Seemless scene switching with 2 amp blocks?

S

SteveD

Inspired
Hi all
I'm just trying to clarify if this works/can work as I'm getting popping as the scene shifts to the 2nd amp block.
Using 4 2 stone amps.
Thx
 
you don't need to change scene to switch between amps...
a more seamless method would be to assign the bypass of the amps to an IA / XS via an external controller / modifier
so when you hit the switch, one amp mutes and the other unmutes..
with this method there will be no delay, no dropout and the transition will be both immediate and flawless
 
I put amp1 and cab1 on one row and on another row amp2 and cab2. All had x and y states. This gave me a total of 8 combinations. One for each scene. Seamless and popless, just for trying different flavours and handy.
 
jeppekristoffer said:
Are they in parallell or series?
Click to expand...

Good point. You should put them beside each other in 2 separate audio pathways, and then Y them back together into the same cabinet, or actually (and this is how I do it) - put amp 2 and cab 2 in parallel below amp 1 and cab 1, and Y the audio back together AFTER the cab 2 output, back into the main signal path. if you don't understand what I mean, go to the Fractal Axe-Edit page (you know the one I check everyday, hoping to find the link for Axe Edit download) and look at the banner photo. There is a signal chain on pathway 2, and there is a second amp and cabinet on pathway 3, that is split off before the amps, and recombined together after the cabinets - this is how I do it. Incidentally, I also side chain my delays and my reverbs every time like this. It makes my presets a lot louder too.

I started using a 2nd amp in mid-December. I do not run them at the same time. I had to set up a modifier to select Amp1 or Amp2. I actually set up the modifier to engage the MUTE feature of both amps, but on amp 2, I reversed the sweep of the modifier. So if you pictured a volume pedal, instead of a push button switch, you could imagine that amp1 turns on when I step on the volume toe down, and off when I step on it heel down. Amp 2 is the exact opposite - amp 2 turns off with the toe down, and on with the heel down. Therefore, to control/select my amps, my MIDI controller is toggling that modifier to mute the amps, out of polarity with each other. I don't have to bother worrying about selecting the cabinets - the amps are set to MUTE when bypassed, so they do not continue to feed their cabinet when they are bypassed.

This gives me 4 amps per preset - due to the X and Y axis, and also 4 cabinets. Although, I don't criss-cross the amp outputs so that they can both access both cabinets. If I did that, I would have to have a modifier that mutes the unused cabinets, unless I wanted the amps to feed 2 cabinets at the same time.

That is the great thing about the Fractal. Each player can set his up to suit his special requirements.

Good luck and happy tweaking.
 
I would hope we could hit just one switch and change what you need to?
Isn't That what scenes are for?
You have to hit one switch to change your amp, then one to change your scene?
Do scenes need more refinement ?
 
boardwlk17 said:
I would hope we could hit just one switch and change what you need to?
Isn't That what scenes are for?
You have to hit one switch to change your amp, then one to change your scene?
Do scenes need more refinement ?
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I do here, With Scenes.

I put amp1 and cab1 on one row and on another row amp2 and cab2. Make a connenction before the amps and after the cabs. All had x and y states. This gave me a total of 8 combinations. One for each scene. Seamless and popless, just for trying different flavours and handy.
 
boardwlk17 said:
I would hope we could hit just one switch and change what you need to?
Isn't That what scenes are for?
You have to hit one switch to change your amp, then one to change your scene?
Do scenes need more refinement ?
Click to expand...

I do all this 'tone reshaping / switching around' without scenes...
I'm not saying scenes are good or bad...
just that there's more than one way to approach this...
sometimes it's worth exploring other possibilities..
the thing with the Axe is it's flexibility..
you can line up all the hoops you need it to jump through and often you'll find that the Axe can jump through them all in a whole bunch of different ways..
EDIT: the thing you need to consider when choosing your solution is which method best fits your needs in terms of tone, behaviour, and how it functions from a guitarist player's performance perspective..
and if there is nothing to choose between your possible solutions, your discriminating factor should be "what offers the widest / most flexible scope of possibilites across your working presets and across the Axe-II as a whole"
 
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clarky said:
I do all this 'tone reshaping / switching around' without scenes...
I'm not saying scenes are good or bad...
just that there's more than one way to approach this...
sometimes it's worth exploring other possibilities..
the thing with the Axe is it's flexibility..
you can line up all the hoops you need it to jump through and often the Axe jump through them in a whole bunch of different ways..
Click to expand...




