Axe-Fx III Firmware 23.03 Beta #1

GreatGreen said:
edit: Also, again, you probably already know this, if you're planning on modeling the Stealth 100's Red channel, an "easter egg" (or more likely a design fault) in that channel is that the Blue channel's Gain knob also impacts the overall sound of the Red channel, so exposing that as a user parameter to the user in the form of a second gain knob would be really, really cool.
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Not even a design flaw, they modified the original amp while touring, there was no time to design anything properly, they just bypassed the first gain stage of the original Blue channel and used the first gain stage of the Red channel for both Blue and Red with a piece of wire effectively paralleling both gain pots, this also made the amp tighter probably a lucky mistake.

Turning the opposite channel gain pot down effectively throws high frequencies to ground, if the resulting cut off frequency of the network is low enough it can sound like turning down the gain.

As for the modeling side of things, a good start is to add the unused pot full resistance network (full gain, no bright cap) in parallel with the active pot, or model the other/parallel gain pot network fully by putting it on the secondary gain control like the IIC+ has the 'Overdrive' pot.
I think this small amount of gain change can be emulated by the user with the Input Trim and "High Cut Frequency" in the Preamp tab without adding a secondary gain.
 
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Saarang Narayan said:
Hey! So I dunno how much of a Friedman fellow I am these days (more like Friedman-whine-guy) but I did try and dial some of those hot-rod-y tones on the 2203. I'm not really using it for that stuff to be completely honest, but I did spend some time trying to get some sort of high gain-ish tone out of it. As far as the 2204 is concerned, I couldn't get "modern" sounding high gain out of it; it always had that low-mid "fudge" (almost like a bit-crushed tone?) that was hard to dial out and I'd rather stick to the usual suspects to get those tones than lock horns with a Plexi/JCM type amp and force it to do something that it isn't exactly designed for. The 2203, on the other hand, with just a few tweaks, does get a lot more chunky and even djent-y. Especially with a Klon boosting the living hell out of the front end and the saturation switch on, the palm mutes are more satisfying on the 2203 than on other Plexi or JCM circuits in the Axe. I tried dialling it to sound as close to the JVM OD2 I like these days for that Marshall-based modern high gain tone, and I was quite happy with the results I got! It doesn't sound as great as the JVM (or the CCV 2C which is even better than the JVM as I've discovered) for that sort of tone but I loved that I could push the amp to that end.

Here's a preset showcasing my go-to high gain rhythm tones (and some other stuff). My favourite is of course the FAS Modern for getting those chugga-chuggs, which is why it is in scene 1. Scene 2 is usually the CCV 2C, but I've replaced it with the 2203 in this preset. The 2203 is dialled in relation to the JVM in Scene 3, so you can go back and forth between the first three scenes to see what I ended up with. Anyway, this was loads of fun and I even got inspired to put down a little demo-idea thing-y using the 2203 from this preset.

All in all, I haven't been as inspired by any other new amp model as I have been with the 2203 in a very long time! Can't thank FAS (and James Freeman, of course, amongst the others on here who pushed for it) enough for making the unit even more awesomererer!!

P.S. – The IR used in the attached preset bundle is ML Sound Lab's Best IR in the World, which is free to download here. But I do use a blend of that and a couple of IRs from MLSound Lab's MEGA-GREEN pack (57-C and 421-C both at -12dB) in my usual preset; I couldn't share that blended IR for obvious reasons :)
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Very nice, thanks man. I've toyed with the 2203 on the latest Helix update last night. Got to A/B with the AFX and they sound close..but yet again, AFX was sounding much better right out the gate.What your experience is pretty much nails mine. With the right i.r. and boost with some clever low cutting, it seems to get the old school thrash tones halfway decent. With the preamp gain on like 4.5 and a boss SD 1 , level max, tone 6.5, and gain at around 0.5 -1 it sounds kinda gnarly. But mainly, it sounds like a very "stringy", clean saturated, clanky EVHish preset how I have it dialed in. I'm not sure how you feel about the Bogner Uberschall, but if you can tame those lower mids a tad, it does a WAYY better Ride the Lightning Tone than the standard TS808/9 boosted JCM 800. If you add one of those "golden" i.rs, it sounds like it's ripped straight from the record. Cold as ice and pissed off with reverb lol
 
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James Freeman said:
Not even a design flaw, they modified the original amp while touring, there was no time to design anything properly, they just bypassed the first gain stage of the original Blue channel and used the first gain stage of the Red channel for both Blue and Red with a piece of wire effectively paralleling both gain pots, this also made the amp tighter probably a lucky mistake.

