Brian May's "Wall of AC30" rigs [Update Available for FW25 Cygnus X-3]

[Edit Apr. 22th, 2024] Updated preset for FW25 (Cygnus X-3) is available on Post #36. The presets attached to this post is obsolete so deleted. Demo video is taken down as that no longer demonstrates the current version of this preset.

Excuse me to bump an old thread, but I’d like to share the updated version of this preset as attached.
The update reflects the recent firmware update that features Dyna-Cab and my findings after programming the previous version.
If you’re using my previous preset, I recommend you update to the new preset as it sounds more authentic and pleasant to my ears.

These are the major changes from the previous version:
  • Amp blocks: completely re-tweaked to get closer to my AC30s.
  • Cab blocks: Swapped the centre dry IR to Dyna-Cab model “2x12 Class-A 30W,“ and Left/Right IRs to factory ones that mix better with the Dyna-Cab on the centre.
  • Drive block: Added variants to each channel. Some of them are matched to the real treble boosters I have (by ear, though.) See the additional notes at the bottom of my post for details.
This time, I made 3 separate presets to meet different use cases. Here are the brief introduction of each preset:

“Wall of 9 AC30s v2 |km 202257”
  • This is the updated preset from the previous version, which is my take of Brian’s rig for the gig, including the chorus, pitch shifters, and Brighton Rock delay.
  • You can choose either chorus, pitch shifters, and Brighton Rock delay by changing the Scenes.
  • Scene 8 “Dry only w/Fullres” in the previous version was omitted as Dyna-Cab doesn’t support Full-res IRs.
    • For amp-in-the-room sound, please use Scene 2/6 of my preset “Doctor's Fav AC30 |km 202257”.
“Wall of 9 AC30s noTB |km 202257”
  • This is a variant of the updated preset, which is intended for use with a real treble boosters connected to Input 2 (, not 1. See the additional notes at the bottom.)
  • Other than Amp block, Input block swapped to “2”, and omitted Drive blocks, it’s the same as ““Wall of 9 AC30s v2.”
“Doctor's Fav AC30 |km 202257”
  • This is a new preset, intended for studio recording quality tone.
  • [Edit 3rd Jul. 2023: this is wrong so deleted.] When you don’t need the 3 AC30s configuration, I recommend that you play with this preset as the AXE-FX III will get better processing quality with one Amp block.
  • You’ve got 4 scenes with different cab/mic placement. On Scene 1-4, simulation of a treble booster (the Drive block) is engaged, while on Scene 5-8 it’s bypassed so that you can connect a real treble booster to Input 2.
  • For all the scenes, Cab block comes with a combination of dynamic mic IRs and condenser mic IRs. Dyna-Cab is used on Scene4 and 8.
You can hear “Doctor's Fav AC30" and “Wall of 9 AC30s v2" in the video below.
I'd like to acknowledge Yonderbosk as the manufacturer of the treble booster I played with my preset “Doctor's Fav AC30” on this demo. If you liked my tone there, check out "BC149 ‘Orange Label’ Treble Booster" at http://yonderbosk.com

Here are some additional notes…
  • Drive block’s got a different setting for each channel and are set to the channel that matches best to each of the scenes. Here’s what each channel has got:
    • Channel A: matched to a treble booster by Fryer guitars by ear. Similar to Brian May’s treble boosters in late 90s-2000s.
    • Channel B: matched to a treble booster by Pete Cornish by ear. Similar to what Brian used in late 70’s to early 80’s.
    • Channel C: Almost the same as the default of the “treble booster” model but with clip type changed to “Germanium”. Intended to simulate what Brian used in early 70’s
    • Channel D: The default setting of the “treble booster” model.
  • After experiments, I recommend treble boosters be connected to Input 2, not 1. However low I turn down the input level or A/D sensitivity of Input 1, it never stops clipping when a treble booster is connected. It is not the case with Input 2.
  • For the presets/Scenes intended for the use with a real treble booster, the gain of Amp block is adjusted to improve S/N ratio.
    While with these presets/Scenes I feel the AXE-FX is behaving very close to the real AC30, you may find the gain is lacking especially in the solo. Adjust the gain in that case or I recommend using the presets/scenes with Drive block engaged.
    • Actually I prefer using the simulated treble boosters as it can achieve higher gain and still tolerable S/N ratio.
  • I didn’t include the foot controller configuration. Please do the configuration yourself If necessary. If you are gigging with my presets, I guess you’d want to assign switches to change the Scenes and control other FXs.
  • [Edit 3rd Jul. 2023: ported from the post #1 as it's still applicable.] When you don't use a real treble booster, I recommend plugging the guitar directly into the INSTR input, because input impedance plays an important role on this preset (and Brian's tone in general). If you use a wireless you should pair it with an impedance adjustment device (such as Radial Dragster: https://www.radialeng.com/product/dragster) to bring down the impedance anywhere below 100kohms.
Apologies for the lengthy post. I hope you like them!
 
