AXFXII v18 - Dynamics, harmonics and exploding tubes? Pictorial/Tutorial Added!!!

Scott, can I ask and this is purely out of subjective taste.... Your tones seem a little "bright" and heavy in the 3-5kHz range. Does this translate well at gig volume and with the other instruments? I've always favoured less treble and more upper mids, as I find that i fits well with other instruments etc. Is there a reason why your tones are so bright?

Thanks :)

Because I like it and it cuts in a mix.
 
Great sound Scott. I like your tip about hitting the middle strings and checking levels. I'm going to try that. I've been strumming an open E and checking levels but I think the varying EQ of different presets may be throwing it off a little. I'm going to try your method later today.
 
Because I like it and it cuts in a mix.

I guess that explains it. I wasn't trying to be an ass, It's hard to get a proper understanding of your tone choices out of context. I was hoping for a response with a little more explanation. How you came to liking that kind of tone (All amps are dialled very similar) and what it is that you're listening for when dialling in tones. Not trying to antagonise or provoke.
 
I guess that explains it. I wasn't trying to be an ass, It's hard to get a proper understanding of your tone choices out of context. I was hoping for a response with a little more explanation. How you came to liking that kind of tone (All amps are dialled very similar) and what it is that you're listening for when dialling in tones. Not trying to antagonise or provoke.

I did not interpret your questions as anything but questions. This is a tool box and we use the tools how we want; that's the beauty of it. I've played guitar for 30+ years, been a gigging player since I was 14 and have recorded for most of that time in studios and sessions. I've mixed and actually owned and ran a professional mastering house for some time about 10 years ago. I still do a reasonable number of jingle sessions where I'm required to do parts as the producer wants them and deliver it as a final take from my home studio. I've owned a lot of nice tube amps and cabs over the years and recorded and gigged them all. I do a lot of work with digital processors too over that time and have always done reviews of gear from the perspective of an average working/gigging guitarist What I want to hear is specific to my taste and what I do; this is a quick 'check' clip that I do when I am dialing up my stuff. I trust my ears and experience to 'know' what I want. I then play check them in a mix against live recordings, studio recordings and such and generally try to keep the clams to a minimum (listening to that clip now, I would never let it out for public consumption as is - that's a lot of clams!)

The ironic part is that some people will like these tones - which are actually darker than most 'iconic' professional recorded and mixed tones; and the knock I usually get from people who want to knock my tones is that I generally prefer darker tones. You hear it as bright; it is what it is.

I've no big ego about anything and I'm not being defensive if it seems that way; I'm very confident in what I do but remember this is my tone and that's individual to me. When I dial up tones for other people they sound like 'them' on their rigs and that's generally not bright or dark; it just sounds like them.
 
Hi Scott, congratulation, sounds great. What is the reason you use the peq in front of the amp block?

Short answer is 'definition'. You are allowing the amp's gain structure to breath and work across the part of the sonic spectrum that it can do what it does easier.

It allows the amp to breath - most plexi type amps (and Fender/Vox also) tend to get all 'clogged up' with humbucker guitars, more so than single coil guitars, and they don't breath. When you do what I do here with a PEQ all I am doing is allowing the amp to not be hit with a lot of lower mid and lows; that allows the amp to be cranked up in the preamp gain so I can ride the volume pot on the guitar to generate a more natural and varied gain structure depending on the moment when I am playing. The lows stay tight, the mids are balanced and the highs don't get shrieky or ice-picky even if they are cranked. If you listen to that clip and look for how the pick attack is working even when I roll off the guitar volume knob... that's the stuff. Then go listen to Angus Young or Alex Lifeson or Brian May and hear how clearly - even over the vastly different styles, tones, guitars, etc - their pick attack is defining WHAT they are playing. That's the key. The gain structure can maxed to make the amp scream; in real life a Plexi or AC-30 cranked up that loud would be completely non practical and thunderously loud. Painfully so. But through the magic that is the current day Fractal box... it's all at your fingers without blowing your ears up. I recorded this at conversation levels and still got exceptional sustain even through my studio monitors. If I was doing this for real with final tracks in mind, I'd crank up the monitors and get the bloom better accentuated.

High gain metal guys use this same strategy and method with different tools - they generally use a Tube Screamer with no gain (but turn up the output level to compensate for shaving the lows) in front of their high gain amp; the reason is to do exactly what I do with this technique. Just using a different tool to achieve the same thing. A PEQ block allows me to taper and surgically do what I want in a more precise and repeatable way. Different application of the concept; but the same thing in the end.
 
Pictorial Tutorial

Here's a little pictorial tutorial; I'll edit the title of the thread and the OP to point to this post. I'm using the first preset I played - if you want the settings for the other amps, just let me know.

Here's the magic PEQ block. This will differ for each preset or guitar; depends on many variables; but this will get you started.
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Here's the Amp block. First up the basic settings:
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Here's the only 'Advanced' setting I used. My rule of thumb (based on what I learned about this from Cliff and the beta team and then confirmed with my own ears) is that this Long Plate Preamp Tube setting works in a subtle way but I like it best with amps where I crank the Master Volume:
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Ok - Cab Block. I did this IR using Cab Lab 3.0; I used the Friedman GB and you can see the IR's and the settings in the following screen grab:
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Here's the preamp settings from the Cab Block. The AFXII is the *only* modeler on the planet offering this immensely useful tool. I love it! These are my go-to settings for most everything:
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Delay Block - mono tape preset setting. Everything stock except how I mix in the level via an expression pedal and the ducker settings.
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Reverb Block - Studio C preset setting. Everything stock except again the ingain level setting for me to mix in the wet on the fly and the ducker settings as shown:
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That's it. Find your own tones and have fun!!!!!!!!!!
 
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How good is FW18? You can run your Marshalls on 10, like <insert deity of your choice> intended them to run! :D

Thanks for the pictures, Scott. I'm going to try the PEQ block thing.
 
It's a chorus, rotary, flanger and pitch block (micro-delay?) in parallel -- nothing terrifying there at all!

Yep. Chorus and Flanger - don't want them mixing. They also don't feed the GEQ which is a solo boost.
The Rotary, Trem and Pitch (I use that for an octave below on X and Crystals on Y) all don't mix with each other or the Chorus and Flanger.

Keeps the signal cleaner in terms of having too much modulation should I ever get a bit whacky and turn them all on. lol. I don't do that FWIW.
 
Yeah I think it's mostly the look of the "somebody spilled a bowl of spaghetti" connections that caused a flight reaction in my brain hehe. Sometimes I get wacky and put the reverb and delay parallel to a pure clean signal. It all makes sense though hehe.
 
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