# Bad distortion's sound with Bias FX 2



## DaftFloyd (Apr 8, 2020)

Hi,

I'm using Bias FX2, with a Cort X-11 (cheap guitar with EMGhz pick-ups). 
My guitar is plugged in a pod X3 as audio interface.
I don't understand why my distortion sound is so bad (here a demo https://soundcloud.com/seiune/distortiontest?in=seiune/sets/testreaper )
And here is the dry sound : https://soundcloud.com/seiune/drytest?in=seiune/sets/testreaper
Beside this, the clean is pretty good : https://soundcloud.com/seiune/cleandelaytest?in=seiune/sets/testreaper

Someone got an idea ? Why the distortion seems to have no punch, no dynamics, and almost no gain ? (trying to get a tone like this :  )


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## nickgray (Apr 8, 2020)

It's down to how you're tweaking the amp sim, yours is pretty bad sounding. Here's your DI thrown into my Helix Native patch that I use for practice (the reverb is off though just so that you can hear the dry tone):

https://soundcloud.com/nckgr2718/bad-dist/s-OoqqiSjoKR1

You also seem to have some interference in the background, it's either power supply related or just EMI, probably from the computer. Also, to put it bluntly, the performance in this DI isn't very good, your tone highly depends on your playing, both in how you pick and how tight/on time you are.

Some tips: use good IRs, IR is by far the biggest contributor to tone and it takes a while to find the right ones, not sure what to recommend other than trial and error. With amps, try to treat them as real amp. Start at with knobs at 12 and work your way from here. Power amp distortion has a HUGE effect on the tone, for metal you typically want to avoid it completely or use just a little bit of it, so keep the amp's volume level relatively low (figure out where the compression and distortion kicks in for the model that you're using). 808-style boost is a great idea, gain at 0, level at max (or between 12 and max, to taste), and tone to taste as well. Don't overdo the gain, use as little as you can get away with.

Make sure your guitar is in tune (yours isn't), has a good setup (intonation, action, etc.), and that the pickup height is properly adjusted. This depends on the guitar and on the pickups, start relatively high and try lowering the pups to see how the tone changes, could be that yours works the best when the pups are very close, could be that they need some space.

Also, BIAS, imo, is pretty crap. You can definitely get better results with it that the ones you posted though.


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## DaftFloyd (Apr 8, 2020)

Hi, thank you for your developped answer (excuse my english i'm french).

You're totally right, the playing isn't very good, it was just a shitty and sloppy playing juste to record the sound of the distortion, so it was not proper and tight. 

How can I use IRs with Bias ? (if you know how to do it...) And by the way thank you for the explanations about the amps.

Yes the guitar was not in tune, because I was adjusting the pickup height juste before, and it was not retuned after that... 

If not BIAS, so what ?


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## Carl Kolchak (Apr 8, 2020)

DaftFloyd said:


> Hi, thank you for your developped answer (excuse my english i'm french).
> 
> You're totally right, the playing isn't very good, it was just a shitty and sloppy playing juste to record the sound of the distortion, so it was not proper and tight.
> 
> ...


My unsolicited advice would be to stop using BIAS, and instead get yourself a good high gain preamp pedal, an EQ pedal, and a good IR pedal like a Two-Notes CAB M. You will also need to upgrade your USB interface as well.


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## nickgray (Apr 8, 2020)

DaftFloyd said:


> How can I use IRs with Bias ?



No idea, I don't have the plugin, I tried it quite a while ago. There's probably an option to load an external IR somewhere. If not, you can use Ignite NadIR, it's a free IR loader, it's pretty good.



DaftFloyd said:


> If not BIAS, so what ?



Well, again, you can definitely achieve better tones with BIAS, but in general, tbh I don't know. TSE X50 is a pretty good 5150 sim, Helix Native is pretty good, it's what I use atm, lots of people like Neural DSP stuff. Overall, the main contributor to the tone is the IR though, figure out which cabs, mics, and IRs from which companies you like, and only then worry about the amp sim.

Hell, if you have Pod X3, I'm pretty sure you can achieve good results simply by running its amp sims into IRs. I would definitely try that before anything else.


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## DaftFloyd (Apr 8, 2020)

I will try Ignite, thank you. I'm not very aware of how IRs are working. But you're talking about running the pod X3 amp sims into IRs, how is that working ?!


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