On my presets I split to run two drive blocks, two amp blocks, two cabinets(mono lo res) and two geq blocks in parallel and run to a mixer with controllers assigned to the fader's gain and controlled via expression pedal. My geq blocks, along with the amp blocks gain and level, delay mix, reverb mix are all assigned to a single IA to act as a lead boost. The expression pedal lets me choose clean or distorted path via the mixer, whether I'm in lead mode or not. This gives me a clean rhythm, dist rhythm, clean lead and dist lead with just an expression pedal and 1 IA. No pops, and very smooth, morphing between clean and dist tones. You could still run X/Y on the amps for more choices, but because they share modifier info, and pop sometimes when switched, I choose not to. You could still run scenes with this configuration to activate Drive blocks or to turn other effect blocks on or off.
 
intersting approach....
I tried the "two mono cab" approach initially but it chewed up too much CPU, so I managed to claw some of that back via a single stereo cab block..

I know what you mean about the relationship between the modifiers and the X/Y stuff...
I think it'd be cool to have X and Y with the ability to have independent modifier assignments / settings..
this could open up a whole new superset of configurational possibilities..
 
You're going to get some delay when using scenes if you are switching from Amp 1 X to Amp 2 Y. Make sure the two amps are set to the same XY or else the delay will occur. Same goes for any other blocks XY parameters. Having scenes switch XY will cause some delay.
 
I,vaguely,remember another thread that showed how to use scenes to seamlessly switch x/y amps in pairs etc.I can't find it.Anyone know of this one?
 
Bill Piersall said:
On my presets I split to run two drive blocks, two amp blocks, two cabinets(mono lo res) and two geq blocks in parallel and run to a mixer with controllers assigned to the fader's gain and controlled via expression pedal. My geq blocks, along with the amp blocks gain and level, delay mix, reverb mix are all assigned to a single IA to act as a lead boost. The expression pedal lets me choose clean or distorted path via the mixer, whether I'm in lead mode or not. This gives me a clean rhythm, dist rhythm, clean lead and dist lead with just an expression pedal and 1 IA. No pops, and very smooth, morphing between clean and dist tones. You could still run X/Y on the amps for more choices, but because they share modifier info, and pop sometimes when switched, I choose not to. You could still run scenes with this configuration to activate Drive blocks or to turn other effect blocks on or off.
Click to expand...

G E N I U S move dude!!!!
 
The Axeist Monk said:
I,vaguely,remember another thread that showed how to use scenes to seamlessly switch x/y amps in pairs etc.I can't find it.Anyone know of this one?
Click to expand...

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-f...tip-amp-switching-no-drop-out-whatsoever.html

I use this method. I don't get a drop out if I jump from Amp1X to Amp2Y or Amp1Y to Amp2X....well, at least, not that I'm aware of. I do get a drop out if I remain in Amp1 and jump between X and Y, or if I remain in Amp2 and jump between its X and Y. The whole purpose of running two amps and muting them in opposite directions with a modifier is so that Axe can have that module loaded and simply "lying in wait"...
 
So what's the difference between switching X/Y and switching Amp1/2 that causes a dropout on the former and not on the latter? I would have thought that if all the data was loaded with the preset it shouldn't dropout, but obviously I'm wrong.

Cheers.
 
when switching between amp1 and amp2, both are already loaded and configured

when switching X to Y within amp1, amp1 is being reloaded and reconfigured with the new settings..
the Axe does all this fast... like amazingly fast...
but switching between two different amps is quicker / smoother
 
Phew! Too many choices! Thanks for all that info everyone - I'll ponder it a while & read the other info before I decide which way to go. I only play at home at the moment but want to get the best setup for when I do play out again. The axe is pretty mind boggling in the choices it's gives!
 
& one of the amp blocks was set to thru which was making the problem. I like the expression pedal & 1 switch idea. Morphing is good!
 
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