Picking a cabinet for dedicated use with AxeFX 3

bxlgotham

bxlgotham

Inspired
So I currently am running the unit through Adam A7x monitors. Gotta say it sounds really fantastic. I am interested in having one output though go to cabinet. I have a Seymour Duncan PowerStage 700 unit waiting to be used to connect the two. I was thinking of using a vintage Marshall JCM 800 cabinet, or a JMP Mk2 2203 cabinet, or something in that neighborhood (I realize there are a lot of variations).

Are there any lessons or maxims about this? Perhaps a dumb question but when connecting to a cab, does one disable cab emu or rather set it to what the actual cab is? Or are both legit ways to try to find ideal sound? Lastly, do people mic cabs that have AFX3 running them and is that somehow odd or silly vs just direct digital to DAW (assuming you're using one) and using cab sims?
 
Try before you buy. You'd disable the cab sims going to the real cab, otherwise you would have simulated cab+ real cab, which sounds bad. Not unusable but not good in any conventional way. Then you could either mic the real cabinet, or send the cab simulated output straight to PA, which is more convenient and consistent and most likely better sounding too.

I don't love the standard JCM800 or any basic Marshall cabs with G12 T75, speakers, they are usually quite nasty sounding. Cab makes such a big impact on the sound, try to search for the holy grail. Difficult journey as they are so cumbersome and no shop has huge stock of different cabs in stock to try. Well, maybe some bigass stores do.
 
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No, they wont. Start with the jcm800 cab - if you dont like it, sell or trade it for something else.
 
I already have one sorry I wasn't clear. Thanks and now the answer to above question makes sense. So I guess the next question is, say you run a Friedman amp preset on AFX3 into PowerStage 700 into a JCM800 cab. Turn cab sim off, but I guess we now have a Friedman amp + Marshall cab. So if you really wanted an in the room amp sound with AFX3, this is the way to go?
 
After playing for a short while with my first Fractal AXE II, I decided to go FRFR and have never looked back. I am able to get much more variety with different cabs in the cab block. Setting up at home translates well to any FRFR system or PA. I also have an AX8 and the III.
 
bxlgotham said:
Does anyone even agree on what the holy grail cabinets are? I am not asking rhetorically.
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Just think about this: hundreds and hundreds of rock and metal masterpieces were recorded using G12-80 or G12-75; at some point during the 2000’s they became useles s@it.
That’s what you can expect to read looking for the holy grail cabinets.
Just pick the Jcm800 cab and you’re good to go 😀
 
bxlgotham said:
I already have one sorry I wasn't clear. Thanks and now the answer to above question makes sense. So I guess the next question is, say you run a Friedman amp preset on AFX3 into PowerStage 700 into a JCM800 cab. Turn cab sim off, but I guess we now have a Friedman amp + Marshall cab. So if you really wanted an in the room amp sound with AFX3, this is the way to go?
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Yes, this is a great way to do it. Experiment with the speaker impedance curve setting to better match the behavior of the amp sim to your real cab. I am not sure what the right approach for this would be other than flicking through them and setling on one you like.

For the cabinets there's a lot of personal preference involved. For example if you are a metal player then you might like a 4x12 with V30s or some other popular speaker for that genre. More of a classic rocker? 2x12 or 4x12 with G12M or G12H. Blues guy? 1x12 or 2x12 maybe with Jensens, Greenbacks, Alnico Blue or Cream etc.

Since the Powerstage 700 is stereo, you could even have a different cab for each output. So you could have your "ultimate" clean setup with a smaller cab with Jensens and run Fender amp sims into that and then have your rock 4x12 to use with Marshall based sounds. Or just have two of the same cabs and run in stereo into those. Lots of options.

There's a lot of good cabs and speakers out there. With my real amps I currently use a Bogner 1x12 w/ Eminence Maverick for my Vox-flavored Victory VC35 and a Bluetone 4x10 w/ 10" Celestion Greenbacks with my Fender/Marshall flavored Bogner GF45 SL. These have been picked for no other reason than liking how they sounded. It's just about finding something that complements the amp well. Or in your case what complements the amp sim.
 
angelworm said:
Just think about this: hundreds and hundreds of rock and metal masterpieces were recorded using G12-80 or G12-75; at some point during the 2000’s they became useles s@it.
That’s what you can expect to read looking for the holy grail cabinets.
Just pick the Jcm800 cab and you’re good to go 😀
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Undeniable logic right there.....
 
