What does "transparent" mean

hhawkins

I understand it to mean letting the natural sound of your guitar and amp shine through without colouring your tone. 

JayGee

deano said:

Okay, so it isn't a feature of distortion characteristic, but rather of any EQ characteristics that occur alongside the distortion?

Transparency is defined as how much or how little EQ change takes place. Okay, so not a post-modern redefinition (well, a little bit; just saying "doesn't change the EQ" would work!).

Dynamics come into it too, some drives definitely compress a lot more than others. I agree it’s an oxymoron, but nobody seems to have come up with a better one word description of “doesn’t completely swamp the sound of your guitar with it’s own signature” so I’m happy to go along with it for the moment...

stratman3142

I've always interpreted a transparent sound to be one that sits in a mix (or overall band sound) without significantly masking the sound of other instruments. And that might vary depending on the sound of the other instruments.

57Deluxe

In a 'drive' context, Transparent means taking all the qualities of your existing signal and boosting it so that when it gets to the amp it pushes the amp so that you then get your existing qualities but with amp distortion on top.

EricTheWeary

We've got at least three distinct versions of what it means so far. So I'd suggest if you read/ hear it unless they explain what they mean in that context it's essentially meaningless. 

StrummyBrummie

Cork sniffing needs a vocabulary. They are not hurting anyone. Leave them alone they are having fun. 

stratman3142

EricTheWeary said:

We've got at least three distinct versions of what it means so far. So I'd suggest if you read/ hear it unless they explain what they mean in that context it's essentially meaningless. 

Thinking about it, it does depend on context.

hhawkins said:

I understand it to mean letting the natural sound of your guitar and amp shine through...

That's a good definition in the context of a drive pedal. As an example in this context, I think of an SD9 on a low gain setting as demonstrated by Oz Noy below:

deano

StrummyBrummie said:

Cork sniffing needs a vocabulary. They are not hurting anyone. Leave them alone they are having fun. 

Sorry. Please accept my apologies I won't mention it again.

But if you, or anyone you know, have been affected by this discussion, you can talk to trained councilors by calling 0800 VERTEX, that's 0800 VERTEX. Calls are free. Please, you don't have to suffer alone.

StrummyBrummie

deano said:

StrummyBrummie said:

Cork sniffing needs a vocabulary. They are not hurting anyone. Leave them alone they are having fun. 

Sorry. Please accept my apologies I won't mention it again.

But if you, or anyone you know, have been affected by this discussion, you can talk to trained councilors by calling 0800 VERTEX, that's 0800 VERTEX. Calls are free. Please, you don't have to suffer alone.

That made me chuckle. I have often thought though (and only half jokingly ) that some sort of AA style support group may well be beneficial around these parts .... 

  The flood of happiness as the dopamine, endorphins and other groovy neurotransmitters combine when a pedal deal is done in the classifieds, or an eBay auction is won. Another hit when postie arrives heralding NPD and you take it out of the box and plug in. And more of the same for the 30 minute honeymoon of knob twisting, guitar swapping and amp switching.

But then the come down..... As you AB with the pedal you bought last week, and the week before that, and the week before that. The slow but certain realization that were someone to blindfold you, you would be utterly unable to distinguish one from the other. Then the sadness, then emptiness, then the weeping ....

ewal

The only definition which makes any sense to me is the eq one. I can set my Rat up to very low gain but it's still not transparent because of the bottom end cut.

ICBM

57Deluxe said:

In a 'drive' context, Transparent means taking all the qualities of your existing signal and boosting it so that when it gets to the amp it pushes the amp so that you then get your existing qualities but with amp distortion on top.

That would mean it can only apply to clean boosts, which is not at all the way it’s usually used - in fact it would then specifically not apply to overdrive pedals.

roberty

ewal said:

The only definition which makes any sense to me is the eq one. I can set my Rat up to very low gain but it's still not transparent because of the bottom end cut.

Yeah same here. I suppose low clipping levels too

TTBZ

When I want something "transparent" i want it to just sound like a bigger/better/gainier version of my core sound rather than imposing much of its own character. The problem when you get a straight clean boost like an LPB1 is the bass flubs out and it all goes saggy/compressed and weird. So I prefer something like a Klon type which seems to keep the low end in check without the compression and sometimes excessive low/high cut of a TS. The Klon does add a bit of its own "special sauce" though so not completely transparent but it's nice.

TimmyO

It means that marketing nonsense and internet received wisdom has entered common parlance 

NorthernStomps

TimmyO said:

It means that marketing nonsense and internet received wisdom has entered common parlance 

Kinda this

see TRUE BYPASS for a similar example 

Hattigol

Isn't the answer clear?

prlgmnr

This post transparently addresses your question.

57Deluxe

or did you mean when your Father becomes your Mother Mk2 or vice-versa?