I constantly feel like I'm guessing with my Axe FX II

[Sidivan]

What Danny said. IME the two biggest mistakes are too much gain and too much gain. Beginners use way too much gain to cover up their lack of technical ability and then complain when it sounds lousy. Pros use far less gain than you think. By the time I had been playing professionally for 20 years I had the gain dialed back to 1/10 of what it was when I first started playing. With less gain you get a much more open and dynamic tone. It's only logical.

The more I gig, the less gain I use too. I have presets from a year ago that are so over-saturated that I'm amazed they ever worked for me. My "go to" gain sound was my "low gain crunch" sound a year ago. It's more dynamic, cuts through a mix, and is just overall better than my high gain patches.

 

[Danny Danzi]

Excellent write up Danny. It is a lot to ask but it would be an amazing resource if you made a tone sculpting instructional video where you demonstrate these tonal mistakes and then correct them so we can see and hear some concrete examples of the process.

Thanks Sam! I sort of have something like that available. I helped to develop a VST plugin with a company and made a video on how to use it from the ground up. It probably wouldn't do much good with your Axe since it's not done using my Axe, but I create tones and show the good and bad stuff you were mentioning. I may have to try and create something new though because this one may upset Fractal and that's the last thing I want to do. I'm not trying to sell the thing (honest) but it's got some really cool stuff going on that may be helpful. It's one of those things where I dial up a tone in like 30 seconds and then tweak it for use in a mix. Same principals really...high pass, low pass, amount of fizz, eqing mids, adjusting gain. All that stuff is pretty standard for any amp or vst. If I can find the time to create something for you, I'll see what I can do. Fortunately for me, my studio's are keeping me extremely busy these days....but I'll see what I can do man.

The more I gig, the less gain I use too. I have presets from a year ago that are so over-saturated that I'm amazed they ever worked for me. My "go to" gain sound was my "low gain crunch" sound a year ago. It's more dynamic, cuts through a mix, and is just overall better than my high gain patches.

Hey Sidivan, I've noticed this myself. I think the main reason is...when we go into our cabs, the cabs resonate more giving us more sustain. In turn we can back the gain down for the live stuff. I get such good tones direct that I really don't see a need to mic my stuff any more to be honest. I use what I call "a room within a room" which has given me killer results and I don't have to worry about mic'ing for the studio. I've also switched over to impulses for the past 10 years which can make a HUGE difference in the studio. But I notice I need a little more gain for the studio stuff than I would for my live stuff when I use a pre-amp. I like using less at all times...but in the studio, I need that little extra kick without having the volume we need for mic'ing. Do you think that may be why you use less gain live...due to your cabs? Do you mic a cab when you record?

 

[yek]

I remember a Fields of Rock concert in 2006, with Ozzy, Velvet Revolver, Rammstein etc.
Loads of gain, but the band with the most attack and sheer power was Audioslave: Tom Morello with his 50w half stack.
Yes, less gain is better.

 

[smcrosby]

Danny is it a good idea to build presets for that thick solo guitar tone but build in a few low pass and high pass eq blocks to click on for group gigs?

Or is that a CPU sucker?

PS - do you ever gig in the New Brunswick or Red Bank areas (IOW - mid-Jersey)?

 

[smcrosby]

Excellent write up Danny. It is a lot to ask but it would be an amazing resource if you made a tone sculpting instructional video where you demonstrate these tonal mistakes and then correct them so we can see and hear some concrete examples of the process.

wow ... +1 :encouragement:

 

[Danny Danzi]

Danny is it a good idea to build presets for that thick solo guitar tone but build in a few low pass and high pass eq blocks to click on for group gigs?

Or is that a CPU sucker?

PS - do you ever gig in the New Brunswick or Red Bank areas (IOW - mid-Jersey)?

