before until the last few gigs. I end up using it for dirty rhythm and then lead tone with a Jan Ray clone before it if I want even more juice.
Your MXR Distortion + sounds great! I had one years ago, sold it, I think I want to get another one of these. It seems to sound more gnarly than my rat pedal
I used the Boss pedals a lot. Now I am more into the Rat type pedals like JHS Distortion or the Catalinbread Katzenkönig for hardclipping. I can also recommend the Lichtlaerm Audio Altar Mk III, it is generally a fuzz, but it can do some nice lowgain also. Usually i get lowgain out of my amp or by turning down the volume knob on my guitar to get close. When stacking I usually go from high to low gain. Great video btw!
I used the DS-1 for years at settings that would make me cringe now and eventually soured on it. I prefer the Rat more these days but I'm warming up to the DS-1 again after some experimental knob twisting. I've heard people say that 11 o'clock is the sweet spot for the tone knob but I set it at 9 o'clock. My ear for bright tones vs dark has changed a lot, maybe because of the Rat or the settings I use on modellers to get the most natural tone possible.
So glad you are back ,Michael. You can travel far and always return to a TS9 or a SD1 The RAT is really versatile. I go for a boost now, either Eq, Spark or BB . I think my ears have changed(60 yrs) but I'm really adverse to compression in overdrives. You lose so much harmonics.
Personally, I was always a fan of the Boss Blues Driver, but as far as TS style circuits, the EQD Plumes cooks the original.If you like the Distortion+, the best version going these days is the JHS Ross reissue Distortion.It's got the vintage, truly grimy style breakup that makes the modern high gain/ heavily compressed circuits sound sissy.
I prefer soft clipping pedals for high gain. Sd1 or ts into a cranked 800 is still the best sound for heavy metal. The best rat sound ive heard is actually one aping a tube screamer tone
I prefer a Tube Screamer set to a clean boost setting (drive @ 0, level @ max, tone @ halfway) fed through the high gain channel of a 5150/6505 or a Dual Rectifier.
Great video, great choices of pedals! The test at the end is just spot on, both because of the EQ matching and allowing the listener to hear the clipping decay. I think the hard clipping sounds more Marshall, when the soft clipping sounds more vintage, blues. FTR, the Bluesbreaker has a different type of soft clipping than the other two, utilizing the diodes in an inverting amplifier configuration.
Just fiddle with the knobs till you get Tone you want. The sparkle drive is best for fattening up clean , and really boosts and extends the BD-2'S sustained overdrive. Otherwise, the BD-2 Is like other well known overdrive pedals, only better and with a more balanced tone across the frequency spectrum.
Isn't it weird (or at least I don't understand) that the new L6 Pod Express Black (high gain) has a compressor and the other one (red casing) does not? Got a DS-1 and RAT and if I could spend my money again would buy the SD-1 over the DS-1, the RAT is a keeper.
I like your channel very much, but unfortunatly it is technical not correct, what you say in your explanation at the very beginning. How hard or soft it goes into saturation depends on the characteristic of the clipping diode, the internal resistant of the amplificator that drives the diode in its output- or feedback-circuit, and also on the resistant in row to the diode {if there is one). For example take a hard clipper like the proco rat an put a 10k pot between the clipping diodes and ground an rise the resistent. As bigger it gets as softer it clips even though it is a hard clipping circuit. Or as another example, Big Muffs are soft clippers, but go very hard in to saturation. The Opamp Big Muff has more in common with the tubescreamer than to the clone centaur which is a hard clipper. . Big muffs nevertheless go such fast into saturation tht there is no real cleanup, if you put down the volume of the guitar, but the proco rat has such a cleanup, even though it is a hard clipper. Or the OCD drive. It is a hard clipper very similar to the boss ds-1 but has a much smoother saturation.
