Anyone using speaker drive or motor drive since about 6.0?

greiswig

Power User
I'm curious...it seems to me like the last couple of firmware updates, a lot of the more experienced guys (Scott, et al) here seem to be largely defaulting virtually all advanced parameters. This would include things like speaker drive and motor drive. Am I wrong about that?
 
I am not using it at this point, no; I don't use anything if I feel it isn't making things better. I happen to prefer what I am doing with it at zero, nothing more or less to it. My credo is: just because it is there does not mean you have to use it. Try it and judge for yourself.

It's like the eye doctor test; 'better.... or worse' when comparing things with or without parameter changes.

You be the judge for your own tones; trust your ears.
 
I use it all the time. I'd say my norms are .25 and .39, however I have presets going up to 2.0.
 
I use it a lot on high gain patches (motor drive). I usually have it set from 2.5-5.0. I can't really put it into words, but it doesn't something to the tone that would be hard to replicate with just EQ. I find it nearly essential for a lot of "modern" metal types of tones.
 
I seem to recall running a flat IR into a spectrum analyser, and seeing that motor drive was a notch in the mids. Can't remember what frequency though.
 
I have not used these extensively but I like the idea that they are there if I'm looking to get a certain sound in the future. I try to go in regularly and fiddle with advanced parms I don't use often so that I get an understanding of what they do. Lately I stick with the basic tone stack / power amps settings + the input trim, saturation, boost, hi/low cut, and definition controls as well as the room settings on the cab. One of the great things I'm finding about the Axe Fx II (and Ultra v 9 and above) is that settings seem to sound really good out of the box. In earlier Ultra versions I found that I needed to tweak a lot to get a sound I like. Now I usually get a sound I like from stock setting and then shape from there using basic parameters and less used advanced ones in some cases. Awesome!
 
I use it a lot on high gain patches (motor drive). I usually have it set from 2.5-5.0. I can't really put it into words, but it doesn't something to the tone that would be hard to replicate with just EQ. I find it nearly essential for a lot of "modern" metal types of tones.

I use it similarly with high gain on some patches. For me, it helps thin out the low mids a little bit and decrease boominess in a way that EQ doesn't. We all love thick sounds, but when things are too thick in the low-mid rumble department, this helps tame that and gently smooth the highs.

Personally, I find it to work slightly like a tad of saturation (ala a saturation plugin that also adds mild compression where it counts -- not high-gain amp preamp distortion) that may help the guitar sound blend in a bit. Overkill can make the sound get a little too lo-fi-thinnish sounding. Subtle is best for me. Makes high-gain (at least) sound just a little more analog.
 
With fw10, I find that I'm not using it much. However, it does seem to make some cabs sound a little less muddy. For example, the new Cali cab has a really unique tone that sounds cool with a lot of high gain amps. Sometimes it seems a little muddy depending on what amp you're using. Increasing the motor drive seemed to help.
 
I never stopped using it. Got it any where between 2.5 & 5 depending on patch. We use the term use your ears a lot but it is true. Forget about doing it cause others are doing it or wondering what you're doing wrong. Just listen. Put it on 0 and jam a bit then put it where you usually put it and jam some more. Make two identical patches with two different settings and toggle back and forth. Your ears will say yay or nay
 
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