A Farewell to Tweaking

B

Beefcake

Inspired
I used to tweak my Standard quite a lot. I didn't use the factory presets much, or at least modified them heavily to suit my playing and gear. Particularly so, the gainier the sound I was going for. Now the Axe-Fx II comes with nearly 400 presets of which barely a handful don't sound very, very good to me completely plug and play, just my Parker and my Genelecs.

In the first week, I've done practically zero tweaking apart from some testing and, for instance, adding a distortion pedal before the amps in preset #128, "Back Line" to get a nice chewy, heavy sound from what was a nice, crunchy, punchy rock distortion sound. The pedal? "Rat Dist", the first one in the list, just lowered the drive and upped the level and didn't feel I needed to do anything more.

Got to play the unit at a studio control room and really open it up for the first time last night. The acoustic treatment there was measured and approved by Genelec engineers, so one wouldn't be overstating in saying it's a "decent" sounding space. Over a course of hours, I went once through the presets with my friend and we were just amazed by how good it almost every patch sounded. We tried a Parker Fly, a Les Paul and a Tele and each was equally matched by this unit.

Can't say how amazed I am with where this technology has gotten. Wow.

(Even the fan noise isn't that bothersome when you're playing fairly loud and the unit is tucked into a rack under the studio's desk. Pity I can't replicate the placement or the volume at home.)
 
Music to my ears since I have an AxeII on the way and I was getting a little (not much though) anxious about some of the "shrill" / "lost notes" / "fan noise" threads going on. Interestingly I had a chance to spend a lot more time with my Ultra than usual over the holiday period (I'm a basement player) and I got a chance to go back through all the presets which I had not done since about update v8 since I normally stick with 5 or 6 custom patches I'd done. Wow! - I spent like 2 days playing all the presets on the Ultra. I don't know if those presets were redone subsequent to v8 but man they sound great and a lot better than they did back when I bought the unit in 2009. Nevermind better - if the AxeII sounds at least as good as my Ultra right now + the added features and capacity - I'll be thrilled. No way I'm letting go of this Ultra though until the AxeII proves itself an equal or better.
 
You need to tweak the AxeII like you need to tweak a pop tart! They're both great right out of the box.
 
I have to say - Not Me! I mean some of the presets are cool but right off I'm looking for my LEAD sound. I should say I'm going direct but have my Fryette 2/50/2 on standby. So far the only patch I've found is preset 295 studio lead 2 but I'm tweaking it now. I've never in my life found a unit I didn't have to tweak parameters to get some real good patches.
who has some good patches on this site? I'm going to download the software now...thanks... not trying to hijack this thread....thanks:evil
 
I agree it is easy to get really good sound from the Axe II.

On my FOH garage PA, the 3.04 firmware and presets were more impressive than the 4.0x though. But all still great and even giggable with little or no tweaking.

Richard
 
toneking2012 said:
I have to say - Not Me! I mean some of the presets are cool but right off I'm looking for my LEAD sound.
Click to expand...
Might be, too, that I've gone from hunting for tones to actually just playing as I've gotten older. I found many usable lead sounds. But then, I love the tone of my Parker, too, and the Axe really lets the characteristic sound of the guitar and whatever pickup configuration I'm using shine through.
 
Got my Axe II just today.
Could only play at low volume and not for long, just went through some presets (I already know from the Ultra) and did a Recto patch from scratch....

Boy, does it sound great... ! :D Can't tell if it's due to:
- presets tweaked for latest firmware (unlike on the Ultra, where they're pretty dated)
- easier / less tweaking
- my mind playing tricks ('cause the newer, pricey gadget HAS to sound better) - can't compare directly, my Ultra is sold
- really the new algorithms and better I/O (?)

The Ultra is an awesome device. I enjoyed it till the last minute, had a lot of great gigs just the last two weeks.
And maybe with some effort and side-by-side comparison/tweaking it might hold it's own against the II.
But I'm so happy right now I made the move to gen. 2 - well worth it I can tell, despite just having fooled around so far.
I can only imagine how this sucker's gonna sound at next rehearsal and gig.... :twisted
 
sprint said:
Music to my ears since I have an AxeII on the way and I was getting a little (not much though) anxious about some of the "shrill" / "lost notes" / "fan noise" threads going on.
Click to expand...

