Best Axe FX Bass amp for metal.

JH-2

Inspired
Hi friends,

I wanted to know which is the best amp to get this metal sound. It has a clean line and another with saturated and very sharp amp.

I can't get that clean and sharp line in my Axe FX II XL+, if I remove bass frecuency it sounds very poor to me.

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Jeez, nobody has replied to this. Sorry dude. I was gona respond myself but bass tone is a rabbit hole at the best of times.
Check out my threads where I was asking for help.
For now, you'd do well to google signal splitting, @2112 has some bass videos on this.
Removing the low end will kill your tone. But if you separate the frequencies, you can get some serious cut and definition.

 
Jeez, nobody has replied to this. Sorry dude. I was gona respond myself but bass tone is a rabbit hole at the best of times.
Check out my threads where I was asking for help.
For now, you'd do well to google signal splitting, @2112 has some bass videos on this.
Removing the low end will kill your tone. But if you separate the frequencies, you can get some serious cut and definition.


This is actually extremely helpful - I've been looking for a solid metal bass tone for my upcoming record. Last record, I was not able to find any good metal tones and kind of just put the bass in with whatever I could find. As you can tell, the tone was not as great as you would want it to be. Really excited to see what I can find with this video's guidance!
 
Jeez, nobody has replied to this. Sorry dude. I was gona respond myself but bass tone is a rabbit hole at the best of times.
Check out my threads where I was asking for help.
For now, you'd do well to google signal splitting, @2112 has some bass videos on this.
Removing the low end will kill your tone. But if you separate the frequencies, you can get some serious cut and definition.


In total agreement that frequency splitting is really where it's at for heavy bass tones with various amounts of grit and overdrive.
I recently dove into the FM9 fw6.00 to explore the dynacabs and gapless switching, but also to re-write some core bass patches that are now split into hi/low discrete paths.

I'm generally all about keeping things simple, so in the past I tried to just make bass tones work using the basic building blocks COMP-AMP-CAB. This is really fine for standard clean tones, but I had struggled quite a bit once distortion (either via DRIVE block or preamp OD in the AMP block) was added to the sound in varying amounts. The extreme low end of the bass signal tends to cause drives to distort prematurely and have a very narrow usable range. Even with various eq/filtering/mix blend adjustments, it didn't quite nail what I was looking for.

Rather than use the Crossover block, I'm using a slight variation to split the signal into two paths, each with their own filter block, sending the hi-pass to a Drive-Amp-Cab and the lo-pass to a Compressor and re-combining it with the hi-pass path after its Cab block. Keeping all of that low end out of the drive & amp path makes it so much easier to have more control of overdriven sounds while the low end stays consistent. This also allows the various Drive type sonic characteristics to stand out, one from another.

Clean sounds also benefit from this since you can compress each signal chain independently, making appropriate dynamics processing a little easier. Though signal path splitting is a bit more complicated and eats up a little more cpu, it yields far better results for aggressive tones vs. trying to massage it from a single path signal chain. IMHO, any modeler that doesn't include the ability to do split-signal path processing is missing a key component for certain types of bass tones.
 
In total agreement that frequency splitting is really where it's at for heavy bass tones with various amounts of grit and overdrive.
I recently dove into the FM9 fw6.00 to explore the dynacabs and gapless switching, but also to re-write some core bass patches that are now split into hi/low discrete paths.

I'm generally all about keeping things simple, so in the past I tried to just make bass tones work using the basic building blocks COMP-AMP-CAB. This is really fine for standard clean tones, but I had struggled quite a bit once distortion (either via DRIVE block or preamp OD in the AMP block) was added to the sound in varying amounts. The extreme low end of the bass signal tends to cause drives to distort prematurely and have a very narrow usable range. Even with various eq/filtering/mix blend adjustments, it didn't quite nail what I was looking for.

Rather than use the Crossover block, I'm using a slight variation to split the signal into two paths, each with their own filter block, sending the hi-pass to a Drive-Amp-Cab and the lo-pass to a Compressor and re-combining it with the hi-pass path after its Cab block. Keeping all of that low end out of the drive & amp path makes it so much easier to have more control of overdriven sounds while the low end stays consistent. This also allows the various Drive type sonic characteristics to stand out, one from another.

Clean sounds also benefit from this since you can compress each signal chain independently, making appropriate dynamics processing a little easier. Though signal path splitting is a bit more complicated and eats up a little more cpu, it yields far better results for aggressive tones vs. trying to massage it from a single path signal chain. IMHO, any modeler that doesn't include the ability to do split-signal path processing is missing a key component for certain types of bass tones.
What do you use as your split point for what goes high vs low?
 
