I'm Michael Banfield and in this video I'm
comparing the Boss DS1 DS2 and MD2. Now I want to roughly break down the video into three
parts so part one I want to do a quick comparison of the three pedals just straight
into a clean amp so you can hear that. Part two I want to talk through a few tips and
tricks that I think you might find useful on how to get the most out of these pedals, sometimes
it's not quite as simple as just plugging them into your existing rig so there's a few things
I want to talk about there and then part three I want to do a much deeper dive into the real subtle
differences between these three pedals and how you can use the strengths and weaknesses of each of
the three to help you decide on which playing style you're going to use them for. So let's start
with that quick comparison into the clean amp. So let's go through some tips on how to make
these pedals sound their best. Now one of the main things I think that completely changes
the sound of the distortion that you're getting is to combine it with an overdrive. So
traditionally this would be an overdrive from your amp, you know just having your amp
cranked up and slightly over driven that's a great way to do it. I've decided to use a boss OD3 here
just because it kind of fits in nicely with the trio of boss pedals we've already got and it means
I can press the pedal on and off so you can hear the difference in the sound with and without the
overdrive I'm not saying that the sound without the overdrive is bad, it might be the sound that
you're after, certainly for kind of brash punk and rock stuff it can be sometimes just what you
want. It's in a similar vein to plugging directly into a recording console where punk bands used
to do that, just plug a distortion pedal right into the console even without an amp and it has
a certain charm to it but what tends to happen is the top end gets really fizzy and the bottom end
is very woolly and using the distortion pedal with an overdrive of some sort instead and stacking it
on top of that overdrive just focuses the sound. So i'll stop talking about it and just
let you hear it so here's the clean sound. Here's the overdrive. And then I'll use some of the distortion pedals just occasionally switching the overdrive
off so you can hear it with and without. Another thing I think that is worth mentioning is
to make sure that you're using a guitar speaker in your amp that you like the sound of distortion
with. I did a video a little while ago comparing a British style speaker with an American style
speaker and I learned a lot from that. I decided that with high gain distortion stuff I generally
preferred the the British sounding speaker and a lot of the other stuff like cleaner sounds
or mid-driven sounds I actually preferred the American style speaker so it's totally subjective
but it's something that you should be aware of when you're trying to get a really good distortion
sound. Make sure using a speaker that you know you like the voice of otherwise you could be trying
pedals all day and the the problem isn't with the pedals it could be with the speaker. Before we
have a deeper look into the precise differences between these pedals do consider clicking the
like button, maybe subscribing to the channel just because I don't really know whether anyone's
finding this content useful without that. Also if you'd like to leave a comment with
any other suggestions on comparison videos or if you'd like to just share
which pedal you like the best, that would be really interesting to know. Let's do
a deeper dive now into the sounds of the boss DS1, the overall tone of the DS1 in terms of the bass
response I feel is in a really nice sweet spot. It's got more bass response than the DS2 but less
available than the MD2, the MD2 has loads which we'll get on to later but it has a nice amount of
bass response, it's nice and full but not kind of super overpowering or anything, it's still got a
nice mid-range grittiness to the sound. The tone control I think is worth mentioning and you just
gotta kind of be careful with the tone control. If you crank it, it doesn't sound too hot, it
tends to sound best on those lower settings so I'll just play that for you with the tone control
on a few different settings and see if you can hear what I mean. So I'll start off with the tone
control pretty low, on the lower settings and then raise it up to those those nastier settings
and yeah see if you can hear what I mean. Now the distortion control is kind of similar,
I think it tends to work best on that kind of noon and below range and once you get it past noon
for me it tends to just compress the sound, it's not actually adding that much distortion it just
compresses the sound and makes it less dynamic and it's also adding a really harsh high end that's
not a nice high end it's the kind of high end that brings out the picking, the attack of your pick
touching the string and that clickiness and the sound of your fingers moving against the strings,
it's that really squeaky high end. So again I'll play with the distortion on a few different
settings and see if you can hear what I mean. Let's move on to the DS2 now. So the tone control
on the DS2 compared to the DS1 I think is much more usable you don't get this weird like
harsh nasally thing in the high end when you crank the tone control. It sounds better
kind of pushing the tone control than it does trying to turn the tone control down
so it's almost a bit the opposite of the DS1, it tends to shine when it's cranked a
bit the tone control on the DS2. So I'll play a little bit of that and see if you can hear what
I mean, it just gets a bit woolly on the lower end but I think it responds the way it should,
it sounds good at any of the settings really. The distortion control, again in comparison
to the DS1 is kind of the opposite, I think it works best about noon or just past noon,
anywhere past noon once you start to take it lower than halfway it starts to sound a little
bit weedy because it's not got that bass response, that big bass response of the DS1 anymore. The
bass response is a little lower which makes it good for cutting high gain distortion
stuff I think, especially lead sounds but not so great on cleaner sounds. You can take
the tone control down a bit to compensate but it's just my opinion, it's okay and it does
get very clean as well, it can clean up more than the other pedals but... I'll just
play around with the distortion control, I'll lower the tone a bit as I get to the
lower gain sounds and see what you think. Mode two of the DS2 has this really nasally kind of mid
boost, it's almost like a cocked wah and for me it's not a great sound I think, but for some lead
sounds it can be really good and if you crank the tone control it can be really useful as well, it
tends to even out that honkiness of the mid boost that it's given you. So I'll just compare it to
the standard setting a little bit so you can hear it and try the tone control a few different
settings so you can hear how that responds. Now the MD2, the mega distortion has
the most distortion out of all of them as the name might suggest and it's got two
distortion controls. It's got the main distortion knob and a gain boost knob which I find is useful
to use as almost like a fine tuning dial that adds a bit of texture a bit of girth to the sound and
makes it just a little bit more three-dimensional. So I'll play the pedal with a few different gain
settings but it's a nice range, it doesn't really have any bad settings I think. It probably
sounds a bit better towards those higher gain sounds and gets a little bit towards the metal
zone pedal kind of sound but they're very responsive controls they don't have really any bad
settings as far as I'm concerned so have a listen. The tone control works as it should I think, kind
of like the DS2 did. There are no kind of harsh weird settings or anything on it, the main thing
about the eq section is this added bottom end control, so you can now add loads more low end,
great for drop tunings and just much more modern sounding distortion sounds. So I'll play around
with the settings but to me it sounds best pretty high. It defines the sound of the mega distortion
I think, on lower settings it just sounds a bit weak and doesn't really do those kind of mid-range
sounds like the DS1 and things. It doesn't really do those as well so it's better at those more
modern mid scoop type sounds so have a listen. To round up this video I've set the pedals to what
I think best define the strengths of each pedal. I'll switch between them so you can hear
the differences in them but to summarise; the DS1 I think does the low gain distortion
sounds the best, that kind of gritty mid-range classic 70s distortion sound the best.
The DS2 shines a bit more with the higher gain distortion, brighter sounds, more cutting,
particularly really good for lead playing. The mega distortion the MD2, that's just really
good for the really modern low end really modern high gain heavy sounds. Drop tunings will sound
great with the mega distortion. I'll play through, see if you can decide which one is best
for you and if you found this video useful do remember to like the video, subscribe if
you want to. Let me know in the comments which pedal you prefer out of the three and if there's
any other comparison videos you'd like me to do that I might have the equipment to, any other
boss pedal comparisons or anything like that, let me know in the comments okay. So thanks for
watching and I hope to see you on another one.
