Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

[Dave Locher]

Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

https://youtu.be/nhSw6fbK2N0

I have watched this video several times and the Rocktron Austin Gold catches my attention every time. What is it doing differently than all the others? Boosting or cutting a frequency range that the other pedals aren't?

It comes in around 2:30 and again around 9:20.

I do not have any studio or engineering experience so I do not know exactly what I am hearing or what one would need to do to cop a similar sound.

 

[superpete]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

to my ears it has more emphasis in the low mids and a lot less gain than most of the other pedals, so you're not getting the fizzy top end some of the other pedals give you. With less gain you're also getting less compression. It has a lot more natural sound than a lot of those pedals.

 

[ICTGoober]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Ah, Johan Segeborn always has good comparo vids...

I'd say the Rocktron Austin Gold simply has less overdrive. The Metal Zone sounds like ****.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

So more of a boost than an overdrive? Is that all?

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I don't know what this pedal sounds like under any other setting, but it sounds like a pedal where the scoop and treble boost are narrow bandwidth ranges -like putting a graphic EQ after an overdrive.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

A couple of comments:

#1 - That guy is totally an Ace Frehley fan! Hahahahahaha

#2 Austin Gold is an under-rated Rocktron Pedal. Back when it arrived on the scene it got a lot of love.

#3 Yeah - I think it is the 'less gain' factor. At least one of the issues. The guys does a fairly ok job of leveling out the pedals, but there is a mysterious "sameness" in the settings too....rough call.

#3 That Rocktron series of pedals has a lot of cool pedals - check some out.

#4 Example of his approach - WTF did he do to the Tube Screamer????? Sounded like crap.

#5 Metal Zone. DID NOT BELONG IN THERE. But he left the sticker on because he is gonna return it. Hahahahahahah

 

[67Mopar]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I rate the Way Huge Overrated Special as the best sounding. I don't know who makes it, but the MultiDrive is unique sounding. The AC Booster is a great pedal. The rest... meh. He wish he would have included the Zendrive 2. The worst? The BOSS Metal Zone, of course.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I think this video is a miss. his mic'ing of the Marshall isn't very good IMO, and he didn't try very hard on pedal settings either.

That said, I dug the Analog Man, Keely, Wampler, and MXR distortion III the highest as far as tone, OCD is good on the second clip but weak on first.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I don't know what this pedal sounds like under any other setting, but it sounds like a pedal where the scoop and treble boost are narrow bandwidth ranges -like putting a graphic EQ after an overdrive.

It doesn't really have any eq controls other than a "pre bass" knob, which (I gather from reviews) adjusts the bass content before it hits the gain. But no treble or tone knob, just volume & gain.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

A couple of comments:

#1 - That guy is totally an Ace Frehley fan! Hahahahahaha

#2 Austin Gold is an under-rated Rocktron Pedal. Back when it arrived on the scene it got a lot of love.

#3 Yeah - I think it is the 'less gain' factor. At least one of the issues. The guys does a fairly ok job of leveling out the pedals, but there is a mysterious "sameness" in the settings too....rough call.

1. Isn't everyone a huge Ace Frehley fan??
2. I never heard of it before this video. Looked around, found some reviews, but several claim the newer version isn't as good? Don't know if that is true or hype.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

It doesn't really have any eq controls other than a "pre bass" knob, which (I gather from reviews) adjusts the bass content before it hits the gain. But no treble or tone knob, just volume & gain.

Understood completely, but the pedal is "voiced" this way -with heavy narrow bands accentuated and dropped. -or at least it sounds that way to me.

 

[LLL]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Sure... here's my take on all of them; one listen through:

(note: "sloppy" means a good deal of compression is heard; giving sloppy compressed squishiness)

MultiDrive: kinda flat
OCD: pretty good
Overrated Special: not bad
Raptor: good focused mids
Austin Gold: good clean boost-ish
Red Dirt: better than Raptor; really good focused mids
Riot: really good clean boost-ish
Supro Fuzz: it's sorta fuzzy
Plexi Drive: just a little flat
AC Booster: good w/ warm mids and bite
Sweet Honey Overdrive: good w/ warm mids
Dark Matter: good, but somewhat thin
Power Screamer: decent & sloppy
Vulture: good
Fuzzface: good, slightly sloppy but somewhat thin
Tubescreamer: warm mids but no bite at all and a bit thin
Metal Zone: bite is too EQ focused in upper-upper hi-mids (4-8KHz?); extremely thin
Woodpecker: good
Distortion III: warm mids, good bite, slightly sloppy
red box w/ 5 knobs: kinda flat and sloppy
Brute Drive: good to really good



BTW, I hate how he vibratos.

If I were to buy one, it would be the Brute Drive.

EQ is perfect w/ the plexi, it's tight without being clinical, right amount of B/M/T, gain & compression.

Looks like Eric Gales digs 'em. Good ears.

 

[LLL]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

The Austin Gold seemed to have the least amount of gain (set) out of all of them.

That's the biggest difference.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I hate his vibrato too! Dude does make some really interesting videos though.
So the big difference really is just lower gain? I guess that's what I like about it then. I thought it was more about the eq.

 

[LLL]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I should mention I only listened to the 1st part (soloing)... didn't bother with the 2nd part (rhythm)

 

[MGW]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I think there's more to it than just a slightly lower gain level.
Most of the other pedals also had varying measures of "Q" in the tone where the Rocktron sounded much cleaner.
I don't mean cleaner from a gain perspective but from a Q perspective.
It was cleaner with regard to gain as well but I meant the Q.
I think that is the biggest difference and the reason for superior tone.
I realize not everyone understands Q but we all recognize it even if we don't all know how to describe it.
Try a YouTube search for the MXR Q-Zone.
Q is most often described as a "parked wah" but that's only a reasonable facsimile of Q because there are other aspects to Q.

My ears told me the Rocktron had the least amount of Q in this video and that's why I liked it the best.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I think this video is a miss. his mic'ing of the Marshall isn't very good IMO, and he didn't try very hard on pedal settings either.

That said, I dug the Analog Man, Keely, Wampler, and MXR distortion III the highest as far as tone, OCD is good on the second clip but weak on first.

I've watched plenty of his speaker comparisons. Regardless of speaker Segeborn always mic's them so they're really fizzy and flat sounding. I guess it's just the way he wants them in video.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I think there's more to it than just a slightly lower gain level.
Most of the other pedals also had varying measures of "Q" in the tone where the Rocktron sounded much cleaner.
I don't mean cleaner from a gain perspective but from a Q perspective.
It was cleaner with regard to gain as well but I meant the Q.
I think that is the biggest difference and the reason for superior tone.
I realize not everyone understands Q but we all recognize it even if we don't all know how to describe it.
Try a YouTube search for the MXR Q-Zone.
Q is most often described as a "parked wah" but that's only a reasonable facsimile of Q because there are other aspects to Q.

My ears told me the Rocktron had the least amount of Q in this video and that's why I liked it the best.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

"Least amount of Q" means it is boosting a wider range of frequencies?? (I have read about q and I thought hi q = affecting a narrow spectrum, lo q = wide spectrum? No matter how many old Star Trek episodes I watch I still don't fully understand Q!)

 

[MGW]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

If you think of Q as being a parked wah then you understand it affects a narrow band of frequencies, which is a sweepable.
That's what you're hearing when you rock the wah pedal.
A narrow band of affected frequencies which is being swept up and down the spectrum.
Remove the Q and you remove the effect and the signal returns to original.
So it's not a matter of boosting a wider range.
Its a matter of removing the boost.
Well, that kind of boost anyway.
It's an OD pedal so you're still getting clipping, which most people call gain because it comes bundled with a volume increase but that is a different sort of boost from Q.