Turning the opposite channel gain pot down effectively throws high frequencies to ground, if the resulting cut off frequency of the network is low enough it can sound like turning down the gain.

As for the modeling side of things, a good start is to add the unused pot full resistance network (full gain, no bright cap) in parallel with the active pot, or model the other/parallel gain pot network fully by putting it on the secondary gain control like the IIC+ has the 'Overdrive' pot.
I think this small amount of gain change can be emulated by the user with the Input Trim and "High Cut Frequency" in the Preamp tab without adding a secondary gain.
Click to expand...
You really need to build an amp. If you haven't already done so \m/
 
jayjay347912 said:
it sounds like a very "stringy", clean saturated, clanky EVHish preset
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Yeah that's what I love about the 2203! It has the most "kerrang" of all the "kerrang-y" amps that I've tried so far. It doesn't compress as much as the hot-rod amps (Camerons, Friedmans, JVM, what have you) which means that it can do more articulate stuff even when you goose the input and push the saturation switch. I think that high gain yet uncompressed (relatively speaking) Marshall-y tone is what drew me to the Ares-era Friedmans (esp. the BE and HBEC45), but I won't get started about that again now ;)

jayjay347912 said:
I'm not sure how you feel about the Bogner Uberschall, but if you can tame those lower mids a tad, it does a WAYY better Ride the Lightning Tone
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Never quite tamed those low-mids and so never quite liked the Uberschall! But I have only ever tried that amp with my Drop C stuff. Might work better with standard tuning material based on what you are saying! I do have a "early Metallica" type preset that uses the IIC++ and factory IRs (I think they are the AX GB ones?) that gets me into that RTL/MOP/AJFA kinda ballpark, but I'll definitely give the 2203 and Uberschall a go soon for that stuff! What IRs are you using to get those tones, btw?
 
For all you guys playing with getting the vintage Marshalls sounding like modern hot rods, don't forget the classic post PI master volume mod, which essentially gives you the ability to slam the PI and run the power tubes easier, which along with a front boost with low cut was the fore runner of the modern hot ridded Marshalls and the like.

Cliff has kindly provided the ability to do these mods with the Axes for a long time me (since gen 1 if I remember correctly?).
 
Saarang Narayan said:
Yeah that's what I love about the 2203! It has the most "kerrang" of all the "kerrang-y" amps that I've tried so far. It doesn't compress as much as the hot-rod amps (Camerons, Friedmans, JVM, what have you) which means that it can do more articulate stuff even when you goose the input and push the saturation switch. I think that high gain yet uncompressed (relatively speaking) Marshall-y tone is what drew me to the Ares-era Friedmans (esp. the BE and HBEC45), but I won't get started about that again now ;)


Never quite tamed those low-mids and so never quite liked the Uberschall! But I have only ever tried that amp with my Drop C stuff. Might work better with standard tuning material based on what you are saying! I do have a "early Metallica" type preset that uses the IIC++ and factory IRs (I think they are the AX GB ones?) that gets me into that RTL/MOP/AJFA kinda ballpark, but I'll definitely give the 2203 and Uberschall a go soon for that stuff! What IRs are you using to get those tones, btw?
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There's this guy Bgalias, his "golden i.r. pack" for Metallica that is free, it covers Black, Justice, load, puppets, kill em all, ride the lightning, as well as some other song specific i.r.s, like blackened, harvester, battery, etc. I'm not sure how this guy did it but of all things I've tried, these things do like 90% of the heavy lifting on my Metallica presets..they are basically tone matched identically. If you YouTube "rubber duck tech" he demos the justice i.r with the Mesa Mk4 on his Helix, and A/Bs it with his Triaxis rig. At around the 10 minute mark he gets them identical. That's the video that sold me on my first modeler. If you REALLY want to nerd out, you can combine these golden i.r.s with a "tone" match block on the Axe FX3 , and play with the "smoothing" and "amount "parameter in the tone match block. My AjFA preset literally shakes the walls with the "whoooogh" in the low end...kinda like the Whoogh eeh ooh in the eye of the Beholder chant. It's like granite in guitar form (not my original quote) but the low end STILL holds together lol You should play around with em man, guaranteed to put a stank face on you lol
 
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