Ableton Forum

Hey guys, Im adding the dynamic tube to my Minimoog synth bass sound to get some more grit in the sound. However when I activate the dynamic tube effect on the channel, the bass gets sweeped like im raising and lower the eq around 100hz or so... making the distorted signal insconsistant. It also sounds like the note is changeing between 2 different octaves. What is causing it to do this? Im still a noob to signal processing and production in general so if someone could explain what these parameters are doing to the sound in a fairly simple way that would really help me a lot.

Current Dyanimc Tube Settings:

Dry/Wet:100
Drive: 6.19dB
Bliss: 39% (still dont quite understand what this parameter is doing, but have tried adjusting it and still getthing the inconsistancy in the sound)
Envelope:-300% (have also tried changing this parameter, but -300 seems to give the least change in the bass fluctuation)
Attack:1.05 ms (im assuming this works in the same way as an amp envelope in a synth, where with the lowest setting the sound will be effected by the tube immediately. Correct me if im wrong pls)
Release: 23.0 ms (same as envelope in synth?)

Sorry for the extended post about a probably simple issue, but i'd really appreciate a thorough explanation and understanding of what I am doing to the sound. Thanks in advance!

anyone have any input?

Hi, this one takes a lot of careful listening and experimenting to use. You may try a more subtle Drive setting or even no Drive and you will have to adjust Output to suit your mix. Let the distortion models saturate the input. Explore the 3 types, pay attention to Ableton's Info pane when mousing-over the different tube type switches. This will give you a hint of what those three models do to the signal. I usually go for b or c for this purpose and since they distort the signal regardless, I leave Bias extremely low or on 0. Good saturation is only barely noticeable, it is only adding many subtle harmonics to the input to make the signal seem "thicker". A/B your different settings while listening to the effected bass in the context of your mix. Moderation and subtle adjustment is a good rule for this effect when using it to thicken a signal I've discovered. You can use the Tone parameter to adjust which part of the signal will receive the most effect.

Now Ableton has new effects, AMP and Cabinet to the audio effects alternatives. I have them both but I have not had the time to explore them fully. I hear fantastic potential when simply previewing some of the models on different types of input.

Edit: Oh, of course the Env follower settings (on the right side of the interface) for the Bias adjustment is not in use when not biasing the signal. This is a follower for Bias. At least I don't use it for the purpose of adding slight saturation to a signal. Look here for simple explanation: http://bustedgear.com/faq_Amp_bias.htm