axe fx II not fat enough?

M

MetalGarret

Inspired
Before you come at me bros, let me explain.

I know this thing can provide pretty much any tone ever and at perfect quality. I've heard some.of the tones made with this thing and I'm insanely jealous that I can't seem to make tones in the same quality. I've tried everything! Eq, tone matching, multiple amp and cab combinations, different drive types, etc. I cant seem to make a tone that's warm and mean like john petrucci's on Black Clouds and Silver Linings album. (Dream Theater) Not the exact tone but same high quality tone that's nice and fat.

I normally record 2 rhythm guitar tracks, pan them left and right, bus them together in pro tools, then slap a Waves S1 stereo imager on the bus to spread em wide. But the tones I make just don't compare in terms of thickness.

The axe fx is running right into inputs 1-2 on my mackie 820i mixer.

What can I do?
 
Try a parametric EQ in front of the amp with a cut @ 250Hz -3dB to -6dB highpass Q1 to get rid of the mud, boost 350Hz to 550Hz +3dB to +6Bd peaking Q5. See if this gets you closer to what you are looking for. You might also try a cut above 4500Hz -3 to -6 lowpass Q1. Sometimes cutting highs will give a sound of a mid boost. Are you using the Mesa sims? If so are you doing the smile EQ in the amp block?

Also what IR's are you using?
 
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MetalGarret said:
Before you come at me bros, let me explain.
Click to expand...

LOL...

Some things to try:
I've been Getting my Fat lately from The Diezel VH4 Amp. Particularly Ch3 and Ch4 paired with a 4x12 1960A G12M (RW) Cabinet and R121 Mic or None.
These amps are Really making me smile lately and I have always leaned towards Mesa for Dirty Fat Grinding Tones over Marshalls or Anything else.
Since Upgrading to either 7.0 or 8.01 (Had not gone Live since 6.something) My Mesa Recto Orange Vintage either hasn't been right -or- it is simply pale in comparison to my New Diezel Patch...
Petrucci is Probably closest to USA Lead 1 or USA Lead 2, if you haven't tried those...
 
thanks bammbamm, yes left. also were are you running your master volume at? I would suggest running it between 2.5 - 4.5 if you are indeed using the Mesa sims, boost the level control to get your volume back.
 
Left. Got it. I'll try that when I get home.

I tried the USA amps with some drive and it doesn't seem strong enough. I've seen someone on YouTube use them with some tone matching and it sounded phenomenonal. I'm obviously missing something there.

That Diezel patch. Is that something new with the recent firmware?

I have one Mesa sim cab. Are there more?
 
Make sure you check your input level on the on the I/O page. If it is too low you will not get enough gain out of the amps. set it so that on a strongly strummed chord the red LEDs just flicker.
 
Also, have you downloaded some patches where you like the fatness, warmness, meanness of the sound? Try downloading them and compare it to your patches to see what you are doing differently.
 
Im relearning my Axe 2 from the ground up, Ive been able to get good tones but without really understanding why. Luck?

Thanks to the OP, I'm sure this will be a big help, where this area is concerned.

Cheers
 
MetalGarret said:
Before you come at me bros, let me explain.
Click to expand...


at-me-bro-you-come.jpeg


:)
 
MetalGarret said:
I normally record 2 rhythm guitar tracks, pan them left and right, bus them together in pro tools, then slap a Waves S1 stereo imager on the bus to spread em wide. But the tones I make just don't compare in terms of thickness.
?
Click to expand...

Sound like you're overdoing it to me, especially with a double track panned hard left/right AND a stereo imager. Those stereo imagers (and sometimes simply doubling tracks) can often do weird/phasey things with the input which could be draining your tone of the 'oomph' you're looking for.

I'd get the tone right in mono first, then try adding stuff to get a 'wider' sound if that's what you want.
 
personally I'd have thought that a stereo imager would be better on a single mono track
so in this case, try getting rid of it and placing a sample delay on the right hand guitar's channel strip [200 to 400 samples], and then bus them both back together in an aux channel

to tighten the low end try:
- less bass in the amps basic page
- depth around 2 to 4
- amp's eq page
-- boost 63 a little
-- boost 125 by a little more
-- boost 250 by 1dB or 2dB less than what 125 is set to
-- cut 500 by 1.5dB to 4dB

try using a little less gain in the studio than you would with your live tones

let the bass guitar provide most of the low end..
if the guitars occupy too much space below 300Hz, the bass guitar has nowhere to live
you'll then most likely suffer with frequency masking probs and you'll struggle to get the levels right in the mix
 
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