X former match

cragginshred

cragginshred

Fractal Fanatic
I have messed with the x former match in the amp block per Cliff's suggestion. Mostly turning it down a skosh. It seems to tighten things up a bit but i am looking for more specific info. I agree with 'let your ears tell you' idea, however, with say the Fender clean amps (think Eric Johnson) or the Plexi treble (think ZZ/Zep) where you would go? And how far is a little down specifically just as basic parameters. Also who is finding significant tonal increases with this tweak?
Thanks,
Don
 
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Yes I have messed with it quite a bit. For example lowering the xformer match make in my mind the amp to feel bigger and bouncier and even more almost dangerous dynamic and huge. The higher master volume setting you have the bigger the effect. Using the ods clean amp with master volume somewhere around 5 and lowest possible xformer match gives it the feel of a Steel String Slinger or whatever SRVs 150W dumble monster was called. (In my mind of course since I have never played one). I mostly lower it right now because I've been chasing big-amps tone. Try it with the wreck model. INSANE!
 
cragginshred said:
No one is messing with what Cliff has called The most powerful feature to shape you tone?
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Usually I set it somewhere between 0.9 and 1.1. Small turns, when I go too far it starts to sound artificial IMHO.
I change it on some of my presets but not on all. For many presets it is just right as it is to me, so why change it then.
 
Sure, I've twisted that knob a few times, but I don't really have enough experience with it yet to provide any useful insight :)
 
That is a powerful parameter. Used in conjunction with MV and B+ you can have a big impact on tone and feel of the amp sim. I play with those 3 all the time as fine tuning on patches. I'm interested to see if any of this will change with V10 and its corrected modeling.
 
I use it with all my patches. I also tend to turn it down, usually around 0.75. Turning it up, despite the strongly embedded belief that more must be better, usually does the amp model no favors to my ears. But like most of you, I've yet to find the magic spot and really don't understand what it really does.
 
Turning it down gives the amp a more open sound for sure. The higher the master the more it becomes obvious, but it definitely makes the amps open up & sound less compressed.

I don't know why Cliff doesn't make it default to a lower value than it is, because all amp models I use definitely benefit from turning the default value down. I don't know too many players that complain about an amp being too open & having too much string separation!

All these things obviously come down to a players personal taste & to the taste of the person creating the models!
 
Cliffs target is total accuracy, models should be a perfect copy of the amps they model, so that's the reason why some controls are preset as they are. Any higher or lower value can be better for you or can even be necessary depending on your sourrounding gear, but whenever you make changes to an advanced parameter, you risk to move away from that perfect copy.

I guess the better the accuracy gets the less you need to touch the advanced stuff. I'm looking forward to FW 10 to experience to next level of accuracy...which also means we'll need less tricks with cab combinations, advanced params and all that deeper tweakings.
 
willowdale said:
I don't know why Cliff doesn't make it default to a lower value than it is, because all amp models I use definitely benefit from turning the default value down. I don't know too many players that complain about an amp being too open & having too much string separation!

All these things obviously come down to a players personal taste & to the taste of the person creating the models!
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Internally there is a default value for each model that is correct for the amp being modeling. For example, for a Blues Jr it might be 1.5. The Transformer Match parameter that the user sees gets multiplied by this. So if you set it to 0.9 the actual value becomes 0.9 * 1.5.

Just because you like the value lower than the actual amp doesn't mean that I should make the default lower. The internal default is baaed on measurements of the transformer. If you find yourself turning this parameter down consistently then you are probably setting the MV too high.
 
Every time Cliff posts about a parameter my tones get so much better. The relationship between this and the MV is something I've never really considered!


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Wildwind said:
I use it with all my patches. I also tend to turn it down, usually around 0.75. Turning it up, despite the strongly embedded belief that more must be better, usually does the amp model no favors to my ears. But like most of you, I've yet to find the magic spot and really don't understand what it really does.
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This 0.75 helped! I was turning it down in such a small amount I was not sure how much it changed,...this is a good place to start.
 
Yes, @ lower settings 11:00 even 10,10:30 gives me more string seperation for arpeggios, add just the right amt of chorus & it seems to clean up the gain abit without losing sustain........very nice.
 
I was like wrong. Raising the xformer match will make the power tubes to distort sooner and lowering the xformer match will make the power tuber to distort later. If one would like the transformer to be "big", one should lower the xformer drive. Raising the xformer drive will make the transformer to saturate earlier and thus simulate a smaller transformer. Still the effect is great.
 
Are all of you finding these lower settings with most amps you use or different values for say a Plexi treble versus a 59 bassman?
 
All over the place depending on my mood for the day.
But on the patches I actually used it and saved it I actually lowered the xformer match. I normally like cleaner tones. But since I bought my axe in September 2012 I can't really say I know or have tried that much.
 
FractalAudio said:
If you find yourself turning this parameter down consistently then you are probably setting the MV too high.
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It was suggested in an earlier thread that you were considering adding some sort of "dot" or "mark" at the optimal MV setting on all of the amp models in a future FW update. I would absolutely LOVE to see this happen. I am sure all of us are guilty of incorrect MV settings on most of our presets...
 
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