This forum is awesome! Thank you guys!
Just to be sure try Input 2. The front and rear Input 1 share common circuitry. Perhaps there is something wrong in that input path. So take your preset and change the Input 1 block to an Input 2 block. Plug your guitar into Input 2 Left and set Input 2 to Left Only in Setup->Audio.
Oh, and make sure you have the latest firmware and presets.
Done, with the same result. So I am thinking it's working as intended. The problem lies somewhere else. Probably user error
Here's the one thing I came away with. Your guitar input could be weak, causing the tone to sound weak. Picture a guitar with a turned down volume knob. This is what I am hearing, in your recordings. As I mentioned before, make sure your input gain in the settings is set higher. I have to set my input gain almost all the way up, on my 2 PRS Custom 22 guitars with Dragon II pickups.
Does it sound the same with headphones plugged into the front of the AXE?
Have you tried a full factory reset/wipe of your AXE, then re-load the firmware and the new version 11 presets? Of course if you have created any special presets along the way, save them to your computer. It was mentioned it is not necessary, but in the processor world it is sometimes necessary to perform a factory preset to get rid of any ghosts that may be causing possible corruption. In my technology world I have seen almost every possible situation, that can cause an anomaly, from locking up, to no/bad sound or video.
Yes, this is pretty much what I am hearing aswell. Adjusting the input 1/intrument under the I/O settings makes no difference, but when i turn my input trim up in around the 2.0-3.0 area things start to happen with my PRS. My Aristides doesn't need such a high push, but still some more than 1.0. Considering some hotter pickups in my PRS, and more modern anyway. Might just have to pull the trigger on those
Headphones does sound better, hmm, might have to start checking my room. That is also a next step.
I have not tried a full reset. It's not that complicated, so might aswell try it. And with the latest firmware and banks just released things will be a breeze (thx again Cliff)
I am constantly making new presets, so it might actually be nice with a totally new canvas.
Hey man, I had very similar problems to you. I bought a preset pack that is extremely popular around these parts and found that pretty much every option was completely unusable with my setup. I checked thru sennhesier hd 280s, Mackie monitors, Adam monitors, Krk monitors, sennhesier iems, powered speakers, and a bunch of other stuff.
that being said, I’d recommend finding an amp sim with tonality you like at defaults and then dialing it in to get the sound you want. This can be difficult because of option overload with cab selection. (I ended up loving a cab from the ML Sound Lab Halloween pack). Regardless, once you get a amp/cab combo that sounds good, start tweaking input gain and then master volume. Mv is more subtle but there is usually an obvious sweet spot. Then adjust lows/mids/his to get you the rest of the way.
I say all of this because it is usually better to develop YOUR sound than try to fit someone else’s to your guitars and playing style.
Thanks man! What you say is very true! I have a few favourite amps and IRs.
have you ruled out your speakers as the cause?
No, I am gonna try to isolate my room a bit better aswell.
Thanks for posting the video! Love your PRS, absolute stunner. Do you get the tones you want and expect when playing a regular amp and cab? Have you ever gotten a recorded tone you love outside of using the AxeFX? Sorry if I missed you answering this already in the comments.
It's very clear that your chops are super solid, but I'm curious about your palm muting technique. To my ears the unmuted tones sound correct, but the palm mutes sound like your too close to the saddles which is causing more of a "purr" sound than a chug or djent. Could you try recording an audio clip where you vary how hard you pick, the distance of your palm from the saddles, and the overall pressure your palm is putting on the strings? Maybe just a track of steady 8th note downpicked power chords while you vary those different things.
If they all sound bad on a known "good" patch or setting then I would think you can rule out it being a user error, especially with such nice gear.
I only ask this because I dealt with something similar; I was trying Leon's patches with my Custom 24 and was getting nowhere close to the sound in his videos. I realized it was because my old recording gear pre-AF3 reacted differently to my palm muting than the Axe did, which led to me naturally choking up on the strings with my palm too much. After a bit of chug woodshedding everything started sounding way better within a few days.
Thx dude! It's the only guitar that has stayed with me for about 10 years now. Yeah, I did, BUT that was with another pair of PAF inspired pickups.
About my palm muting, you are onto something here. I can absolutely mute harder and a bit more away from the saddles. I will also record and analyze the different chuggings
Thx!
I took a listen to the clip you posted in your original post. That sounds the same as my stock preset. It sounds like you pick alot lighter than Ola, as well you need to remember he is tuned down to drop C which will make a huge difference.
I will record my stock recto preset and post for you to hear. I Use a Solar guitar pretty much like the one he is using in the vid, and it is tuned to drop c.
Will report back once I record it.
Ok, Converted Ola's Vid to Mp3 from youtube. Brought it into protools and just went to the section with the recto 2 model. Clipped it and then recorded my recto 2 model with similar noodling. Yes they sound slightly different tone wise, but I think that i going to boil down to ola's hands and picking style, as well as anything that may be going on in his video mastering, and what happened to the sound when converted for youtube, as well as his recording chain differing from mine. I am being here had some eq going on overall in his video mastering that is cutting some lows.
My Axe Is hooked up via spdif to my BLA modded digi003 interface.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4e1vkurveq9ww9/Will It Chug.aif?dl=0
Hope this contributed and helped a little.
I did't for a second stop to think about video audio processing and youtube conversion. Thank you for testing and checking things out!
Ola's Axe Is going direct into his recording interface, not a room mic, so you wouldn't hear any string noise. So his volume should really have nothing to do with the situation. The video of him playing where you hear all the string noise is because someone asked him to see his picking tech.
The original post has a direct recording of the patch in question.
Again - You guys are great, thank you all!