What do you use as your split point for what goes high vs low?
About 100hz, but this can depend on context. I'm using standard tuned and E-flat tuned 4-string basses with occasional drop-D via Hipshot detuners. I experimented going as low as +/-80hz and up to +/-120hz, but settled on 100hz.

Not sure what you mean about "what goes high vs low?".

My High path goes into a Drive block ( with varying amounts of dirt via A/B/C/D channels ), a static Comp block setting (compressing very little) then onto Amp (SV Bass2) & Cab (DynaCab 1x15 Portabass) blocks.
The Low path goes into a static Comp block setting, a clean drive for a little character, and re-combines with the High path after the Cab block. The only thing I need to look into further is whether the Low path also should to run into a cab block or not (currently not, and sounds good to me).
 
About 100hz, but this can depend on context. I'm using standard tuned and E-flat tuned 4-string basses with occasional drop-D via Hipshot detuners. I experimented going as low as +/-80hz and up to +/-120hz, but settled on 100hz.

Not sure what you mean about "what goes high vs low?".

My High path goes into a Drive block ( with varying amounts of dirt via A/B/C/D channels ), a static Comp block setting (compressing very little) then onto Amp (SV Bass2) & Cab (DynaCab 1x15 Portabass) blocks.
The Low path goes into a static Comp block setting, a clean drive for a little character, and re-combines with the High path after the Cab block. The only thing I need to look into further is whether the Low path also should to run into a cab block or not (currently not, and sounds good to me).
I worded that poorly, I just moreso meant what the crossover point was. I’ve been experimenting with bi amp tones and had a hard time picking what frequency to split the signal at.
 
I lost a few hours this weekend trying to dial this in and failed. I was basing (pardon the pun) it off the LT @2112 video, too. What was particularly weird for me, the recorded sound seemed was worse than what my monitors were telling me. While that last anecdote is probably something unique to my gear, the point is: I can't get that sound. My bass DI sound good. It has enough of that "jangle" where I should be able to get this sound but for the life of me I cannot. I want that "cannon fire" sound. The crossover method is better than my earlier attempts, though. I just surprised by how difficult it is to get the sound.
 
I want that "cannon fire" sound.
A link to an audio clip of the type of sound you're looking for would be helpful.

Keep in mind that the treatments for bass in a mixed recording might be quite different than the needs of someone getting a bass tone for the stage as a replacement for a traditional rig and/or for use in an IEM mix.

There are so many variables and reasons why a bass tone might not work in the context of a mix: everything from the player, the instrument, how the instrument is played, pickup selection, string selection, etc....and that's all before a bass track gets printed and fussed with in a mix. Whatever info to this end would also be very helpful. P-Basses, for example, are still very popular because they just seem to work better, and are predictable from an engineering/mixing standpoint, though not for ALL styles of music.

There's a good reason why many recordings have 2 or 3 tracks of bass, each track distinct from the others, and each track serving a specific purpose in servicing the bass tone within the overall mix. Bass can be very tricky to mix in the studio, and even more difficult in live performance.
 
look for gift of tone Abasi. There's a treat here from Javier Reyes which can get you started if that's not enough.
I find it awesome
 
Hi guys, thanks. I posted while I was taking a coffee break at work so couldn't post back. The tone I am looking for is similar to that in the video from OP; also a link my friend sent me that got me down this rabbit hole ("hey you should play that track with this kinda sound"...me: "sure no problem". Only it was) That video (didn't help) but starts off with a related sound. Then this one has something close, too.

@jimfist - well said. I've struggled getting a consistent sound pretty much always. I wind up using the direct sound a lot, along with the processed, and then futz & futz with it.

In my preset, which is pretty much what LT did in his video referenced above with whatever guitar amp I gave up on, plus a third Vol/Pan sending the direct out to the comp, too. Note that input is 2. I'm trying to remember the player/video where the phrase "cannon fire" came to mind.

@Vio - the "Javier Tethys Strat" for the high frequency split? That could work. It has some of the right quality for sure.
 

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It is key for brutal bass tones to have that frequency split. I've found that otherwise, running a full-range tone into a drive or amp for distortion, it just won't behave easily. Erasing all of that low end allows for much more latitude in adjusting dirt and drive on the high end signal path.
 
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