Can't get good recording tones, what am I doing wrong?

it has Drive > Amp > Cab > PEQ (all those twice... running parallel) Then merges into GateExp > PEQ.

Neither cabs have dephase or motor drive values at all. There's a little room dialled in but its the same on both cabs.

MV is 4, I'll try dropping gain a little thanks
 
mak said:
I'm struggling a bit too...
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We will figure this out!! haha

Yours doesn't sound bad, just less 'pro' than the studio sample. (like ours) It's like we took their recording and then put a pillow case over the amp and recorded it again to get ours.

To help people quickly compare to the original:


Simeon mentioned to just tone match the original sample. Does anyone have detailed information on how to pull this off on the Axe Fx II XL? When we sit down the the Axe next, we want to try out literally everything that was suggested in this post and rule out what doesn't work so we have a definitive answer. So far just with the panning, our guitar tone is much clearer, but there's still something missing from it.
 
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mak said:
it has Drive > Amp > Cab > PEQ (all those twice... running parallel) Then merges into GateExp > PEQ.

Neither cabs have dephase or motor drive values at all. There's a little room dialled in but its the same on both cabs.

MV is 4, I'll try dropping gain a little thanks
Click to expand...
Could be the drive blocks? they can sometimes add a very small amount of latency causing one signal path to be out of phase. Try muting each path one at a time to test this. Or try using just a single Drive block and branch out to the two Amp blocks.
 
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Moke said:
Could be the drive blocks? they can sometimes add a very small amount of latency causing one signal path to be out of phase. Try muting each path one at a time to test this. Or try using just a single Drive block and branch out to the two Amp blocks.
Click to expand...

Ah good idea I'll try that!! Thanks

Will - I sure hope we do! I know exactly what you mean. Yours sounds much better now you've sorted the panning. But we are both far from the original quality wise & I can't seem to produce a sound like others do - ML for example
 
Here's the single drive pedal and slightly less gain. Think it's sounding a lot better than the first recording. Would sound even better if my playing was tighter!

 
I don't know if this is of any help at all as the other dudes are giving much more advanced help than I ever can!
Some presets sound fantastic in isolation....
but when they're used in context with other instruments, they may not sound so great.
For example, I've got my standard black/death metal sound now, nothing esoteric, just an amended Bogner Ueberschall with the Ueberkab using the basic tone controls! And no pedals either. Of course the sound could be amended further, but the basis is there.
I spent ages playing with various high-gain amps in isolation, guestimating, but I only found the sound I like when I actually started physically playing along with the BFD2 kit [a software drum module] I use for such music and making adjustments.
Presets/amps I thought would sound great just didn't cut it the moment the drums kicked in.
And I expect, if I were playing live, rather than the computer recording thingy, I would need to adjust for a 'live' patch.
 
Ok will try that soon as I can.
1234 I know where you are coming from but we should be able to get a good standalone recording ... Need to get rid of this "blanket"
 
So, Will and I met up for a couple hours earlier today to do some more testing with all the feedback in mind. I definitely feel like we're making steps in the right direction:

Recorded in E standard, 2 tracks total - 1 panned 100% and 1 panned 100% right (no post-EQ):


Same thing, with drums (no post-EQ):


Same thing, with drums and slight post-EQing - As suggested, we dropped around 800hz and 18khz, and scooped out a little bit of the "muddy" mids, which made it sound a little tighter. We had a lot of mids to begin with so we didn't think it'd hurt. I had it set to about 6 on the amp's settings:


Sounds a little thin on my computer speakers (not monitors), but overall much more balanced with a lot more bite, clarity and presence. May be due to too much presence, or the E tuning. Also seems to be lacking some "power".. maybe not enough bass? How do we make it sound less thin? But I assume it would sound better with a bass track recorded in the mix. We used a basic preset and tweaked, tried to keep things simple. We did not buy any cab packs yet. We tried to keep the drive and bass to a minimum and keep the mids/treble higher. Kept the master volume a little higher this time, while decreasing the level knob to compensate for volume changes. If you want to compare to last week's stuff, it's under the same soundcloud profile. E standard sounds weird for riffing haha. Too bad they're not in the same tuning as last week's stuff, but moving forward we'll remember to record everything in D standard to keep it consistent.