Hi sm,

In my opinion, the thick solo stuff is usually ok. The reason being, it is the focal point instrument. As long as you're not swimming in effects to the point of not being able to hear what you are playing (you know how effects can mask what you play if you're not careful) you can make them pretty thick. Just watch for low end. Example....you solo and do a dive bomb....if you have too much bass, that low register on the dive is going to take over and be the loudest thing you hear. See, we want to hear guitar tone more than we feel it. We DO want to feel it, but the truth is, if you can feel it churning your bile ducts...lol....you probably have way too much low end push. Low end is the second most popular guitar tone killer next to gain. For some odd reason, guitarists love that low end push so much, we can end up in bass guitar territory and the next thing you know....bang, you can't even hear yourself.

To decide on what amount of low end to take out depends on the sound. For rhythm sounds, you'd want to take out a bit more low end so we don't have the sound get bruied. For leads, we can let a little more lows go in a sound like that. Me personally, I like my rhythm tones to cut through a bit more having a bit more presence/high end. My leads, I like to be a bit more chocolatey and warm to where the high end in my notes doesn't annoy the listener. So for me, I tend to cut my mids a little in my rhythm tone, boost them in my leads and may allow a little more bass push.

As for adding a hi pass...just add a filter block. They don't add much to the CPU if my memory serves me right. You can also go into your eq in "amp" on the axe and lower 63 Hz until you hear the "whooosh" in the background leave your tone. Watch out for 125 too as when you chug on chords using A, Bb, or B, if you had a spectrum analyzer on your tone, 120-125 Hz will ramp up. Now, just because that may ramp up doesn't mean it's a problem. Some people watch graphs more than they rely on their ears and let me tell you, that can be the death of you. I've seen great eq curves that sounded horrible and horrible eq curves that sounded great.

However, if you see huge spikes in those areas and literally hear the wooosh or "whoomfing" type sounds, that's when we know that we have to:

a. High pass until it's gone
b. If high passing it kills the tone a bit too much, find a happy medium and try compression or even our Fractal multicomp.

The multicomp can allow you to have a little more "frequency" in your tone while it's job is to compress the actual frequency. So if you were to add an instance of the multicomp, you'll notice the first frequency you see is 120. The Fractal guys know that freq is always a nightmare for we guitarists....just as I said when I mentioned the "whoomf" freqs from 120-125 Hz. So they give you a good starting point.

But this compressor is a bit different than our normal compressor. A normal compressor will compress the sound in full. Our multicomp will compress the frequency. So though it's similar, it's not the same. There are times where we may like a tone, but yet on certain chords or licks we play, the frequencies lash out at us. Once we find out what those frequencies are, we can "police" them so to speak with the multicomp, understand? We don't have to use much...we just want it to be the cop that stands at the line. Any freqs that go over that line, it pushes them back and keeps them in line. If you use too much, you'll hear a pumping/breathing sound and that's what you DON'T want.

To be honest though, a multicomp should be your last resort really. To me, it's always been a surgical tool or a tool you use when you have tried your best to control frequencies and have not done as well as you had hoped. Another thing regarding frequencies...try to always be a cutter, not a booster. Boosting adds noise. For the most part, removing the bad stuff from a tone should make it better just about always. If you have too much bass, don't boost highs. Lower the bass. If you have too much high end, don't boost bass...lower the highs.

It's funny you ask about the gigs...we did a few at Dingbatz....ever hear of it? I know it's in north or central NJ somewhere. These days we're staying closer to south jersey, philly and Delaware with the cover band. My original band usually plays more overseas...and I'm hoping that starts up again as soon as I finish the new album.

 

[Suhrfer]

+1000

I listened to some of Danny Danzi's songs via his "my band" signature link. Talk about good tone!

 

[bgrizzmayne]

I too find a TON of presets and players i hear, sometimes especially with an axe or digital modeling solution, rely on excess gain & delay to cover up lead playing/vibrato deficiencies. I cannot stand too gainy of a tone- when I'm building a lead tone, I try to keep the gain to be as little as I possibly need, while still maintaining the right sustain and resonance for single note stuff.

