Axe-Fx 3 Sounds Different When Recorded

Vortigen

New Member
Hi all, I got my Axe FX 3 back in April and have been using it as my main and only USB audio interface ever since. It sounds great when I am just jamming but I tried recording with it for the first time today, and I am having a strange issue.

My recorded tracks don’t sound the same when played back as what I hear live when playing. There is a strange harshness to the sound that isn’t there when playing live. It’s almost as though the input signal is clipping even though all the meters in the DAW and on the unit itself suggest otherwise.

Anyone run into an issue like this before? Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks!
 
Obviously the big difference is you’re not playing while you’re listening :). Instead of recording into your DAW, use the looper block at the beginning of the chain to record yourself and play that back. See if that sounds like what you’re expecting.
 
I’ll give that a shot, thanks. I haven’t noticed a similar issue when recording with plugins or through an amp via loadbox, but I’ll give the loop a try.
 
Hi all, I got my Axe FX 3 back in April and have been using it as my main and only USB audio interface ever since. It sounds great when I am just jamming but I tried recording with it for the first time today, and I am having a strange issue.

My recorded tracks don’t sound the same when played back as what I hear live when playing. There is a strange harshness to the sound that isn’t there when playing live. It’s almost as though the input signal is clipping even though all the meters in the DAW and on the unit itself suggest otherwise.

Anyone run into an issue like this before? Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks!

Only when recording or also on playback?

Turn off monitoring in DAW? Different sample rates?
 
Probably too obvious but.. did you turn off cab simulation / not using cab block?
Can you post a recording here?
 
If you're playing back your recorded sounds through the same speaker you're normally jamming through and it's not sounding the same, then something is definitely off.

However, if they're different speakers (for example, I play through a CLR but when I record and listen back, I'm not using the CLR, I use headphones to monitor and then regular speaker systems to listen to the songs) then I'd say that recorded tones vs live tones can be a 'thing' to get your head around. The frequencies need to work well in the context of what you're recording and different output devices (speakers) will sound different (and get affected by volume too). When I started recording, the biggest revelation to me was how much gain I DIDN'T need (!) and how the EQ had to be adjusted to sit with the other tracks in my mix.
 
There is also a huge difference between listening to your sound in stereo and recording in Mono. Once I changed the track in my daw to record in stereo my guitar sounded exactly the same played as recorded. Just thought Id throw that out there since that happened to me at the beginning too.
 
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Are you recording with Fractal edit open?
With Logic Pro it used to give me an echo to the guitar sound .
 
Do you use a wet chain with stereo effects ? Recorded in mono the result is not very good.
I always record in stereo now.
 
Thanks all for the replies. To answer some of the questions: I am playing back through the same speakers. Monitoring in DAW is disabled. Recording in Mono, so I’ll give Stereo a try. Thanks again for the suggestions.
 
Thanks all for the replies. To answer some of the questions: I am playing back through the same speakers. Monitoring in DAW is disabled. Recording in Mono, so I’ll give Stereo a try. Thanks again for the suggestions.
Make sure you’re volume matching your comparisons, too. Louder will almost always sound better. To fairly test, make sure your DAWs master fader and channel are both set to zero.
 
Hi all, I got my Axe FX 3 back in April and have been using it as my main and only USB audio interface ever since. It sounds great when I am just jamming but I tried recording with it for the first time today, and I am having a strange issue.

My recorded tracks don’t sound the same when played back as what I hear live when playing. There is a strange harshness to the sound that isn’t there when playing live. It’s almost as though the input signal is clipping even though all the meters in the DAW and on the unit itself suggest otherwise.

Anyone run into an issue like this before? Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks!
Hi all, I got my Axe FX 3 back in April and have been using it as my main and only USB audio interface ever since. It sounds great when I am just jamming but I tried recording with it for the first time today, and I am having a strange issue.

My recorded tracks don’t sound the same when played back as what I hear live when playing. There is a strange harshness to the sound that isn’t there when playing live. It’s almost as though the input signal is clipping even though all the meters in the DAW and on the unit itself suggest otherwise.

