How to get a more natural sound (Plexi) ?

B

berdri

Member
Hello everyone,

I'm a guitar player, moslty blues/rock kind of. I'm usually playing the plexi of the AXE FX III, usally the 100W 70s. Long story short but a while ago I had a real marshall plexi from 1971 (still the turret board not the PCB) loaded on 4x12 stack (Celection GT75). It was powerful but too much so I sold it and I got myself an AXE FX III (some would say I'm a foolish person other would pray for that -- anyway its my companion, my neighbours as well as my otolaryngologist who are happy).

I discovered in the AXE FX a cutting edge and easy way to get that cranked Marshall sounds with some feeling at any volume. But after playing for a while I have to say that it still lacks some sparkles, lets define the sound of the Axe FX in that situation as "sanitized" compared to the real deal still.
I would like something more organic or more natural sounding. In fact, I discovered again my preset with the Dyna Cab and especially through the usage of the "smoothing" parameter in the Dyna Cab section which tends to make thing sound more realistic, so a little bit of improvement but still not as natural as I wish.

For you to know, my config is a RME ADI 2 PRO FS and my speakers are the Genelec 8361A which could technically produce all the frequencies of a normal Marshall Plexi and as loud. So there must be a technical way in different settings to introduce this natural response of a real Marshall (my 2cts).

I'm looking forward to ear from you guys.
Cheers
T.
 
One thought I have is: Fractal is giving you an amp with a mic'd cab. That could be a bit of your issue if you're new to, or not used to hearing your amp mic'd and out of a P.A. Fractal also gives the option to bypass the cab and use a physical power amp along with your speaker cab of choice.
Check out page 26 of the Axe FX 3 manual to configure using a power amp and real cab.
Hope that helps some.
 
Goonie said:
One thought I have is: Fractal is giving you an amp with a mic'd cab. That could be a bit of your issue if you're new to, or not used to hearing your amp mic'd and out of a P.A. Fractal also gives the option to bypass the cab and use a physical power amp along with your speaker cab of choice.
Check out page 26 of the Axe FX 3 manual to configure using a power amp and real cab.
Hope that helps some.
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Yes I know, I also had a Matrix 1600 as a power amp driving my previous axe fx 2 in both of my 4x12 but still the sound was not natural with the correct setting. I aslo tried bypassing the power amp section or even preamp, anyway I did all the possibilities but wasn’t happy with it. And the fact of having several units to push buttons, connecting cables and so on for me it adds to many unnecessary complexities.
 
Since you’re aware that you’re recreating a mic’d guitar sound with the axefx through your studio monitors, simply post a clip of a mic’d recording of your plexi. Someone will surely be able to match it quite easily.
 
simeon said:
post a preset, otherwise you're going to get a million replies saying tweak this or tweak that. until we can get a baseline reference, we're just shooting in the dark.
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All right, here it is, that my most recent preset, it has different classic tone amp such as the Hiwatt, the plexi, Orange and so on, currently running on the Plexi 100W Jumped.
 

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berdri said:
Cool you feel that way. Btw, you can see my config in my first message. Adi 2 pro fs rme and genelec 8361A.
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Sorry ..., I was in too big a hurry and I didn't read that part .... My bad ! That said, use the pre-set leveler in Axe-Edit and I think you'll find that your levels are way beyond 0 db. At least they were w/ my guitar and my pickups aren't exactly hot. They're Throbak PAF replicas ....
 
R.D. said:
Sorry ..., I was in too big a hurry and I didn't read that part .... My bad ! That said, use the pre-set leveler in Axe-Edit and I think you'll find that your levels are way beyond 0 db. At least they were w/ my guitar and my pickups aren't exactly hot. They're Throbak PAF replicas ....
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oh really? What do you mean by leveling? That interesting I didn’t think of that for sure this would act on the dynamic! My pickup is an only P90 Gibson
 
The easiest way is to use Axe-Edit ....

Along the top ..., there's a menu dropdown labled "Tools" Click on that and you'll see the option for Preset Leveling ....

That will create a pop-up that will graphically show you the level of your preset at the Output.

Get the level under control and see if that helps you dial it in more to your liking ?
 
R.D. said:
The easiest way is to use Axe-Edit ....

Along the top ..., there's a menu dropdown labled "Tools" Click on that and you'll see the option for Preset Leveling ....

That will create a pop-up that will graphically show you the level of your preset at the Output.

Get the level under control and see if that helps you dial it in more to your liking ?
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Great advise.

Factory presets using the Preset Leveling tool are varied, but here’s a tip. Use this tool to find a factory preset that is close to the tone you’re after, and you see is near unity, (0). from there adjust your output to match the volume and then you can start to dial in the tone from there.
 
Goonie said:
That's what led me to my response of hearing a mic'd cab vs the "amp in room" thing.
But I also saw that the preset the OP posted may have needed leveled to 0dB. I bet the leveling fixes the issue.
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Totally overlooked concept !

IMO most new/intermediate e-guitarists tend to brush over the idea that the sound in their head is a specific certain way of listening/recording….

We need to distinguish the sound charecteristics of what we are going for so we can match to what we desire.

Is it a close mic’d cab (little to no room audible) through a specific speaker (headphone, monitors etc)

OR

you heard the tone in the room with the actual guitar rig

OR

a mic’d room sound through a specifc speaker (headphones , studio monitors etc)

Or some mix of mic’d room + mic’d cab through again your choice of speakers at that time…

Atleast this was a “revelation” for me in my tone chasing journey once I distinguished that fact
 
mr_fender said:
There's no Plexi in that preset. It was clipping for me in Reaper over USB. It's very shrill sounding on my non-neo Active CLR cab. Once I turned off all the smoothing and Room in the cab block and brought the amp block level back down a bit it sounded decent.
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For me the smoothing is really nice to me hear it sounds more realistic, if I follow what you did for me it sounds like the cab is in a swimming pool.
 
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