Am I missing something?

Dhamiii

Inspired
So I've had the AXE FX 3 since april, and ive really struggled with getting a decent sound. I just cantg seem to dial out all the low end, and as a result a lot of the amps are unuseable, and even what I can come up with that's decent, is quite a bit thicker than it probably should be.

I just assumed everything was fine, and that I just needed to learn how to use this thing, but after watching some videos of people unboxing their unit, and immediately getting great sounds out of just the stock presets, I thing something is amiss.

So, I took my rig to the local guitar store, and my guitar sounds fine when plugged into a real amp, and 2 different guitars (a strat and a les paul) both sound super bassy through the axe fx.

to cover the basics... amp modeling and power amp modeling are both on, global EQ is flat, fresh install of FW11, the new FW 11 presets are installed. input level is set to 50%, and hits the red only when I play extra hard, I bought the unit new, but went ahead and did a reset anyway, ive used 3 guitars with 3 cables and have gotten the same results, and have used low cut in cab block as well as input eq low cut in the amp block.

Here are some simple recordings I made of the stock presets. (I used stock presets because we all have them for a base of reference)
1 is preset 19 "Shiver"
2 is preset 1 "59 Bassguy"
3 is preset 24 "BE-100"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4b2wru3d4x5qym/test1.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p5hrcljtb02vweb/test2.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yb80hl2p38qnygq/test3.wav?dl=0

forgive the playing, I'm just demonstrating the sound, not trying to show off or something. the first 2 are neck single coil, and the last is a bridge humnbucker.

Is there some parameter I'm missing? does the input have some kind of high pass filter I'm missing? It feels like the extra lows are before the amp... like a mesa with the bass too high that's flubbing out the preamp or something.

I'm using Adam A7X monitors that I also use as PC speakers with the axe fx as basically a sound card. Music sounds great through them, as well as other people playing their AXE FX's through youtube lol it just is too bassy when I plug my guitar into it. Input 2 on the back does the same thing too.

If anyone here can shed some light on this, I would surely appreciate it.
 
have you tried reducing the Bass control in the Amp block? does it help at all? factory presets aren't necessarily "perfect sounding" for everyone, just starting points.

Shiver and Bassguy sound normal to me. maybe the BE has a bit too much bass, but i'd just reduce that knob.
 
Thanks for the quick response guys...

input 2 is the same, ive tried 3 cables. I did order a new one from sweetwater that should be here friday, but the 3 I used are quality cables (Mogami gold) so im not too hopeful. Room is big, my pc is set up in my living room, which is open to the kitchen and dining room.

I can get a passable tone by using a bright or like the york audio stuff and using a marshall type amp, but I have to cut way more bass that normal, and the sound is still rather boomy.
The guitar im using is a Suhr standard pro, which is very bright through a normal amp.
 
Thanks for the quick response guys...

input 2 is the same, ive tried 3 cables. I did order a new one from sweetwater that should be here friday, but the 3 I used are quality cables (Mogami gold) so im not too hopeful. Room is big, my pc is set up in my living room, which is open to the kitchen and dining room.

I can get a passable tone by using a bright or like the york audio stuff and using a marshall type amp, but I have to cut way more bass that normal, and the sound is still rather boomy.
The guitar im using is a Suhr standard pro, which is very bright through a normal amp.
have you tried using the Low and High cuts in the Cab block? i tend to use those to limit the EQ spectrum on most of my presets.

i don't use the ones per IR slot, there's a set on it's own page that affects the entire cab block.

i realize that's after the amp, and you commented it sounds like it's going into the amp, but give it a try.
 
I use a low cut in the cab block around 100-120 and low cut in the amp input EQ around 200-300.
only works with some amp blocks though... like the mesa lone star, or diesel vh4 for example is unusable no matter what I do
 
Try this patch with a humbucker......should cut like a chainsaw. :)
 

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Ha ha not sure. I do have it dialed back on the bass quite a bit because my CLRs are located in the corners of the room {no choice), so yeah, figured it might be what you were looking for.
 
well kinda gives me hop because Christmas bonuses are coming up and I wanna pick up a FC12 but I wasent sure if I could justify it if there was an issue with the axe and all....
im really hoping its just user error here, because im not ever carrying a half stack up the stairs again if I can help it :p
 
What tuning are we talking? I find standard and drop D sounds great with minimal tweaking - especially after FW11. I use the Loadbox US speaker impedence profile and everything sounds tops. Down tuned 7 and 8 string however are a different story and require some creative use of parametric eq for me to be happy
 
ill upload one tomorrow when I get home to let you guys see if it sounds good on your end.

Can you upload a guitar DI along with it? That will allow us to reamp your direct signal and find/tweak the parameters that are applicable to the issue.
 
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Lots of good advice here so far..... BUT.... in my experience, the presets you listed should sound a lot better than that.
Your's sounds muddy and a bit distorted.

I experienced something similar recently and it turned out to be my guitar cable. I didn't strip back the black conductive PVC all of the way.

I talked to Brad Bartosz at Best-Tronics and played my guitar over the phone to him. He immediately recognized the issue and sent me this to show me what I need to do to correct my cable.

https://btpa.com/pdf/TS_SOLDERING.pdf

Have you tried connecting to your DAW via USB?

Like Jason suggested, uploading a DI will allow folks to try it on their hardware to compare.
 
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