A touch of dimensionality to your sound

NegativeEase

NegativeEase

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Curious how other people are solving this.. adding some dimensionality to your sound without the sound of effects being very present and without a delay stepping all over your next passage. Spring reverb doesnt work for me unless I'm playing slow ambient things.

I usually add a very short decay plate verb 25% in the mix and a hair of chorus/vibe with low intensity and mild depth to create some dimension in an already good guitar tone just needing some spice

So I'm curious what other sauce people are maybe sprinkling on their tone to get some nice spatial perception WITHOUT it muddying up the next notes
 
Live or recorded? I have my spring reverb set at 3 and it’s been there for 15 years now. If I need some clean swirl I like to add analog chorus (Voodoo Lab, is that a CE-1 style?) with the rate and depth low. It doesn’t sound like chorused guitar but it does provide a little more interest than pure clean. For recordings I think you have a ton of options.
 
TC Mimiq or a very very slight delay of around 30ms. The way I like doing this best is by simply using blended tones. I love using 2 amps which (for me) brings in at least 2 (4x12) cabs (sometimes more) and you have speaker options in that scenario as well. Even if all speakers are the same type, no speaker or cabinet is identical. There are plenty of options within these I listed to get you enough variation to fill or widen things beautifully. If I am seeking more, I will then go to various effects depending on what is going on. If I can get away with it, I will have one amp (of the two) less dirty and that amp typically is my effect amp.

If you are going a modern way, you can simply change IR's on the exact same rig and accomplish the same thing. Changing mics, mic position provides a similar solution.

A lot of this stuff comes down to volume and the room in addition to the tone type.
 
PFDarkside said:
Live or recorded? I have my spring reverb set at 3 and it’s been there for 15 years now. If I need some clean swirl I like to add analog chorus (Voodoo Lab, is that a CE-1 style?) with the rate and depth low. It doesn’t sound like chorused guitar but it does provide a little more interest than pure clean. For recordings I think you have a ton of options.
Click to expand...

Yeah, more referring to live. I like that Voodoo Lab unit.
 
Phase at the start of my board set very slow when playing nearly clean up to medium gain - either a Small Stone or a Deja Vibe works very well for this. For clean sounds, I like flanging - an electric mistress (or mooer e-lady clone) in the loop, again set very slow. I've never been happy with a chorus sound on my board.

I tend to use delay instead of reverb much of the time while playing. Pretty low in the mix, about 2-3 repeats and set up for dotted eighth notes with the rhythm of the music. It does a similar thing to reverb, but seems to work better for me in more situations and doesn't muddy up the same way. If reverb gets used at all, I like it to be very low and barely audible (unless you're going for a Dick Dale style spring effect).
 
More studio concepts than live, though some items here work for both situations:

- one trick with using reverb and keeping your tone from getting lost in the "wash/reflections" is to use pre-delay.

This delays the reverb from activating; giving your dry tone a small window to stick out.

Anywhere from 20-150ms or thereabouts.

Example: VH1 - try 100ms pre-delay on stereo plate reverb (EMT140 to be exact) and pan guitar 90% L

- compression. Proper compression can make things lively versus no compression; more 3D-ish.

- Eventide (in stereo). Even a hair of Eventide does wonders.

- manual doubling. Record a rhythm/solo track, pan hard L, play and record the same piece, pan hard R.

Tiny differences in both timing and (sometimes) pitch will make the track come alive.
 
Are you running stereo? And is it a one-guitar band, or is there another guitar in the mix?
There's a lot more room for treatment if another guitar isn't a concern.
Brian May used to use several amps daisy-chained with short delays in between, nice big live sound for a single-guitar band.

Also, are you looking for a special effect, or something that's always on?

Chorus with the width set almost at zero is a good option - even better if you can tweak the time and blend.
Behringer made a stompbox clone of the Roland Dimension D that might be worth trying. Warm & wide.
An exciter pedal (dialed judiciously) can work nicely to make a tone stand out.
Micropitch can be magic if you're running stereo.

For basic stomp effects, a good Echoplex pre pedal in front of the amp does something especially cool and three-dimensional to your mids.
(Something that duplicates the original circuit like a Chase or Clinch, not cheaper "EP" pedals that only change the EQ curve).

Haven't tried the Mimiq pedal myself but it's a cool idea and sounds good in the demo vid.
Probably not something you'd use as an always-on though.

A subtle medium-length single delay in the FX loop can add a richness and depth that's practically subliminal.
But it can also muddy the water when there's a lot going on, especially if you need tight stops.
 
Depends on where I'm playing, but I usually have some reverb on all the time, mostly a small amount of plate reverb unless it's at church, then the HoF church mode is required.
 
Different things... Reverb or Delay as mentioned, but also this occasionally

Also...sometimes chorus.
- Set depth low
- Rate as appropriate
- Get the level just right

Doesn't sound goopy/syrupy, but is "bigger"
Helps if there is a delay knob on the chorus for adjustment
 
Back in Ye Olde Days (pre 1990) I used a chorus pedal set to slowest rate, highest depth, before Distortion. I tried delay but never hit a setting that worked for me.
Also, always amp reverb. Never owned an amp without decent spring reverb, still won't. Start at zero & turn it up until the sound shifts, or start at 10 and turn it down until it sounds clear. It's the same sweet spot either way.
I also lean toward hollow & semi-hollow or really resonant solid guitars because they breathe - a sustained note or chord changes as you let it ring and strumming is more staccato/less even and compressed, which also gives it some motion or breath or whatever word means "less perfect and more human sounding."
 
An actual Dimension pedal is a wonderful thing. It is like a chorus without modulation, and it really comes alive in stereo.
 
Usually delay set to 1-2 repeats with level set fairly low, light-mid reverb and sometimes a little chorus (MXR Micro Chorus) set at it's lowest. I love my modulations and use them all the time but I use them very sparingly/moderately. All these together can do the cool 80's metal/rock cleans and old-school Metallica cleans in spades. Chorus all on its own can make OD-distortion really sound great and full with lots of dimension and still clear and articulate a touch of reverb can sound nice too but not to much. People try to play it off like you need all this stuff set high for the 80's thing but in fact all together it's very little from each one.
 
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