I can't seem to get ANY good tones?

[pepsodent]

UPDATE.​

Monitors purchased (Yamaha HS80M's).

Now that's more like it. As I suspected, and as many of you pointed out. Managed to get good sounding tones with minimal effort.

For any headphone users with the same issues as me that might be reading this after the event; invest in some monitors. And of course, thank you for all the helpful input guys. Hopefully some of the suggestions that weren't relevant for me might help out someone else down the line.

 

[pepsodent]

Initially I was struggling a bit with some noise coming through the monitors (not while plugged in to the computer though, only through the Axe) and at first I was thinking I might have to invest in another bunch of balanced XLR cables, but for some reason it went away after fiddling a bit with my sound card settings.

Couldn't be happier right now, though. What a relief

 

[Rex]

Hooray! Feels nice to get it sorted out, doesn't it?

See you next month when you come up for air...

 

[Char2000]

"Anyone know where to find this setting to do this on the Axe FX"

2 replies.

"My Axe FX sounds bad"

600 replies including the Cliff lol

I love this place. <3

 

[yves vanmeenen]

I don't use cab patches...and you shouldn't be either. You CAN build some nice tones using the CAB you have!

I, like you, also debated going with FRFR's, but once I started really playing around with amp effects, (just minor tweaks), I got the tones I wanted!

I'm travelling now and have no access to my patches, but I'll flip some to you once I'm back next week.

that would be great. Thankx in advance!!! To be clear, I do have my axe fx 2 set up with cab sims OFF, because I am using a real cab.

 

[Burn Witch Burn]

The OP's issue has been solved, but here's a couple of tips for any newbies reading this thread in the future.

RECORDING:

I find that for recording, it's enough to check the sound in studio monitors (check loud, medium and soft volumes), get a second opinion from headphones or other speakers. Any speaker and room will color the sound to some extent, so monitor on different speakers if you can. If you have the time, do this: record the DI (Direct Input) along with your Amp/Cab sound (check the manual, it's easy) and test your mix on various speakers, the car etc. You can re-amp/re-cab the same performance if necessary using the DI.​

LIVE:

Set up your live rig and get your sounds. I find testing at gig level is key. The size of the room will be a factor, if you test at home in a small room, it will influence what you hear. You may need to adjust for bigger rooms. Test through a PA if you can. Test at rehearsal with a band. Make changes, take notes, ask your bandmates for opinions. Work on getting a good monitor situation onstage (or with in-ears) and make sure you're sending a good signal to F.O.H.. If you're stereo, check all presets and scenes for phase issues. Be aware that what you're sending to F.O.H. may be quite different than what you hear on your onstage monitor or cab. (If so, check out "Global EQ"). Onstage monitoring: if you're not square in the center of the cone of sound, stick your head in there once in a while and make sure you're not shearing people's ears off with harsh frequencies. On club dates, that's what the first row will mostly hear.​

This helped me a lot:

Decide what lower frequencies you can do without. My sound improved a lot when I rolled off some lower frequencies. My FRFR monitor has two high pass options. One at 80 cycles and one at 120. 80 is great for me. You can do this on global EQ, or on the cab block, etc. lots of options. My sounds were clearer without becoming thinner. Perceived volume also increases.
By the same token you can roll off some highs! Try it.
EDIT: I cut EQ at the end of the chain or near the end of the chain - usually at the CAB block. Some cabs add some unneeded low end. Then I check any blocks after the CAB for unwanted low frequencies. In general, my sounds do well with high pass at 80 cycles and at 8k. Adjust from there. I believe there is not much useable info above 10 k. Roll off both ends to focus.​

One last tip:

If you're new to the Axe FX, and you're setting up your first gig on it, I highly recommend using as few IRs (Impulse Response = Cabs) as possible. It will help even out your sound from song to song. It will be easier on the sound man.​

Good luck!

