Axe-Fx III 16.00 Beta 4 "Cygnus" Firmware - Public Beta

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fremen said:
I think you missed one key part of his rig : his Synergy system. He had two SYN-2 racks, each with two modules, and one was his signature Synergy Vai module (which I also have, with 11 other modules). The whole system was powered by the Synergy SYN 5050 poweramp, not by Legacy heads effect returns. At some point, he compared the sound from his Synergy signature preamp to the one from the Carvin VLD preamp, and there was no difference. I recorded the whole demo (not allowed to share it with someone not attending this academy) and took notes, to make my version of a Vai preset ;)

Picture : Steve with our own Matt, talking about his effects settings. You can see the two SYN 2 (with his green signature model top left), and at the bottom, the SYN 5050 poweramp

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You're right... I was confusing it with his rig from the previous Vai Academy.

Damn memory is the first thing to go! :)

In either case it still sounded excellent.
 
RevDrucifer said:
Technically, the VLD IS the Legacy pre-amp in a pedal.
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Yeah, I know...
RevDrucifer said:
the model in the AxeFX always seemed a bit muddier to me
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Which one?

I've never really tried to get a Vai tone but the other night I was playing with different stuff and thought I'd see how long it took too approximate For the Love of God (my favorite Vai).

Loaded up the Legato model and started searching thru the factory V30 IRs... Spent maybe 15 minutes and I was in the ballpark with a Suhr Modern.
 
Okay so after a few days now with the beta, I've got a few of my amps setup. Here's the differences in setup between 15 and 16 that I'm using. Maybe it can help someone stuggling to dial in their tones in 16 or for those that just want some insight:

1) Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble etc... feel way more reactive with eachother. If you are finding that the treble seems harsh, but balanced with the mids; Try boosting the bass a touch or reduce the gain a touch.

2) Speaker compression probably took me the longest to dial in, now that the poweramp modeling is so good imo you really have to adjust the time constant to get the right feel. You're gonna need some good ears for compression otherwise it's gonna be hard. All I can say is if when you pluck it sounds choked its probably too low, if too loose then too high. Mine range from about 60ms-500ms so there isn't really a ballpark just gotta use your ears to find what feels right.

3) I am no longer using the preamp in the cab block. In 15 I thought it added an extra little bit of depth, but since there is so much depth in 16 im finding it actually doing the opposite now. (might still use it for mixing)

Other than that I haven't really changed much. What I will say though is while it took a little more effort the tone I have in 16 is far better than 15.
 
All, I finally got a chance to play with 16, and at risk of sounding redundant this is glorious!

One of the many features that stood out to me is how the distortionin the Marshalls seems to be tamer; however, I am wondering if this is more of an effect of having a more complex signal...it seems the distortion is there, but at the same time there is a lot more going on there at different levels of distortion (I guess transients, harmonics, richer and more complex signal). This is something I have noticed for a long time in recordings featuring Marshall amps. I have noticed this on Angus Young's tone, Slash's, etc...there is the core distortion but a lot more at the same time...it is almost like each string has its own distortion...

Cliff, others, am I hallucinating, or am I on to something?
 
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Joe Bfstplk said:
You can individually dial up all of the great tones in a 5E3 just by plugging in, possibly jumpering inputs, and dialing all 3 knobs - no Whizzer needed.

This nails one of the possible combinations - jumpered.

There are two more ways to use the amp: go in the Micrpohone input or go in the Instrument input. Using all 3 knobs in either case nets a plethora of great tones.

One of my favorite clean sounds is had by going into the Instrument channel, cranking the Microphone volume up most if the way (9/12, or so, or 3 o'clock), then upping the Instrument channel volume and tone to where you want them. Better than BF Fender clean, in my opinion....
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Sorry!
Looks like I'm very blonde!
Whizzer ?? - I do not understand?
"go in the Micrpohone input or go in the Instrument input" ? Where is?
Sorry, once again!
Thanks for the help!
 
No Dry County said:
All, I finally got a chance to play with 16, and at risk of sounding redundant this is glorious!

One of the many features that stood out to me is how the distortionin the Marshalls seems to be tamer; however, I am wondering if this is more of an effect of having a more complex signal...it seems the distortion is there, but at the same time there is a lot more going on there at different levels of distortion (I guess transients, harmonics, richer and more complex signal). This is something I have noticed for a long time in recordings featuring Marshall amps. I have noticed this on Angus Young's tone, Slash's, etc...there is the core distortion but a lot more at the same time...it is almost like each string has its own distortion...

Cliff, others, am I hallucinating, or am I on to something?
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No, you aren't hallucinating. One of the hallmarks of a good tube amp is that there are multiple sources of distortion and each frequency band distorts differently.

You have to model everything and do it right to capture this accurately. FWIW "black box" approaches can't capture this because they homogenize everything into a single waveshaper. That's why the black box approaches always have that "sameness" and a kind of Tube Screamer-ish distortion quality (since a Tube Screamer is a single distortion stage basically).
 
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