Hard clipping drive pedals into fender amps just don't work for me. If tried dozens and the only one working for me was the klon but even that's an outlier
def the hard clippers. however i have always loathed the SD1 DS1 and tubescreamers anyway - worst drive pedals ever. the DS1 is simply the worst pedal ever. very pleasantly surprised by the blues breaker, but the winners are the distortion+ and the rat. i've never owned or played either - i think this vid may have persuaded me to acquire them both one day. don't bob mould and neil young use the +?
your channel is proving undispensable, always great explanations
Seriously! I play every night, with a ton of pedals on my board, and having the variety of different types of clipping makes the show more fun to perform
Agreed 👍
Michael, you consistently come up with tremendously useful, practical topics. You remind me of one of my favorite characters from the Matrix movies: The Keymaker. Always opening doors for people. It's something I aspired to as a teacher during my career, and you're consistently achieving it. Thanks!
I love using both types of clipping, experimenting with the signal chain is also a lotta fun, I love putting soft clippers after hard clippers and using them both at the same time, it sorta dulls the signal but the crunchy character of the hard clipper remains i luv it
My favorite approach is the one Chris Buck uses: Compressor>OD>Fuzz. All pretty low gain. That's how you get that thick, creamy, yet still sharp enough sound.
Love the SD1...
I'm easy, I love them all. Probably why I have so many pedals. Great demo, subscribed!
When diodes are used in the "feedback loop" of an operational amplifier chip (the configuration described as "soft"), in the process of clipping, they will limit the maximum output of that chip to whatever the clipping threshold of the diodes is. In the case of a pair of silicon diodes, like with a Tube Screamer or SD-1, that will be around +/-600 millivolts. The chip itself can amplify cleanly, until the amplified signal reaches around +/-3500 millivolts, such that the diodes are doing all the clipping and the chip is never "stressed". Some drive pedals, like the Timmy, will use a quartet of diodes, instead of simply 2, raising that threshold from +/-600 to around +/-1200mv, still well below the chip's maximum clean level.
When diodes are placed *after* the output of the chip - what is commonly referred to as "hard clipping" - not only do those diodes clip, but the op-amp may well be set to gains that DO "stress" it. Indeed, gain settings higher than around 35-50x will amplify the signal well past what would be the "headroom" of the chip. Given that a great many drive-type pedals have gains well in excess of 100-200x, those diodes on the output are clipping a signal that has *already* greatly exceeded what the chip can amplify cleanly. In effect, "hard" clipping is really and truly *double* clipping - once by the chip, and a second time by the diodes. Since distortion is the addition of harmonic content that wasn't there in the first place, "hard" clipping will be adding harmonics of harmonic content created by the headroom limitations of the chip. And since the most harmonics a string produces will be during the pick attack, we hear a highly exaggerated "bite" from so-called hard clippers, due to redistorting that initial harmonic distortion from the chip. That's what leads us to perceive it as "harder".
In theory, if an op-amp could be used with a high-enough power supply that might raise its headroom from +/-3500mv to, say +/-10000mv, there could be no audible difference between hard and soft clipping at many gain settings, since only the diodes would be doing anything. And the diodes don't particularly care if they are conducting to ground or conducting between pins on an op-amp.
Being a child of grunge: hard clippers the Rat is so versatile! DS-1 obviously is fantastic as well. But I’d have to pick the Rat.
Soft clipping- SD-1 by far. Probably the most versatile pedal of all six! Seems it can replicate the sound of a Bluesbreaker, and the tube screamer can really sound like a wet blanket over a speaker with certain humbuckers- obviously it can sound great but I think it’s range of great tones is far smaller than the SD-1.
With the right guitar and amp the SD-1 can do cliche edge of breakup all the way to 70s glam metal
I can't wait to try this ls-2 clean blend idea with my big muff! thanks!
The mxr sounds really strong and I love the way you changed your attack on picking. so you can hear the difference it really rains through on the boss pedal
How could you give the Rat such a good riff and not expect us to gain a bias?
nice
Lol.... Great Word Play There 😎👊💯💯
Well, duh, RATs induce better riffs, so that counts, right?
