Axe-Fx III Firmware 31.04 Public Beta #2

Will Chen said:
This is coming from an FM3/AM4 perspective, so can't speak to the update. However, I owned/gigged a JC-120 for around a decade and I can say that a real JC-120 with the level (gain) at around 2.5 is clean and loud as hell, like gigging a small/medium club without being miced up loud. In real life, I think it would be exceedingly rare to crank up a JC-120 to ~5.
Click to expand...
i know these amps get really loud and i havent used a real one (at least as far as i remember) but ever since i've gotten my axe3 i have always used the FAS model and it used to handle getting the gain up to 6 or 7 with no distortion whatsoever which is now not the case. at least for me. i tried the transistor power amp mode and some of the other ones and i couldnt get it to clean up unless i turned it below 2. i wonder if this is a side effect or cliff got some new measurements and made the model more accurate (if it actually dirties up over 5)
 
ConstantM said:
i know these amps get really loud and i havent used a real one (at least as far as i remember) but ever since i've gotten my axe3 i have always used the FAS model and it used to handle getting the gain up to 6 or 7 with no distortion whatsoever which is now not the case. at least for me. i tried the transistor power amp mode and some of the other ones and i couldnt get it to clean up unless i turned it below 2. i wonder if this is a side effect or cliff got some new measurements and made the model more accurate (if it actually dirties up over 5)
Click to expand...

Just turned on the AM4 with the JC-120 model and with lowish output humbuckers it starts breaking up ~3 and single coils ~ 4.2. I can't imagine the models being that different from the FX III, do you have input dynamics or a comp taming things or input trim turned down?

EDIT: Did you have power amp modeling turned off?
 
oacikgoz said:
In the beginning, there were tube amps.

They were heavy, they were moody, they glowed like campfires in dim rehearsal rooms. Everyone who owned one suffered chronic back pain but felt deeply spiritual about it. “Yes,” they said, sweat dripping, vertebrae weeping, “but listen to that breakup—it’s holy.”

Then came solid-state amps. They were lighter, cheaper, and disturbingly practical. Guitarists eyed them with suspicion, like someone trying to offer kale at a barbecue. “It’s… fine,” they said flatly, secretly missing the warm hum of glass bottles threatening to explode mid-solo. The solid-state revolution quietly fizzled. Only jazz players seemed unfazed—they didn’t need distortion anyway. Most guitarists insisted jazz players didn’t really count, since they spent half their gigs sitting down and the other half playing 74 chords per bar just to annoy drummers.

Then came digital modeling, and hope resurfaced. Early units promised to capture the soul of a raging tube head. Instead, they mostly sounded like underwater farts recorded on a flip phone. Some players pretended they liked it (“It’s the future, man”), while others sprinted back to their glowing, unreliable tube rigs, proudly declaring, “This hiss? That’s tone.”

But then—ah, then—Fractal Audio emerged from the algorithmic mist. The heavens opened, firmware updates rained down like blessings, and guitarists across the land declared, “Behold! The tone is reborn!”
Tube-like saturation, sag, warmth—it was all there, shimmering on a screen. You could store 512 amp models and still have room for your dentist’s contact info. The joy was indescribable.

Years went by. Firmware evolved. One day, in a small but miraculous act of curiosity, Fractal modeled solid-state amps.

And suddenly, the same players who once scorned those “cheap, lifeless boxes” were weeping with joy. “They nailed it!” they cried. “It sounds just like the real thing!”
Somewhere, in a dusty pawn shop, a humble transistor amp blinked its red LED and whispered, “I told you so.”
Click to expand...

very nice little story.. you have a gift for this my friend!
 
FWIW, please stop trying to categorise everything else by type.

Amp categories are way too subjective and rely on meaningless descriptors that aren’t going to be universally understood/agreed upon, and most other effect categories are quite obvious too.

I get it with reverbs since some of them have quite abstract names, and think it’s quite a nice QoL improvement, but where names are more obvious (e.g. T808, FAS Vibe, Brit 800) I wouldn’t want, need, or benefit from categorisation on anything else in any reasonable way.
 
BobbyLane99 said:
very nice little story.. you have a gift for this my friend!
Click to expand...

oacikgoz said:
In the beginning, there were tube amps.

They were heavy, they were moody, they glowed like campfires in dim rehearsal rooms. Everyone who owned one suffered chronic back pain but felt deeply spiritual about it. “Yes,” they said, sweat dripping, vertebrae weeping, “but listen to that breakup—it’s holy.”

Then came solid-state amps. They were lighter, cheaper, and disturbingly practical. Guitarists eyed them with suspicion, like someone trying to offer kale at a barbecue. “It’s… fine,” they said flatly, secretly missing the warm hum of glass bottles threatening to explode mid-solo. The solid-state revolution quietly fizzled. Only jazz players seemed unfazed—they didn’t need distortion anyway. Most guitarists insisted jazz players didn’t really count, since they spent half their gigs sitting down and the other half playing 74 chords per bar just to annoy drummers.

Then came digital modeling, and hope resurfaced. Early units promised to capture the soul of a raging tube head. Instead, they mostly sounded like underwater farts recorded on a flip phone. Some players pretended they liked it (“It’s the future, man”), while others sprinted back to their glowing, unreliable tube rigs, proudly declaring, “This hiss? That’s tone.”

But then—ah, then—Fractal Audio emerged from the algorithmic mist. The heavens opened, firmware updates rained down like blessings, and guitarists across the land declared, “Behold! The tone is reborn!”
Tube-like saturation, sag, warmth—it was all there, shimmering on a screen. You could store 512 amp models and still have room for your dentist’s contact info. The joy was indescribable.

Years went by. Firmware evolved. One day, in a small but miraculous act of curiosity, Fractal modeled solid-state amps.

And suddenly, the same players who once scorned those “cheap, lifeless boxes” were weeping with joy. “They nailed it!” they cried. “It sounds just like the real thing!”
Somewhere, in a dusty pawn shop, a humble transistor amp blinked its red LED and whispered, “I told you so.”
Click to expand...
Yes, and gifted, lovely prose; that said... the path along the way has been toward emulating the subtle characteristics of valve amplifiers.
 
Will Chen said:
Just turned on the AM4 with the JC-120 model and with lowish output humbuckers it starts breaking up ~3 and single coils ~ 4.2. I can't imagine the models being that different from the FX III, do you have input dynamics or a comp taming things or input trim turned down?

EDIT: Did you have power amp modeling turned off?
Click to expand...
yes i never turn it off. that's what i've been experiencing too
 
jaycal6 said:
HM-2 rules! Here's a quick clip of something I wrote with it.

Click to expand...

beavis and butthead headbang GIF

Hell fucking yeah dude
 
Thenewexhibit said:
Sounds mean! What was the signal chain? Also, did you record the bass, or use a Bass VI? Also, what drum library are you using?
Click to expand...
Thanks! Pretty basic preset of HM-2 into a Brit 800 2203 high and York Audio IRs (Mesa on one side, Orange on the other). Real bass into a SansAmp XB Driver. I haven’t been able to get a bass tone in the Axe FX that I like as much as the SansAmp, unfortunately. And then drums are Superior Drummer death and darkness pack, using the death side, preset called DC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom