For those of you that have used (or currently use) an SE-70, I am wondering if anyone ever came up with a really nice and usable distortion. I am kind of looking to channel Sean Malone from the self titled Gordian Knot (see 'Grace') or Trey Gunn's 'Dziban' from Third Star. I have been working with the Slow Gear patch tweaking the alogrhythms with decent results, however I would love to here from a veteran SE-70 user for extra help.

Thanks, Steve

Hello Steve,

i only know "Dziban" so i will relate to this sound. I suppose you are using the guitar-algorithm of the SE-70 and to my ears you need to use and combine SlowGear (Sens 50/Attack 50 - depending on you input level), Compressor (Sustain 80/Attack 50), AutoWah (LPF,Down Polarity,Sens 30, Manual 40,Peak 30) , very slight Distortion (Natural Distortion or Vintage) and a short Delay/Doubling. Instead of using the inverse AutoWah you can use a pedal to control the Manual-Parameter of the wah between (sounds better to me).

I'am not sure but, i suppose Trey Gunn used the EHX Microsynth combined with a whammy for this sound, course it has some smootheness which the SE-70 lacks. And Trey Gunns sounds came out of his fingers and his playing too.

Hope i could help a bit,

Michael

Hi Steve,

This response is more general, but maybe there will be something in it that will help you.

The Slow gear on the SE 70 is great, but it doesn't really give you much with distortion sounds as there's too much gain happening after the slow gear to give you a really good volume swell.

Micheal's comment about using the Auto Wah is a good one. Try setting it so that it starts from a very low frequency and then "opens up."

I usually use a volume pedal to control the Noise Supressor level, so you can fade in after the distortion, and don't forget to experiment with radical eq settings, and the amp simulator.

The best thing about the SE-70 is that it is like having a giant programmable distortion/preamp, with tons of different parameters.

Keep searching for that sound.

Thanks guys. You both make very interesting observations and give much help. I have been working on my distortions for a few weeks now with favorable results, however your advice will no doubt take me in a new direction. Thanks again, I'll let you know when I find my sound...

Steve