Scott Peterson said:
The IR's are a flat out key to getting good tones.
I agree with that statement 100%. After several months of playing with the Ultra, IR's are where I'm spending most of my tweaking time since I've gone directly to the FRFR route since I received it. Jay's far-field IR's (that are shipped with the unit and the few he has made available for download) are working well for me in general depending on the amp that drives them, and the different flavors of tones I'm looking for.
I've spent a ton of time combining amps with IR's (factory, Jay's, Redwirez) in all the permutations of combinations, and have generally found I'm needing to combine and mix them to get where I wish to be. I particularly like how the Redwirez set gives you the ability to move a virtual mike around the room, and there are some great sounding close miked IR's for sure.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Redwirez far-field IR's for further refinement of my pursuits. My longtime goal has been to get a true cabinet sound thru an FRFR device, and that is the Holy Grail for me. I've found going the FRFR route is NOT instant gratification (in terms of replacing a conventional amp/cab for live use that you've been used to for years; you need to kinda think like a recording engineer and of the whole studio chain from amp input thru to the recording device and/or full range 'conventional' speaker with all that entails), is sometimes frustrating, time consuming, etc., but the payoff will be immense when I get 'on top' of going down this road and I feel it's worth going after. It's like driving from LA to NYC in a foggy dark night; you can't see the whole route at one time, but you only need to see the next few hundred feet in front of you and continue on knowing you will get there.
I keep hearing this saying in my head when I get into the richness of the Axe-FX: With great power comes great responsibility. Yea, cheesy I know lol, but, as has been indicated on this thread, this single unit is an entire customizable rig from start to finish. You can play 'amp designer' with it; you can play 'recording engineer' with it. You can try amps/cabs/mikes that you'd may never get the opportunity to. I appreciate the depth and complexity of the AFX and actually like the fact I'm going to be exploring it for years, literally. I've not even really started to play with the stellar control aspects of it (envelope/pitch modulation of parameters, etc.) yet, but can see new, practical uses for them in ways you may not have thought of before to solve problems and achieve new sounds (like Cliff saying to try running a HPF modulated by an envelope to get tight low end tones)...there are latent abilities inside here for sure; this box makes you think outside the box ;-)
As far as patch exchanges, I tried Scott's IR's mixes/patches and Jay's Marshall patch/Marshally IR over the weekend and got several interesting insights as to how other people are creating patches. With some minor tweaking I found them all very usable for my guitars and learned a fair bit about 'the whole picture'. Again, I think the IR's were a main source of goodness here (FDA approved lol) but found it enlightening, and very interesting, to see how others approach the creation of patches and how they adjust the amp parameters.
While I agree that sharing patches may become more complicated and not translate well without the same IR's, guitars, hands, etc., the insight into the 'big picture' will always be instructional. Like Scott says, he learned something about his own patch from a comment from someone else!
While sometimes fiddling with the AFX can be like trying to take a small sip of water from a firehose (and just getting overwhelmed), the payoff is a device whose capabilities you're not likely to ever outgrow.
The AFX is indeed a very complicated, deep, rich instrument that does require time to 'get', but I'm sure I'll be discovering sounds and new ways to use it for years since it does have that great power and potential...I wouldn't have it any other way. Onward we march....
