Multiband Comp on Heavy Guitars

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Axe-Master
This is more or less the Andy Sneap method for mixing heavy guitars (his attack and release settings are different to what I used and the Axe III crossover parameters are different) and it really helps tighten palm mutes. It's become one of my "always on" blocks with high gain amps like the Recto.


 
Nice. Looks like this preset isn't on Axe-Change yet?

Also, a tip: for the most responsive metering, look at the front panel of the Axe-Fx III instead of the meters in Axe-Edit.
 
Great Leon!

The multiband compressor is one of the most important and overlooked blocks in the axe fx, it works on anything from acoustic guitar to blues to metal, anything. I believe its the lack of explanation and good examples of how to use it in variable music styles that has that block in the shadows for many users.
 
Screen Shot 2018-09-24 at 11.36.04 AM.jpg

Great tip. I have the C4 plugin and use it often with the Andy Sneap reco's. I would love more control in the Axe MBC if possible. Ability to set the Q and more crossover settings. If I missed these settings then please let me know. Thanks!
 
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Nice. Looks like this preset isn't on Axe-Change yet?

Also, a tip: for the most responsive metering, look at the front panel of the Axe-Fx III instead of the meters in Axe-Edit.

I'll get that one up when I get back onto my computer tomorrow. I'll definitely be taking that tip on board too :D

Great Leon!

The multiband compressor is one of the most important and overlooked blocks in the axe fx, it works on anything from acoustic guitar to blues to metal, anything. I believe its the lack of explanation and good examples of how to use it in variable music styles that has that block in the shadows for many users.

It's totally a secret weapon. Compression is very misunderstood in general but I feel the MBC solves a lot of issues, very quickly, that regular EQ or compression can be heavy handed with.
 
Also my thought, this trick is to keep the 100 Hz area under control when palm-muting.
90-300 instead of 90-1000 ?

What do you think Leon ?
 
i'm assuming Leon did that cause 1000 is the lowest the crossover goes ;(

Correct.

with the freq crossover limits in the multicomp block, what i did to do the sneap trick was just use the low freq, instead of the mid section. i set the low crossover around 300hz. andy compressed the 90-350 area for palm mutes as u can see on the picture above, so i thought lets just compress everything from 0 to 300hz, we low cut much of that range anyways. compressing all the way to 1000hz for palm mutes is just too much.

I'll give this a go, nice solution.
 
here's the preset; scene 1 is with the settings in the video and scene 2 is using the crossover for the low/mid band at 300hz and compressing the lows. They sound different but both work ; a 4th band or the ability to lower the mid/high xover to 300hz would still be handy :)
 

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  • LT MBC Tight Demo.syx
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here's the preset; scene 1 is with the settings in the video and scene 2 is using the crossover for the low/mid band at 300hz and compressing the lows. They sound different but both work ; a 4th band or the ability to lower the mid/high xover to 300hz would still be handy :)
Thanks Leon!
 
Joey Sturgis also demonstrated using the lowest band to 250Hz in his usage of C4 for multiband compression (). I think that's a better way then using a range until 1k.

@Admin M@ Would it be possible to modify the Multiband compression block algorithm to have 4 regions with more flexibility in the ranges?


I've been playing around with the low band and it's more natural sounding, to my ears at least, than the settings I used in the original vid. lots of great tips here so I'll have to do a follow up vid soon.
 
It's funny that you posted this. I got my Axe-FX III last Thursday and I tried the 'Andy Sneap Trick' last night. I noticed how the Multiband Compressor doesn't allow you to take the high crossover below 1kHz. I love this trick on heavy guitars, so I'd love to see the Multiband Compressor block to be expanded to a 4-band version, or at least see the crossover sweep increased to a larger range. With 1kHz it compresses too much of the good part of the tone. Still, it does do some cool things :)
 
I've been playing around with the low band and it's more natural sounding, to my ears at least, than the settings I used in the original vid. lots of great tips here so I'll have to do a follow up vid soon.

Always good to share this information. Thanks for confirming. I hope that the MBC block will be improved to allow more control over the bands. :)
I did notice that using the lower band introduced more pronounced mids somehow. It does help a lot on the palm mutes and notes played with more attack. ;) It's good to play around with the Hz freq of the 2nd band (Mid) which can also be set around 90-100Hz to only control the low end via compression.
 
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This is more or less the Andy Sneap method for mixing heavy guitars (his attack and release settings are different to what I used and the Axe III crossover parameters are different) and it really helps tighten palm mutes. It's become one of my "always on" blocks with high gain amps like the Recto.



Nice try, Leon but we know all the real toanz/mojo are coming from the 'LT' shunts.
 
Anyone post a real wish for this feature? If not, you might want to try it as FAS is always looking for things to improve. Heck, they implemented my tiny request. Try it!
 
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