We started a preset from scratch. Recorded mono (do you set the I/O for all the blocks to "L" or "SUM L->R" when recording or using mono in general?).:

Chain was INPUT --> GATE --> DRIVE --> AMP --> CAB --> GEQ --> OUTPUT
-Drive was OD808 with drive at 9 oclock and tone at 2 oclock-ish, everything else default
-Amp was Recto red modern, drive around 10 oclock, bass 11, mid 6, treble 6, master vol 10-11ish, level 1-2ish, bright around 12, depth around 12, bright switch on, saturation set to ideal, everything else about default (settings are not exact - remembering off the top of my head - I can upload a screenshot if needed)
-Cab was 4x12 recto with sm57, default settings
-GEQ used lightly to take out some of the high end "fizz", slight boost upper-mids, and I think slight cut in low end

Overall, we definitely think it's an improvement from last week. What do you guys think?
 
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are you using one of the newer mix ir's or an older one? if it's a newer one i wouldn't add the mic sim. if you are using an older one, i'd suggest you try some of the new ones, ir tech has came a LONG way.
 
Steveche said:
So, Will and I met up for a couple hours earlier today to do some more testing with all the feedback in mind. I definitely feel like we're making steps in the right direction:

Recorded in E standard, 2 tracks total - 1 panned 100% and 1 panned 100% right (no post-EQ):


Same thing, with drums (no post-EQ):


Same thing, with drums and slight post-EQing - As suggested, we dropped around 800hz and 18khz, and scooped out a little bit of the "muddy" mids, which made it sound a little tighter. We had a lot of mids to begin with so we didn't think it'd hurt. I had it set to about 6 on the amp's settings:


Sounds a little thin on my computer speakers (not monitors), but overall much more balanced with a lot more bite, clarity and presence. May be due to too much presence, or the E tuning. Also seems to be lacking some "power".. maybe not enough bass? How do we make it sound less thin? But I assume it would sound better with a bass track recorded in the mix. We used a basic preset and tweaked, tried to keep things simple. We did not buy any cab packs yet. We tried to keep the drive and bass to a minimum and keep the mids/treble higher. Kept the master volume a little higher this time, while decreasing the level knob to compensate for volume changes. If you want to compare to last week's stuff, it's under the same soundcloud profile. E standard sounds weird for riffing haha. Too bad they're not in the same tuning as last week's stuff, but moving forward we'll remember to record everything in D standard to keep it consistent.

We started a preset from scratch. Recorded mono (do you set the I/O for all the blocks to "L" or "SUM L->R" when recording or using mono in general?).:

Chain was INPUT --> GATE --> DRIVE --> AMP --> CAB --> GEQ --> OUTPUT
-Drive was OD808 with drive at 9 oclock and tone at 2 oclock-ish, everything else default
-Amp was Recto red modern, drive around 10 oclock, bass 11, mid 6, treble 6, master vol 10-11ish, level 1-2ish, bright around 12, depth around 12, bright switch on, saturation set to ideal, everything else about default (settings are not exact - remembering off the top of my head - I can upload a screenshot if needed)
-Cab was 4x12 recto with sm57, default settings
-GEQ used lightly to take out some of the high end "fizz", slight boost upper-mids, and I think slight cut in low end

Overall, we definitely think it's an improvement from last week. What do you guys think?
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Great, all versions sound much better.
 
Does anyone have any info about how to get a good metal bass guitar tone out of the axe? Or how they go about recording metal bass guitar? We will be trying it out this week so any help would be appreciated! thanks!
 
jlynnb1 said:
are you using one of the newer mix ir's or an older one? if it's a newer one i wouldn't add the mic sim. if you are using an older one, i'd suggest you try some of the new ones, ir tech has came a LONG way.
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I think it's an older one, part of the stock cabs. I'm going to get cab pack 13 (4x12 recto standard OS cabinet) and we'll test those out later this week.
 
With Pro Tools 12 and Yorkville YSM5 monitors, should I just record directly with the Axe via USB, or should I get something like a Focusrite 2i2 (saw it in Misha's video)?
 
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Steveche said:
Sounds a little thin on my computer speakers (not monitors), but overall much more balanced with a lot more bite, clarity and presence. May be due to too much presence, or the E tuning. Also seems to be lacking some "power"
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Sounds loads better now but like you said there is no "power" - would be interested in hearing the expert opinion on that!
I'll try and replicate your settings later today and see what difference it makes to my blanket!
 
Steveche said:
I think it's an older one, part of the stock cabs. I'm going to get cab pack 13 (4x12 recto standard OS cabinet) and we'll test those out later this week.
Click to expand...
well there are some great factory cabs that are already in there that are miles better than some of the older stock cabs. scroll and listen with your ears, not with what you assume will sound best. (sometimes it will be the best option, but we can also sometimes lock in on the accepted norm and miss some great stuff in the process)
 
yes, much better! i does lack a little thump in the bottom end (which you might equate with "power"), but i wouldn't do too much messing about down in the low freqs until you get some bass in there. you may find it sits just right, as it is
 
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