This thread has been really helpful: I've actually been getting some good to solid tones for recording with the Bogner Blue XTC amp through a petrucci V30 mix cabinet, stock on the Axe. I've learned a lot about routing, and have discovered scene controllers. My MFC arrived last week and has made tone tweaking MUCH easier, because it's way simpler for me to think with my feet than my hands sometimes. As a gigging player, I do a lot of tweaking by AB-ing things, and sometimes that's more easily done with a foot controller, rather than playing...stopping, twisting to a new scene, playing.

Thanks to everyone, and i'm going to check out Danny's stuff!

Ben

 

[Suhrfer]

If any, which ones of the Axe FX II's stock presets have excessive gain? I damn sure don't want any thing covering up any deficiencies! :lol

 

[lauke-lux]

..... It's all about the IR. Once you have that down; it's almost child's play to dial stuff in....

Check on your IR's, and of course your FRFR amplifying stuff but even if you don't have CLR's you'll get stunning sounds (I don't have CLR's..). Once you got the right IR's with the right amps (for you) you'll get your kicks. Actually I end up using maybe 4-5 amp types and 4-5 IR or IR combinations. Due to lack of time it's just frustrating to know you're playing on an engine with 100+ amps in it and that you're just using some stupid 5% of that. Let's say it's like the brains....;-))

 

[bgrizzmayne]

I plan on setting up my Axe FX Rig side by side with my pedalboard/amp rig and trying to cop tones at high volumes. I got my Axe FX around Sept and got all get giddy- trying to gig it out right when I got it. High volume presets are next on my list; if I can get a twin/deluxe patch to sound good enough compared to my amp, I'll be happy. The flexibility with effects and so forth is an awesome advantage of the axe, but I just need to get this whole FRFR thing figured out for gigging.

 

[InsideOut]

Talk about a small world. My avatar picture was taken of me playing at JB McGuinness in DE. Love that stage. Great informative thread guys!

 

[smcrosby]

Thanks Danny - yes we we're talking the same thing - thick meaning extending down into the low end when playing solo - by yourself in your cave - and then - when playing in a band setting - kicking in a low pass of some sort to thin out the tone to keep from stepping on the bassist's/drummer's/keyboardist's bass notes. Great tips - so far I have been able to dial out any excessive low end for gigs simply by using the bass cut switch in the amp sims (sometimes I'll switch the bass cut on - just as a precaution - to avoid even the possibility of a bottom-end clash). But - so far - these are small cozy jam sessions, not at gig levels.

When it comes to effects, I like to use them, but I like to dial their depth waaayyyy back. Sometimes I'll use chorus or phasers, but dial them back so that you cannot readily tell they are switched on but they successfully thicken up the fatness of the tone.

One thing I would like to work on is hunting down the root cause of that "sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" noise (not to be confused with the manageable AC "hummmm" that the AXE replicates so faithfully :lol ). The "sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" noise sounds like someone left the faucet running in the next room. I sometime wonder if its coming from my new BOSS EV500L that I'm using in expression pedal mode.

 

[Danny Danzi]

Talk about a small world. My avatar picture was taken of me playing at JB McGuinness in DE. Love that stage. Great informative thread guys!

Great room isn't it? Did Dennis run sound for you? The dude is so killer! I love that stage too...we play there every 2 months or so.

Thanks Danny - yes we we're talking the same thing - thick meaning extending down into the low end when playing solo - by yourself in your cave - and then - when playing in a band setting - kicking in a low pass of some sort to thin out the tone to keep from stepping on the bassist's/drummer's/keyboardist's bass notes. Great tips - so far I have been able to dial out any excessive low end for gigs simply by using the bass cut switch in the amp sims (sometimes I'll switch the bass cut on - just as a precaution - to avoid even the possibility of a bottom-end clash). But - so far - these are small cozy jam sessions, not at gig levels.