 

[Tommy Tempest]

UPDATE.​

Monitors purchased (Yamaha HS80M's).

Now that's more like it. As I suspected, and as many of you pointed out. Managed to get good sounding tones with minimal effort.

For any headphone users with the same issues as me that might be reading this after the event; invest in some monitors. And of course, thank you for all the helpful input guys. Hopefully some of the suggestions that weren't relevant for me might help out someone else down the line.

The secret to good headphone sound is invest in high quality In-Ear monitors. They will sound awesome. I use a pair of Shure 535s and they blow me away. I always do my tweaking for tone through my 4 x 12 Mesa cab and my FOH rig at loud stage volume.

 

[Jimmytwotimes]

The OP's issue has been solved, but here's a couple of tips for any newbies reading this thread in the future.

RECORDING:

I find that for recording, it's enough to check the sound in studio monitors (check loud, medium and soft volumes), get a second opinion from headphones or other speakers. Any speaker and room will color the sound to some extent, so monitor on different speakers if you can. If you have the time, do this: record the DI (Direct Input) along with your Amp/Cab sound (check the manual, it's easy) and test your mix on various speakers, the car etc. You can re-amp/re-cab the same performance if necessary using the DI.​

LIVE:

Set up your live rig and get your sounds. I find testing at gig level is key. The size of the room will be a factor, if you test at home in a small room, it will influence what you hear. You may need to adjust for bigger rooms. Test through a PA if you can. Test at rehearsal with a band. Make changes, take notes, ask your bandmates for opinions. Work on getting a good monitor situation onstage (or with in-ears) and make sure you're sending a good signal to F.O.H.. If you're stereo, check all presets and scenes for phase issues. Be aware that what you're sending to F.O.H. may be quite different than what you hear on your onstage monitor or cab. (If so, check out "Global EQ"). Onstage monitoring: if you're not square in the center of the cone of sound, stick your head in there once in a while and make sure you're not shearing people's ears off with harsh frequencies. On club dates, that's what the first row will mostly hear.​

This helped me a lot:

Decide what lower frequencies you can do without. My sound improved a lot when I rolled off some lower frequencies. My FRFR monitor has two high pass options. One at 80 cycles and one at 120. 80 is great for me. You can do this on global EQ, or on the cab block, etc. lots of options. My sounds were clearer without becoming thinner. Perceived volume also increases.
By the same token you can roll off some highs! Try it.​

One last tip:

If you're new to the Axe FX, and you're setting up your first gig on it, I highly recommend using as few IRs (Impulse Response = Cabs) as possible. It will help even out your sound from song to song. It will be easier on the sound man.​

Good luck!

TOTALLY agree with everything here.... Especially the tips on removing low frequency and adjusting your tones at gig volume.
I was very surprised at how little low freq you actually need. On most of my cab blocks, I cut the low freq to around 100- some more, some less. But I still get a ton on bass when I cut. It just sounds much tighter and less flubby.

 

[Ron Meyer]

Holy cow! I just read page 13 and through...I found my setup! I'm running through two Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 heads and two 1960b cabs, L/R. I read how to disable the cab sims on FX Send 1 and run those sends to the Effects returns L\R, but then leave the cab sims on Main Send 1 XLRS for front of house! OMG! The tones!!! It's alive!!!

I would like to kiss the engineers who put this thing together! All anybody needs to do is dig in, read the manual, run Axe-edit, and experiment until you dial exactly what you're looking for! I'm sold on the Axe8.

Now...I need to read up on the aux send and returns so I can loop a few external stomp boxes! Ha! Feel like a kid in a candy store!

 

[SteveW]

I'm doing a Mesa DR (recto) and sometimes a Marshall through my GT 1000 into a Mesa 4 x 12. Tones are simply awesome, especially in Q5 now! My previous real Marshall JCM and Mesa DR's were never as good or as flexible on demand!

