Need advice for cloning sounds with Aftershock pedal

[krfoss]

I have an Aftershock pedal, which I generally enjoy and am intending on using as my fuzz/ od pedal full-time. However, I have a grizzly overdrive that does a good overdrive sound that I'm trying to clone as close as possible before I sell it.

So, if you're a master with the deep editing software if the Aftershock, how would you recommend I approach the cloning process? Is there a way that works for you other than slow, methodical adjustment? I'm not an eq master as some here are, so I humble myself before your wisdom and guidance.

 

[Raimonds]

I don't think that there's a "correct" way of doing this.

My approach would be the following:

1. Find out what circuit is you OD pedal based on and check if the Aftershock has that model in its OD engine list
   
2. Record a direct sound, reamp that into both pedals and AB switch between them as until you hear almost no difference.
   
   

 

[bassbrad]

@krfoss I tried to answer this when it was fresh and even came back a couple of times and still came up blank as to a scientific process or method. @Raimonds offers a good suggestion.

I can only offer spending time with all of the various settings available. I find a lot of magic between the different Engines, Voice, Voice Frequency, Drive Balance and Drive Max to get the character of the drive I am looking for and then use the EQ to shape the overall sound to fit my rig and band setting to sit and have the right cut.

After spending years lending an ear and burnt fingers to circuit bending I find this digital method much more rewarding plus saving my progress in the Neuro Cloud is a huge bonus. I have yet to really dig deeply into the possibilities as the C4 is my real love but in time I shall turn my attentions back to the Aftershock past my initial 6 creations that more than fulfill my dirty needs making room for other sonic modifiers.

 

[Veldar]

I double the idea of reference tracks.

Not that I have an Aftershock yet but since you can blend two drives at the same time I would be using that to nail some of the more specific pedals you wanna get the Aftershock soumd like

 

[krfoss]

I essentially did this. I played some nonsense on my b3 looper at the front of the chain, then switched between the pedal I want to clone (grizzly) and the Aftershock.

 

[intrglctcrevfnk]

Chiming in for my slightly scientific method- I used the frequency analyzer in Logic to 'see' what my Fuzzrocious Demon King's signal looked like. Now, I knew that is was an OCD (OhSeeDee in the Aftershock) clone, so I knew to start from there.

I split my signal into 2 channels using my TU-2 tuner since it had 2 outputs. One went through the Fuzzrocious into my Audiobox USB's left input and the Aftershock went into the right channel.

realized there was a fairly hard shelf low pass at 800hz on the Demon King so some EQ and I was in business. I could see where it was accentuating certain frequencies and where it produced higher harmonics so it wasn't such as guessing game.

I think it turned out pretty good:
Neuro Community by Source Audio

 

[krfoss]

Chiming in for my slightly scientific method- I used the frequency analyzer in Logic to 'see' what my Fuzzrocious Demon King's signal looked like. Now, I knew that is was an OCD (OhSeeDee in the Aftershock) clone, so I knew to start from there.

I split my signal into 2 channels using my TU-2 tuner since it had 2 outputs. One went through the Fuzzrocious into my Audiobox USB's left input and the Aftershock went into the right channel.

realized there was a fairly hard shelf low pass at 800hz on the Demon King so some EQ and I was in business. I could see where it was accentuating certain frequencies and where it produced higher harmonics so it wasn't such as guessing game.

I think it turned out pretty good:
Neuro Community by Source Audio

I tried this too, but the a analyzer in garage band is t great...

 

[GMC]

Some dirt is just the same old circuit (rat / screamer / Muff etc) with a different input buffer and post EQ. These are quite easy to emulate. But then comes a long a few (albeit rare) dirt pedal that uses a unique circuit that doesn't sound anything like anything else and can't be emulated on an Aftershock. A few that come to mind...Zfex Mastotron, 3 Leaf Doom...and there's probably a few more.

 

[theunknowndude]

Some dirt is just the same old circuit (rat / screamer / Muff etc) with a different input buffer and post EQ. These are quite easy to emulate. But then comes a long a few (albeit rare) dirt pedal that uses a unique circuit that doesn't sound anything like anything else and can't be emulated on an Aftershock. A few that come to mind...Zfex Mastotron, 3 Leaf Doom...and there's probably a few more.

yep, if I didn't have boutique dirt first, aftershock is pretty awesome, but I couldn't emulate the pedals I had and so sold it off for that reason

 

[tonymcbony]

Well, I found that I actually had to have the pedal I was trying to clone right next to me, all the tech specs of eq points, and still have an engine that was named after that pedal. I did the darkglassy preset on the Neuro app and I had a B7K right next to me. Took me about 2 hours of A/Bing and tweaking.

Neuro Community by Source Audio

 

[krfoss]

Some dirt is just the same old circuit (rat / screamer / Muff etc) with a different input buffer and post EQ. These are quite easy to emulate. But then comes a long a few (albeit rare) dirt pedal that uses a unique circuit that doesn't sound anything like anything else and can't be emulated on an Aftershock. A few that come to mind...Zfex Mastotron, 3 Leaf Doom...and there's probably a few more.

Any idea what the grizzly bass overdrive is based on?

 

[GMC]

Any idea what the grizzly bass overdrive is based on?

I don't but it's also made harder by the fact that it's got both fuzz and Overdrive circuits.

We have to bare in mind that SA didn't intend this pedal to model / mimic boutique units. Anything that deviates from a generic circuit source is going to be difficult to model accurately. So something that has a different grit structure to the models provided isn't going to sound the same with any amount of EQ. If there's a blend of two different op-amps or clipping circuits...that's going to be tricky to replicate too.
I have a Mastotron, which I really like. I have Gated Muff options that behave similar, but don't sound the same. After hearing the 3 Leaf Doom pedal...there's nothing like that pedal currently on the Aftershock (not that it couldn't be modeled by SA).