When it comes to effects, I like to use them, but I like to dial their depth waaayyyy back. Sometimes I'll use chorus or phasers, but dial them back so that you cannot readily tell they are switched on but they successfully thicken up the fatness of the tone.

One thing I would like to work on is hunting down the root cause of that "sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" noise (not to be confused with the manageable AC "hummmm" that the AXE replicates so faithfully :lol ). The "sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" noise sounds like someone left the faucet running in the next room. I sometime wonder if its coming from my new BOSS EV500L that I'm using in expression pedal mode.

The thing about live sm, let the soundman handle the lows...but try to come in to it being in control. Or you can do what I do...have your studio/man cave sounds and then have your live sounds that are already controlled. The thing with high passing live tones is...it depends on how your cab reacts. You may not need to high pass as much as you would while recording. And then of course you have to find what frequency to high pass as it's not a one size fits all. So see how your cab reacts and then try to hone in on it. That's the best way in my opinion. Like I mentioned to Sidivan about gain, having studio sounds and live sounds allows you to not only adjust your high pass, but if your cabs sustain really well, you will most likely need less gain live than you will for recording if you do anything direct.

I use 25 watt greenbacks live, so for me, less gain is better so the cabs do the work. In the studio when going direct, I need a little more gain and a little more high passing. I either high pass through the Axe or sometimes just high pass using an eq in Sonar X3 and it does the exact same thing.

Effects: you know, for years I've heard people say "if you can hear effects, you're using too much." I actually hate that statement and don't believe in it at all. The reason being? It depends how clean of a player you are. I've worked my entire life to do everything to the point of being so clean, I can use lots of effects and nothing I do gets buried or masked behind the effects. In my world, if I want to hear a delay on my lead, you're going to hear that delay. The notes will be clean though so it won't really matter. The same with chorus, flange or phaser. As long as you play clean and have a tone that is distinct, use as much effect as you feel you need to get your point across.

One thing you may need to do (which can be extremely helpful) is to eq your effects. If the effect has high pass, low pass or some sort of eq in it, by all means use it. This can really help the effect mold to your tone and it can also help you remove the harsh lows that can come from chorus or flangers as they sweep down into the lower register.

Doing stuff like this in recording is essential to having great mixes because if you do not eq your effects and treat them as an instrument (to an extent) you can really have problems with your sounds that use effects. Nothing worse than a flange or chorus that dips down in the low end area mudding up your tone. Same with reverbs...if they hiss like a snake, you either have too long a tail or you need to cut some of the treble out of the verb to warm it up. We can go on and on with effects....but just remember, like a car, drive as fast as you can safely handle it....use as much effects as you need to where it enhances you, not destroys you.

Hmmm this shhhhh sound sounds like high end hiss to me. Can you post up an mp3 or something showing me what it sounds like? I get 0 noise out of my Axe at the moment and let me tell you, I have some extreme gain patches that make me shake my head because I can't believe the thing is not letting out noise nor is it choking off my tone. I don't know how the heck the gate (press layout and then page right two times) works like it does...but it's truly amazing and better than any Hush unit I have ever owned.

Just about all my presets have the threshold at -90, ratio 2.63, att 30.00, rel 35.02, and everything else at default on that gate. I get no noise at all from it unless I'm wide open on my volume knob...which doesn't bother me because I'm a knob whore. LOL! Years ago, when I had 900 stomp boxes and had to tap dance to shut up my rig, I got into the habit of always shutting off my volume knob. I'm so fast at it, it's become a part of my playing. But because of that, I don't need my gate to kick in when my guitar is wide open. I just want total silence when I'm not playing and subtle silence when the knob is 1/4 to half open. Put it this way, I don't get enough noise to where anyone can hear it and it doesn't bother me at all.

