Hey everyone
I have been using the Axe-Fx II for many, many years now. And until today, I have not been able to actually get a tone that has... well.. "tone" and not just frequencies. The Axe Fx sounds awesome when playing alone and when using it through a poweramp/real cab, but it never sounds right when trying to make it sit in a mix with direct recordings. It just lacks tone. The frequencies are there but not the meat behind all the distortion. I am talking about the crucial 125-500hz area. It just never sounds right. This area is always a boomy mud-fest or too thin when trying to cut it.. I like to scoop my tones since I think that the midrange from 500-1k is always honky and nasally sounding (especially for making it sit in a mix), so I dip a lot of 750hz (classic move for a metal tone). Though, without having the 125-500hz hz area right, the tone ends up being just fizz and low end boom and it`s super thin and useless in a mix because it lacks the low mid meat. Furthermore, you can`t boost that area because it will just introduce all kinds of artifacts, which you notch out afterwards until there is no tone left again.
I have tried all bunch of ideas within the Axe, fiddling with depth frequency, master volume, bass eq, pre-eq, post-eq, and trying a million different IR's but I can`t get it right.
And yup, I have great guitars, good cables, adequate playing technique and a good recording and I know how to dial in tones and how a great signal chain has to look like for a great metal tone. I just can`t get it right with the Axe-Fx.
Would love to hear how you go about that. Did I miss something? Is there a trick? Cliff, would you please help me out with a bunch of ideas?
Thanks!
drawn
I have been using the Axe-Fx II for many, many years now. And until today, I have not been able to actually get a tone that has... well.. "tone" and not just frequencies. The Axe Fx sounds awesome when playing alone and when using it through a poweramp/real cab, but it never sounds right when trying to make it sit in a mix with direct recordings. It just lacks tone. The frequencies are there but not the meat behind all the distortion. I am talking about the crucial 125-500hz area. It just never sounds right. This area is always a boomy mud-fest or too thin when trying to cut it.. I like to scoop my tones since I think that the midrange from 500-1k is always honky and nasally sounding (especially for making it sit in a mix), so I dip a lot of 750hz (classic move for a metal tone). Though, without having the 125-500hz hz area right, the tone ends up being just fizz and low end boom and it`s super thin and useless in a mix because it lacks the low mid meat. Furthermore, you can`t boost that area because it will just introduce all kinds of artifacts, which you notch out afterwards until there is no tone left again.
I have tried all bunch of ideas within the Axe, fiddling with depth frequency, master volume, bass eq, pre-eq, post-eq, and trying a million different IR's but I can`t get it right.
And yup, I have great guitars, good cables, adequate playing technique and a good recording and I know how to dial in tones and how a great signal chain has to look like for a great metal tone. I just can`t get it right with the Axe-Fx.
Would love to hear how you go about that. Did I miss something? Is there a trick? Cliff, would you please help me out with a bunch of ideas?
Thanks!
drawn