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Page 20
Chrome Tone
User’s Manual
Distortion
The Chrome Tone Amp Distortion section provides a wide range of distortion
tones from light to heavy. The Distortion controls are:
• Drive - selected amount of gain (emphasis) of selected frequencies into the
distortion circuit.
• Drive Type - Controls and shapes the frequencies that feed the distortion
circuit with the following shapes:
• Normal parametric bell
• Wide parametric bell
• Low Shelf
• Band Pass Filter
• Resonant peak Low pass filter
• Variable Q Low pass filter
• Resonant peak High pass filter
• Variable Q High pass filter
• Extremely tight Q parametric bell
• Frequency - the frequency where the Drive control gain is focused.
• Amount - the amount of distortion
• Level - the overall output level of the distortion section
• Distortion Type Popup - selects the distortion circuit type. Distortion types are Light I, Light II, Medium, Heavy,
Shread, and Screamer
A key element to any guitar amplification system is the sound, or ‘tone’ of its distortion section. For this reason, Chrome
Tone offers many distortion modes. The Drive control articulates the color of the distortion, allowing the selection of
the portion of the frequency spectrum incurring more distortion.
EQ, Reverb, and Cabinet Simulation
The Chrome Tone Amp Equalizer section allows further
sonic adjustments post distortion. There are 3 bands of
EQ - low shelf, parametric, and high shelf.
The EQ controls are:
• Gain - +/- 12 dB in each EQ band
• Frequency - selects the frequency value for each EQ
band
These EQ sections are taken straight from McDSP’s award winning FilterBank plug-In. While a passive EQ mode may
have been an option, the use of the active EQ in the Chrome Tone Amp gives a wider variety of sounds.
Output
The Chrome Tone Amp Output section provides reverb, cabinet, and final output control.
The Output section controls are:
• Phase - the polarity (phase) of the final output.
• Reverb - the amount of reverberated signal mixed with the dry signal.
• Output - the overall signal level adjustment.
• Cabinet Type - Several cabinet styles with close and room mic positions, plus two
direct modes.
The reverb algorithm in Chrome Tone is a combination of spring and ‘room tone’
reverberations. The cabinet types were created from a collection of amplifiers measured and tested during the course