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

The secret to good headphone sound is invest in high quality In-Ear monitors. They will sound awesome. I use a pair of Shure 535s and they blow me away. I always do my tweaking for tone through my 4 x 12 Mesa cab and my FOH rig at loud stage volume.

How about the secret to good in ear tone is learning how to EQ a guitar....

 

[Oscarraap]

Hey guys, I have the XL for one year and Im still struggeling a lot with harschness. I prefer the Mesa Boogie sound that well known musicians have achieved but me Im fighting these amps (or the axe?) somehow. I did a lot of reading on the forum and the actual amp manuals,

Im using headphones Shure SRH1840 and a Musicman JP6. I don't quite understand why phones wouldnt work, because if I play back my favourite music the phones sound absolutely great. Unlike many other axe owners Im not looking for the amp in the room sound. I like to achieve a studio lead sound. Like petrucci for example. Yes Im aware there are several patches that others have made. I tried them all. No disrespect but most of them sound terribly harsch when I try them. I tried lots of cab libraries, like Cabfactory, Ownhammer Justin York, JST, Rosen.

I mean I tried so many things for a year now...I really have spent countless hours, it souldnt be this hard right? I brought in a friend to help out several times, but we were unable to improve the situation.

Honestly I feel disappointed. When I bought the axe I thought it would be easy to just try a few patches and do a little tweaking. I hear so many great recordings on youtube, like Stel Andre for example

Im simply at a loss going forward, so any help is apreciated!

Cheers!

 

[B:ASSMASTER]

Hey guys, I have the XL for one year and Im still struggeling a lot with harschness. I prefer the Mesa Boogie sound that well known musicians have achieved but me Im fighting these amps (or the axe?) somehow. I did a lot of reading on the forum and the actual amp manuals,

Im using headphones Shure SRH1840 and a Musicman JP6. I don't quite understand why phones wouldnt work, because if I play back my favourite music the phones sound absolutely great. Unlike many other axe owners Im not looking for the amp in the room sound. I like to achieve a studio lead sound. Like petrucci for example. Yes Im aware there are several patches that others have made. I tried them all. No disrespect but most of them sound terribly harsch when I try them. I tried lots of cab libraries, like Cabfactory, Ownhammer Justin York, JST, Rosen.

I mean I tried so many things for a year now...I really have spent countless hours, it souldnt be this hard right? I brought in a friend to help out several times, but we were unable to improve the situation.

Honestly I feel disappointed. When I bought the axe I thought it would be easy to just try a few patches and do a little tweaking. I hear so many great recordings on youtube, like Stel Andre for example

Im simply at a loss going forward, so any help is apreciated!

Cheers!

Post a preset that you made. That way I can load into my Axe and give you more accurate tips.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Hey guys, I have the XL for one year and Im still struggeling a lot with harschness. I prefer the Mesa Boogie sound that well known musicians have achieved but me Im fighting these amps (or the axe?) somehow. I did a lot of reading on the forum and the actual amp manuals,

Im using headphones Shure SRH1840 and a Musicman JP6. I don't quite understand why phones wouldnt work, because if I play back my favourite music the phones sound absolutely great. Unlike many other axe owners Im not looking for the amp in the room sound. I like to achieve a studio lead sound. Like petrucci for example. Yes Im aware there are several patches that others have made. I tried them all. No disrespect but most of them sound terribly harsch when I try them. I tried lots of cab libraries, like Cabfactory, Ownhammer Justin York, JST, Rosen.

I mean I tried so many things for a year now...I really have spent countless hours, it souldnt be this hard right? I brought in a friend to help out several times, but we were unable to improve the situation.

Honestly I feel disappointed. When I bought the axe I thought it would be easy to just try a few patches and do a little tweaking. I hear so many great recordings on youtube, like Stel Andre for example

Im simply at a loss going forward, so any help is apreciated!

Cheers!