@ 4:07
It was a normal riff, the RAT just makes every riff sound like such a good riff
I went with a Wampler Pantheon dual drive pedal. Both channels have hard/soft/both clipping options as well as 3 gain level options. These settings are before the 4 knob controls for each channel. Drive pedals are tools. Pick one and get to work 💪
great demo, thanks
new to the channel, fantastic stuff
You need to do an entire video on the capabilities of that line selector pedal!!!
Interesting fact: ....the Boss Blues Driver is both a hard-clip and a soft-clip. It uses both in each gain stage. Maybe that's why it's so good & versatile.
👍🏻
IIRC the Nobels ODR-1 also has both.
I like having 3-4 gain stages on my pedalboard, and get distention tones by not increasing the volume, but kicking in a new pedal for a gain stage. I got the ODR-1 for lowest gain, hot wax for the two medium gain settings and then an MXR Classic 108 mini fuzz for over the top lines!
Personally I think that the Superoverdrive and the Blues Breaker have the most pleasant tones. They have a nice amount of gain and a lot of clarity at the same time. Even combined with different settings they could sound very good too.
Great vid Michael!
Great comparison of hard and soft distortion. Now I understand the sonic difference. The funny thing is for me as I get older I use it less and dislike hearing it. I’m finding I want purer sounds from my guitar. Weird, huh.
I’m the same way. When I was young I loved distortion and fuzz; I have a pedal collection to prove it. I also thought overdrives were weak and boring
Now I almost always have just an overdrive on to boost my signal just a bit and run an amp mostly clean to get a lot of different vintage clean and overdriven tones. My fuzz and distortion pedals are collecting dust but I can’t seem to part with them
My favorite is a voodoo labs sparkle drive into a boss BD-2 Blues Driver. Separately or stacked, you can't beat the tone, saturation, and overdrive...pure heaven.
Thanks for sharing! Will try.
@@stevengonzalez2518 you're welcome. I think you'll love it.
@dkelban any quick tip you can share!? 😁
I love my ts9dx. It’s the first pedal I ever got when I was a kid and I still use it on gigs! I’ve been experimenting with cranking the drive up all the way, almost pushing it into that hard clipping territory. Never really done that before until the last few gigs. I end up using it for dirty rhythm and then lead tone with a Jan Ray clone before it if I want even more juice.
Sounds like a cool setup. I've heard good things about the TS9DX I'll have to try one some time.
Your MXR Distortion + sounds great! I had one years ago, sold it, I think I want to get another one of these. It seems to sound more gnarly than my rat pedal
I used the Boss pedals a lot. Now I am more into the Rat type pedals like JHS Distortion or the Catalinbread Katzenkönig for hardclipping. I can also recommend the Lichtlaerm Audio Altar Mk III, it is generally a fuzz, but it can do some nice lowgain also. Usually i get lowgain out of my amp or by turning down the volume knob on my guitar to get close. When stacking I usually go from high to low gain. Great video btw!
Your videos are super useful to me because I just so happen to have the same amp and guitar as you, weird.
Food for thought
Nice video, i use a Boss SD1 in to a Marshal Shredmaster. seems to do the trick!
I used the DS-1 for years at settings that would make me cringe now and eventually soured on it. I prefer the Rat more these days but I'm warming up to the DS-1 again after some experimental knob twisting. I've heard people say that 11 o'clock is the sweet spot for the tone knob but I set it at 9 o'clock. My ear for bright tones vs dark has changed a lot, maybe because of the Rat or the settings I use on modellers to get the most natural tone possible.
So glad you are back ,Michael. You can travel far and always return to a TS9 or a SD1
The RAT is really versatile.
I go for a boost now, either Eq, Spark or BB . I think my ears have changed(60 yrs) but I'm really adverse to compression in overdrives. You lose so much harmonics.
The MXR and the the Tube Screamer Distortion were best to my ears
Personally, I was always a fan of the Boss Blues Driver, but as far as TS style circuits, the EQD Plumes cooks the original.If you like the Distortion+, the best version going these days is the JHS Ross reissue Distortion.It's got the vintage, truly grimy style breakup that makes the modern high gain/ heavily compressed circuits sound sissy.
