# Muffled/bad sounding tones on Imperial King
**URL:** https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/muffled-bad-sounding-tones-on-imperial-king/9106
**Category:** Plugins
**Created:** [December 16, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/muffled-bad-sounding-tones-on-imperial-king/9106 "2022-12-16T21:35:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Miska](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/Miska)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/muffled-bad-sounding-tones-on-imperial-king/9106/1 "2022-12-16T21:35:21Z")
Hey, new to plugins here, any tips are welcome. I just struggle to get any kind of good tone, especially distorted ones, no matter how much I tweak them, EQ or anything, they always sound muffled and harsh. I have uploaded a small clip of me playing a solo on Soundcloud if you care to listen, this tone is literally what I mean and I hate it.
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1404311902&show_artwork=true
I’ve researched and done the basic things to fix this including:
-Lower gain on Scarlett
-Set from Line → Instrument
-Got a new decent cable
Imperial Tone King Mk 2
Gear: Scarlett 2i2
ESP LTD EC-1000
DAW: Reaper
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### Author:  [@oboy](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/oboy)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2022, 3:39pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/muffled-bad-sounding-tones-on-imperial-king/9106/2 "2022-12-17T15:39:30Z")
Have you got an example of the type of tone you are trying to achieve? Something like the original Bed Of Roses sound?
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### Author:  [@Miska](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/Miska)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/muffled-bad-sounding-tones-on-imperial-king/9106/3 "2022-12-17T17:49:18Z")
Hey, yes I really like the tone in the original Bed of Roses tune. Needless to say I didn’t quite nail it, lol. If you have any suggestions/presets I’d love to try them. In retrospect, I think he’s playing on the neck pickup, but I don’t think that would have saved my clip audio.