2 amp / 2 Cab Limit on Axe-Fx III ? Why ?

Convincing double tracking means the second guitar must have random varying delay (ADT) and have a different amp to get distinct voicing.
Are you planning to use this to play live, or for recording? If you're recording, why not actually double-track it with two different amp setups?
 
Are you planning to use this to play live, or for recording? If you're recording, why not actually double-track it with two different amp setups?

I play live. I've been using this laptop+VST rig for about 6 years now. Every 3 years I buy a replacement used laptop, whatever $300 gets me. Let's me increase the processing or reduce latency each time. But, I've been keenly waiting for hardware DSP modelling to catch up to what I do with my laptop. The Axe III is close enough that I want to start trying it out, see how close I can get.

We're a power-trio. I'm playing bass + rhythm guitar using this setup.
 
Before deciding you absolutely need a bass amp block, try the DI into a drive block. You may be surprised. You could also split a cab block for a bass cab L and guitar cab R so that the bass sounds closer to what you'd expect.
 
Before deciding you absolutely need a bass amp block, try the DI into a drive block. You may be surprised. You could also split a cab block for a bass cab L and guitar cab R so that the bass sounds closer to what you'd expect.
Yup good point! Focus on what you hear as good enough, not what you see on the screen!

I resurrected this thread to add another opinion that 3 amp sims could be really useful, even if it means reduced quality. It's a tradeoff that works for some people. And the reality is the quality bar for live bar / private party work is lower than for studio recording where this isn't an issue.

I guarantee you the Axe FX III has more compute capability than my cheap laptop, but I would never use these particular VSTs for recording. Axe III absolutely is good enough for studio recording.

With the laptop, I can do so much at once with low latency because the quality bar is lower. I don't want to promote other products here, but if I told you which VST (and it's an older version) was doing my effects / amp sims for live work you'd be disgusted. But the reality is no one has ever come up to me when playing out and said, "Your digital amp sims suck!". So for live work versatility is more important (to me) than studio-level quality.

That said, still super excited to dig into the Axe FX III for recording, even if it doesn't replace my live rig.
 
Yup good point! Focus on what you hear as good enough, not what you see on the screen!
In that vein, you could use 1 amp for guitar and 1 amp for bass, and then use other blocks (Drive, Cab, etc) to simulate guitar 2.

Also, don't forget the IR Player block... A "simple" version of the Cab block with 1 IR slot and less features.
 
random varying delay (ADT)

I have played with this using a delay block. You can "simulate" "random" by plugging a string of randomly generated numbers (I use some chunk of pi) into a sequencer controller. I never got it to sound as good as Cooper Carter's Mimiq pitch block. It was either too flangy or not enough of a noticeable effect.

In thinking about it, I don't know that "random" is the answer. If we are trying to simulate a double tracked recording, the timing of the second guitar will probably have specific spots where it locks on and where it drifts. Lock on and drift are not really random.
 
In thinking about it, I don't know that "random" is the answer. If we are trying to simulate a double tracked recording, the timing of the second guitar will probably have specific spots where it locks on and where it drifts. Lock on and drift are not really random.

Actually random is exactly what you want. You want to drift in and out of lock randomly, because that's what real people do. The opposite would be to drift in and out of lock in a periodic, repeatable pattern. A repeated pattern makes it sound more like a chorus pedal because there delay is modulated by a sine wave, etc.

In other words, a key difference between a chorus and ADT is the latter uses a human-modelled random LFO instead of a periodic waveform.

I'm new here so I don't want to go naming other products but there is a very well known VST ADT that is kind of a de-facto standard for this. For studio work, you delay both sources by some mean, say 15ms, then randomly (gaussian) adjust the delay with a standard deviation of say, 8m.

For Live work, you can't add that much delay (latency) to the source (keep it dry), so you create the 2nd guitar (wet) with an average delay of around 15 ms again, and just vary that one where the LFO is random (or multi spectral) but band limited in a way that mimics the speeds at which humans drift in and out of sync.
 
In that vein, you could use 1 amp for guitar and 1 amp for bass, and then use other blocks (Drive, Cab, etc) to simulate guitar 2.

Also, don't forget the IR Player block... A "simple" version of the Cab block with 1 IR slot and less features.
Maybe I misunderstood originally, if so these are good suggestions. I thought you can have only two amps, two cabs. You're suggesting I'm limited to two amps (which will need two cabs), but I can have a 3rd Cab Block combined with a Drive block?

It looks like I can use a IR Player as a "third pseudo cab" but I don't think I can have Drive+Cab if I've already got two Amp+Cabs going.
 
I have played with this using a delay block. You can "simulate" "random" by plugging a string of randomly generated numbers (I use some chunk of pi) into a sequencer controller. I never got it to sound as good as Cooper Carter's Mimiq pitch block. It was either too flangy or not enough of a noticeable effect.

In thinking about it, I don't know that "random" is the answer. If we are trying to simulate a double tracked recording, the timing of the second guitar will probably have specific spots where it locks on and where it drifts. Lock on and drift are not really random.

That's right. You want the modulation tied to note attack, not random. That's what's special about the Mimiq. Here's a preset that mimics a Mimiq.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/tc-mimiq-preset.164082/
 
Maybe I misunderstood originally, if so these are good suggestions. I thought you can have only two amps, two cabs. You're suggesting I'm limited to two amps (which will need two cabs), but I can have a 3rd Cab Block combined with a Drive block?

It looks like I can use a IR Player as a "third pseudo cab" but I don't think I can have Drive+Cab if I've already got two Amp+Cabs going.
You can do 2 amps into 1 cab.
 
It looks like I can use a IR Player as a "third pseudo cab" but I don't think I can have Drive+Cab if I've already got two Amp+Cabs going.
You can have 2 Amp blocks, 2 Cab blocks, 2 IR Player blocks, 4 Drive blocks...

Others have already answered other parts of your questions.
 
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