AXFXII v18 - Dynamics, harmonics and exploding tubes? Pictorial/Tutorial Added!!!

Dune fan?

I read the books many ions ago. Love that quote because it's true.

Yeah I think it's mostly the look of the "somebody spilled a bowl of spaghetti" connections that caused a flight reaction in my brain hehe. Sometimes I get wacky and put the reverb and delay parallel to a pure clean signal. It all makes sense though hehe.

Yea, it does look goofy if you just look at it. There's a purpose for it; long live the Fractal grid.
 
Instead of the PEQ you can just turn the Bass knob down in the Amp block. In a Plexi your distortion is primarily from the power amp so the tone controls are essentially pre-distortion.

My settings for a "typical" Plexi tone are Bass: 2, Mid: 8, Treble 7.5. Adjust Presence to taste.
 
Short answer is 'definition'. You are allowing the amp's gain structure to breath and work across the part of the sonic spectrum that it can do what it does easier.

It allows the amp to breath - most plexi type amps (and Fender/Vox also) tend to get all 'clogged up' with humbucker guitars, more so than single coil guitars, and they don't breath. When you do what I do here with a PEQ all I am doing is allowing the amp to not be hit with a lot of lower mid and lows; that allows the amp to be cranked up in the preamp gain so I can ride the volume pot on the guitar to generate a more natural and varied gain structure depending on the moment when I am playing. The lows stay tight, the mids are balanced and the highs don't get shrieky or ice-picky even if they are cranked. If you listen to that clip and look for how the pick attack is working even when I roll off the guitar volume knob... that's the stuff. Then go listen to Angus Young or Alex Lifeson or Brian May and hear how clearly - even over the vastly different styles, tones, guitars, etc - their pick attack is defining WHAT they are playing. That's the key. The gain structure can maxed to make the amp scream; in real life a Plexi or AC-30 cranked up that loud would be completely non practical and thunderously loud. Painfully so. But through the magic that is the current day Fractal box... it's all at your fingers without blowing your ears up. I recorded this at conversation levels and still got exceptional sustain even through my studio monitors. If I was doing this for real with final tracks in mind, I'd crank up the monitors and get the bloom better accentuated.

High gain metal guys use this same strategy and method with different tools - they generally use a Tube Screamer with no gain (but turn up the output level to compensate for shaving the lows) in front of their high gain amp; the reason is to do exactly what I do with this technique. Just using a different tool to achieve the same thing. A PEQ block allows me to taper and surgically do what I want in a more precise and repeatable way. Different application of the concept; but the same thing in the end.
Thank you Scott, your answer is another brick in the wall of Sounds. Get well soon, waiting for your tutorial.
 
AXFXII v18 - Dynamics, harmonics and exploding tubes? Pictorial/Tutorial Adde...

Is a -6 dB cut at 300 that much different than turning down the bass knob till it stops being muddy? Or is this just for these amp models?
 
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Scott, I like that network you have with the chorus, flanger, etc. The connections look well thought out. Do you link any of these blocks in the MFC? (i think that's the right term, you know, so only one can be on at a time)

thx for the great 'splainin' and pics too!
 
This is awesome Scott.
Tried your settings and they rock.
Never really cared for the 1959SLP models and now I'm preparing this weekend gig with a single preset based on your settings.
Don't know if it's the preamp magic the 1959SLP Jump model the fresh strings or the FW itself. This box has never sounded so good.

I'm having a hard time choosing a drive block for gain boost. They all seem to take something away from the tone.
My favorite method is the sat switch. However I don't think it's really that useful live. For it to work the preset should have it on or off.
The jump in volume is way too big.

Any suggestions for a drive block for gain boost?
Thanks.
 
This is awesome Scott.
Tried your settings and they rock.
Never really cared for the 1959SLP models and now I'm preparing this weekend gig with a single preset based on your settings.
Don't know if it's the preamp magic the 1959SLP Jump model the fresh strings or the FW itself. This box has never sounded so good.

I'm having a hard time choosing a drive block for gain boost. They all seem to take something away from the tone.
My favorite method is the sat switch. However I don't think it's really that useful live. For it to work the preset should have it on or off.
The jump in volume is way too big.

Any suggestions for a drive block for gain boost?
Thanks.


Set Sat to Ideal.
 
Thanks Scott ! No post-amp compression ? ya know what I'm talking about ;)

Not chasing that sound. ;)

But the preamp page in the cab block does a similar thing... in a more natural and useful manner. IMHO. ;) :D

What's funny is that no one else will get this but Fremen. But it's true whether you understand the basis of it or not. :)
 
Is a -6 dB cut at 300 that much different than turning down the bass knob till it stops being muddy? Or is this just for these amp models?

Amp dependant but I feel there's something useful to it. Look up the Gil Ayan "Smooth and Slim" which is a pedal I had - and used to great results -with Rivera, Bogner, Fender, Vox and Matchless amps I have owned and used in the past. There's a lot more to all this than just dialing the bass up or down.
 
Scott, I like that network you have with the chorus, flanger, etc. The connections look well thought out. Do you link any of these blocks in the MFC? (i think that's the right term, you know, so only one can be on at a time)

thx for the great 'splainin' and pics too!

No; it's routed that way so if I get the bug on my butt to go off into crazy sound land (maybe the end of a big song when the room is jumpin' at a gig) I can without losing the guitar *tone* in there.

I don't do the super effect stuff that much in reality; it's for a specific application when I do. Because of how I use expression pedals to dial in the wet/dry there is a WHOLE lot of subtle stuff that I can and like to do spontaneously in the moment.
 
Yup. Great, great pedal, Scott. I had to use it with the Emery Sound Superbaby. Works like a charm.

It was designed to help with the Boogie Mark I.

That is an excellent analogy.
 
This is awesome Scott.
Tried your settings and they rock.
Never really cared for the 1959SLP models and now I'm preparing this weekend gig with a single preset based on your settings.
Don't know if it's the preamp magic the 1959SLP Jump model the fresh strings or the FW itself. This box has never sounded so good.

I'm having a hard time choosing a drive block for gain boost. They all seem to take something away from the tone.
My favorite method is the sat switch. However I don't think it's really that useful live. For it to work the preset should have it on or off.
The jump in volume is way too big.

Any suggestions for a drive block for gain boost?
Thanks.

I actually use a GEQ for a preamp boost. (pause for effect)... but really.

I will have to do a little explaining on how/why but it won't make sense until you hear it. I use the 5-band Vari-Q with an expression pedal attached to the level output (ranging from a minimum of 0.0db to +10db) with it in a slightly frown EQ shape. Very simple to show and it works like incredibly well in a live situation. The amp saturates on the preamp without going into 'distroto' "I turned on a drive block!" type of gain. If that makes sense. I just get my sustain and gain from the amp block and use the GEQ as a drive block to INCREASE the level into the amp block and can do that in the moment as I want - a little or a lot - depending on how it feels at the moment/in the moment.

If anyone is following me along on a lot of this sort of description - I use expression pedals for these things a LOT - effects in the AXFXII world are not 'on/off' to me, they are interactive. That's one of the most powerful aspects of the box and one of the defining reasons I am so in love with it. It's an artist's tool that can be used in the moment over a range, not just a on/off tone generator.
 
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