OK I have had my Axe Fx 2 for a couple days now...The fan noise is not loud. My unit is quiter than my standard. My recording computer is loud as fuck! Cliff, can you just add an algorithim to make my recording computer less annoying?
 
@Sebastian.. I was a former Ultra user too... and YES the factory presets are soooooooooooo much more usable in the AxeII for me too.

But to my ears, the leap to firmware 4.0x, the presets weren't quite as jaw dropping as the 3.04 firmware + presets. But I am picking nits somewhat, they still are extremely usable.

Richard
 
Could you post a Recto patch?...I need some good patches whos got them:D






Sebastian said:
Got my Axe II just today.
Could only play at low volume and not for long, just went through some presets (I already know from the Ultra) and did a Recto patch from scratch....

Boy, does it sound great... ! :D Can't tell if it's due to:
- presets tweaked for latest firmware (unlike on the Ultra, where they're pretty dated)
- easier / less tweaking
- my mind playing tricks ('cause the newer, pricey gadget HAS to sound better) - can't compare directly, my Ultra is sold
- really the new algorithms and better I/O (?)

The Ultra is an awesome device. I enjoyed it till the last minute, had a lot of great gigs just the last two weeks.
And maybe with some effort and side-by-side comparison/tweaking it might hold it's own against the II.
But I'm so happy right now I made the move to gen. 2 - well worth it I can tell, despite just having fooled around so far.
I can only imagine how this sucker's gonna sound at next rehearsal and gig.... :twisted
Click to expand...
 
barhrecords said:
@Sebastian.. I was a former Ultra user too... and YES the factory presets are soooooooooooo much more usable in the AxeII for me too.

But to my ears, the leap to firmware 4.0x, the presets weren't quite as jaw dropping as the 3.04 firmware + presets. But I am picking nits somewhat, they still are extremely usable.

Richard
Click to expand...

Well, I just got my II, so I can't comment on any firmware and preset progress the II made so far.
BTW, I should have been more precise: while a lot of the presets have usable amp/cab sound, my biggest surprise were the FX heavy/pitch-based presets - they sound even better, meaning more organic, refined and "clear".

toneking2012 said:
Could you post a Recto patch?...I need some good patches whos got them
Click to expand...

Ha, I just realized that I commenced with the bare Recto Orange preset (#15), but changed the amp to usa lead 1, so it's not actually a Recto patch.
But I'll dial one nonetheless and post it here, maybe together with the Mark IV patch.
 
I just got my AxeFX II last week and it was night and day compared to the ULTRA for me, which I already thought was an amazing piece of gear with great tonal variety/ability.

Like the OP stated, the amount of tweaking is nearly nothing now. I mean of course I have to tweak to get MY sounds. But the amount of useable tones that I still find great out of the box (and have already used on recordings) are tremendous. So the amount of custom tweaking before I am completely happy has gone down considerably, and that is a good feeling.

The fact that I can still tweak like crazy though if I want to, even though I feel it may not be needed at this point, is great! This unit is more versatile than I think I can even comprehend.
 
The one that got me close to a good lead sound was preset studio lead 2. There are alot of nice effect presets but there are alot of Amp models that will need work. Yesterday I pulled up a mesa Lone Star preset and to my ears it didn't sound or feel anything like the Lone Star. I hope I can dial in the sound.

As far as the axe fx 2 this is my first one but I owned two axe-fx ultras at different times and sold them in a few weeks because I didn't like them. This axe-fx 2 seems to be working for me.
I pulled up a track of my real Mark V that I recorded a few weeks ago and dialed in a patch that was identical on the axe 2 while listening back and forth.

I really like the New amp emulation algorithms that is the key for me going direct.






grantcooper2 said:
I just got my AxeFX II last week and it was night and day compared to the ULTRA for me, which I already thought was an amazing piece of gear with great tonal variety/ability.

Like the OP stated, the amount of tweaking is nearly nothing now. I mean of course I have to tweak to get MY sounds. But the amount of useable tones that I still find great out of the box (and have already used on recordings) are tremendous. So the amount of custom tweaking before I am completely happy has gone down considerably, and that is a good feeling.

The fact that I can still tweak like crazy though if I want to, even though I feel it may not be needed at this point, is great! This unit is more versatile than I think I can even comprehend.
Click to expand...
 
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