axe fx sounds muddy

im not going to look up anything, im trying to help YOU ;)

i made this preset quickly (10 minutes) with only stock stuff to see if i could make an iron maiden tone



did same with new hetfield amp



both are made with stock cabs and some minor tweaks. they are not perfect as i did not intend to be perfect (10 minutes max) and 2 takes for recording (left right for stereo effect). so not spot on, but for me they were fun to do and to me it was quite near the actual sound (near enough).

And made them with Axe fx 2 mkii with KRK monitor speakers just like you.....

is this muddy to you? (again not perfect, but not muddy)
if so i can not help you and as you say all other settings are ok, my guesses are finished
really trying to help, but you should deliver you reference, presets, vids etc...
 
7stringtim said:
thoese do not sound muddy at all. im usung a burstbucker pro in the bridge
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do your krk stand on desk?
have you tried lowering bass to lets say 80
as muddy is most of the time too much bass

and if you want help from forum members please provide recordings, presets, videos.
as my experience is that most members are very helpfull and there are a lot of skilled guys here

again my soundcloud is really just made quickly with an empty preset

- amp and cab
- tweak amp to get my sound i like or near what i want (tweak here is just on amp block
like mv, gain, bass, treble, mid & bass cut on 80)
- with metallica amp i also tweaked 5 mesa eq
- you can also take a geq or another eq block

but most of the time you have to tweak!
presets with another guitar or different pickups will never sound the same!!!!!!

so take presets as a start and use your ears
 
my monitors are sitting on stands. i do appreciate the help. just a little frustrated because i just spent $2300 on this thing. i will just tweek until i get it right.
 
Shot in the dark here, but I remember a long time ago I had something similar & if I remember correctly it was the guitar input cable. See if ya have any luck with a different input cable or brand of cable. I think sometimes if it doesn't plug in all the way it'll produce that muffled sound.
 
7stringtim said:
my monitors are sitting on stands. i do appreciate the help. just a little frustrated because i just spent $2300 on this thing. i will just tweek until i get it right.
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i understand your frustration!
And im sure you will find your 2300 well spend in a while

i have owned several tube amps (mesa road king, jvm410 joe satriani) and i do not play with my amps anymore and have sold most of my gear only using axe fx.

worst case your axe fx is not ok, but i think its a matter of understanding the capabilities of the axe fx. and especially when using frfr and irs its soooooo different then using a normal amp

the amp modling is really great (i think)

good luck with understanding and tweaking!!

please make sone vids and recordings to show forumusers what your aiming for and which presets and how it sounds....
 
7stringtim said:
at first i was trying out factory patches like the usa lead friedman hbe. they didnt impress me so i looked up a misha mansoor patch and same thing. i tried turning up the trebble presence and STILL sounded dull. i dont get it. is there a problem with the version of fireware that came from fractal?
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I KNEW this is what you did.
How? Because I did the same lol
First off you have A Les Paul. (Like I do as a back up guitar I also have KRK rp6 speakers) Periphery don't play Les Pauls and they sure as hell don't have the Alpha & Omega pickups in them.
Also when I downloaded the patch it was all kinds of messed up. I think the firmware since the patch was made has changed so much it'S made the patch completely redundant. LIke I say I think downloading other people's patches are useless unless you own the exact same gear and the firmware revision hasn't changed since it was created. It is great for seeing how patches have been created though.

Your going to have to start from scratch with patches. Sure take a look at the patches you like and see what gear they are using but you need to dial it in for you and you gear, not to mention your speakers, your room, your strings, you plectrum choice and pickup brand etc etc.

I'm not patronising you because this is how I saw things for a while a few years back but I think it's common for people to look at a digital device and expect it to not act in very analogue ways. Unfortunately simply downloading other people's patches just doesn't work but fortunately you can create something equally amazing and just as unique.
 
7stringtim said:
my monitors are sitting on stands. i do appreciate the help. just a little frustrated because i just spent $2300 on this thing. i will just tweek until i get it right.
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Are experiencing muddy tones when you create a new preset? Just bare bones, amp plus cab?

Can you try running another device in place of the AxeFX? Perhaps an mp3 player? Does the music from your mp3 player sound right if you're using the same input that the AxeFX is plugged into? The Scarlett has a built in mixer that I believe includes EQ. I guess that you took the Scarlett out of your signal chain when you plugged your krks directly into the AxeFX. Just want to make sure that the mixer in the Scarlett isn't the issue.

Do you have the same tone through headphones that you have through the krks?
 
Tone is way more than a preset you download onto the unit. Your guitar (the way you play, pickups, their heights, hell the age of your strings even), the way the signal is carried from the guitar into the axe, the way that signal gets to your monitors, all contribute to the crispness (or in your case mudiness). Try a simple amp and cab setup, nothing else (I'd recommend the friedman HBE into one of the stock ml soundlab IRs, super easy to dial in) and let us know how that goes since you can't post clips
 
Bypass all that external stuff and plug a pair of headphones directly into the Axe. You won't get a full range FRFR or cab experience this way, but you should be able to tell if there's top end there.
 
I just gave the bulb patch a go. the rhythm/lead patch has a shit tonne of gain and my les paul just makes it all mushy. there's a lot of fizz and hardly any pick attack and I think the main culprit of that is the 808 drive. It's might well work on some nice bright high output pickups.
I watched this video

and realised that the audio is actually not direct from the Axe FX as you can hear the strings when they pick hard. So either a camera mic (very good one) or it's from a room mic. they might even be using proper cabs.

One thing I have done recently though to brighten up a tone was to had a Filter block with a +1db high shelf from 1000khz upwards. It worked really well for the 5153 patch I was using.
 
If you put headphones on, you eliminate the speaker/audio interface link to rule that out. Try changing through all the presets. Are they ALL dark and muddy? If so, it's likely guitar, chord, or global settings but you said you reset those so just try to narrow it down that way. If some presets are better or close to what you want, then you could find out what amp and cab it is and build one that suits you better or just edit the one that's there to your liking. Do you have other guitars? (I can't imagine any guitarist without at least 2) :) Hope we can help.
 
Just had another idea as well. Try hooking up the Axe to your computer USB port and use the Axe as your audio interface (download driver from FAS on support page here: http://www.fractalaudio.com/drivers.php) so you can go to youtube.com and listen to something you like or other vids with Axe sounds and compare through the exact same system to see if it's in the monitoring system. I promise you that you will most definitely realize what's going on at some point and you will be amazed at the sounds you can get. Good luck ;)
 
Download Audacity or Reaper since both are free so we can hear the tones you're getting. Use the Axe FX as your interface as mentioned above.
 
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