You should be able to dial something in with that gate. Especially if you mess with the threshold, the level and the input imp. So many cool variations to remove shhhhhh, you should be able to nail it easily. It very well could be your boss....they can pick up some noise for sure. I'd definitely try to find out where the source of that is coming from and see what can be done. I'm currently not using anything with my Axe to drive it more. It's actually pretty amazing that I haven't felt the need to add anything to it. It's giving me just about exactly what I need. The only thing I need to do is fix a few of my patches where the effects are not in line with the amp, get my MFC and I'll be good to go.

 

[Edrod]

What Danny said. IME the two biggest mistakes are too much gain and too much gain. Beginners use way too much gain to cover up their lack of technical ability and then complain when it sounds lousy. Pros use far less gain than you think. By the time I had been playing professionally for 20 years I had the gain dialed back to 1/10 of what it was when I first started playing. With less gain you get a much more open and dynamic tone. It's only logical.

Cliff, this is such a good point. This is something i learned after watching petrucci talk about it. You get so much clarity and even desired sustain with just the right amount of gain. Not to mention you don't have to overkill your noise gate.

One thing i like to do when recording is double/triple track with small amounts of gain. It sounds so good and tighter to my ears. It also helps in the mix by avoiding a bunch of unwanted noise.

 

[BigD1977]

Cliff, this is such a good point. This is something i learned after watching petrucci talk about it. You get so much clarity and even desired sustain with just the right amount of gain. Not to mention you don't have to overkill your noise gate.

One thing i like to do when recording is double/triple track with small amounts of gain. It sounds so good and tighter to my ears. It also helps in the mix by avoiding a bunch of unwanted noise.

Yup!

I was out for my run today listening to Paul Gilbert's Vibrato album (FUNKY!) and his guitars are nearly clean and he can still shred the s*&t out of it.... A few mistakes, but I LOVE that... it's human!

Anyway, my main point was about multitracking the same part. If you do that it'll sound different to having the (hypothetically) same amount of gain to get a full sound on just one part, so the ears have to factor that in, and there's nothing like experience to train that sound differentiation.

On the Petrucci thing, listen to Six Degrees (and the comparative muddiness of the guitar sound) and compare it to the latest album which seems to have less, but more tasty gain. In fact, there's an Italian guy on these board called 'Plastic Mind Frequencies' who IMHO has knocked it out of the park in the heavy guitar sound stakes, and he seems to use shades of gain in his rhythm parts rather than one huge brush.

 

[jlynnb1]

I plan on setting up my Axe FX Rig side by side with my pedalboard/amp rig and trying to cop tones at high volumes. I got my Axe FX around Sept and got all get giddy- trying to gig it out right when I got it. High volume presets are next on my list; if I can get a twin/deluxe patch to sound good enough compared to my amp, I'll be happy. The flexibility with effects and so forth is an awesome advantage of the axe, but I just need to get this whole FRFR thing figured out for gigging.

I hope you find what you are after, but I have a feeling if you're doing side by side with your amp in the room you won't be satisfied.

 

[smcrosby]

Great room isn't it? Did Dennis run sound for you? The dude is so killer! I love that stage too...we play there every 2 months or so.



The thing about live sm, let the soundman handle the lows...but try to come in to it being in control. Or you can do what I do...have your studio/man cave sounds and then have your live sounds that are already controlled. The thing with high passing live tones is...it depends on how your cab reacts. You may not need to high pass as much as you would while recording. And then of course you have to find what frequency to high pass as it's not a one size fits all. So see how your cab reacts and then try to hone in on it. That's the best way in my opinion. Like I mentioned to Sidivan about gain, having studio sounds and live sounds allows you to not only adjust your high pass, but if your cabs sustain really well, you will most likely need less gain live than you will for recording if you do anything direct.

I use 25 watt greenbacks live, so for me, less gain is better so the cabs do the work. In the studio when going direct, I need a little more gain and a little more high passing. I either high pass through the Axe or sometimes just high pass using an eq in Sonar X3 and it does the exact same thing.