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I am so grateful for these presets
I’ve been trying to get a good sound from the the ac30
since firmware 1.0. - it’s probably not the axe but me lacking the skills to tweak the beast.
Came close the other day with the clean matchless and firmware 22 with the Dyna-Cabs.
And now thanks to you I can finally add the ac30 to my present list :)
 
Outstanding work brother, I grinned through the entire video and I too appreciate the narrative post and video.

You nailed it, so inspiring and fantastic lot of work clearly went into these so thank you very much for the kind gift!! Well done!!
 
@km 202257, you said "When you don’t need the 3 AC30s configuration, I recommend that you play with this preset as the AXE-FX III will get better processing quality with one Amp block."

Are you saying that adding a second amp block changes the sound of the first one? That's not something I've heard about or noticed myself.
 
Dave Merrill said:
@km 202257, you said "When you don’t need the 3 AC30s configuration, I recommend that you play with this preset as the AXE-FX III will get better processing quality with one Amp block."

Are you saying that adding a second amp block changes the sound of the first one? That's not something I've heard about or noticed myself.
Click to expand...

Thank you for pointing out. I assumed so as it was on Axe-Fx II, whose oversampling rate was halved when 2 Amp blocks were engaged:
https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Amp_block#Preamp_and_power_amp_modeling
When using a single Amp block in the Axe-Fx II, the Amp block runs at double the internal sampling frequency. This happens automatically; there's is no parameter. Main benefit of this is less aliasing in high gain models. This does not apply to later processors.
Click to expand...
Is it correct to understand this doesn't apply to III? As it's not explicitly mentioned I'm not sure. If this is not applicable to III, I need to change that part of my description.
 
km 202257 said:
Thank you for pointing out. I assumed so as it was on Axe-Fx II, whose oversampling rate was halved when 2 Amp blocks were engaged:
https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Amp_block#Preamp_and_power_amp_modeling

Is it correct to understand this doesn't apply to III? As it's not explicitly mentioned I'm not sure. If this is not applicable to III, I need to change that part of my description.
Click to expand...
The Axe III is my first Fractal, so I never dealt with or learned about that aspect of the Axe II, but as far as I know it doesn't apply to the III.

For the sake of clarity, maybe @FractalAudio or another insider can confirm?
 
@km 202257 I want to express my appreciation for the effort you have put into developing this preset. However, after spending some time playing with this preset, despite my initial excitement about the tone, the prominence of noise during operation has made it challenging for me to achieve the level of audio quality I had anticipated.
Regrettably, due to this issue, I have resorted to using AmpliTube Brian May for Brian May tone. I am reaching out to you in the hopes that you can provide some insight into this matter or perhaps offer suggestions for resolving the noise issue.

Also, I kindly request that you consider incorporating optimization to Cygnus X-3 into your future update for this preset.
 
frac-taro said:
@km 202257 I want to express my appreciation for the effort you have put into developing this preset. However, after spending some time playing with this preset, despite my initial excitement about the tone, the prominence of noise during operation has made it challenging for me to achieve the level of audio quality I had anticipated.
Regrettably, due to this issue, I have resorted to using AmpliTube Brian May for Brian May tone. I am reaching out to you in the hopes that you can provide some insight into this matter or perhaps offer suggestions for resolving the noise issue.

Also, I kindly request that you consider incorporating optimization to Cygnus X-3 into your future update for this preset.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the inconvenience. One thing I can suggest is to change the Tonestack to "Default" to reduce background hum. Keep in mind that this change will reduce overall gain and you may find it difficult to play the lead.