Hard-clippers all the way! 🎸
Try the SD1 at lowish gain and a high level into the Bluesbreaker.
My tone stack from the 90's.. still use it often
I like em all. 😅
I prefer soft clipping pedals for high gain. Sd1 or ts into a cranked 800 is still the best sound for heavy metal. The best rat sound ive heard is actually one aping a tube screamer tone
I prefer a Tube Screamer set to a clean boost setting (drive @ 0, level @ max, tone @ halfway) fed through the high gain channel of a 5150/6505 or a Dual Rectifier.
Great video, great choices of pedals!
The test at the end is just spot on, both because of the EQ matching and allowing the listener to hear the clipping decay. I think the hard clipping sounds more Marshall, when the soft clipping sounds more vintage, blues.
FTR, the Bluesbreaker has a different type of soft clipping than the other two, utilizing the diodes in an inverting amplifier configuration.
I’ll go with the BB and the Rat
The riffs you are playing sound better with the soft clippers. The Ibanez or the Boss sound great IMHO.
Just fiddle with the knobs till you get Tone you want. The sparkle drive is best for fattening up clean , and really boosts and extends the BD-2'S sustained overdrive. Otherwise, the BD-2 Is like other well known overdrive pedals, only better and with a more balanced tone across the frequency spectrum.
Isn't it weird (or at least I don't understand) that the new L6 Pod Express Black (high gain) has a compressor and the other one (red casing) does not?
Got a DS-1 and RAT and if I could spend my money again would buy the SD-1 over the DS-1, the RAT is a keeper.
Is there a pedal that soft clips under a certain frequency and hard clips over that frequency?
I always tought the boss sd-1 was a hard clipper, as I found it spicier than the tube screamer.
Not sure how you’d choose just one over the other. Both are good for different applications.
SD1 and RAT. funny enough, keeley has that 'super rodent' pedal, which is a combination of them both...
The boss was my favorite
RAT HI GAIN ❤ 🐀
I think blues is done to death and there aren't many places to go creatively speaking anymore it's all been done experimentation is the key
I can't focus on differences as I'm listening to your playing 😅
SD-1 & ProCo RATT 2
First!
Thumbnail is wrong. The SD-1 is not that soft, and that's why it's good, hard clip spuhds better.
I like your channel very much, but unfortunatly it is technical not correct, what you say in your explanation at the very beginning. How hard or soft it goes into saturation depends on the characteristic of the clipping diode, the internal resistant of the amplificator that drives the diode in its output- or feedback-circuit, and also on the resistant in row to the diode {if there is one). For example take a hard clipper like the proco rat an put a 10k pot between the clipping diodes and ground an rise the resistent. As bigger it gets as softer it clips even though it is a hard clipping circuit. Or as another example, Big Muffs are soft clippers, but go very hard in to saturation. The Opamp Big Muff has more in common with the tubescreamer than to the clone centaur which is a hard clipper. .
Big muffs nevertheless go such fast into saturation tht there is no real cleanup, if you put down the volume of the guitar, but the proco rat has such a cleanup, even though it is a hard clipper. Or the OCD drive. It is a hard clipper very similar to the boss ds-1 but has a much smoother saturation.
Hard clipping drive pedals into fender amps just don't work for me.
If tried dozens and the only one working for me was the klon but even that's an outlier
I like boosting signal into front of Fenders by turning up Output Gain on an outboard compressor just before the amp
def the hard clippers. however i have always loathed the SD1 DS1 and tubescreamers anyway - worst drive pedals ever. the DS1 is simply the worst pedal ever. very pleasantly surprised by the blues breaker, but the winners are the distortion+ and the rat. i've never owned or played either - i think this vid may have persuaded me to acquire them both one day. don't bob mould and neil young use the +?
Thanks for sharing! I definitely want to start using the dist+ more after doing this video. I've always liked the rat sound.
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