I would never set the mids at 6 in any 5150 for a metal rhythm tone haha but yeah, I remember reading those settings from a Job For A Cowboy interview back in the day haha.
The Ecstasy's are very noticeable too. When I first got mine, (used) I thought there was something wrong with it. You have to crank the treble and presence to really open it up. Otherwise they are very dark. On the positive note. The treble and presence never get harsh on that amp. Even with V30 speakers.
Fo clarification: I never played the actual 5150 tube amp, I’ll update that in my post.
Just wanted to add to this point of mine by saying that owning an Axe Fx has not just meant getting great tones, it has also been a great educational tool for me personally (I am sure there would be others who concur). I've learnt SO much about gear simply by owning such a powerful unit. Had I not learned about the many quirks of these great pieces of gear that are being modelled VERY accurately in the FAS ecosystem, I never would have known even half as much about amp circuitry or what gives a certain kind of tone its character, and just nerd-y things like that which have all ultimately added to my arsenal of knowledge of dialling up tones from scratch. Maybe folks don't want to go through this learning curve (which, mind you, is different from the learning curve for being able to use the unit itself), but I think it'll only be good for you in the end. It's a bit like learning about historical events at school – maybe your life will not change after you read about the factors that led to the French Revolution in 1789, but it'll probably make you a bit more aware of your world in the present and in the future. Being forced to learn something isn't always a bad thing.
It's just one channel instead of many we have modelled after the original amp
So not really a proper replacement.I hope this will never happen, all due respect. "We" are definitely not "all of us" in this case.
I don’t think it’s an arcane knowledge to be honest. Just a simple search about the amp and it’s all there!
edited ;-)It's just one channel instead of many we have modelled after the original amp
I hope this will never happen, all due respect. "We" are definitely not "all of us" in this case.
the dudes from Suicide Silence crank the mids to around 6 too. You can also do what Gojira does and put everything at 5, stick a 57 in front of the cab, and call it good lol
For sure! My intention was not saying 6 is a terrible setting, just my preference. Love Suicide Silence first albums and I got you haha
Haha. Same here. Mid control in my real amp lives in the 2-3 range (sometimes even lower for a really scooped tone) but yeah, everyone has their own preferences, nothing wrong with that.
Right gotcha. It wasn't quite obvious what you meant.
Im still thinking an Authentic / Ideal switch. There are so many Tweakable parameters that are accessible in the Fractal world that you cannot easily tweak on the real Amp. its just a "No Brainer" for me. Again, its what fractal is all about IMO.
Let me try to offer a perspective how "idealized" might be beneficial for those not owning an amp or not trying to copy someone's else settings.
1. We keep using FAS because it SOUNDS better, "authentic", not because of the slick design of the "plugin UI". So matching of the knobs position matters... very little. It does, but Cliff's motto always was "use your ears, not your eyes". If you (not you, I refer to a "user") do it differently, you'd better reconsider! Even long-awaited Dyna-cabs are a very controversial topic still. It is clear why people owning an amp would prefer the "authentic", but even for the amps I'm familiar with "ideal" is the best choice any day of the week for me.
2. Once you've found a sweet spot, you'll just leave it there. At this moment it would probably stop matter to both owners and people not familiar. From here you can jump directly to the last section of my message if you will.
3. As @laxu mentioned, you will lose none of the original's amp capabilities. You might gain some more (see what I did here?
4. Having all the knobs acting in the same predictable manner makes fine-tuning so so easy. Unification is a wonderful thing for this kind of work.
5. Many owners will never own 5150. I would dare to say: most. They would be confused.
6. Many future young owners (you will not go wrong assuming: most) will never use tube amp at all, so why make it hard and confusing for them, that there is a model which is "broken" and its Presence is "not working"?
I'd suggest for this particular model to just put the Presence knob at 8 or 9 as a default value of an idealized control and be done with it, or whatever the "magical" value is. Only people looking for something "different" will be messing with this control then, the rest will have "out of the box real amp" experience upon loading the model.
The problem is we can’t have the models being arbitrarily adjusted to something other than the real amp WITHOUT being told it’s been adjusted. I think the discussion is bigger than the 5150 models. If FAS is changing the way the models vs. real amps react, then we need to at least know which amps are not truly 1:1 digital replicas.
It’s already there the FAS 6160 is an ideal 5150 is it not ?
I don't see how having a FAS amp model that is exactly the same except for this one detail is useful, when both are capable of the exact same tones too.
