There are many types of Booster effects in the Katana Tone Studio!

Which you choose should depend on if you are trying to replicate the sound from a record or if you are just making up your own sound. For the former, you will need to get yourself familiar with each type and have some idea where to start looking to copy the tone - if you're doing your own thing you can explore as much or as little as you can be bothered with!

Just a note about the terms Overdrive and Distortion. Different manufacturers use them different ways but generally speaking Overdrive is more like the sound you get from running a valve amp hard, like natural kind of crunch, but distortion is usually more of an artificial sounding thing. You'll probably hear that - but might help to have this in mind while listening!

Boost Types

Clean Boost
As it says on the tin really! Not likely to give you much tasty crunch here, you should use this to boost the signal in volume (for solos) but you do have the options to add gain!

Treble Boost
Clapton famously used a Treble Boost and in the 60’s there were many players that used this to get a certain type of gain from an amp - from my experience with the ‘real’ ones, they sound best into an amp that is working hard - and loud! But this digital version does a very similar thing without busting your ears (or the bank - Dallas Rangemaster units from the 60’s sell for thousands!).

Mid Boost
The classic mid boost pedal is the Ibanez Tube Screamer but they come in many flavours - it’s a very effective type of boost that cuts through for solos without adding too much more distortion!

Crunch OD
This is a nice crunchy overdrive as the name suggests, not going to be great for full on metal but will be popular for those looking for Blues tones and cleans with a nice break up when hit hard!

Blues Drive
This is the sound of the classic Boss pedal - the Blues Driver (BD-2)! Obviously designed for blues but can get pretty pokey too and can be good for rock when going into an already crunchy amp setting.

Overdrive
Another classic Boss pedal is the OD-1, and this gives you the sounds of that pedal!

Natural OD
This type of boost aims to give you some natural style overdrive that you would get from driving your amp hard.

Warm OD
There’s a clue in the name again here… a warmer (less harsh) overdrive - usually there are less upper mids in this kind of sound but it’s not likely to ‘cut’ as well.

Turbo OD
Everything is better with a Turbo right? Another type of overdrive!

T-Scream
Yes, it’s a Tube Screamer emulation here - and a pretty good one - though to my ears, there’s not really anything that comes close to Tube Screamers, except Tube Screamers (and well that JHS Bonsai thing that sounds like loads of Tube Screamers!).

Distortion
The Boss DS-1 pedal is another classic used on many of the legendary recordings - it’s got it sound that you need to hear and lean to distinguish between the Overdrive and Distortion… some brands use these terms for other sounds, but comparing the two Boss classics is a lesson on the differences between them!

Fat DS
This one is Fat Distortion… any guesses? A fat (thicker, fuller, bigger) type of distortion!

Dist+
This is a simulation of the MXR Distortion+ pedal which is a classic - it’s yet another flavour of gain that some people love and some haven’t heard yet! Ha ha! You just need to listen and find the ones you like best! I have a very old 'bud box' MXR Distortion+ and it's a fantastic pedal!

Guv DS
This is the Marshall Guvnor pedal sound, a great rock pedal. In Case you wondered why companies change the names like this - I assume it’s simply because the names are trademarked and they just can’t use the name without paying someone a license so they have to have 'soundy likey' names!

Rat
The Rat pedal is another classic sound and it’s got its own thing going on that you should check out!

Metal Zone
The Boss Metal Zone pedal is a bit of a Marmite pedal, love it or hate it... and I'm not a big fan - just doesn't work for me... but that said - there are loads of people who love it, so give it a go and se ehow you get on with it!

Metal DS
Another type of heavily compressed distortion for metal. Not my kind of thing, but it's good at it if that's what you're going for.

60’s Fuzz
Fuzz is a very different beat to overdrive and distortion type effects - a lot well… fuzzier! This one sounds like the Arbiter Fuzz Face!

Muff Fuzz
This one is emulating another classic pedal - The Electro Harmonix Big Muff.

Oct Fuzz
This one adds an octave to the fuzz, a trick that Hendrix was digging on in the late 60’s - very cool sound.

Taste The Flavours Yourself!

As I said before - you gotta try these things out for yourself - by experimenting and exploring on your own you’ll start to recognise the ‘flavour’ of the different effects and recognise them when you hear them on a recording if you want to recreate a tone of a recording you dig.

I would recommend making your own notes on these setting so you can remember which you liked and which you didn't and for sure save any settings that you find and that you really dig!

Learning about effects here on the Katana will also help you in the future when you think about buying other effect pedals, you'll know if you like Blues Drivers, Tube Screamers or Big Muffs - you can and should go explore them all! :)