Ghosts - taming the resonance

Pedals
1

I’ve only had my Ghosts a few days and I think it’s really amazing but the peaky resonance is driving me crazy. Unless I take a lot of steps to prevent it, I feel like about 3/4 of the notes I play have sort of subtle resonance and the other 1/4 become disturbingly loud, like feedback almost. Maybe this is the nature of an accurate simulation of a resonator, but maybe an accurate simulation of a resonator isn’t the most musical way to approach this.

I have tried using the input filter but that just makes it sound thin and weak, and the peaks are still there. The limiter seems to help some - currently I have it at max - but it feels like it could limit harder.

Is it not possible to have something that resonates but doesn’t resonate MORE when hitting a note that is in its scale/key? Maybe an option that could be engaged to even it all out a bit?

I notice when using Terrazzo that this problem is much less. Perhaps that’s due to the multiple percolating notes somehow breaking up the feedback before it happens.

My sessions seem to vary between getting a “safe” sound that doesn’t peak out, and one that does. Resetting to preset 1 usually puts me back into default peaky mode, then I have to remember or figure out how to dial out the peaks.

I’ve checked out quite a few demos and none of them seem to have this issue.

Any advice on taming this? I’m feeling frustrated.

2

I deal with peak resonance from my synths by throwing them in front of a compressor. Not ideal, but gets the job done. :+1:

3

Use the Voicing knob to get the chord notes away from the octave (above or below) where you are playing.

It’s easier to think of it as you are in a room with amp cranked so certain notes you play would feedback louder than the other ones. The beauty of it is that you can customize the notes and play/write around it, instead of letting it get in your way.

The down side is that you cannot walk around like you are in a room to physically play the feedback’s intensity, so hooking up an expression pedal to control Decay can get that covered.

The other trick is to dial down the Decay knob, while using the Verb in the pre-effect position and set the Verb’s decay long. You won’t get the loud peak, but have a very nice slightly tuned verb.

Give it more time. It’s the best I’ve tried in the Resonance simulation camp. It can be used as a feedbacker or cab sim, depending how you set it up.

4

You could also dial in the built in limiter

5

Alright just did a deeper dive into each parameter and its effect on the peakiness.

Pillof, good suggestions. Yes voicing helps you move the resonance out of where you are playing, with the drawback of thinning out the resonance as you dial it higher. Your idea of reducing decay and dialing in pre-resonator reverb really helps - that may be the most helpful thing so far.

Limiter - yes, it doesn’t kill the peaks completely but definitely makes them less intense. Right now I have it at max and that definitely helps but not completely.

I compared it with the resonator in my Lost & Found. L&F isn’t peaky at all, but it doesn’t seem to have a predefined key or chord it’s working with. It seems to track input pitches, which makes sense given the synth in L&F also tracks input pitches. Basically it manages to resonate in a way that supports what you’re playing without sending it through the roof. Of course it’s a lot less flexible than Ghosts.

In case it’s helpful to anyone else, I took a few notes on the effect of most of the parameters on peakiness, including contributions above - thanks.

And once more I’ll put in an appeal for an option or mode where we don’t have ANY peakiness, just relatively even volume regardless of what you’re playing. Maybe that isn’t true to the model but it would make it quicker and easier to get something that works flexibly and musically with less babying.

Notes:

Decay
Shorter definitely helps but takes away some of the resonant character.
Add pre-resonator reverb to make up for that. This helps quite a bit.

Chord
More complex chords are more widely panned. Nice if this panning could be reduced somewhat, or maybe just need to go mono-out, or run some more post-processing to diffuse the hard panning somewhat.
More complex chords are less resonant. Octaves seem most resonant.
The user chord on preset 1 is nice. What is it?

Position
Nice tonal variation, no effect on resonance.

Voicing
Moves the resonant peak around to higher or lower octaves.
Helpful if you are playing in one range - can move the peak to a different range. But also changes the overall tonality, getting thinner as you dial it up.

Input filter
CCW a bit helps some but thins out everything, doesn’t just tame the peaks.

Limiter
Reduces the max volume of the peaks but they’re still peaky. Still, seems best at maximum.

Model
Tubes & Bars require more decay to resonate
With decay up, peaks are similar to Strings model

Source
Percussive, short notes work better. Sustained pure tones tend to be very peaky.
Crunch/fuzz seems to help - more harmonics in the source, less pure tone, bigger spread of resonance.

Reverb
Seems to help a bit.
Pre-resonator reverb turned up a bit can compensate nicely for reduced decay.

6

Another thing that seems to help a lot is playing with a lot of vibrato. I might also try putting a chorus or vibrato pedal before Ghosts. Either way that keeps me from hanging out right on the resonant frequency.

7

And once more I’ll put in an appeal for an option or mode where we don’t have ANY peakiness

I don’t want to sound gatekeepy or negative, but this is the DEFINITION of a resonator: it will pick up on certain frequencies and resonate along with those.

If you dint want any peakiness, are you sure you’re not simply looking for a more reverb-like sound (maybe with a Bandpass filter) instead of a resonator?

Another thing I thought while reading: you’re playing guitar. That’s (without fuzz / dirt) a very ‘pure’ and focused input, so if you hit a note in the set chord it will MASSIVELY emphasize THAT frequency and that’s AGAIN aggrevated by the long sustain.

This is the reason why resonators traditionally (e.g. The Mutable Instruments Rings module) are favored with short, plucky, noisy input sounds: it gets a lot of frequency to work with and the models will emphasize the frequencies they want. So effectively, you’re giving it not much else to work with OTHER than its pure, peaky frequency.

I know this is partly useless, since you’re asking for help with guitar, but maybe the theory or background helps a bit with finding better scenarios how to use (I dunno, maybe send your L+F into Ghosts using Gen Lite or other lo-fi stuff, see if you like that better!)

Good luck!