Can the Axe Fx emulate the in the room "thump"?

R

rich2k4

Inspired
Thats the best way I can describe it. That in the room miced sound where you can hear the "thump" from the cabinet. Sounds more organic rather than a direct input type of sound.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. The isolated guitar track for Bold As Love. You can hear it any time he hits the bass/low notes. It's almost as if you can feel the speakers.

 
i think it's there. make sure your volume is turned up similar to a regular amp. you won't "feel" much in headphones or at quiet volumes, no matter what gear you use.
 
I noticed quite a ways back, when I first upgraded from Axe FX I to Axe FX II that Cliff pretty well nailed the thump aspect. (I can't pinpoint the exact firmware that did it for me, but I estimate it was about at firmware 16. Obviously this is going to depend on your FRFR setup - in my case I run out through a decent little mixer - not sure if signal to noise is that critical but I have adjusted the levels to lower the noise floor, running strong into 5 inch woofer Tannoys. They really give me that cabinet sound I wanted. Which Impulse response does the trick with which amp model and settings and so forth could be a little bit of a trick to really get thump you want though. My apartment neighbors never complain, so the volume that gets me this effect is loud, but not that loud.
 
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lqdsnddist said:
If the sound can be captured/reproduced by a recording, then then Axe can do it
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Exactly, if you can hear it through whatever it is that you are listening to, (for example, that track you posted) it should be achieveable with the axe fx. The right amp & settings & the Cab IR, (this is most likely going to be the one of the most crucial components to it) and the right Reverb, (the other most crucial component) should easily replicate that in the room thump sound.
The in the room thump you FEEL in your chest at high SPL however, is only going to come from moving a lot of air, which takes power/volume.

If ya find a tone & cab you like & still aren't getting it, try going to the CAB Block and then under Preamp switch to High Quality and throw on the Exciter and boost up the Bass (if you're bass heavy before this, try taking some out & adding it here).
Also, in the Amp Block, you can go to the Speaker Tab and move the Resonont Freq of the cab till you find the sweet spot, & you can shape it's EQ parametrically.
(There's a lot of tools to achieve what you're after, these are certainly not all of them.)
Then try one of the Studio or Room Reverbs. I kinda like Studio C, and crank up the mix on that a little bit. Hopefully that'll get ya closer.
Part of the trick here also is to make sure you aren't sending a lot of Bass thru the preamp of the amp, and adding it in post distortion/amp. Ya want the low end tight & without FLUB. :eek:
 
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Perdikament said:
Exactly, if you can hear it through whatever it is that you are listening to, (for example, that track you posted) it should be achieveable with the axe fx. The right amp & settings & the Cab IR, (this is most likely going to be the one of the most crucial components to it) and the right Reverb, (the other most crucial component) should easily replicate that in the room thump sound.
The in the room thump you FEEL in your chest at high SPL however, is only going to come from moving a lot of air, which takes power/volume.

If ya find a tone & cab you like & still aren't getting it, try going to the CAB Block and then under Preamp switch to High Quality and throw on the Exciter and boost up the Bass (if you're bass heavy before this, try taking some out & adding it here).
Then try one of the Studio or Room Reverbs. I kinda like Studio C, and crank up the mix on that a little bit. Hopefully that'll get ya closer.
Part of the trick here also is to make sure you aren't sending a lot of Bass thru the preamp of the amp, and adding it in post distortion/amp. Ya want the low end tight & without FLUB. :eek:
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another way you can get the thump in the cab block is using the null mic and bumping up the proximity knob, 3ish on it gives you a fairly hefty low end IME
 
A couple of thoughts/question about this:
Since this is a recording, should there not be all the tools to reproduce that tone within the AFX?
How much is the room the amp is in playing in the tone we are hearing?
 
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Alot of what you are hearing in that recording is room and proximity effect.
As previously stated, take an IR and goose up the proximity effect a touch and you will get that low end thump sound you are hearing there.
 
I don't actually hear a thump in that clip. There's a reverb on that guitar but it's not the room sound. The way the guitar sounds is very direct. It actually has a lot of drive to it but it's being played with great skill, control and dynamicly. The strat low end is "the strat thing" which means it has more output and therefore it distorts more than the highers strings. I believe this is what you're hearing in the low end.
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
I don't actually hear a thump in that clip. There's a reverb on that guitar but it's not the room sound. The way the guitar sounds is very direct. It actually has a lot of drive to it but it's being played with great skill, control and dynamicly. The strat low end is "the strat thing" which means it has more output and therefore it distorts more than the highers strings. I believe this is what you're hearing in the low end.
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Agree -- I was just about to write the same thing. I'm not hearing what I would describe as "thump" here. I do hear the amp mushing out on the low E string when Jimi hits it hard -- the bass response is loose.

I'd try some of the jumpered Marshalls and play around with varying levels of the "normal" channel, and tweak the low end Q and frequency of the speaker page of the amp block.
 
5150 said:
Agree -- I was just about to write the same thing. I'm not hearing what I would describe as "thump" here. I do hear the amp mushing out on the low E string when Jimi hits it hard -- the bass response is loose.

I'd try some of the jumpered Marshalls and play around with varying levels of the "normal" channel, and tweak the low end Q and frequency of the speaker page of the amp block.
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Exactly! :) I use the Treble channel plexis for this type of sound. The 1987X Treble is still undeniably the best sounding plexi in the Axe-Fx for me. This clip has a bit of that JM45 thing going on as well but it doesn't distort easily.
 
Exactly how others said:

- Null mic model, bump proximity
- Turn the exciter up on preamp, in cab block
- Adjust Reverb to sound similar

But also I've found out that adjusting the Low Frequency resonance on speaker tab to match the IR you're using, and bumping Speaker Drive around 50% can really help getting that thump!
 
Jimi's work often sounds deceptively simple. He was a true master. He is using pick dynamics and touch to deliver incredible musical expression.

I'm guessing that his guitar rig and tone would probably not impress you if you had been there and played it for yourself.

When they were tracking Jimi's guitars, Eddie Kramer really pioneered mic'ing the back top corner of Marshall and Fender cabs to mix with the conventional front of cab and room mics.

Try making an IR mix that includes some back of cab captures.
 
James Hetfield's guitar tech came on here not so long ago and gave some Cab block tips. He said they like to add about 18-20% Room Level and turn up the Proximity Freq to about 200hz and dial it in about 1 or 2 with the Mic set to "Null".

Try it, it really adds some thump and subtle dimension to the sound, which might be what you're after.
 
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