luke said:
I must be vintage, I remember when JCM800s came out, I was in college. 🙁
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Still own one......amazing amp and what the fractal has to compete with (turning up today)
 
Variety vs. punch. 4x12 has the punch, not so much variety. For mega rig, use both at once. For uber mega rig just for shits&giggles, I used 4x12 for distorted tones, open 1x12" for cleans and a FRFR for reverbs. Axe has enough outputs to accomodate them all. Extremely pointless but also very fun. I wouldn't carry that rig anywhere though.
 
laxu said:
Yes, this is a great way to do it. Experiment with the speaker impedance curve setting to better match the behavior of the amp sim to your real cab. I am not sure what the right approach for this would be other than flicking through them and setling on one you like.

For the cabinets there's a lot of personal preference involved. For example if you are a metal player then you might like a 4x12 with V30s or some other popular speaker for that genre. More of a classic rocker? 2x12 or 4x12 with G12M or G12H. Blues guy? 1x12 or 2x12 maybe with Jensens, Greenbacks, Alnico Blue or Cream etc.

Since the Powerstage 700 is stereo, you could even have a different cab for each output. So you could have your "ultimate" clean setup with a smaller cab with Jensens and run Fender amp sims into that and then have your rock 4x12 to use with Marshall based sounds. Or just have two of the same cabs and run in stereo into those. Lots of options.

There's a lot of good cabs and speakers out there. With my real amps I currently use a Bogner 1x12 w/ Eminence Maverick for my Vox-flavored Victory VC35 and a Bluetone 4x10 w/ 10" Celestion Greenbacks with my Fender/Marshall flavored Bogner GF45 SL. These have been picked for no other reason than liking how they sounded. It's just about finding something that complements the amp well. Or in your case what complements the amp sim.
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There’s a lot of good advice here, the only thing I would add is: if you want to tune the impedance curve to your cab, you can use a synth block to generate a sine wave. Sweep that sine way from low (60Hz or so) to high (140Hz or so) very slowly and at a pretty decent volume. Eventually, your room will shake a bit—that’s your resonant frequency.

You can also do this with a mic if you want an actual measure. Do the same sweep with the cab mic’d up and look for the peak signal.
 
If you want the best of both worlds, a good frfr is the way to go. I’ve had a couple and settled on the Friedman asm12. It sounds/feels just like a cab but gives the option to use cab sims so I’m not locked into one sound.
That said, If you really want a 412, a jcm800 cab is a good starting point or a v30 cab. Both are fairly classic sounds.
 
Brian Angiel said:
There’s a lot of good advice here, the only thing I would add is: if you want to tune the impedance curve to your cab, you can use a synth block to generate a sine wave. Sweep that sine way from low (60Hz or so) to high (140Hz or so) very slowly and at a pretty decent volume. Eventually, your room will shake a bit—that’s your resonant frequency.

You can also do this with a mic if you want an actual measure. Do the same sweep with the cab mic’d up and look for the peak signal.
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I think that method isn't good though, doing that you'd more likely find the resonant frequency of your room rather than that of your cab.

The proper way to measure the impedance curve is discussed in this thread
 
For myself and from my experiences with various corporate bands, I've been running one output with IRs to FOH/monitors and another for a real cab for stage sound. I've used all the recommended boxes except for Redsound (e.g. CLR, RCF, Xitone, etc.). I think in those cases, I was generally happy with the sound, but it required a certain amount of "buy-in" from others on stage in terms of coverage and volume. Lots of gigs where people struggled to hear me, or where the dispersion of the cab was too wide (a goldilocks type of conundrum). So I moved to one of two cabs: a 1x12" open back pine and Marshall 2x12" SV vertical cab. Yes, I've lost the flexibility of specific cabs matched to specific amps, but I can still use multiple cabs for FOH if I really wanted (I prefer 1 or 2 mixes total per night). Right now, I have an ASW KTS-60 in the open back, and an Alnico Cream combined with a Swamp Thang in the Marshall. I lean towards looser, nastier sounds rather than tight metal-esque precision. It's working well for me at this point. I would guess many wouldn't dig it, but that's cool.

As Iaxu pointed out, you could have lots of fun using panning to help "select" one of two cabinets to get you flexibility. That's been on my to-do list when I can crank things up and experiment with tones, though I highly doubt I would take all of that to a gig.
 
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You can split the signal before the cab block and have that go to a different output. That way there's no need to disable cab sims and you can have a signal chain with the IR and a cabless signal going to your poweramp/real cab setup.
 
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