I'd like to mention that I recently bought a KAT RED-18 treble booster, the one Brian is currently playing with and is probably the best S/N ratio treble booster on the market thanks to its RF rejection system, and the noise floor of my preset measured almost the same level as the instance where I plugged in that KAT booster into the same preset with Drive block bypassed and the the Tonestack to "Default".

As for the update reflecting Cygnus X-3, I'll start working on it as soon as the final version of FW25 is released.

Kaleido70 said:
Brian May's best tone I've ever tried. Thank you for sharing it!
Click to expand...
Thanks. You've got a cool White BMG on your profile photo BTW!
 
@km 202257 Thank you for your response. I applied the adjustment methods you suggested to the preset, and as a result, I was able to reduce the noise. As you pointed out, it seems that sustain during lead play has decreased slightly, but I anticipate it won't be an issue when playing at high volumes. (In fact, to be honest, I think the amount of distortion in this preset is slightly excessive compared to an actual AC30s.)

Also, Thank you for offering to update the preset reflecting the new firmware. I look forward to the update.
 
Bump...again, Excuse me. Following the release of Cygnus X-3, I've updated the presets to optimize them for current amp simulation algorithm.
I've also my findings after previous presets, including ones at the venues of the recent Rhapsody Tour by Queen + Adam Lambert that I attended (I had a luck of being provided a seat right in front of the line array speakers twice!)

Please find the attached presets. Please note that "Wall of 9 AC30s v3" is a .fasBundle file this time and consumes 1 user cab slot.
(Other than the updates mentioned below, instructions in Post #21 applies. If this is your first time to use this series of presets, please make sure to read it before use.)

You can hear “Wall of 9 AC30s v3" and see how it looks like in AXE-EDIT in the video below.


These are the major changes from the previous version:
  • Amp blocks
    • Adjusted to deliver my intended tone on Cygnus X-3.
  • Cab blocks
    • For slots loaded with Factory cab "2x12 Class-A NTB 30W 421 D," Swapped to "A". "D" sounded too boxy with the updated Amp block so I decided to swap it with a brighter one.
  • Drive block
    • In response to the claims on S/N ratio, I reduced the output level of Channel B/C/D.
      I feel the gain is adequate enough to play with my Red Special replica with Adeson Tri-sonic pups, which has rather weaker output. That said, if you find the gain is lacking, turn it up to your taste.
These are the major changes to “Wall of 9 AC30s v3" from the previous version:
  • IR Player block (newly added)
    • In front of the Amp block 2, which is for effected signals of Chorus/Pitch/Delay after it, IR Player is newly added to simulate the characteristic tonal colouration by TC Electronic devices.
    • While Brian uses TC Electronic G-Major 2 for Chorus/Pitch/Delay effects recently, it's discontinued and not there in my neck of the woods unfortunately.
      I bought a G-Force instead and captured the IRs of it in bypass mode, which is loaded on the IR Player to simulate the tonal changes by G-Force's buffer amp.
    • This is AXE-FX III exclusive update, as IR Player block is only available on AXE-FX III obviously.
  • Chorus block
    • Completely revised to match Brian's current setting, which has become available at: https://dsgb.net/gear/brian-may-live-rig/
    • I applied the same settings to the Chorus block of my presets, except for "LFO Phase" tweaked a bit to obtain a better stereo effect and "Delay Time" to replicate the latency by.TC G-Major's A/D & D/A conversion.
I recommend that you use this preset with your Red Special (or any guitar) connected directly to the device and with the simulated treble booster. After Cygnus X-3, I don't know the reason but Amp blocks lacks in gain with a real treble booster. That is why I omitted "Wall of 9 AC30s noTB" from this update.

I guess this could be the final update of this preset, unless there will be significant addition of features that could potentially improve the authenticity of the preset drastically (e.g. Addition of the models of AC30s modified for Brian lol.)
I hope you enjoy my presets!
 

Attachments

  • Wall of 9 AC30s v3 km 202257.fasBundle
    22.5 KB · Views: 39
  • Doctor's Fav AC30 v2 km 202257.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 32
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