axe fx sounds muddy

what tube amp and cab did you use? (before the axe fx)
were you able to have that sound you are searching for there?

for axe fx
have you changed low freq cut and bass?
have you changed cables as suggested?
check also technotes from Cliff for some more tweak options
There are soooooo many ways to have things changed to your likings..
eq-ing in the amp block section, post eq blocks, eq-ing in the cab block
then the sag and gain stages with different trim values with different gain and mv
have your bass first set very very low and also cut bass (low freq) in pre amp section
and have a look at the tech notes from cliff!!!

but at the end if its not working for you then its not working for you.....

did see some new fractal users, but always after some help and understanding the axe fx better they were happy very happy at the end. flubby and muddy is most of the time too much bass and you have heavy strings and drop C, so thats already low. and gives quite some bass.

try first your orginal amp and cab and try to match these, then tweak to taste before you try amps like hbe which is very bassy... ;)

no preset, but just your amp and your cab and start with very low bass.. then start tweaking

again at the end if this is not for you, its not for you... but its definitely NOT axe fx that is lacking (or yours is broken or something is messed up...)
 
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i used a marshall jvm going through a orange 212 ppc with v30s. and it sounded very nice. but i sold that because i hated micing it up to record. i dont have access to a good sounding room. so i bought the axe fx ii. and here i am. i tried a different cable but it was of the same manufacturer,
 
7stringtim said:
i used a marshall jvm going through a orange 212 ppc with v30s. and it sounded very nice. but i sold that because i hated micing it up to record. i dont have access to a good sounding room. so i bought the axe fx ii. and here i am. i tried a different cable but it was of the same manufacturer,
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Maybe try the rear input?
 
7stringtim said:
i used a marshall jvm going through a orange 212 ppc with v30s. and it sounded very nice. but i sold that because i hated micing it up to record. i dont have access to a good sounding room. so i bought the axe fx ii. and here i am. i tried a different cable but it was of the same manufacturer,
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I own a marshall jvm 410 js (which i do not use anymore due to axe fx) and tried lots of marshall models including the jvm (not the joe version) and got some really really good sounds out of those. But i didnt like the v30s with that amp. To me it was very much like there was a blanket over it. Try the TV mix 2 (at the end of the cab entries).

Which mics are you used too?
Try a V30 cab pack with same mic. As im pretty sure its a mix of bass and CabIRs with mic.

Start EMPTY preset. Add only amp and cab.
First try the jvm od1 orange with the cab tv mx 2 with low bass and set bright switch on. MV settings not too high (Then go to pre amp section and lower your lower cut to around 80 (instead of the usual 10)) after lowering the bass in the basic amp block to lets say 2. Then dail in the gain, first not too high.

now play with your input trim in amp section. First at around 0.6 or even lower. Then try 1.4 and see what it does to your bass and tightness. you can also play with harmonics setting higher.

anyways: try first YOUR amp and find a sound you like! if the tv mix 2 is not your taste try another (2x12 v30)

good luck!!
 
Brownmatthall said:
I still think it's a guitar problem, how close/far are your pups from the strings?
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I think it's a problem somewhere in the preset setting cause I hear the same 'blanket'/muddy sound in the soundclips from other users who used the same preset.
 
Bodde said:
I think it's a problem somewhere in the preset setting cause I hear the same 'blanket'/muddy sound in the soundclips from other users who used the same preset.
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The mud could be attributed to the master volume setting, once I lowered that everything opened up to my ears but my guitar is also much brighter naturally than an LP with burstbuckers
 
well I have some better news. I took the axe fx and threw it out the window and destroyed it! Jk. But seriously good news. I hooked the axe fx up to my peavey valve king going through the my orange ppc 212 with v30 and turned off cab sims and it opened right up! Made a awesome preset in 5 mins. tge bad news is why it sounds bad with the cab sims through my krk rockit 5s.
 
I had a set of Rockit 6's. Every time I made a preset using those, they sounded horrible with my headphones and vice versa. To me those monitors are too scooped and boomy for critical listening. I ended up selling them and just started using headphones for monitoring.
 
psycle_1 said:
I had a set of Rockit 6's. Every time I made a preset using those, they sounded horrible with my headphones and vice versa. To me those monitors are too scooped and boomy for critical listening. I ended up selling them and just started using headphones for monitoring.
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Yeah the rokit series monitors hype the low end since the range on them doesnt really cover the sub lows which defeats the purpose of using monitors in the first place. The fact that it sounds good to you through your orange just shows how critical the ir is to the tone you want too, did you ever try the citrus mix like I suggested? I think it's one of the brighter sounding IRs in the box
 
I agree the preset is better but it still sound muffled on my end. It's gotta be my krk rokit 5s. Does it sound clear on your end?
 
JMHO.. the RoKit 5 is the bottleneck… I mean their more toy than tool in relation to the Axe. It’s like putting bicycle tires on a Ferrari.
 
-Try to add the Pete Thorn IR into a mix with any other cab.. That opened things up for me..
-8.6% on the input sounds very low. I used around 20-22% with DiMarzio Transitions as the hottest pickup..
-Try some other monitors, the RoKit are not fabulous soundwise..
-Borrow some other guitars if you can, or different pickups for your guitar.
 
JJunkie said:
It sounds clear enough over here. Wouldn't say muffled at all.
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Same experience thru a pair of Genelec M040s, the clip sounds alright to me.

In my experience you can't stress output device quality enough. I was never happy with how my Axe-Fx sounded thru a pair of Magnat speakers and a Marantz amp (so more like hifi stuff than studio monitors) but I love it thru the Genelecs. While the Magnats have somewhat similar specs and size to the Genelecs on paper, there is something about the Genes that make them sound so much better for guitar and bass - there's just much more punch, clarity etc even though just listening to music both setups sound just fine.
 
So I'm looking over my monitoring setup and I noticed that I'm using a unbalanced speaker cable in a balanced out put jack. Do you think that is the culprit?
 
I took your preset, and recorded a quick video with it, along with some changes I made on my end. I didn't know what kind of tone you were shooting for, so I probably missed the mark stylistically (plus, I think our playing styles are very different). But perhaps this will help a little bit with ideas and such.

Good luck with your quest!

 
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