Effects: you know, for years I've heard people say "if you can hear effects, you're using too much." I actually hate that statement and don't believe in it at all. The reason being? It depends how clean of a player you are. I've worked my entire life to do everything to the point of being so clean, I can use lots of effects and nothing I do gets buried or masked behind the effects. In my world, if I want to hear a delay on my lead, you're going to hear that delay. The notes will be clean though so it won't really matter. The same with chorus, flange or phaser. As long as you play clean and have a tone that is distinct, use as much effect as you feel you need to get your point across.

One thing you may need to do (which can be extremely helpful) is to eq your effects. If the effect has high pass, low pass or some sort of eq in it, by all means use it. This can really help the effect mold to your tone and it can also help you remove the harsh lows that can come from chorus or flangers as they sweep down into the lower register.

Doing stuff like this in recording is essential to having great mixes because if you do not eq your effects and treat them as an instrument (to an extent) you can really have problems with your sounds that use effects. Nothing worse than a flange or chorus that dips down in the low end area mudding up your tone. Same with reverbs...if they hiss like a snake, you either have too long a tail or you need to cut some of the treble out of the verb to warm it up. We can go on and on with effects....but just remember, like a car, drive as fast as you can safely handle it....use as much effects as you need to where it enhances you, not destroys you.

Hmmm this shhhhh sound sounds like high end hiss to me. Can you post up an mp3 or something showing me what it sounds like? I get 0 noise out of my Axe at the moment and let me tell you, I have some extreme gain patches that make me shake my head because I can't believe the thing is not letting out noise nor is it choking off my tone. I don't know how the heck the gate (press layout and then page right two times) works like it does...but it's truly amazing and better than any Hush unit I have ever owned.

Just about all my presets have the threshold at -90, ratio 2.63, att 30.00, rel 35.02, and everything else at default on that gate. I get no noise at all from it unless I'm wide open on my volume knob...which doesn't bother me because I'm a knob whore. LOL! Years ago, when I had 900 stomp boxes and had to tap dance to shut up my rig, I got into the habit of always shutting off my volume knob. I'm so fast at it, it's become a part of my playing. But because of that, I don't need my gate to kick in when my guitar is wide open. I just want total silence when I'm not playing and subtle silence when the knob is 1/4 to half open. Put it this way, I don't get enough noise to where anyone can hear it and it doesn't bother me at all.

You should be able to dial something in with that gate. Especially if you mess with the threshold, the level and the input imp. So many cool variations to remove shhhhhh, you should be able to nail it easily. It very well could be your boss....they can pick up some noise for sure. I'd definitely try to find out where the source of that is coming from and see what can be done. I'm currently not using anything with my Axe to drive it more. It's actually pretty amazing that I haven't felt the need to add anything to it. It's giving me just about exactly what I need. The only thing I need to do is fix a few of my patches where the effects are not in line with the amp, get my MFC and I'll be good to go.

Thank you Sir Danzi! I'll get a post up with the "Ssshhhhhhhhh" so we can collectively hunt it down and kill it.

Sounds like we share the same perspectives on tone and the use of effects - effects have wide application depending on the context - sometimes the context invites thick and or swirling effects - sometimes effects can be used subtly, dialed back to give amazing girth and substance to both clean and gritty bluesy tones. Obviously, when the context calls for delay and reverb, you want to hear them and adjust to the context (Mike Stern is a good example of varying reverb and delay for, say, guitar solos, etc.).

Re: my live cab - I use two brand new ultra-light FRFR active 500W Neo CLR wedges (in stereo) - so I guess I should be very conscious of the high and low ends and I better start auditioning the new Ownhammer open back IRs too (love the open back sound) before I start tweaking for studio and live presets?

Re: clean tones - even when I am going for some dirt, crunch, mud, etc., I try to be clean about it ( :lol not easy with a couple of permanently busted fingers - I play 5-6 hours of competitive wallyball and basketball every Sunday, something I have done since 1985 and am not willing to give up).

