Who uses a basic signal chain?

C

cgraci

Inspired
Hi everyone I, I recently got the axe II and love blending amps and cabs but I recently found a simple signal chain without blending and it sounds much better and more transparent. I play progressive metal and I'm really picky with tone. Has my ears been playing tricks on me ? Or is it true that simple is better?
 
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Indeed, a lot of times, less is more. I'm no expert though. I have always preferred a simple setup. I hate too many knobs and buttons.


...damn, why did I get the Axe FX :lol
 
I rarely use a drive in front of the amp since FW 12/13. I use compression, amp, cab, reverb and PEQ in 90% of my presets.

I find that some blocks adds noise and I like a relatively quiet setup, so I try to keep the variables at a minimum.
 
In contrast, my patches all push the CPU limit. That's because I like to have rhythm and lead sounds within the same preset to avoid switching latency, which sometimes omeans different amps, cabs, delay settings etc. On top of this I like my patches to have similar layout, which means that things like wah, compression, chorus and drive are there, whether I use it or not.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I was told that using blending amps decrease high resolution . I don't know what that means. Does that mean blending amps causes more fizz? If so why do all the professional players blend their amps?
 
I may be paranoid but maybe they are doing it to throw us off so we don't copy their tones. I met a couple of pros and asked them how they go their tone and they would tell me rediculous advice that you can tell was just to mess with me.
 
cgraci said:
I was told that using blending amps decrease high resolution . I don't know what that means. Does that mean blending amps causes more fizz? If so why do all the professional players blend their amps?
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It is stated in the manual:
Each Axe-Fx II preset can use two fully independent Amplifier blocks. Presets that use a single amp block run in full resolution, providing the utmost in fidelity and resistance to aliasing. This mode is automatic and is selected whenever there is only one amp block in the layout grid. Adding a second amp block will revert both to normal resolution, where modeling is still of extremely high quality.
 
Almost all of my patches look like this: Wah -> Amp1 -> Cab1 -> Delay (bypassed) -> Reverb (bypassed). I will add other effects depending on the sound I am going for, but wah, delay, and reverb are my "go to" effects. I often assign a clean amp model in "Y" (assuming X is not a clean amp), so I can quickly switch back-and-forth. I also really like using scenes as a quick and easy way of switching between the X or Y amp and/or turning on/off my delay, reverb, etc. My patches used to be a lot more complex - Axe II's older firmware versions and especially with my Axe-Fx Standard. But now it is so easy to get incredible sounds from the Axe II that I have pretty much completely adapted the "less is more" approach to creating patches.
 
Some of the more complex presets I've run across are interesting, but it seems I mostly gravitate to much more simple layouts.

Wah, OD, Amp, Cab, Chorus/Pitch/Flange, Reverb, Delay (order/flow varies depending on needs, but you get the idea).

Some patches get a gate, or EQ, or both, but really that's the extent of what I tend to use...so far. I'm just scratching the surface of this thing though. I haven't even begun to approach what this thing is capable of in the patches I build from scratch.
 
100W Plexi -> Cab
99.9% of the patches

Maybe a mix between two Plexis, such as two 100W Plexis one cab each. Maybe a 100W Plexi and a 50W Plexi one cab each, or 100W Plexi and a JTM45 one cab each, idk.
 
Two cab blocks

Hubertus said:
It is stated in the manual:
Each Axe-Fx II preset can use two fully independent Amplifier blocks. Presets that use a single amp block run in full resolution, providing the utmost in fidelity and resistance to aliasing. This mode is automatic and is selected whenever there is only one amp block in the layout grid. Adding a second amp block will revert both to normal resolution, where modeling is still of extremely high quality.
Click to expand...


Does the full resolution get affected by two cab blocks? For example one amp but two cab blocks?
 
Chris@KatsuKuriMedia said:
Have you ever run 2 real amps at the same time for a blended tone?
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Yep. In fact for a while that was my standard rig. I ran a Carvin V3 (pretty scooped) alongside a JCM2000 that had a strong mid bump to it. The sound was full, wide, and it cut. It was all run through a refrigerator with all sorts of processing and switching gear. It was incredible tone. But, it was a NIGHTMARE if anything ever went wrong, and don't even talk about moving this rig around. It was huge.

Now.. I'm in a 6 space rack and... well, that's about it!
As far as how my presets will be... it's way too early to say. I just got my new AXE yesterday!
 
cgraci said:
Has my ears been playing tricks on me ? Or is it true that simple is better?
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Some of my favorite presets are this simple; VOL/PAN>>COMP>>AMP>>DLY>>CAB

The AxeFX proved to me that the right combo of AMP-CAB is all you really need to get a great Rock/Metal tone.
……..don't ya just love it?
 
Hubertus said:
It is stated in the manual:
Each Axe-Fx II preset can use two fully independent Amplifier blocks. Presets that use a single amp block run in full resolution, providing the utmost in fidelity and resistance to aliasing. This mode is automatic and is selected whenever there is only one amp block in the layout grid. Adding a second amp block will revert both to normal resolution, where modeling is still of extremely high quality.
Click to expand...

I use 2 amp blocks but not for blending. The 2nd amp block is my clean channel scene (my patches have 3 scenes: Rhythm, Lead, Clean). The two amp blocks are never both active at the same time. Am I losing resolution by setting up patches this way?

I suppose I could use the "Y" of amp1 for my clean channel scene but, since I use controllers on my dirty amp that I don't want on my clean amp, X/Y is awkward (controllers used on X must also be used on Y).
 
sprint said:
I use 2 amp blocks but not for blending. The 2nd amp block is my clean channel scene (my patches have 3 scenes: Rhythm, Lead, Clean). The two amp blocks are never both active at the same time. Am I losing resolution by setting up patches this way?

I suppose I could use the "Y" of amp1 for my clean channel scene but, since I use controllers on my dirty amp that I don't want on my clean amp, X/Y is awkward (controllers used on X must also be used on Y).
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I run and it works great. I like having a second amp that's clean so I get seamless switching. I usually run 4 scenes; CLEAN, Little breakup or a special sound, rhythm, lead. I dont notice a huge difference or at all between the resolution.
 
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