AFIII Matching a Klon Centaur

Sounds really, really close. I'd never hear the difference in a mix. Nice work, and thanks for sharing the settings! I agree that a GEQ on the drive block would be a great idea.
Back in the day, I sold my Klon to help pay for my Axe Fx Standard.
 
Quite close indeed. I find that no matter what I do, I can always tell some slight difference when I'm doing a direct A/B comparison, but, I typically don't think if I didn't know which was A, and which was B, I could say which is the pedal and which is the Axe. I've actually had others doing the "blind" A/B before and half the time I pick the Axe as the "better" sounding version. It can sound different, but different doesn't always mean worse, if you know what I mean.

The Klon (or in my case the Centura) proved frustrating because of the clean boost with inverse overdrive mix on the gain pot. Its an inverse taper dual pot so as you turn up the gain, your reducing the clean boost and adding more OD and vice versa. As such, the Axe emulated settings that can sound spot on at 9o'clock on the gain pot don't sound as accurate at say 11o'clock on the gain pot.

IIRC, I think Yek does something similar in some settings his shared a few months ago, changing the clip type in the Axe depending on how the actual pedal was set.

Essentially, if you set and forget the hardware pedal, then its a bit easier to match, but, if you often tweak the hardware pedal to different settings, you probably need to have a few different channels of the drive block with different clip types etc to best reproduce what is happening with just an adjust of a single knob on the pedal.


On a semi-related topic, I ordered one of those $19.99 Golden Horse klones from China a few days ago, be curious to how that sounds, but most reports seem to say its like 95% there, and given I paid $225 for my Centura, and that is maybe 98% there, amazing bang for the buck. While the Axe can do a most than useable emulation of most any drives, its kind of fun to have this little collection of mini pedal clones since they are so cheap. I've got the Mooer Black Secret Rat clone, the Blues Mood Keeley BD2 clone, a mini Tube Screamer, soon to have the Golden Horse etc. Total cost of all of them are less than a single "good" pedal.
 
Do you think you could use a tone match and capture it?
Im sure I could! But then I’d have to add an additional tone match block. I guess since I also use my AX8 every week Im thinking of a simple match for that too since I find that I use up the memory on that pretty quickly
 
i think the axe version has a little more treble, but they're very close

does anybody actually use their klon with all three knobs at 12 o/c?
 
Just curious in my head. I see the tone matching = profiling and was curious if you tried it to see if it made a difference from just the settings you adjusted. I'd really like to avoid tone matching if it does not make a substantial difference. I have not received feedback proving that it has made an incredible difference yet.
 
i think the axe version has a little more treble, but they're very close

does anybody actually use their klon with all three knobs at 12 o/c?
Some like the gain, some like to just use it with the Output up to push the amp, but I figured it I can capture the EQ color and a bit of the gain color, then its just a matter of turning Gain/Level up or down to taste as oppose to trying to match it with no gain and then guess what the color of the gain actually does as its turned up.
 
i think the axe version has a little more treble, but they're very close

does anybody actually use their klon with all three knobs at 12 o/c?

I actually really like the gain and treble both around 1 o'clock and the output around 11.... its not the typical boost type setting with minimal gain many people tend to use, but I think it gives a really nice edge to the tone and cuts really well, bit more of a typical OD sound that other stuff could probably do equally well, but it sounds good to me.

I do like the subtle "thickening" it can give as a clean boost, but really on the Axe, there are so many ways to boost in the input into the amp block that I don't find it quite the all important "always on" tone enhancer that many people love with it into a tube amp. Things like a little hotter signal, a good buffer if your running a long signal chain etc, make a pretty significant difference in the hardware world, but, in the Axe, there isn't any signal loss with a longer effects chain, you can boost the input countless ways, so IMO, some "always on" stuff just isn't really required in the Axe.

What is cool with the real pedal though, and to some degree because of its buffer circuit, is how it reacts stacked with other pedals, either before or after them. Sounds really good after a muff, or into a Tube Screamer style pedal. Really shapes and tightens the tone in a unique way, that isn't quite as intuitive in the Axe. Two drive blocks in a row don't always complement each other in the same way I often find.
 
That does get really close! I don't think I have that much gain on the settings I use (the first two you demoed), but you had a little more gain on your clean tone as well. I like to use it for that subtle "more" that it gives and I think I typically use the EQ block version more often to save CPU. I actually end up w/ a sound that's close to using the Input Trim for just a subtle boost (usually around 1.5 - 2 depending on the amp). I'll try this later when I get some time... thanks!
 
When I played one, it was largely a "feel" thing. Really cool what it does, but I've found similar flavors in the Axe FX that I like at least as much (and I've been through a ton of great pedals over the years, just like most of you guys). Same old story: there's still nothing quite like the real thing, but this new FW (even using an AX8 as opposed to the new flagship) is just amazing. The listener gets a tremendous benefit, but we get total control and consistency.
 
The Klon (or in my case the Centura) proved frustrating because of the clean boost with inverse overdrive mix on the gain pot. Its an inverse taper dual pot so as you turn up the gain, your reducing the clean boost and adding more OD and vice versa. As such, the Axe emulated settings that can sound spot on at 9o'clock on the gain pot don't sound as accurate at say 11o'clock on the gain pot.

IIRC, I think Yek does something similar in some settings his shared a few months ago, changing the clip type in the Axe depending on how the actual pedal was set.

Essentially, if you set and forget the hardware pedal, then its a bit easier to match, but, if you often tweak the hardware pedal to different settings, you probably need to have a few different channels of the drive block with different clip types etc to best reproduce what is happening with just an adjust of a single knob on the pedal.

Indeed, the characteristics of a Klon or a Klon-copy change when adjusting its gain. So a single emulation captures only part of its sound (current settings).
 
I love what you do Camilo and this is no exception. You got it incredibly close. Once again goes to show that so many of the tones that we would still love to have in the Axe-Fx are already there.

This opens another conversation. I think we're not necessarily interested in tweaking things to sound the way we want them to sound but rather trying to make it sound like how "someone important" tweaked things to sound a long time ago and "someone important" used on "some imporant" album or live gig. :)
 
Back
Top Bottom