Anyone run into an issue like this before? Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks!
Hello Vortigen,
I read your post from 2020 about a problem you were having. Your recorded tone had a harshness that you didn’t hear when “jamming”. I was wondering if you ever found out what was happening. I’m having the same issue and I’m not sure what to do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
I have been scanning the forums for solutions as well to this problem. Although it doesn't sound 'harsch' in my case, I had a feeling that my recorded sounds sounded different than what I heard while playing. I tried about everything I could find on the forums. I always record on 48hz. I did recall that when I got my axe, I didn't have that problem, it sounded amazing when recorded back then. When I tried to figure out the difference I realized I used to record on a different laptop so I went back to that one.

Both are directly plugged in the axe, same monitors for playback, both use latest version of protools, both on 48kHz, one is a mac, the other is a windows laptop. Although it makes zero sense, there is a difference in the sound. The windows laptop, both the direct guitar input as the wet sounds seem to sound less defined. In the wet sound, on windows there was a (very light) constant noise on top of the sound. It's not that the windows version sounded bad but there was a difference. Normally the recording device shouldn't impact the sound though so it doesn't make sense, maybe something in the windows drivers that is less good? Maybe some kind of interference on the USB port of that laptop?
 
Since this post has been necro-bumped, was wondering whether anyone else can weigh in on why my Axe FXIII sounds the same during recording and playback over my monitors, but when I bounce the track to listen to what it sounds like over other sources, it always sounds drastically different.

My listening environment is nothing special, I have a large-ish room with a bare minimum of acoustic treatment. The speakers I'm using are Eve Audio SC208s. I run my Axe FXIII using SPDIF into an RME Fireface 800 and send that signal via ADAT to a Universal Audio Apollo 8p.

I'm aware of room nodes, etc playing havoc with a sound, but it almost seems excessive. I also have a Sonarworks ReferenceID plugin that I use for room correction so that I can tell what my FXIII would sound like in a flat environment necessary for good mixes.

Clutching at straws, but does recording at 48khz really translate into better sounds? I have no problem with the sound that I am getting or playing back over my monitors.

But when I audition on other sources, there's always this annoying "fatness" or "body" to the mid that makes the sound either too boxy or too gritty.
 
Since this post has been necro-bumped, was wondering whether anyone else can weigh in on why my Axe FXIII sounds the same during recording and playback over my monitors, but when I bounce the track to listen to what it sounds like over other sources, it always sounds drastically different.

My listening environment is nothing special, I have a large-ish room with a bare minimum of acoustic treatment. The speakers I'm using are Eve Audio SC208s. I run my Axe FXIII using SPDIF into an RME Fireface 800 and send that signal via ADAT to a Universal Audio Apollo 8p.

I'm aware of room nodes, etc playing havoc with a sound, but it almost seems excessive. I also have a Sonarworks ReferenceID plugin that I use for room correction so that I can tell what my FXIII would sound like in a flat environment necessary for good mixes.

Clutching at straws, but does recording at 48khz really translate into better sounds? I have no problem with the sound that I am getting or playing back over my monitors.

But when I audition on other sources, there's always this annoying "fatness" or "body" to the mid that makes the sound either too boxy or too gritty.

You answered your own question.
My listening environment is nothing special

Get yourself a set of headphones that’ll translate better than your room. I use Slate VSX and my sounds translate great.
 
I run my Axe FXIII using SPDIF into an RME Fireface 800 and send that signal via ADAT to a Universal Audio Apollo 8p.

Clutching at straws, but does recording at 48khz really translate into better sounds? I have no problem with the sound that I am getting or playing back over my monitors.
Do you have all of your various audio devices and the DAW project set to 48khz during recording and playback? Since you are using a fully digital recoding chain, each of the devices in the chain must be set to the frequency.

Have you tried to record the analog audio output of your Axe Fx directly into the audio inputs of your Apollo 8P? If so, do you experience the same issues?
 
You answered your own question.


Get yourself a set of headphones that’ll translate better than your room. I use Slate VSX and my sounds translate great.

I use Sonarworks Reference ID, which I imagine is like the Slate VSX software. I sometimes use headphones, but find that they are often too fatiguing when crafting high gain tones. That's why I prefer monitors.

That said, I have measured my room properly and when I run my regular tube amps through IR loaders, I do not experience the same issue. Hence the curiousity about whether 48khz has something to do with it.
 
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