I am also still tweaking my guitars. In pursuit of "clean" intonation, I just purchased some inexpensive non-invasive compensated nut augmenters (for lack of a better word since there is no invasive modification to the actual nut) so I can try out tempered tuning with my Floyd Rose Ibanez clones (two U.S. Masters LG507s) to chase down those elusive Cowboy Chords (to coin a phase posted in another thread recently) - if it works I hope to be able to go from chime to crunch (in perfect tune all over the neck) with a slight twist of my volume pot (from say 2.5 to 5 - I'm a knob whore too :lol ) coupled with a slight output volume kick from either my BOSS EV500L expression pedal or maybe an IA boost on the MFC to accentuate the crunch (gotta figure out which is better for live - ya can't screw up volume boosts gigging with a band).

Thank you again Danny - I am really green at using modelers in band and live settings - and U Da Man! :encouragement:

 

[Danny Danzi]

Thank you Sir Danzi! I'll get a post up with the "Ssshhhhhhhhh" so we can collectively hunt it down and kill it.

Hahaha, no problem brother. I love going after those noise artifacts. I have a 25 space flight case I call "Goliath". He was quite a nightmare to wire up...so killing noises, I'm quite good at.

Sounds like we share the same perspectives on tone and the use of effects - effects have wide application depending on the context - sometimes the context invites thick and or swirling effects - sometimes effects can be used subtly, dialed back to give amazing girth and substance to both clean and gritty bluesy tones. Obviously, when the context calls for delay and reverb, you want to hear them and adjust to the context (Mike Stern is a good example of varying reverb and delay for, say, guitar solos, etc.).

Yeah....but you may be a bit more in depth than I am at this point. I don't have the time I once had to program...but man, the stuff in my 2101 would definitely blow you away. I just wish I had the time I had for that to put into my AxeFx. I got Hammond B3 sounds, the Steve Stevens ray gun sound, synth sounds, 12-string sounds, weird layers, effects flying in and out all over the place....it's just total madness. For me to get that deep with the Axe will definitely take me some time. I've got a few cool things dialed in already, but still have a long way to go. The cool thing about my 2101 also is...I run it midi right into Sonar and it changes my patches for me...every little change is right there on the fly in real time. So I have a looooonnnng way to go to even come close to what I have in that thing.

The good thing is, I got my actual core tones just about sorted out....I just have all the aesthetic work left, scenes to program, my MFC still isn't here, still setting up my algorithms...whew, I'm actually dreading every minute of it to be honest. But I can relate to where you are as well as what you're doing. Just be careful on the stereo stuff for live. The reason being...you're the only one that will hear it since just about all PA's are mono. And even if it were stereo, people on the other side would be getting half of your signal. It's easy to get phased up in a stereo rig. I run stereo as well, but my soundmen always run a few mic's on me to at least sum the signals. These days though, I've been running a mono rig and I'm just as happy with it.

Re: my live cab - I use two brand new ultra-light FRFR active 500W Neo CLR wedges (in stereo) - so I guess I should be very conscious of the high and low ends and I better start auditioning the new Ownhammer open back IRs too (love the open back sound) before I start tweaking for studio and live presets?

I hear nothing but good things about those FRFR's. I'll have to check one out...but at this point, I've been more than happy with my 25 watt greenback's using my own personal cab IR's. Yeah I'd definitely be conscious of the highs and lows on those...especially if they are as true as people say they are. Another thing too...make sure when you eq, your cabs are at ear level and not blowing at your knees. I can't tell you how many guys screw that up. They think they have this great tone below until they record it or put it at ear level. Then they throw up when they actually hear it and wonder what's wrong with their tone. So definitely check everything out first.

Re: clean tones - even when I am going for some dirt, crunch, mud, etc., I try to be clean about it ( :lol not easy with a couple of permanently busted fingers - I play 5-6 hours of competitive wallyball and basketball every Sunday, something I have done since 1985 and am not willing to give up).

Hahaha! I can sort of relate....I've been into martial arts nearly my entire life, so my hands are sometimes busted up from constant makiwara training....but busted up in a good way. It's ok to have a little dirt in your clean tones though. I've been using these acoustic guitar tone matches I made myself in mine. In my Carvin guitars I play, I have push/pull volume knobs that are active/passive. When in active mode, the acoustic guitars I toned matched are just breathtaking to my ears. When in passive mode, they sound like super clean electric guitars. So I'm loving that aspect. But in some, I have a little bit of dirt and it too sounds really cool. It depends what you're going for though, ya know?

I am also still tweaking my guitars. In pursuit of "clean" intonation, I just purchased some inexpensive non-invasive compensated nut augmenters (for lack of a better word since there is no invasive modification to the actual nut) so I can try out tempered tuning with my Floyd Rose Ibanez clones (two U.S. Masters LG507s) to chase down those elusive Cowboy Chords (to coin a phase posted in another thread recently) - if it works I hope to be able to go from chime to crunch (in perfect tune all over the neck) with a slight twist of my volume pot (from say 2.5 to 5 - I'm a knob whore too :lol ) coupled with a slight output volume kick from either my BOSS EV500L expression pedal or maybe an IA boost on the MFC to accentuate the crunch (gotta figure out which is better for live - ya can't screw up volume boosts gigging with a band).

That's pretty cool. Something I should have looked into. However, I tune so goofy, you'd laugh at me if you saw me play a standard tuned guitar....then saw me play in my tuning. It's definitely something you'd never forget. Not sure anything will help me stay in tune any better. LOL! I have a locking nut and Sperzel's at the moment tuned to a C below your normal E. I do my intonation by ear since doing it by tuner will NOT get it totally correct...it's just totally whacked man....I'm telling you, I'm a circus act as a guitarist. When I play, you'll always hear that circus theme done in chromatics in the back of your mind....."whoot doot dooty dooty doot doot doo doo" LMAO! Ah you're a volume whore too.....whew, I'm finally not alone! Hahaha!

Thank you again Danny - I am really green at using modelers in band and live settings - and U Da Man! :encouragement:

No problem man....I hope some of this stuff has been helpful to you. (and some of the others) Yeah modelers are a little different for sure at first. Thankfully I've not had the same experience with my Axe as I have with all the modelers I've worked with. Then again, it's funny, the modeling company I develop and test for reminded me so much of my Axe when I first got it, I thought maybe some of our technology may have been implemented into it. For example, we were one of the first VST's to ever offer an input gain...which makes a HUGE difference with modelers whether they be hardware or VST. That alone allows the modeler to have real sustain instead of just loads of gain like the majority of them all have. Ever notice that? Just about every VST on the market has loads of gain yet can't hold a note for 6 seconds unless you crank your monitors up so they feedback.

Cool quick tip for modelers: What I like to do also is run either a Tube Screamer or a Boss Compressor Sustainer before the modeler. I run the gain on the pedal all the way off, run the output all the way up or just until I get a little hiss...then back it down. Any tone knobs get set in the middle and then get tweaked to taste later. But what this does is, it buffers/conditions your signal a bit before it hits the amp sim and really makes it come to life. I have also had great results running a real compressor in line first. I say "real compressor" because the Boss pedal I mentioned isn't really meant to compress. It's more a sustain/booster type pedal. But you can really get some awesome results with modelers running a little signal conditioning pedal first. Just watch for noise and huge boosts and it will sound killer. I've not had to do that with my Axe though...and I'm quite happy about that.

Anyway, have a happy new year brother....to everyone else too. Let's hope for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2014 loaded with killer guitar tones!

 

[smcrosby]

Thanks again Danny - hey - I wonder if my Monster Pro 3500 power condition is a source of the hssss? Too much going on between now and the weekend to do any more hunting. Welcome to 2014 everyone!