Why doesn't it sound like someone else playing is the question then?
For one thing, since we're comparing headphone sounds more goes to a pleasing tone than amo, cab, verb.
A recorded tone will be eq'ed, and compressed. Pretty much shaped to fit into the track.
Assuming you are aware of this since you brought up harsh... Which is the most obvious thing to happen when monitoring via headphones you need to shake the top end. Also since on headphones you have zero room you'd want ambiance added (delay,verb).

Most importantly using someone's preset that you think sounds good is no guarantee it'll work for you. Your guitar and more importantly your touch and technique are likely different.

A tool is just that a tool a great hammer won't let me build a bitchen house if I never did more than use it to hammer a nail in the wall to hang a picture.
And lastly, and for the majority of guys I know this isn't a big deal but for me it's huge. As soon as you deal with headphones or super low monitoring volume and the guitar doesn't couple with the speaker it's all wrong.
For my money that is the reason why hearing what you play while you play vs. what you hear when you listen to playback literally feels different.

 

[knjaxefx2]

If you're getting different noise at different times, something is turning on and radiating interference into your guitar. Hunt that down and turn it off.

It's been two weeks now with awesome tone. I use a 250watt tripplite power isolator, which feeds my Furman power conditioner. I also use a Radial pro D2 guitars to input and output to stereo rear input. I get dead silence on any preset. The Radial DI allows me to set guitar input to -15db which is good for active pickups.

 

[knjaxefx2]

For distorted sounds I'm aiming for a full, creamy, gain sound. Clean and cutting (not thin and screeching though), with some prominent mids. Not the Ola Englund-esque super aggressive stuff, but with bite and attack, still.

I've found the Friedman amp favorable for this stuff, yes. The problem is I can't seem to work around the mud I'm getting. Nothing's really clear, it sounds... choked somehow. Sometimes I'll think I have a good tone but it's like something is covering it up, like a blanket.

The cabs have a major impact on the sound. Pick an amp and set it to flat. Then audition several cabs with it.

Try FAS amps with FAS cabs. Stick a tube screamer in front with drive set to 2. Turn off boost and bright. Play with input drive on amp starting at 5.

 

[knjaxefx2]

Initially I was struggling a bit with some noise coming through the monitors (not while plugged in to the computer though, only through the Axe) and at first I was thinking I might have to invest in another bunch of balanced XLR cables, but for some reason it went away after fiddling a bit with my sound card settings.

Couldn't be happier right now, though. What a relief

I found sometimes the computer can cause noise in axe fx. I have switched the default speaker to axe then back to my on board speakers and suddenly get buzz and bad tone. Does not happen every time...a little bit of a mystery.

 

[laughyouraxeoff]

Throw away the headphones and get some good quality monitors. Better yet, throw away the headphones and get some reference-quality monitors.

Do this, probably best advice to start with. If your speakers suck ass, you will get shit for sound. I do use headphones and I have reference monitors plus desktop, I use all three to reference, and my mixes turn out great. If I had crap speakers or crap headphones that would be impossible to do!!!

 

[Oscarraap]

And lastly, and for the majority of guys I know this isn't a big deal but for me it's huge. As soon as you deal with headphones or super low monitoring volume and the guitar doesn't couple with the speaker it's all wrong.

That's a good point. No coupling with headphones ofcourse...

Post a preset that you made. That way I can load into my Axe and give you more accurate tips.

Ok great, here's my patch. I appreciate your help.

Cheers!

 

[B:ASSMASTER]

That's a good point. No coupling with headphones ofcourse...



Ok great, here's my patch. I appreciate your help.

Cheers!

Well, I played your patch with my JP6 BFR and it sounds good. (You were using a User Cab that was unidentifiable, so I just loaded Factory #43 cab which is a 4x12 Recto SM57.) I don't hear anything that sticks out to me as a bad patch. I'd tweak it a little more to my liking, but that's just because of my ears and setup. Sorry that I couldn't be more of a help to you.